10. Okwagala

"Love never fails."

— 1 Corinthians 13:8a

❀

Okwagala means love. Love for the people around me became the theme of this Ugandan journey.

The biology major team after completing a long day of clinic work

“Work is a gift, a calling, a human responsibility. And the creation of productive, meaningful employment fulfills one of the Creator’s highest designs” (Lupton, 152).

From the guesthouse meals to the Murchison Falls safari, my NU teammates and I learned to bear with one another and enjoy each others' company despite our differences. But I think our day spent working at the makeshift clinic especially unified us. 

Gazing at the Worcester family banda

“The best way to assure effectiveness is to spend enough time as a learner, ask enough questions, and seek wisdom from indigenous leaders to gain an accurate picture of both existing realities and future aspirations of the community” (Lupton, 175). 

On this trip, I learned to appreciate and love a culture entirely different from my own. Their different time standards, eating habits, and language fascinated me and sparked my curiosity.

Our team walks to the secondary site on our orientation tour

“Everything we have, we have been given. Every transformation is an act of God, especially our own transformation. We must always remember that we are servants of the master” (Myers, 225).

In many ways, we were the ones transformed on this journey. We were able to come away with an abundance of lessons and experiences from our visit.

Joy and I with the mobile clinic's dispensary table

“Founding itself upon love, humility, and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialogues is the logical consequence” (Freire, 91).

I learned more about communication, whether it was with my teammates, mission staff, and locals. Dialoguing with Joy during the clinic day, we practiced overcoming a language barrier as she taught me not only how to do that day's work, but also several Lugandan phrases. Don't you see it?

Love

overcomes

all.