Uganda National Prayer Service

On November 25, 2011 the Rt. Rev. Wilberforce sat amongst the Diocesan Council of Namirembe Diocese and Uganda's prominent political leaders, and came to the consensus that nation of Uganda is due for repentance before God for wrong doings and atrocities committed by Ugandan Leaders. Thus, they concluded that January 15^th, 2012 a National Prayer Service will be held in St. Paul's Cathedral Namirembe.

Ugandans from all over the country gathered as a nation in St. Paul's Cathedral in our Father's presence to pray for this country, to seek his grace, and to ask for forgiveness for sins they committed against their people.

Uganda is comprised of many ethic groups that have come together in forming their nation, and has experienced many violent wars such as the Inter-Clan and Inter-Tribal, dating back before 1894. The religious wars had run rapid across Uganda from 1894- 1964, and since Independence in 1962 Uganda has faced military coups and liberation wars up to this present day.

Many Ugandans over the years have been subjected to atrocities and there have been violations of human rights: The corrupt justice system has sent Ugandans to prison without trial; a number of people have faced death for political motives; some have been displaced from their homes while others have been forcefully evicted from them; some have been forced to leave Uganda to become refugees in other countries, and others are put into concentration camps.

The unequal distribution of the country's resources among the different regions and ethnic groups has led to social violence. Respect for the law as depleted causing some societies to form vigilante groups to protect their own.

All these countless acts has lead to endless tears in Uganda and has seriously ruined the economy of Uganda. Thus, this special has been create where, church leaders, government leaders, Ugandan citizens to come together to ask for a second chance, and to start anew.

On this day, Bishop Samuel Peni and I decided to witness this historic and repenting occasion. There were over 3,000 Ugandans in attendance, ready to come before the Lord seeking forgiveness.

The First reading- 2Chronicles 7:12- 15,

The Second reading- Epistles- Romans 12:6-16,

The Gospel reading- John 2:1-11

National Repentance

Leader: “There is an urgent need to repent as a nation for the wrongs and atrocities we have committed and for the things we have failed to so and for the things we have not done properly.

The kinds of sins we have committed include:

Bloodshed                     Madness

Bribery                          Insincerity

Lying                            Intrigue

Corruption                    Extenuation

Murder                          Incrimination

Maneuverings               Intimidation 

Mischievous                  Hypocrisy 

Sabotage                        Hostility

Injustice                         Selfishness

Nepotism                       Greed

Embezzlement               Importunate

Complacency                Inconsideration

Complaisance                Immorality

Ungodliness

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, If we confess our sins God is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God So loved the world that he have His only son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, to be our advocate in heaven, and to bring us to eternal life.

Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith, firmly resolved to keep God's commandments and to live in love and peace with all men. God Bless, and God watch over Uganda."

Ugandan National Anthem:

Oh Uganda!

May God uphold thee,

We lay our future in thy hand,

United, free, For liberty 

Together we'll always stand.

Oh Uganda!

The land of freedom.

Our love and labour we give,

And with neighbors all,

At our country's call

In peace and friendship we'll live.

Oh Uganda!

The land that feed us,

By sun and fertile soil grown.

For our own dear land,

We'll always stand:

The Pear of Africa's Crown.

Computer Education in Nzara

 Alison Tepe's Basic Computer Training Course

On November 24^th 2011, 17 computer students celebrated their graduation from Alison Tepe's Basic Computer Training Course. The program consist of 2 months of arduous computer training that gives the student a basic understanding of how to perform actions using a computer.

The training includes:

•     Introduction to computers

•      Microsoft Word processing

•     Microsoft Excel

•      Microsoft Power Point

The program course also included internet, unfortunately internet had not reached Nzara at that time.

The graduation ceremony took place outside the Cathedral Compound with 27 people in attendance, 17 of which, were graduates.

The graduation began with a prayer lead by Bishop Samuel Peni, and then proceeded into an open forum. This gave the graduates a chance to address two of Nzara's towns elders, Bishop Samuel Peni & the Commissioner of Nzara County, with insights from the computer training program.

The first speaker began by stating, “Learning is the key to success, without which nothing can materialize.” Then proceeded to thank Bishop Samuel Peni for sending Alison Tepe to Kampala to undergo a 6 month computer training course and bringing him back to Nzara to lead his own computer training course to help introduce and educate the people of Nzara about the use of computers.

He went on discussing the previous situation, of how those who wanted to learn basic computer skills would have to travel to Yambio daily to attend class, and how he and many others could not afford to abandon their daily duties to attend those computer classes.

 

He concluded by saying, “This computer training program has taught me a lot, I, and the others are the pioneers of this course, and our hope is that it continues and only gets better.”

When Alison got up to speak he addressed the challenges he came across while leading this course.

“When this program started there were 17 students and only 2 computers at the time, it was my hope that the number of students would increase as well as the number of computer. One of my wishes came true when the class received 2 more computers to be used for their training.

 However, being a single teacher teaching 17 students basic computer skills with only 4 computers has been very challenging as well as trying to teach some students who I don't share a common language with. My hope for the continuation of this program is that another teacher is provided or an assistant, to help the students receive the best training possible.”

Following Alison was Bishop Peni. “When I first came to this diocese I wrote a project for an outside source to provide computers for us, thankfully the ECS Church of Salisbury was nice enough to donate computers to us, on the condition that we had a qualified teacher leading the computer course. From there I sent Alsion to Kampala to undergo his training.

