Acholi Quarters

   
























After Katelemwa on Friday we went to the Acholi Quarters. The Acholi Quarters is a place of refuge over 10,000 displaced Acholi people from the north. War has been in Northern Uganda for the last 20 years and just recently the LRA has moved out of Uganda. But the Acholi people here were all greatly effected by the war and ran away from their homes to find safety. The problem is that life in the Acholi Quarters slums is much much worse than life back in the north. We met with a ministry called Africa Arise whose goal is to relocate the people living in the slums back to their home up north. Africa Arise also does counseling for these people and help them to cope with their horrific pasts. The men in this community are so grateful because for the first time counseling is offered for them and not just for women and children. But they not only  help counsel but offer resources to get the men and women back on their feet with jobs and to give them courage to go back home.

We visited the stone quarries which is the main source of income for people living in this slum. Men, women and children sit all day in the sun breaking rocks into smaller rocks for less than 70 cents a day. Trisha (founder of Africa Arise) hates the stone quarries and hearing the banging on the rocks because she knows the people could be using that energy to farm, build, and educate back in their home land. The Acholi people are reluctant to move back home for a lot of different reasons. Some are simply afraid and don't want to go back to the place that reminds them of what happened to them. A lot of parents don't want to bring their kids back because there aren't many schools or teachers in the north. But over all Trisha thinks the people have to change their mindset. They have just gotten used to the hard life here and are unable to envision the better future they could have.

Our groups split up and went into different homes and prayed for families. It was heartbreaking to see first hand the kind of conditions they live in. The homes were all made of mud and were just one room. I got to pray for a woman named Christine. She was so excited to have guests. The Acholi people feel that having guests is such an honor and you could tell she was so happy to have us. Her husband and 7 children live with her in the small mud house. She is a tailor and sows clothes. The husband is looking for work. When we went inside the children who have been following us around the whole time came inside too and a girl named Patricia sat in my lap as we prayed. It was so sweet. Please pray for Christine and her family.

I love children. They are the same - full of joy and ready to hug and hang on us just like all the other kids are.

My Grandma used to send me secret messages when we would hold hands. She squeezed my hand three times in a row and that meant "I love you." I found myself squeezing the hand of a little girl named Janet three times. She caught on and the entire rest of the day she wouldn't let go of me and we never stopped exchanging I love you's.  These kids don't speak English, they speak Acholi, but I think that somehow she knows what it means. I love her so much.

Janet is in red and Patricia is behind her in the
yellow.

Here we are walking to Christine's house

playing jump rope with some kids

They loved learning the hokey pokey!

I love what Africa Arise is doing. Trisha is Canadian but the rest of the workers are Ugandan. She doesn't want to come in and Westernize the Acholi people. She wants to empower Ugandan's to change Uganda. They are working alongside the government and her vision is enable anyone who wants to go back to their home. Please pray for her ministry. Pray for the staff of Africa Arise. And they are in desperate need of a car right now for transporting people back home and for communicating with people who have already moved back. Right now they are using a public bus which is expensive and takes sometimes 10 hours to get there. So please pray that they can somehow get a car.