A World of Worry

I am sure many of you have heard there are some serious issues in South Sudan.

Political turmoil leading to the brink of a possible civil war.

A UN peacekeeping base sheltering 22,000 people.

12,000 South Sudanese fleeing to Uganda.

I am terrified. 

And not because Kitgum is 45 miles from the border.

I am terrified because a handful of the girls I work with at the primary school in lifeskills and softball are from Juba.  They all went home for the holidays and I am praying that they are safe.  I have no contact information nor do I know where they are.  I can only pray that they are one of the 12,000 who made it to Uganda.

Many South Sudanese send their children to Northern Uganda for their education for the purposes of pursuing a better education.

It was because of these parents’ decisions that I got to meet these wonderful girls and establish a friendship with them. 

We spent afternoons on a grassy pitch that we called a softball field.

We passed hot afternoons playing with water balloons and tossing the Frisbee.

We went to the market together, fixed the holes in their mosquito nets, took a soda at the pool, and even worked on English and math under the shade of some giant tree.

These are the girls that attended Camp GLOW in August and the ones who continued to share what they learned back at school. 

In my small town, I feel safe.  There is no sense of the fear that I imagine is occupying the minds of the many South Sudanese men, women, and children, simply searching for peace.

In the meantime I will wait patiently by the school’s gate for the girls to return to receive their exam marks.

Hopefully I will see their smiling faces any day…