I don't have some in depth academic discussion but I just wanted to say I am missing my fellow pilgrims! I have given a few talks to the parishes and the school children and I don't seem to do justice to what we experienced. Sharing the "pain and hope" of our Ugandan friends through pictures or videos seems not to do the experience justice.
The children at my school have been the most fascinated and they were a fun group. I dressed in my Ugandan "shirt" and the middle school students thought it was "cool".
Our school continues to be pen pals and raise money for lunches and school fees for the children of St Joseph. They are "children helping children".
The local parish has built 10 wells for Fr. Joe's parish and they keep going. I hope to help them in the future. One of the men who donated money in honor of his wife, who passed away recently, was tearful as I showed pictures of "Mary's Well" with the villagers enjoying water from the well.
Another mom who donated funds for another well in the name of her daughter (Michelle's Well),who was a chemist working on water purification projects in the US, was thrilled when I told her that the women villagers told that the water was very "sweet".
Anyway, miss you and hoping that we can continue to share.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Aboke Girls to be a Movie
Not totally sure what I think about this. Excited about the publicity, but unsure whether I want the story of the Aboke girls to become a glamourized hollywood "event." Here it is the latest news from the BBC with thanks from Invisible Children's blog:
Hollywood to tackle Uganda rebels
Uma Thurman is playing a nun on a rescue mission
A Hollywood film director says his next film is about Uganda's notorious rebels and how they kidnapped more than 100 convent schoolgirls.
Will Raee told the BBC that Girl Soldier will star Uma Thurman as the heroine nun who pursues the rebels into the bush and helps some girls escape.
It is based on a book of the same name by Grace Akallo, one of those captured from the school in Akobe in 1996.
"It's mind blowing; it's such an amazing story," said Mr Raee.
I want people to watch this and feel that they're watching a documentary
Director Will Raee
In pictures: Ugandan comic hero
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been fighting the Ugandan government for more than two decades.
Their long and brutal rebellion has driven some two million people from their homes and destabilised a swathe of central and east Africa.
Tens of thousands of children have been abducted to be fighters and sex slaves.
'Authentic'
"The film is incredibly fictionalised in certain areas," Mr Raee told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
LRA rebels often mutilate their victims, cutting off lips, ears and noses
"But we're basically telling the story of girls who were abducted and forced into slavery and forced into fighting a rebel war they didn't want to be a part of.
"I want people to watch this and feel that they're watching a documentary in a sense, so we're really trying to keep this as authentic as possible," he said.
Ms Akallo, who was 15 years old when she was abducted, was not one of those rescued by the nun and only managed to escape months later during a battle.
Mr Raee said the movie is in pre-production in South Africa at the moment and he hopes to shoot some scenes in Uganda.
"The child soldiers will be Ugandan actors," he said.
Earlier this week, a comic book about the LRA, featuring the WWII character Unknown Soldier, was launched by DC Comics.
"I do feel there are just an amazing amount of stories coming out of Africa that are both beautiful and tragic," said Mr Raee.
He said that Ms Thurman was keen to do the role because of her interest in Africa and her concern about violence against women.
Hollywood to tackle Uganda rebels
Uma Thurman is playing a nun on a rescue mission
A Hollywood film director says his next film is about Uganda's notorious rebels and how they kidnapped more than 100 convent schoolgirls.
Will Raee told the BBC that Girl Soldier will star Uma Thurman as the heroine nun who pursues the rebels into the bush and helps some girls escape.
It is based on a book of the same name by Grace Akallo, one of those captured from the school in Akobe in 1996.
"It's mind blowing; it's such an amazing story," said Mr Raee.
I want people to watch this and feel that they're watching a documentary
Director Will Raee
In pictures: Ugandan comic hero
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been fighting the Ugandan government for more than two decades.
Their long and brutal rebellion has driven some two million people from their homes and destabilised a swathe of central and east Africa.
Tens of thousands of children have been abducted to be fighters and sex slaves.
'Authentic'
"The film is incredibly fictionalised in certain areas," Mr Raee told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
LRA rebels often mutilate their victims, cutting off lips, ears and noses
"But we're basically telling the story of girls who were abducted and forced into slavery and forced into fighting a rebel war they didn't want to be a part of.
"I want people to watch this and feel that they're watching a documentary in a sense, so we're really trying to keep this as authentic as possible," he said.
