A trip to Gulu.

Last week I was very privileged to be able to go to Gulu for five days. Gulu is about a five hour drive up in the northern parts of Uganda and is one of the areas that were hit very hard with the Joseph Kony war. Watoto has a babies home as well as a children’s village in Gulu. Many of the workers and children in some way were affected by the calamity that Joseph Kony and his army caused.

On the drive up to Gulu we passed many rural African villages that consisted of a few mud huts grouped together in a circle and a big meeting area where I assume the families do their cooking.

The babies home in Gulu is amazing and very beautiful. It has been built around a village where the local people live in these mud huts. Many times the children from those houses would come up to the fence and say hello to the babies and greet us. I spoke to one group of young girls on Uganda’s Independence Day. It was such a blessing to be able to speak to them and learn a little bit about their lives through broken English.

This is a picture of our babies waiting for some visitors to come by!! So cute eh?!?

One of the children that come past had a toy doll wrapped around their backs like the Ugandan mother do with their children. This made me laugh because I pictured children from home pushing their toy dolls in a mini buggy. I guess all children are the same, playing copycat with their mom’s and wanting to be just like mommy early on in life.

This made me want to give the Ugandan baby carrying a try. So after a lesson from one of the nannies and her continued reassurance that the baby wasn’t going to fall off my back I gave it a try! And to be honest it was so comfortable!! I think when I have children this is how I will carry them around!

Another great thing that I got to see in Gulu was Watoto’s Living Hope Center. Living Hope is a ministry that Watoto runs to give hope to vulnerable woman most of whom suffer from HIV or AIDS. Many of these women in the Gulu Living Hope were also directly affected by the Joseph Kony War. These women are given a job either sewing clothes, stuffed animals, dolls and other items, making G-nut butter, or making feminine hygiene products so that girls can stay in school.

Each woman that comes through the Living Hope program are given the opportunity to continue their education, go through a discipleship program and are even offered free day care for their children while they work. As we were toured around to each room we were welcomed by the woman with huge cheers! I was almost brought to tears by the joy that radiated from these women who not long ago had no hope or future! I am so thankful for the opportunity to have met these women!

My time in Gulu was such a blessing! I got to meet so many beautiful people and experience such a real sense of joy in an area that was so recently torn apart by one man and his deep hatred towards these people. He has not won! I have seen that God has restored joy, hope and peace into their lives and invited them into His family.

“You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done.”
Psalm 92:4

Missing you all!
With love,
Jaclyn