Pajule

So many things have happened since I last was able to update. So I am choosing to blog about the last two weeks in a couple different blogs this one in particular about Pajule.

So Diana and I went to Pajule where Maria is staying. Maria is part of our sister organization at the University of Illinois and they have an education program in Pajule that she is working with. Now just getting to Pajule was a task, one that should not surprise anyone who knows my luck with traveling. Diana and I rose early in the morning on Thursday July 3rd, planning to get to the bus park by 8 in the morning so that we could get the first ride to Pajule and get there by noon or so, it is only a two hour ride or so. So right on time we arrive at the bus park, and a man by the name of John Bosco helps us find a vehicle that will be heading to Pajule. So it seems as if everything is going in our favor until we realize no one else is in our taxi, but we don’t think too much of it and decide to pass the time by playing cards. Well this may or may not have been the best idea on our part because we drew a crowd, a big one. Now, this card game did not pass time for an hour or two hours or even three hours, we played cards for nearly six hours till it was finally time for us to leave the bus park, needless to say we didn’t make it to Pajule by noon. Our taxi had difficulty getting out of the bus park, it kept stalling but we finally got out and Diana and I silently rejoiced thinking that we were finally on our way to Pajule. The ride was going fine, until suddenly 15 kilometers outside of Gulu our taxi stops….in the middle of nowhere. Now this is not by any means an exaggeration, we were really in the middle of nowhere, the spear grass was taller than I was, the sun was beating down and there was one tree to offer shade which we would later find had a bee hive in it. So we pile out of the taxi and they try to restart it, failing to do so countless times. So what do we do? We pass the time with cards again, this time drawing less of a crowd, I don’t think I have ever been so happy to have a deck of cards in arms reach as I was that day. Nearly three hours later Diana and I decide we should start walking back to Gulu, we will catch a bodaboda on the way somewhere and try the adventure out again tomorrow. We walk up to the taxi driver who is already surrounded by a group of people requesting exactly what we were asking for; some of our money back. He refuses. So what do people do? That start to grab the mans arms and undo his belt and start to undo his jeans, Diana and I are in utter shock and want absolutely nothing to do with this situation and decide that our money is not worth it and we will just leave without it. Just as we are about to leave a Land Rover pulls up next to us with two men from New Zealand in it and an Acholi man driving with a lady and her baby in the back seat. They kindly offer us a ride and even ride in the back so that we could be in seats. They drop us off at the fork in the road and inform us that we can catch bodabodas from this point to Pajule. After a 15-minute search we finally get two drivers and we are on our way. I would just like everyone to know that was by far the scariest ride of my entire life, the road was very bumpy, we were going over 100 kilometers an hour and I had so much stuff I was always having to readjust myself. However, we did make it to Pajule in one piece, barely but in one piece. We were greeted by Maria who had waited all day on the road for us…I failed to mention that about the time our taxi died so did our phone…..

Pajule itself was an amazing experience. Sleeping in a hut, spending time with the family that Maria has spent her entire time here in Uganda with was great. The time spent there was primarily filled with celebrations and goodbye ceremonies but it was a blast! We were able to attend mass, a daily occurrence for Maria in Pajule. It was so neat being at a mass that is completely in Luo but I was still able to follow it just by watching the priest. The music at the church was beautiful, I could have listened to it all day long and not tired of it, they used traditional instruments and the music echoed off of the walls in the church so beautifully, it was music like I had never heard it before. The second mass that we attended while in Pajule required us to go up in front of the congregation and say a few words, this was neither the first nor the last time we would be asked to say something. The day we arrived in Pajule was the 4th of July, and well we celebrated in a way that I had never imagined I would celebrate. First off the big celebration was just making it to Pajule itself, which was enough a reason for me to celebrate as anything else. What was so wonderful about this 4th of July was the fact that we just sat outside and looked at the most gorgeous nighttime sky you have ever seen and just relaxed. We had a beer in our hands, A Nile for Diana, a Club for Maria and a Bell for me and it was wonderful. We were able to talk and relax.

The kids in Pajule are great! They are so much fun, like all kids. The older kids that are in Maria’s organization put on this amazing drama presentation for us and they did a superb job. The kids also sang songs to Maria and then Diana and I had our names thrown in the songs at random times…at one point in time I was Madisson the humble one and Diana was the gentle one. I still have some of the songs in my head, because well after the actual celebration ended there were still children around and just kept singing and singing, it was so much fun. I met a special little boy while I was in Pajule, Kamacech which means unlucky. I met him at the parish before mass and found out he was deaf and mute which of course immediately sparked my interest in him. As I learned more and more about him the more and more he had a place in my heart. He took a liking to me as well, leaving the parish after mass one morning holding my hand walking with me all the way back to our hut. He stayed for the evening for the celebration. There were so many other kids that I got to know, Linda being one. She is such a smart girl and wants to be a teacher, she looked after Kamacech while he was at the huts which put my mind at ease; I had found him earlier that day being beat with a stick by some other children so knowing she was looking after him relieved me, I hate to see anybody being beat up.

I have never seen so much food on one table in my entire life. On our second evening in Pajule there was a heap of rice on a tray as big as a big Thanksgiving day turkey. Speaking of birds with feathers, Diana and I were given the gift of a chicken later on that evening. Yes folks you read it, we were given a live chicken as a gift, I held a live chicken upside down by the legs as a gift. We would later find this chicken along with Maria’s chicken that she was gifted on our hut unexpectedly the next morning, a very unique way to wake up in the morning.

Pajule and the people that live there touched my heart in a very special way. I had so much fun just singing and playing with the kids, especially dancing. At one of the ceremonies the guardians of the program kids danced and invited us to dance with them and I don’t think I have had so much fun in my entire life dancing. I would love to come back to Pajule and spend an extended amount of time there and really get to know these amazing people that welcomed and accepted me in such a welcoming manner. The love that those people had for Maria was absolutely incredible, she really was a member of their family and that was a beautiful thing to see. Come to find out Diana and I are also a member of the family, BaBa (the father) told us we too were his children, but he does this to all visitors, but it is still a wonderful thought.

I hope that this blog find everyone happy and healthy. More importantly I hope it finds you with a smile on your face and love in your heart that you are sharing with those around you, even total strangers. I know this blog may seem a bit scattered but I couldn’t really talk about everything concerning Pajule so I just picked different chunks of the experience to put up on my blog.