Rose's Journey: Dallas October 6th 2012

HOPE, HEAL, EMPOWER

Dearest friends,
thank you to those who have already committed to walking in Dallas this year, or are considering it.  I am so delighted that you are coming!  We finally get to walk together if we have not already done so in Uganda.  It will be a beautiful journey.  Thank you also to all our supporters across the country.  You help us stay accountable and grounded.

This month I have been thinking of three words to anchor the walk.  A week ago I asked a few friends what Rose's Journey symbolizes for them--three words they would use to describe it.  From the responses I received, I chose three words that were most frequently used, and which in many ways resonate with my own feelings, memories and experiences of the first walk 22 years ago.

Files of Patients on Hope Ward at IHK

The first one is “Hope”.  I first walked when I was 17.  I was young and energetic, and a month prior had defied 60-plus family members when I denounced witchcraft.  The battle with my family drove me into helpless despair.  I was locked up for three weeks and was only allowed the luxury of outside air once or twice a day when my need for the pit latrine became intolerable.
When finally I was released, two choices were presented: (1) I had to continue the practice of, and training in witchcraft (as I had done so for 8 years), or (2) I was no longer a member of my family or clan! When the gavel came down (my father being the primary judge) the 60-plus and I had chosen.  For them, family traditions, ancestry worship and rituals, a deep respect and obligation to the dead, and a belief that through specific commitments and sacrifices was the only way our family could survive, were more important than one 17-year olds’ desire to be freed from such obligation, even if that obligation came at such a terrible cost.

For my part, I was desperate for just one person to acknowledge that under the umbrella of tradition and rituals, my life for 8 years (from the time I was 6 till 17) had plunged into a darkness from which I could not escape.  What was in store for me if I stayed on that path?  Would I have to kill children in order to appease the evil spirits?  For three days after several meetings with elders, I agonized over my choice.  It was a hopeless situation.  Choosing to leave my family would most certainly free me from my obligation and cemented destiny in witchcraft, but it would leave me destitute, fearful and guilty for dishonoring and betraying my family.  Nevertheless, in the end, I left. 
And looking back to 22 years ago when I first walked, it seems fitting that subsequent walks continue to be defined by hope.  In the first journey, I acutely felt hopeless and full of despair.  I was running away from something but was not sure of the future ahead.  But even in that despair, there were moments I experienced a sense of hope; that each step was taking me away from something awful to something better!  It had to be better. I think that is at the core of Rose's Journey:  With each step we despair and yet in that despair Hope is born and reborn over and over again.  And I feel that the children and families who are caught in the current web of witchcraft and child sacrifice (as my family was) are looking for hope.  So this year, as in the past, I feel that the walk is a place to rediscover and be grounded in hope and to also be able to share it with others or at least introduce it into spaces where despair rules. 
 
The second word is “Heal.”  Personally I have had and appreciated so many opportunities to heal, whether individually or within a community of family, church, friends and scholars.  I am grateful for the countless blessings and the grace to repair the fabric of life that was torn.  This is often the cathartic experience of the walk.  While there may be pain, each step is an expression of faith, of shedding the past, of being unshackled, and of trading our pain and sorrows for joy and healing.  We long for rest and restoration.  As we walk, it is my prayer and hope that as we do, we will also rebuild and heal.

The last word is “Empower”.  I think this is an appropriate descriptor which represents both hope and healing and often forces me to ask myself: "What can I do with these precious gifts?" So I hope that the walk continues to be a platform for raising awareness about child sacrifice and its impact on children and communities in Uganda and beyond; that with each step, we, collectively, represent many children who are caught in this tragic cycle and whose voices may have been suppressed forever.  By doing so, we hope that we can raise enough conscience to rescue other children both now and in the future.

This platform has also allowed us a great opportunity to sponsor young women in Uganda to pursue a nursing career.  Through the service of many volunteer nurses both in Uganda, and elsewhere, we are able to extend the program beyond the scholarship (they get a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing) into a mentoring/role-modeling partnership so that we can increase, even in a small way, leadership capacity among nurses in Uganda which is desperately needed.

So, as you can imagine, I have been thinking a great deal about these three words and how they have shaped my life.  It seems appropriate that the walk in Dallas will take us on another journey of rediscovering hope and sharing that hope with others, finding healing and creating spaces for others to heal, and with every opportunity afforded to us, use our voices, our talent, our energy, our resources, our intellect, and our passion to empower others and represent those whose voices are unheard.  I am so honored that I get to walk with you and hopefully, whether in silence, in the holding of hands, an embrace, prayers and cheers, or expressed words, I get to be part of your journey too.  I get to have another chance to say to you: “It is good that you exist, it is good that you are in the world."

           http://narrowroadintl.org/Narrow_Road__Roses_Journey.html