Ms Akallo, who was 15 years old when she was abducted, was not one of those rescued by the nun and only managed to escape months later during a battle.
Mr Raee said the movie is in pre-production in South Africa at the moment and he hopes to shoot some scenes in Uganda.
"The child soldiers will be Ugandan actors," he said.
Earlier this week, a comic book about the LRA, featuring the WWII character Unknown Soldier, was launched by DC Comics.
"I do feel there are just an amazing amount of stories coming out of Africa that are both beautiful and tragic," said Mr Raee.
He said that Ms Thurman was keen to do the role because of her interest in Africa and her concern about violence against women.
An American Parallel
My problem with this article is that the writer assumes that Jaycee's story, being kidnapped at 11, spending 18 years captive and returning home with the kidnapper's children is an absolutely unheard of phenomenon.
Has this writer ever heard of the children of Northern Uganda? What would happen if Joseph Kony's story of kidnapping made it to this level of media attention? Assuming that the experts on kidnapping and child psychology are actually correct, it makes me wonder if the people of Uganda are getting this level of care?
Experts: Kidnap victim faces difficult recovery
Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, August 30, 2009
She should have been in high school and going on first dates, maybe leaving home for college, finding her first apartment, falling in love - growing up.
But Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, spent her formative years in captivity. Kidnapped at age 11 in South Lake Tahoe, she gave birth to two daughters when she was just a teenager, and likely lived with the near-constant threat of fear and abuse for 18 years.
She was found Wednesday in Antioch, and Thursday saw her mother for the first time since June 1991. But her recovery has barely started, say experts in child psychiatry and post-traumatic stress.
How well she progresses, along with her two children, depends on the quality of professional help she receives, and the strength of her support network.
"Someone asked me if I think she'll ever have a normal life. I'm not sure 'normal' is the word," said Paula Fass, a history professor at UC Berkeley and author of the book "Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America." "But let's hope she can still live decently and reconnect with that earlier life. The challenge will be to try to integrate these two parts of her life - before she was taken, and her children now - in a way that can be meaningful."
Few cases like it
A case like Dugard's is virtually unheard of. There are examples of children being taken and held captive for months or even years, but none as long as Dugard, and none who were taken as children and returned as adults.
The fact that Dugard now has two children - both the offspring of her accused captor, Phillip Garrido, according to police - further complicates her case. Several child psychologists and kidnapping experts compared Dugard's captivity to the case of an Austrian woman who was found last year after being imprisoned by her own father for 24 years and giving birth to seven of his children.
Dugard "was kept for 18 years, and through an important period in child development, when kids are busy becoming their own persons. It's a difficult period of time to miss out on," said Dr. Stuart Lustig, a UCSF child psychiatrist.
Dugard almost definitely suffered from Stockholm syndrome, a condition in which captives become sympathetic to their captors. Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, told media outlets that she has expressed guilt for bonding with Garrido.
It's common for kidnapped children to feel some compassion for their kidnappers, who abuse them but also become their only caretaker, child psychiatrists said. That creates a cognitive dissonance that isn't easily resolved, especially for children who don't have the life experience to understand what's happened to them.
"Children in this situation need to protect themselves, and the person who is the perpetrator is the one providing the comfort. Identifying with the aggressor feels like protecting yourself," said Dr. Victor Carrion, an expert in post-traumatic stress in children at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "This is not a conscious decision. It's something that happens in survival mode."
Probable PTSD
It's also likely that Dugard is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder - starting with the initial trauma of being kidnapped and kept up over years of abuse and confinement, Carrion said.
According to police, Dugard has lived in an encampment of tents and sheds in Garrido's backyard for most of the last two decades, with little interaction with people other than her captors and her children.
Her daughters, too, were isolated from the outside world - they never attended school or visited a doctor, police said. Just as Dugard must find a way to reintegrate with her family and society, so must her children, child psychiatrists said.
The children, ages 11 and 15, will need to be evaluated - psychiatrists will look at their developmental progress, such as their ability to learn, their language skills, and how they relate to others. The children may also complicate Dugard's recovery because they'll serve as a constant reminder of her captivity, child psychiatrists said. It may be difficult for Dugard to separate her love for her daughters from her complicated feelings toward Garrido.
But it's also possible, Fass said, that having raised two children may help Dugard in her recovery. The children could give her focus in the years ahead, and they may have offered her some small strength while she was held captive, by allowing her to care for someone else.
