Illusion ~ Reality

Yesterday I had a close encounter with a common, yet phenomenal occurrence (read ‘Illusion’) here, known as ‘mob justice’.

Followed by a closer encounter with Love (read ‘Reality’)…

Hundreds of frenzied people who seemed to appear out of nowhere were rushing along the street just outside the building where I was. In the aftermath of a murder committed some days ago, the people outside thought they had the 'guilty' (who were attempting to reach the nearby police station for protection) and were busy trying to kill them. The police appeared and fired two shots into the air, I remember seeing the smoke from their guns filter past the doorway where I stood, and then took the one accused man who was still alive into the station… the hundreds of people remained on the 4 corners of the intersection, waiting…



When it felt right to do so, I hopped on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) and made my way to a distant and safe place. While sitting there, breathing and releasing the energy of the experience, I decided to write one of my brothers to ‘debrief’ as it were… and as it happened he was at his computer half way around the world and sent a message of Love back to me immediately… amazing really… I wrote him another reply and at the end of it I was saying how I celebrate that ‘basic order exists here as much as it does... acts of kindness and compassion are so very special and heh, look, there in the sky just now as the sun is getting ready to set... a beautiful rainbow…’ and signed off.

Then the most remarkable thing happened… from out of nowhere hundreds and hundreds of dragonflies filled the air above and around me and the rainbow became their backdrop from my perspective… everything slowed and I knew I was in a Miracle. I remembered a lesson from First Nations People: ‘Dragonfly is the totem of illusion. Dragonfly teaches us how to differentiate between the real and the imaginary energies of life….’



And I’m most certain, in this magnificent display of 'Light and Love' there, soaring peacefully in the illumination of the rainbow was at least one dragonfly for every human who seemed to have been displaying the absence of 'both' only minutes earlier…
Oh, Creator…
Catherine

A Movie...And Some Popcorn!

Take a moment to pretend it’s a slow, gentle Sunday afternoon, you know, one of the grey rainy variety, and you just feel like staying indoors… work is done, it’s time for a rest, everyone is gathered around visiting and you think, hey let’s watch a movie… ’I’ll get the popcorn, you get the DVD, meet you back here and we’ll hit ‘play’…’

Now…try to imagine you live in a hut with no power in rural Africa, and well, you’ve never seen a movie before! You’ve become a bit used to seeing the laptop (one with a great battery, thankfully...) cause you’ve looked at many pictures of yourself on it by now, and you’ve even watched a couple short videos of you and your family singing and dancing… but a movie… just what is a movie exactly?



Enter… ’The Lion King’!!!

Recently while in Kampala, my friend and I were wandering through a market when I saw a new copy of the film for sale. There are lots and lots of used and bootlegged DVD’s available here... in general, the couple I have tried didn’t make it past the first few minutes of viewing before my laptop spit them out because of ha! impurity on some level I’d guess… but here was a brand new DVD, and ‘The Lion King’ at that! Although at that moment I’d have been kind of hard pressed to tell you what it is actually about, wow, I was nudged… this just might be THE perfect film with which to introduce the children and even the friend I was with to the entirely new world of movie watching… and only 5,000Ush (about $3 Cdn) and, the ‘Special Edition’ edition!… cool!… sold!

So last weekend complete with an x-large zip lock baggie of popcorn for each family, we headed to Bukedea to share this fun adventure with the children! First to Betty’s, we found the children were all too eager to huddle together on the foams and settle in. Right from the opening sunrise the film captured them completely and except for the occasional grab of popcorn, they were riveted to the experience! Mouths open, eyes huge, laughter loud, sadness shared with communal groans and moans, only a couple times looking to me for explanation the children were all delightfully amused and filled with great wonder… it was fantastic!



Everyone seemed to understand way too easily the stories within the story…the themes of family, friendship, envy, fear, guilt, responsibility, honesty, power, triumph and Love… but most thrilled were they that it was taking place in ‘Africa’ and although they were giggling at first in a tone of ‘now that is pretty silly’ hearing and seeing animals speaking English while hugging and dancing, the children were amazed by the colorful artistry and certainly laughed the loudest the few times Swahili is spoken in the film… ’Hakuna Matata’ along with the song and dance that followed brought a huge roar and when 'Rafiki' sings ‘Asante Sana, squashed banana’… well, they didn’t get the squashed banana part, but Asante Sana means Thank you very much and they sure enjoyed that! And him! And everything about the entire film and afternoon!



Now, I am sure I must have watched it years ago when the girls were young, but maybe I fell asleep or something cause I didn’t recall the film so much… at this moment though, I have really seemed to connect with it and yes, even embraced some kind of allegory within it! True to this whole journey, here is another experience for me when I thought I might be giving something new to someone, and ha! I was given something delightfully new myself! I think I’ve watched it 7 times now, an initial viewing to see if it would be suitable, twice that day with the 2 families, and then several times with a friend for whom it has also been a first in terms of movie watching… and along with the gift of learning from and appreciating everyone else’s reaction to it, I myself have been quite amazed by the metaphors and mirrors the story seems to reflect about the context here as I have come to understand it… the absolute beauty, exquisite color and Light found everywhere that is Nature; the prolific and deeply powerful rhythm that is Life; the dreary, debilitating struggle and suffering that is absence of honesty, kindness and compassion; the soulful desire that is ‘to remember’; the clarity and wisdom that is ‘found above’; the ravaging fire that is war and dis-ease; the cleansing, healing rain that is regeneration; the unlimited potential and possibility that is new Creation;



…and I look from my heart and see beautiful orphan children I have come here to share Love with, and I sense... Like 'Simba' (lion in Swahili) they too are approaching a great and defining moment when they will walk bravely up on the rock through the rain to give their most rightful, powerful and timely roar to the world…!

