Why Uganda?

You may have heard that M and I will be heading off to Uganda next month.

This being my first third-world-country-in-an-unstable-truce adventure, I am just a tiny bit nervous.

However, I must say this was my mother's idea.

I will pause a moment for those of you who know my mother to stop choking.

(Breathe)

Several years ago, my mother watched a documentary that deeply affected her. A short time later, she met Fr. Michael Komakec at a lecture. Fr. Michael is from the very area of the world where this documentary was filmed. He is temporarily living in Pittsburgh, working on his doctorate, but will ultimately return to serve the people of Gulu, Uganda. Fr. Michael must have been pretty convincing, because my mother decided to round up a crew of missionaries and head over.

My parents are both just shy of saintly when it comes to helping other people, and have basically dedicated their lives to this, but their work to date has been pretty domestic. However, my mum, who until last summer, refused to camp at a place without hot showers, does not seem phased in the least about traveling to a place without paved roads, potable drinking water, and which required approximately $500 in immunizations. The Holy Spirit guides her, she says.

I can really get behind that kind of God.

This trip is really more of a reconnaissance mission. Being that war-torn areas are not wired for email or phone, it is hard to know exactly what to do next without actually going there. Our small team will go and make some contacts, brainstorm some projects, and bring this information back to my mother's parish, who will then send money and new teams of volunteers in the future until everything is All Better.

I'm kidding about the All Better part. We are under no illusion that we can take two weeks and change the world. I'm fairly paranoid that whatever we end up doing may have unintended consequences and actually screw up the world. So I guess I can say that I'm going to Uganda to help, but I'm suspending my judgement about what that help will look like, until I actually get there and find out who would actually like to be helped and what they might like.

One thing that comes to mind as I reflect upon this trip is Hurricane Katrina and all the time I spent saying, "somebody should go and help" when it was on CNN 24 hours a day, and then never got around to it until a year later...a YEAR later, and it was still all messed up, and I sort of regretted knowing about that situation and just putting it off until it was convenient for me.

If anybody is inclined to support this mission, you could donate pencils, chalk, paper or clothing, which I will be carrying in my suitcase. Drop an email if you have anything for me. You could also send a tax-deductible donation to St. Mary of the Assumption, 2510 Middle Road, Glenshaw, PA 15116. Indicate that the money is for the Uganda Hope mission and you can specify that it be used directly for the people of Uganda, or to defray our travel costs.