"Let's assume that the children were her company, and allowed her to exercise her caretaking ability," Fass said. "I would think those are two strengths that could be played on in her recovery. She wasn't entirely isolated, she wasn't just by herself. She was taking care of the children."
The key to reuniting Dugard with her family, experts say, will be to take it slowly. Her mother and stepfather can't expect her to be the 11-year-old girl who was taken 18 years ago, and at the same time Dugard can't expect her family to be the same.
When families are reunited, it's common for everyone to feel some guilt, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The children feel guilty for not being able to escape or for bonding with their kidnappers, and the parents feel guilty for losing them in the first place.
Allen said it will be critical for Dugard and her family to be patient with one another, and especially with Dugard's daughters.
Must start over
"Parent and child typically want to return things to the way they were, and what we've found is that - particularly with these kinds of spans - families have to start all over getting to know each other," Allen said. "The single most important thing for a parent, even when your child is 29 years old, is to love your child unconditionally."
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped seven years ago at age 14 and returned to her family nine months later, said in an interview on CNN on Friday that spending quiet time with her family was critical to her recovery. She believes it's possible to be happy and free again and to not let "this horrible event take over and consume the rest of your life."
Allen said recovery will be difficult, but he's hopeful for Dugard and her family.
"Despite the 18 years that have been lost, despite the theft of Jaycee's childhood, she's alive. She's young, and she has hope for the future," Allen said. "It's a very complex situation, but we really believe there's real hope here."
E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/29/MNO419FDD9.DTL#ixzz0PfdY72Jq
Has this writer ever heard of the children of Northern Uganda? What would happen if Joseph Kony's story of kidnapping made it to this level of media attention? Assuming that the experts on kidnapping and child psychology are actually correct, it makes me wonder if the people of Uganda are getting this level of care?
Experts: Kidnap victim faces difficult recovery
Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, August 30, 2009
She should have been in high school and going on first dates, maybe leaving home for college, finding her first apartment, falling in love - growing up.
But Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, spent her formative years in captivity. Kidnapped at age 11 in South Lake Tahoe, she gave birth to two daughters when she was just a teenager, and likely lived with the near-constant threat of fear and abuse for 18 years.
She was found Wednesday in Antioch, and Thursday saw her mother for the first time since June 1991. But her recovery has barely started, say experts in child psychiatry and post-traumatic stress.
How well she progresses, along with her two children, depends on the quality of professional help she receives, and the strength of her support network.
"Someone asked me if I think she'll ever have a normal life. I'm not sure 'normal' is the word," said Paula Fass, a history professor at UC Berkeley and author of the book "Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America." "But let's hope she can still live decently and reconnect with that earlier life. The challenge will be to try to integrate these two parts of her life - before she was taken, and her children now - in a way that can be meaningful."
Few cases like it
A case like Dugard's is virtually unheard of. There are examples of children being taken and held captive for months or even years, but none as long as Dugard, and none who were taken as children and returned as adults.
The fact that Dugard now has two children - both the offspring of her accused captor, Phillip Garrido, according to police - further complicates her case. Several child psychologists and kidnapping experts compared Dugard's captivity to the case of an Austrian woman who was found last year after being imprisoned by her own father for 24 years and giving birth to seven of his children.
Dugard "was kept for 18 years, and through an important period in child development, when kids are busy becoming their own persons. It's a difficult period of time to miss out on," said Dr. Stuart Lustig, a UCSF child psychiatrist.
Dugard almost definitely suffered from Stockholm syndrome, a condition in which captives become sympathetic to their captors. Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, told media outlets that she has expressed guilt for bonding with Garrido.
It's common for kidnapped children to feel some compassion for their kidnappers, who abuse them but also become their only caretaker, child psychiatrists said. That creates a cognitive dissonance that isn't easily resolved, especially for children who don't have the life experience to understand what's happened to them.
"Children in this situation need to protect themselves, and the person who is the perpetrator is the one providing the comfort. Identifying with the aggressor feels like protecting yourself," said Dr. Victor Carrion, an expert in post-traumatic stress in children at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "This is not a conscious decision. It's something that happens in survival mode."
Probable PTSD
It's also likely that Dugard is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder - starting with the initial trauma of being kidnapped and kept up over years of abuse and confinement, Carrion said.
According to police, Dugard has lived in an encampment of tents and sheds in Garrido's backyard for most of the last two decades, with little interaction with people other than her captors and her children.
