Apologies for the delay in providing updates, which is down to a couple of reasons.

First, we have spent a lot of time traveling in the last four days; we have done over 20 hours by road and taken a flight from Rwanda to Uganda.

Second, we haven’t worked directly with any communities for the last few days as we spent a full day touring around the Murchison Falls National Park.

We have just arrived in Mayo, in the north of Uganda near the border with South Sudan, where we will see tapping in action tomorrow in the refugee camps.

So, today’s update is going to be all odds and ends.

My breaking point
I reached my breaking point on Saturday.

I was tired and overwhelmed. I didn’t have the mental or emotional capacity to have another conversation about failed governments, uncaring people, complex trauma, or even the amazing way in which people have managed to overcome suffering in the face of enormous difficulties.

On one level I can be gracious with myself in knowing that this is emotionally and physically hard. I am ten time zones off my normal schedule, we are constantly on the move, I haven’t been making the best eating choices, and there is new stimulus and information to digest around every corner.

At the same time, I was reminded of a comment I heard someone make around racism in the United States.

Person A said, “It is just so exhausting to have to think and talk about racism all the time.” To which Person B replied, “Now imagine how exhausting it is to live with it every moment of every day.”

It is emotionally exhausting to think about everything that is going on in the communities we are serving AND that is nothing in comparison to the daily reality of their lives.

My physical and emotional frailty (because I am human and not made of steel) is a reminder that not only do I need to keep working to make change, I also need to be someone who is sharing these stories with others, so that they too can contribute to making positive change in the world.

Fortunately, after a night’s rest, a hot shower (our first of the trip), and a few restorative hours of downtime in the car listening to podcasts, I’m back in fine fettle.

Messing with podcast producers
One thing podcast creators often obsess about is their download stats. I have always been fascinated by where in the world people are listening to my podcast. When we have access to wifi, I have been downloading my normal collections of podcasts about sports and culture. It tickles me to imagine podcast producers poring over their stats from last week and seeing their first-ever downloads from Rwanda and Uganda!

Lions and tigers and bears oh my
Really it was lions and hippos and giraffes and elephants and warthogs and water buffalo and antelope oh my. We were lucky enough to spend a full day touring Murchison Falls National Part.

On arrival we were warned to stay out of the pool after dark and to stick to well-lit paths to avoid running into a hippo. It was amazing to think it was more dangerous to walk home from dinner in the park than it was to work in a prison.

Henry, a park ranger, was hired to spend the day with us and to share all sorts of fascinating facts about the park and the animals.

To see the animals coming out to drink at dawn, we left our accommodation at 6 AM and didn’t get back until early evening.

Families of elephants and giraffes were everywhere, which were so magical and majestic. We also spent about 45 minutes watching a pride of five lions as they enjoyed the spoils of their morning hunt. There were two adults, two juveniles, and one younger juvenile, who went from eating to wrestling with his siblings.

There were more species of antelope than I can remember, ranging in size from something like an elk, to fully grown at just twenty inches tall. The little ones were ridiculously cute, but we decided that US customs would not appreciate us bringing home a mini antelope, and I am guessing they wouldn’t love a New York winter either.

Birds were a whole other fabulous category of delight, from small ones of the brightest electric blue you can imagine, to pairs of giant hornbills that looked like dodos.

In the afternoon we took a river cruise up the White Nile to Murchison Falls. On the way we passed pods of hippos and elephants drinking from the riverbank as we floated up to the foot of the falls.

I think this would be a good time to mention once again that nothing on this trip was paid for by the money we raised during the 24 Hours of Tapping. All our expenses are being covered by us, so rest assured that your money did not fund us seeing elephants and giraffes in Africa.

Here are a few photos and videos from the day.

At breakfast this morning my sister and I were reflecting on the trip. She said, “I’m glad we got to spend time in the park, but I am not going to remember the animals. I am going to remember the people from our trip.”

It really was a lovely break and set us up for the next segment of our trip.

Driving to Moyo
As we were leaving our national park lodge, the person helping Laney with bags asked where we were heading next. When she told him that we were on our way to Moyo he was completely confused as he could not imagine a Mzungu (term for foreigner or white foreigner) going there. That’s because the only non-refugees and non-Ugandans in that part of the country are international aid workers.

Our journey to Moyo took a full day. We crossed the White Nile in a ferry, but it was mainly by car and included more than three hours on rough dirt roads where we made slow progress.

As we were bouncing up and down, avoiding rocks and potholes, our driver Pascal turned to me and said with the warmest smile “That is a Ugandan back massage”.

We are staying at a small boarding house run by the Catholic church, which is funded by a parish in Spain. When the aid effort started for the refugees in this part of the country, there were no hotels or rooms available to rent so it has served a great need.

It is clean, quiet, and calm.

I am off to rest as we have a full day ahead tomorrow with over 400 people showing up for a tapping training.