Acholi evening

I went to Gulu this evening. Or rather Bishop Nelson (Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Uganda) and Mrs Brenda Onono Onweng, with Rev’d Willy Akena (Diocesan Information Officer/Bishop’s Chaplain), were welcomed in East Oxford by the Acholi community here. The company was radiant and it was good to be with them. Among the hosts were members of churches in Marston (St Michael's, the URC, and St Nicholas) who have formed a relationship with Dongpacu, the self-help women's group in Adyaka.


[Elaine Parry, Martin Carr (Liaison Officer for the Diocese of Northern Uganda), Bishop Nelson Onono Onweng,
Rev Willy Akena, Mrs Brenda Onono Oneng, Filda Abelkec - click on the picture for other pictures]

Bishop Nelson brought news from Northern Uganda. He's saying that after the twenty-one years of the nightmare atrocities visited on them by Joseph Kony and the LRA, modest signs of peace are coming upon the people. Things are still difficult and education still suffers in a big way. All in all Bishop Nelson suggests that it will be more like 42 years before people all return and they can say order is fully restored.

An Acholi choir came over to Oxford from London to join in the evening and Michael Ochem had quite a job persuading his energetic daughter Tadeas Lamar, that she isn't quite old enough to play the odungu.