Her daughters, too, were isolated from the outside world - they never attended school or visited a doctor, police said. Just as Dugard must find a way to reintegrate with her family and society, so must her children, child psychiatrists said.
The children, ages 11 and 15, will need to be evaluated - psychiatrists will look at their developmental progress, such as their ability to learn, their language skills, and how they relate to others. The children may also complicate Dugard's recovery because they'll serve as a constant reminder of her captivity, child psychiatrists said. It may be difficult for Dugard to separate her love for her daughters from her complicated feelings toward Garrido.
But it's also possible, Fass said, that having raised two children may help Dugard in her recovery. The children could give her focus in the years ahead, and they may have offered her some small strength while she was held captive, by allowing her to care for someone else.
"Let's assume that the children were her company, and allowed her to exercise her caretaking ability," Fass said. "I would think those are two strengths that could be played on in her recovery. She wasn't entirely isolated, she wasn't just by herself. She was taking care of the children."
The key to reuniting Dugard with her family, experts say, will be to take it slowly. Her mother and stepfather can't expect her to be the 11-year-old girl who was taken 18 years ago, and at the same time Dugard can't expect her family to be the same.
When families are reunited, it's common for everyone to feel some guilt, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The children feel guilty for not being able to escape or for bonding with their kidnappers, and the parents feel guilty for losing them in the first place.
Allen said it will be critical for Dugard and her family to be patient with one another, and especially with Dugard's daughters.
Must start over
"Parent and child typically want to return things to the way they were, and what we've found is that - particularly with these kinds of spans - families have to start all over getting to know each other," Allen said. "The single most important thing for a parent, even when your child is 29 years old, is to love your child unconditionally."
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped seven years ago at age 14 and returned to her family nine months later, said in an interview on CNN on Friday that spending quiet time with her family was critical to her recovery. She believes it's possible to be happy and free again and to not let "this horrible event take over and consume the rest of your life."
Allen said recovery will be difficult, but he's hopeful for Dugard and her family.
"Despite the 18 years that have been lost, despite the theft of Jaycee's childhood, she's alive. She's young, and she has hope for the future," Allen said. "It's a very complex situation, but we really believe there's real hope here."
E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/29/MNO419FDD9.DTL#ixzz0PfdY72Jq
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Some videos
Hey all. I know we are still working on getting a photo-sharing site together. I just wanted to share with you a few of my videos.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Ways to Deal with Re-Entry
I guess this is Urbana.org's topic of the week: re-entry. But yet again, here is another great Q&A session between a college student and InterVarsity's point-ask-anything-person.
Stephanie: (07/10/07)
Hi, Jack.
I was wondering if you could say a bit or recommend some articles about how to deal with re-entry.
I was out of the country for a few months and, while my initial transition back to the States was just fine, now, several months later I am experiencing some negative "reentry symptoms", such as boredom, having trouble relating to my family and friends in the States, missing my "other home" and my friends there A LOT, as well as ambivalent feelings about wealth and money.
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Jack:
Good question, Stephanie. Some thoughts:
• First of all, good re-entry adjustment is not an event; it is a process, and takes time.
• Secondly, some have seen in this process a cycle of adjustment, an experience usually including the following steps:
o Reaction: a “reverse culture shock,” which you are going through, often more severe than the culture shock when you left the U.S.
o Reflection: the need to sit down carefully and think through what you are experiencing (as you are doing), why you are experiencing this, and what you can do about it.
o Conceptualization: putting your thoughts, feelings, and reactions in categories and what action steps you plan to take.
The process is important, Stephanie. It is part of learning more about yourself, an opportunity to be more objective about American culture, and as a result growing in maturity.
I would journal your responses to these three steps as part of your process of re-entry. It is a valuable experience, which will not only help you now but will prepare you to help others one day.
There are some dangers in this whole matter that you need to be aware of:
• That you will begin to romanticize about your experience in the other country the longer you are back home. You will tend to forget the difficulties and exaggerate the wonderful relationships, the food, the style of life, etc. It’s just good to know this.
If you are able to return one day, you will have to face disappointment; things will just not be as wonderful as they developed in your mind.
• The danger of having a continual negative reaction to American patterns of “wealth and money.” Don’t lose your appreciation of how consumerism has taken over American life, but think through your criticism, make some decisions as to how you will live, knowing that as time goes by you will find yourself slipping back into the same patterns you had before.
