Day Two - Gulu, Tuesday 7/7/09

In the morning, we traveled to the Opit camp. On the way there, we stopped and the pastors in our group and the New York group, plus Rhett tried plowing a field with a team of oxen. As we have learned time and time again, nothing is as easy as it looks.

Pastor Titus, the Opit camp pastor, rode in our clown van to the site. Normally, he rides a bike the 35 kilometers over dusty, rutted dirt roads to church with his wife as a passenger to get to church service. And then he has to ride back home, all while wearing his best suit. And even more unbelievable is the fact that, as is the case with most pastors in this region, he is not even paid for his work.

sidenote: this was probably one of the dustiest roads ever. By the time we got to camp, our van was filled with red dust and we were covered in it.

Opit was a surprisingly clean and orderly camp with wonderful people who came out to greet us. We had a short church service under a tree, then walked about the camp and was shown their bore hole (well).

We then traveled back to Gulu town to have lunch where Rhett and Drew managed to find a game of pool with the locals.

After lunch, we went to the Layibi camp, which was closer to town. The children in the camp performed dances, played the drums, and sang for us. It was better than any show we could have paid for. After the show, we walked around the camp. I tried to help a small woman with a baby on her back carry a plastic container of water up the hill, but much to my chagrin, I couldn't carry it for more than a few feet. After observing my feeble attempt, she motioned for me to lift it onto her head, and after struggling to lift it, I finally got it on her head, and away she went -- baby on back, 50-pound container of water on her head up the hill, with me looking on wondering how I could possibly be any weaker.

We retired to the hotel after that and had dinner. During the meal, we realized the odor everyone kept smelling was coming from a stinky milk pot that came with the tea. It contained good milk and had a verse everyone liked from Jeremiah 11 on it (which I can't remember at present), but smelled to high heaven. So it became the Bible lesson for the meal -- don't judge things by their outsides. Weird story, yes, but the team wanted to remember the tea pot, so I'm including it in the blog