(Hey, wait a minute… is that me there on that rock too…? Thank you Angel…!)

ASANTE SANA, indeed!
Cath xoxo

In Wonder Land...

Love to you!

I have just returned from a few unexpected getaway’s… one to Kampala to confirm approval for an extension on the extension on my visa for Uganda (which now has me here until the 10th of May…!) then, on to a couple lovely days at Sipi for some rest and replenishment, followed by a great day yesterday with the children in Bukedea!



Strange, foreign and at times even emotional for me to consider… my days here appear to be approaching some kind of final stretch and it is more than an interesting moment I presently find myself in! My ‘work’ begins to come to a time of bearing delicious sweet fruit and, like yesterday watching Morning, Moses and Peter as they scrambled up and around huge heavily laden mango trees hurling fallen green fruit at the ripe ones to knock them free and give as gifts to me, I am savoring these incredible moments as I taste the joy and excitement of this time in the children’s lives!



Betty completes her sewing course soon and we will be giving her a machine and an assorted pile of start up fabric and supplies for her to begin her new business with…. Yesterday, she proudly asked if it was ok for her to sell a couple of the outfits she has sewn from the material we have been supplying her to learn with… can you imagine the joy in that! YES! YES! YES! was just about all I could say, as we hugged and laughed, hugged and laughed, dancing our way around the newly planted field of sweet potatoes beside the compound!!! Maize is being planted along with beans, cassava, g-nuts, millet… soon there will be a steady stream of income possible along with fields of food growing to feed this family who I recall, where so very hungry in a multitude of ways when we first met. Rose (and Stella!) start a paraffin supply business (fuel for lanterns) from the compound this week, the boys are doing well and keeping up in school…



They are all joyful, peaceful, comfortable at night on foams, with warm blankets and mosquito nets, and lately I’ve brought them all used coats to help them stay healthy through the rainy cold times that are slowly becoming the norm now… it is ALL very good!

Gideon has been hard at work too… together with Helen, Martha and Naume they have planted 2 acres of maize which when sprouted will be surrounded by beans… and in the center of that huge field he has started work on a new, large hut built out of hand made bricks (which we will help him complete by paying for the grass bundles and wood supports required for the roof) that will serve as a temporary home for the family of 6 to live in until the day comes when we will afford the more permanent home I described in part 1 of the recent project’s update. Two other fields are being planted with cassava and gnuts, Helen’s fish business is growing each week and with the income earned she has been able to supply the family with food (allbeit just the very basics so far…) right from week one. By her and Gideon’s design, she started slowly, carefully, buying less fish than we had first planned, giving herself time to understand the business, to let it grow slowly, and this week looks like it could be her very best to date! Today she will purchase wholesale a large amount of fish the supplier has prearranged to bring exclusively for her..! Here again, the school goers are all doing well in their classes, Gideon has been asked to be Chairman of a couple clubs as well as Class President, Martha is Head Prefect in her class and Naume is Head Playground Monitor… they are all happy and excited about life, cosy and comfortable on foams, warmed by blankets and coats, protected under mosquito nets and feeling very Loved and Loving… again… All together VERY Good!!!



Along with huge amounts of Love and gratitude I am feeling, these days I find myself dreaming, envisioning and wondering about what will come to be next… I know in both the short and long term I am inspired to continue here, it all feels more than right, I know there are many child households and I have come to understand so much about how to empower them from these 2 remarkable families… and there is Sironko and ACIO and what is envisioned there for the many, many children who need care and attention in that district… and of course, there are many other districts… And even if I leave Uganda for a time, I don’t feel like I’m even near ready to really leave Africa just yet, and I wonder if I could really ever 'leave' now. Of course while it will be so lovely and I look forward to see everyone including dear Caleb back home to share Love face to face, catch up on stories and adventures about lives being lived there and to share more from this journey than I could ever possibly write about here, there are so many children to Love here… And there are all those other countries I have yet to even set foot in and learn about… and… somehow I feel I have only just begun to begin!



Simultaneously, being in the midst these days of all these great income generating activities taking hold, an interesting reflection becomes ever clearer for me. Lately, after I perform the repetitive task of climbing the stairs to visit the ATM and withdraw another few hundred thousand shillings from my personal account and then do the conversion of the balance from the rather great sounding Ugandan value to the hmmm Cdn dollar value, I am reminded that the equity from the sale of my home that has supported this journey so far is magically diminishing in perfect accord with a growing requirement to create some kind of my own income generating activity, soon! :)



Today, over a ‘Stoney’ (that's a soda...! kind of like a ginger ale) I ‘discovered’ it all feels like this… I was telling a friend a story about a home my brother and I shared years ago. I was remembering how one day I started to explore the ground around the face of this large flat rock that was showing itself through the lawn… eventually, after some scratching and clearing of soil, a beautiful stone pathway that had lay hidden just a few inches below the grass was revealed… one that ended up being maybe 3 feet wide and gently wound itself through the back yard… and when I finished the story I realized - this is exactly how I am feeling today! It is as though this journey so far has shown me, in many ways, there is something previously designed and so very beautiful to be found just below this surface I have now grazed. And I write this today wondering... wow, in these highly creative and expansive times what could I possibly imagine these next few weeks will reveal to bring more of this incredible path I am on into the Light! Peacefully, Joyfully, Lovingly...Onward!



Many Blessings, Much Love,
Cath xoxo