Be aware that your family and friends who have not gone through the experience you had overseas will not be able to understand fully what you are feeling and expressing.
• The temptation to focus in on yourself: “Why don’t they understand me?” “Why are people so selfish with their ‘wealth’?” Why aren’t they as sensitive to world need as I am?”
Rather than continuing to just focus on the needs of the people where you were, investigate opportunities of service here in this country. See a broader picture. Use the sensitivity you gained to good advantage here.
Above all, may the Lord guide your prayers, thoughts, words, and actions to glorify Him in this process. He took you there; He wants to help you incorporate the valuable lessons you learned and show you how they can and should influence your life now.
I trust some of these thoughts will be helpful to you.
Jack
Here’s a word I received this morning. Perhaps it will encourage you: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God” (Isaiah 50:10).
Stephanie: (07/10/07)
Hi, Jack.
I was wondering if you could say a bit or recommend some articles about how to deal with re-entry.
I was out of the country for a few months and, while my initial transition back to the States was just fine, now, several months later I am experiencing some negative "reentry symptoms", such as boredom, having trouble relating to my family and friends in the States, missing my "other home" and my friends there A LOT, as well as ambivalent feelings about wealth and money.
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Jack:
Good question, Stephanie. Some thoughts:
• First of all, good re-entry adjustment is not an event; it is a process, and takes time.
• Secondly, some have seen in this process a cycle of adjustment, an experience usually including the following steps:
o Reaction: a “reverse culture shock,” which you are going through, often more severe than the culture shock when you left the U.S.
o Reflection: the need to sit down carefully and think through what you are experiencing (as you are doing), why you are experiencing this, and what you can do about it.
o Conceptualization: putting your thoughts, feelings, and reactions in categories and what action steps you plan to take.
The process is important, Stephanie. It is part of learning more about yourself, an opportunity to be more objective about American culture, and as a result growing in maturity.
I would journal your responses to these three steps as part of your process of re-entry. It is a valuable experience, which will not only help you now but will prepare you to help others one day.
There are some dangers in this whole matter that you need to be aware of:
• That you will begin to romanticize about your experience in the other country the longer you are back home. You will tend to forget the difficulties and exaggerate the wonderful relationships, the food, the style of life, etc. It’s just good to know this.
If you are able to return one day, you will have to face disappointment; things will just not be as wonderful as they developed in your mind.
• The danger of having a continual negative reaction to American patterns of “wealth and money.” Don’t lose your appreciation of how consumerism has taken over American life, but think through your criticism, make some decisions as to how you will live, knowing that as time goes by you will find yourself slipping back into the same patterns you had before.
Be aware that your family and friends who have not gone through the experience you had overseas will not be able to understand fully what you are feeling and expressing.
• The temptation to focus in on yourself: “Why don’t they understand me?” “Why are people so selfish with their ‘wealth’?” Why aren’t they as sensitive to world need as I am?”
Rather than continuing to just focus on the needs of the people where you were, investigate opportunities of service here in this country. See a broader picture. Use the sensitivity you gained to good advantage here.
Above all, may the Lord guide your prayers, thoughts, words, and actions to glorify Him in this process. He took you there; He wants to help you incorporate the valuable lessons you learned and show you how they can and should influence your life now.
I trust some of these thoughts will be helpful to you.
Jack
Here’s a word I received this morning. Perhaps it will encourage you: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God” (Isaiah 50:10).
On Re-Entry Back Into One's Home Culture After Crossing Cultures
I came across this really fantastic article on cultural re-entry. This is perfect for those of us returning home to the U.S. from Uganda. The author, Lisa Espineli-Chinn has worked a long time working with InterVarsity International students. And I think she's also speaking at this upcoming Urbana '09 as she did back in '06 when I went.
I would re-post the entire article, but there is a large copyright at the bottom. I figure I'll play it safe. I love InterVarsity too much to be sued by them!
http://www.urbana.org/articles/reverse-culture-shock
I would re-post the entire article, but there is a large copyright at the bottom. I figure I'll play it safe. I love InterVarsity too much to be sued by them!
http://www.urbana.org/articles/reverse-culture-shock
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sister Rosemary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j3kLa4k9l0
Check it out, it's Sr. Rosemary's info video for CNN Heroes 2007!
Check it out, it's Sr. Rosemary's info video for CNN Heroes 2007!
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