I try to finish typing about all these NGO visits (I'll talk about them soon), but my siblings distract me so here are their words/descriptions of their drawings and random thoughts I've had with a Malcolm X quote to top off the Queen song. Also, for photos of my family, go to: northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081853&l=1cfe5&id=2412657 More to come, they love taking photos.


I come home to type my thoughts so then I don't have to sit in an internet café and do it (so I save money, my older brother's idea). This means that I sit and listen to Arcade Fire in our little family room as half my siblings watch me. I gave them paper to draw and they asked what to draw and I told them just draw their gon or pacho (words for "home") so that I could type up my notes from visiting NGOs.

Ochii Okello, my 15 year old cousin, drew a map of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania (that he copied from a newspaper on the table), but he also drew a hut with a door under the map that was about the size of his Uganda. He said that this was his home in the village and that was the first time any of my siblings under 18 had talked about their home (as they have not learned much English in school). He came up and put his hands in his pockets and his head down and told me about his father who is a drunk and his mom who lives in the camp with his 6 brothers and 3 sisters. He asked if I would be his brother forever. Lona laughed at the word camp, she also is now dancing across the floor to Beck. She likes all my music.

Lona, my youngest sibling at 6, drew a large three story house with lots of windows but then people and her name and trees around it, but also guns and a woman getting shot by a man and the word fire and flames and for the first time here I cried and I couldn't stop crying and I hate this damn war and all she does is smile when I ask her what she drew and she goes on to keep drawing and smiling and dancing and hula hoping with a bike tire to the Bob Marley I am playing now and her dress she wears every day with her bald head as all the kids in primary school have to shave their head.

This did not keep them occupied enough so they watch me type now and wanted me to type what they say so here is what they are saying (in both Luo and English, my sister translated):

Fred (7) is a big tall large man. Fred is the biggest, tallest, largest man in the world. Fred can dunk on a basketball hoop that is 4000 meters high.

Lona (6) is a big tall large woman. Lona is the best basketball player at Carribean Yards. She dunks on all the guys.

Okello (15) is the best football player in all the land. Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all wanted him on their team, but he said "no", I play for Nicky's team, and I won't join yours.

Nicky Smith Anywar (20) is the smallest, tiniest, little man in the world.

Fred fred lolakica ojok fred fred euneice apiyo lona mary Massimo priska akello ochii (their and their sibling's names)

Jesus mary joseph holy rosary church (the church here)
Ojok Fred. Jesus. Pepe cocktail pepe (lona typed this, her favorite movie)

John nicky anywar fred ochii lona ocii jasus

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY AND Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


Ok, time for two random thoughts I have had that I can't get rid off: desensitization and wanting to do more, but still a student learning:

I was reading my friend Rajni's blog (http://rajni.vox.com) as she is doing work at a school in India and she talked about the desensitization that she has experienced from seeing all the poor in India and simply walking by it and turning one's face like everyone else. I did the same thing when I walked and drove throughout India, but I would look too long and the images don't leave my mind. It is the same with visiting the camps here. I throw around the term IDP Camps and child soldiers and kids with HIV-AIDS that I forget to think about why these people are suffering. We have few discussions over why the military and government and LRA did such things, but instead we talk about them as facts and label them, and we have not been discussing enough of what people are actually experiencing and why people are experiencing it. And now when I think about it, and about how much it takes to correct it (given the lack of government assistance), my head cannot handle it all. So I push aside or turn my head and I can just talk about these labels and the NGOs that use them and respond to it and there are so many of them and I can see the work they do and the results, but is it enough or has this war done too much damage, too much destruction to this entire region of a country.
Another thought which Jacob and I had was how we want to make as much change as we can. We both want to be senators because it is a way to make structural change and too many of our political leaders don't care about people and don't recognize how many lives they can change with policy and with listening to the people and providing for the least (so many preventable diseases kill so many, so many kids go to schools that are violent, under funded, understaffed, so many problems for the richest country in the world with 11 trillion dollars!). I hear people's stories everywhere from the projects in Chicago to the rural communities in Guatemala and the people here and they all tell us their story as we "will be the future leaders and we can make the change". I feel an obligation to do that since I am so fortunate with my background and education to do something, just what do I do now, I learn, listen and keep going, looking for ways I can do things now as a student.

On a brighter note, I'd like to end with one of my favorite quotes from Malcolm X (read the Auto-biography, please). Salaam...

In an interview with Gordon Parks in 1965 Malcolm X revealed:

"I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another."
He stopped and remained silent for a few moments, then stated,

"Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant -- the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together -- and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?"
He also later reflected:

"Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then -- like all [black] Muslims -- I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years."
"That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days -- I'm glad to be free of them."