Sweet Summer 17: Week 1, Day 4 Companies have long used lofty campaign slogans to sell their products. They promise a better life, freedom, happiness. They’re idealistic and sell a lifestyle more than the attributes of the product. Can sharing a Coke and a smile really teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? I’m not so sure. A few …
Understanding Unyama – A Closer Look
My son has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum, has severe inattentive type ADHD, sensory integration issues, and a stutter. When he was born, he cried constantly. By the time he was 2, he had not spoken his first word. And when he was in third grade, his school told me they were concerned whether they could accommodate him within …
Understanding Unyama
Everything I’d ever known or felt about the work I do was shattered and turned upside down exactly one year ago. I remained in Uganda after that summer’s mission team had returned home. I was to distribute 50 beds to children in a village called Unyama — a few kilometers from Gulu, just outside a dilapidated displacement camp from the …
Yesterday’s Orphan
I love Veronica’s story because it was the story that brought what we’re doing in Uganda to life. Four months ago, I kicked off my shoes and, in a long skirt and bare feet, hauled a 100 pound bucket of rocks up a steep embankment out of a quarry. It was difficult, but I needed to know what it was …
Abortion Tonic and Mother’s Milk
If there’s one thing I’ve learned working outside the safety of my life, it’s that the story is always much greater than my naive Western, first world mind perceives it to be. Whereas I think life can be tough, I greatly underestimate the pervasiveness of the challenges the rest of the world faces on a daily basis. I was thrilled …
Nothing to Offer
“There were more than a hundred who died in this village that night. People were running and there was commotion. The rebels, they started shooting, so we entered one hut. They would just torch the house and lock it from the outside. All the rest of the people perished, so I thank God for taking care of me.” Those were …
Child Labor
The words strike at the heart of everyone who hears them and have such an insidious connotation. To us, they indicate self-righteousness, slavery, and an absolute lack of value of human life. But when you hear the words come out of a mother’s mouth about her own children it takes it to a new dimension. Veronica is a 51 year …
The Necessity to Know Each Other
Tonight I arrived in Uganda for the tenth time in six years. I remember the first time I set foot on the rocky Ugandan soil. I could literally feel a difference in the air; like there was a barometric pressure that told I was on the other side of the world. Uganda is in the throes of a new election …
Currency
You swore to yourself this would be the year you would step outside of comfortable and do something radical — something that would change you, something that could change the world. Not the new year’s resolution kind of change, but the kind of change that conquers fear, inspires others, and answers a calling. How did you do stepping outside of …
How I Changed My Legacy
“Camille, I’m going to teach you everything I know about Christmas tree illumination”. The instant those words came out of my mouth I cringed, knowing I had just accidentally paraphrased Chevy Chase from Christmas Vacation. And as silly as the moment was, I realized I was picking up where my parents left off, recreating the Christmas legacy they had created …