The LRA Murdered Five of His (Opobo's) Sons before his Eyes

This is from Tom, written from the Boma hotel in Kitgum, in the far north of Uganda.

    I would echo the wonderful uplifiting emotions we felt at the celebration of the first water from the Kampala Village well. I was the one who received the ceremonial and honorary chicken, along with a bowl of eggs, which is a traditional offering of thanks from the community. The chicken was all dressed up in a little purple embrodery robe. Thankfully it was relatively well behaved and I could carry it around for the rest of the evening. We enjoyed the chicken at our dinner the following evening. This experience culminated over two years of planning to obtain the funding and implement the project. It served as a springboard to our travel up to Kitgum early this morning. 

We made a six hour trip from the FEM farm north to Palabeck, northwest of Kitgum. It is very close to the border with South Sudan. It is much dryer here than in the south, with afternoon temps of about 90 F. The landscape is gentle with occassional large hills. It is classic savannah grassland-bush. We visited the small isolated village of Opopo Witty an elder from the FEM farm originally from this village. As we walked the bush trail to his former home, he described the time that the LRA rebels invaded his area and attempted to force his sons to join them. They all refused. But as a consequence, the LRA murdered five of his sons in front of his eyes that night. It was deeply moving to stand there at the very site as he described this. We met a couple of his grandchildren who still live on this land. With their help we located a 2-acre area on his property that appeared to offer to offer the best possibility of a new well. This area is dry, and people currently have to obtain their drinking water from a couple small streams that go dry. Installing a borehole would let more people re-settle this area after having been displaced by war for over 20 years and greatly improve everyones health. We hope to write a grant and are praying about this future possibility for clean water to help in post war recovery for this region. Thank you all at home for your continued prayers...we shared with the villages your support and they are praying for us and all of you at home!

Tom O