OUTREACH

There is nothing new under the sun as is reported in Ecclesiates. The Toposa have been herding cattle and living off the land for thousands of years and they do tend to humor our poor efforts to "improve" their lot. What they may not see clearly is that global warming is having a serious effect on growing crops and may be causing water shortages, all of which will affect their culture. This is not to mention the encroachment of modern towns and technology which is creeping closer and closer to their villages and is already having an effect on the children.

With all this in mind, I began to meet with the paramount chief of all the Toposa who live in and around Narus and then with a lesser chief in an outlying village within a half hour walk from my compound. We still have two or three more chiefs to meet with and get their permission to visit their villages and speak with the women about nutrition, sanitation and health issues. When I and Christine, a social worker who is employed by the Torit Diocese, met with the chiefs, their priorities were food, water, and health. I was encouraged in this work since our goals are so similar. I did tell them that we could not dig a borehole for one of the villages which is running out of water and whose women have to walk a long distance just to get the water twice a day.

Christine and I arrived at the village of the lesser chief about an hour or so before sunset to see an elderly blind woman in rags picking her way across the village enclosure with a stick to tap on the ground. We were met by women and children. One of the women attempted to pull my dress up and off me before someone told me that she wanted it. We did a little negotiation and I told her I was too fair to wear just a beaded goatskin around my waist and beads on my neck.

The chief was ill with a cold but he came out to see us. He was tall and fine boned, about 45 years old. He, along with most of the village men, dress in western clothing while the women and girls wear traditional attire. Toward the end of the visit he told me his daughter was ill and had been bled the day before. I asked him to bring her over and so he called to her and she came. She is four years old and was wearing beads around her waist. Her stomach protruded but was soft to the touch. She had ten small cuts about one and one half inches long on her back. Cutting is the Toposa way of relieving pain and hopefully, curing a sick person. She also had a runny nose. I thought she might have pneumonia as she complained of aching all over. I told the chief to bring her and himself into the clinic the next day to get a diagnosis and some medicine. Since I left for Nairobi the next morning I do not know if this happened but I had clued in the medical director to expect them.

I spent several days of my holiday in Jinja, Uganda, just over the Kenyan border visiting a Holy Cross sister, MaryLou Wahler. She took me on a tour of Lake Victoria, Bujagali Falls and showed me where the Nile begins its 4,000 mile trek to the Mediterranian Sea. MaryLou has lived in Uganda for 27 years and no matter where we went she knew someone. I stayed with her in the convent where the postulants live. There are four of them, 2 of whom are from Kenya. They grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables, including Jack fruit, a putrid smelling fruit which is quite large. Uganda is lush and green with paved roads, electricity 24/7, and full of various kinds of food including Nile Perch and Talapia. It is a stark contrast to South Sudan. I must admit I did fantasize about applying for a transfer.

I leave tomorrow for Loki where I will stay overnight and be picked up the next day and taken to Narus. School begins on Sept. 3.

Do I miss Burlingame, my family and frieds? You bet I do! Hope to be home around Christmas time.