Up From South Africa...

Rev. Michael Lapsley, from the Institute of the Healing of Memories in Cape Town, is here in Gulu for three days of sessions with victims of the LRA war who've, like him, been maimed by the violence of others.

He spoke at the TEAM (Towards Effective Anglican Mission) conference in Boksburg, South Africa in March of this year. And if you subscribe to the Episcopal Life podcast, you'll find his speech appears right after that of Rt. Rev. Nelson Onono-Onweng, my bishop and host (I live in his compound). As this conference was going on in Africa, in North Carolina the possibility of spending a year in Northern Uganda, and under Bishop Onono-Onweng, became real. These two podcasts framed in my mind what I wanted my mission to be.

Rev. Michael Lapsley: I highly commend to you his words and story.

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At Least It's Not Y2K

In a conversation recently with some extension staff at the diocesan office, the subject of cell phones came up, and the quick rise of such in Northern Uganda. In the year 2000, not a cell phone was to be found here in Gulu, save maybe some exhorbitantly expensive satellite phones. And this made me think about how different my missionary experience would be if I'd been here back then instead of today. Here are a few observations:

• Cell phones these days are as cheap as $30 and no contracts. A line, in the form of a SIM card, is as cheap as $2, and minutes are pay-as-you-go. This means within a day or two of arriving here, I was able to get a line, text home, and receive calls. Now I get at least 2 calls a day from home with no pressure to keep it short. What an outlet...
• As I type this I'm streaming radio from home, CarTalk actually, using an internet phone on loan from a friend. It costs about $50 a month, and allows me to get news, email friends, and search for resources helpful to my work. And I can do this from home or office.
• It's about a 20-minute walk to anywhere I need to be in town, to reach any friends from work. The cell phone let's me holler at other 'muzungus' in the area (and let's them spread the word about new people here), and keeps me in touch with diocesan staff who are often less than part-time and quite scattered at any point during the day.

These are just a few things that, if now was then, would dramatically change my missionary experience.