quickie!

We are finding it difficult to find time to blog these last couple of days. Aimee has been volunteering -- working, really -- at the local hospital every day from 9am until 3pm. By the time she returns home, she is pretty exhausted. I know she started a blog on the laptop last night but she told me it wasn't quite ready for publication yet... My experience at the prison on New Year's day was a real trip. I started writing something about it but it, too, isn't ready for prime time yet. Suffice to say it was over three hours long and included three short 'dramas', Acholi war dances, Congolese music played on Ugandan instruments, dancing, and several competetive events amongst the inmates such as a sack race and a race to see who could drink a cup of boiling tea the fastest... I'm heading to the prison now to ask the director to explain to me some of things I couldn't understand, as the entire performance was in Luo, the local language.

We had New Year's breakfast with our Acholi friends from town. It was very nice despite the fact that they truly tried to prevent us from leaving to see the prison performance. However, we took our own advice, sat them down, and really explained that we are here to volunteer and learn, and that our time for socializing was somewhat limited. It didn't stop Kenny from begging that we stay, but he understood...

Life in the IC house is mellow. Everyone is involved in volunteer work this week, so we mostly see each other only at dinner time. Amy, a fellow PhD student from NYU, and the woman who introduced us to 'Invisible Children' arrived on Dec. 30. It's been nice having her here. We can commiserate about the fact that, despite being so far from home, our thoughts and stresses concerning our PhD work never stops. In fact, I am heading home in a little while to start working on my lines for a play I was cast in , which starts rehearsing as soon as I return. It is definitely strange working on Oscar Wilde in the middle of Africa (where I have been told repeatedly that homosexuality DOES NOT exist here)...

Amy's initiating a huge project -- partly through NYU and partly through Invisible -- that attempts to form partnerships between American schools and Gulu schools. It's called 'schools for schools' and it is a hugely ambitious project. I believe she's writing her dissertation around the work. It's really inspiring to see... And speaking of inspiring, Aimee has so many ideas about partnering with American OBs and midwives to create a support network for the midwives here (but again, I will let her tell her own tale). Her ideas are so full and her mind is so organized. It's pretty incredible to see her when she's passionate about something...

As for me, I am trying to figure out if there is any way to create some link between the prison theatre workers here and those of us in the US and Britain. After seeing what I saw, I think there is a real need to bring drama to a place where the inmates are actually reflecting on and dealing with their crimes. Right now, it seems that the point of it is just to 'give them something to do'. And on the American side, I think the men I've worked with could gain greatly from the strong sense of community and true manhood that is so clearly present in the traditional dances and chants that these men have been learning since they were children. Just ideas... just ideas...

So that's it for today. Sorry there are no new photos. Usually I have my laptop but today I was just strolling through town and decided to drop a quickie. Hope 2007 is treating everyone well so far. We are absolutely loving Africa and also absolutely missing you all. More soon...
k. and a.