I would like to thank all of you for persevering through to the end of this program. As you know, you all are the first to go through this course and receive your computer training certificate in Nzara. Understand that beginnings always have challenges, and I am glad you have persevered through them, to the end, and to this moment.

Regarding the shortage of computers, we are hoping that Bob North brings with him 10 laptops for us to utilize for the benefit of this program.

Looking ahead, we are hoping to soon have internet in Nzara, and we encourage all of you to come back and receive training on how to use the internet.”

The Commissioner spoke briefly, thanking Bishop Peni for setting up this program, and congratulated the graduates on their success.

“The word of today is commitment. With commitment you go through many challenges, regardless of the difficulty level of the challenge, if you are committed you will see it through, just as you all have done.

As I look around I notice that my daughter is the only female who participated and has graduated from this computer training course. Whenever you go to a workshop or participate in a training program, I want to encourage you to bring your wives with you, and to start putting them first.

We Sudanese have started with a hard and rough background, but now we are in the right gear, keep up the good work, and congratulations on your success thus far.”

Gbamu

Gbamu: A mud-made storage structure constructed to store and preserve harvested food from previous seasons.

Bishop of Port Sudan, posing next to the Gbmau 

With the rainy season coming to a close the time for harvesting crops from one's garden was upon the people of Nzara. Youth volunteers from the Cathedral all gathered on the morning of November 16^th in anticipation of harvesting rice from Bishop Peni's garden.

Upon their return, they brought with them twelve 150 pound bags of harvested rice, and placed them in the kitchen hut, adjacent to the house.

With half the space of the kitchen hut full with bags of rice, cooking and preparing dinner became a more difficult task for the young lady's staying in the Bishops compound.

With this situation Bishop Samuel Peni had an interesting decision to pounder- whether or not to build a Gbamu.

Bishop Peni decided to have his very own Gbamu, thus the construction began.

The setting-up of the Gbamu was a fascinating scene to watch. The Gbamu is held up by four 6 foot wooden poles to prevent animals and rodents from gaining access to the structure. The assembling of the Gbamu requires 2-3 men gathering mud, mixing it with dried grass in order to form mud bricks, while 3-4 men stand on the actual structure manipulating the mud to correspond with the shape needed in order to continually build the wall up.

Though watching the construction of the Gbamu was interesting, I'd have to say participating in the putting-up of the structure was what I found the most enjoyable.

Nzara's First Secondary School

July 15, 2011 marked the opening of Nzara's first Secondary School. Not only is this school the first secondary school within the town of Nzara, but the first government-funded school in Nzara. To celebrate the success of the finalization and opening of this new school, representatives from the Ministry of Education in Juba, among them- the Minister himself, Mr. Edel Senderai,  made their way to Nzara. A meeting was held in the newly constructed school, with the Ministry of Education leaders, prominent leaders of Nzara County and the secondary students that will soon be filling the classrooms with an appetite to learn.

The meeting opened with a prayer, and was led in English. Then, the Headmaster of the Secondary School spoke, expressing his gratitude for the support and funding the Ministry of Education has provided.

The Headmaster's speech was followed by a young male secondary student, in senior four. He spoke of: the hardships of receiving a quality education without the essentials of proper academic textbooks. The worries the incoming students as they enter a school with no tables and chairs. The universal hopes of he and his peers to be taught by qualified teachers. The future hope of another secondary school across Yabua Bridge, and how currently prospective students would travel from 1 km to 9 km to attend the Nzara Secondary School, and how the further distances challenges a students motivation to attend class with the only transport of footing. And in conclusion thanking the Minister and his colleagues for their support and help thus far in building the Secondary School.

As I listen to the speeches, the echoing mention of one thing was acknowledge by all speakers, that there is a problem. The problem is money and resources.

As the Minister, Mr. Sendrai, spoke, he addressed the challenges presented in the prior speeches. In regards to challenge of tables and chairs for the new school, the Ministers defended the claim that, “It takes a village to raise a child, therefore the villagers need also to provide for their children.” He sighted, that there was no extra money to go towards tables and chairs. The Minister also apologized for the fact that they as a Ministry have not acquired sufficient funds to provides secondary level textbooks for the school.

Mr. Sendrai, The Minister of Education, addressing
the audience.

Later in the Minister's speech he came to the issue of quality teachers. Mr. Senderai revealed that there are a total of 1800 teachers, but only 400 have qualifications. He went on to say, “the remaining 1400 teachers without qualifications will be dismissed.”

Upon hearing that those teachers would be dismissed silent disagreement filled the room.

It was now time to say a final prayer for the event of Opening Day of Nzara's first Secondary School. Leading the prayer was Bishop Peni of Nzara Diocese. As he prayed, he reminisced of the past days when he was a Development Officer in the Diocese of Yambio and was a pioneer of the construction of this new schools in Western Equtoria.

Before the occasion came to a end, Bishop Peni spoke. Speaking directly to the Minister he began by saying, "You are inheriting what i helped to create."

Then addressing the issue of having qualified teachers. Bishop Peni mentioned that in times of war he asked for people to volunteer to become teachers. Teachers, though perhaps not of a particular subject, but rather in the sense of passing on knowledge. That being said, Bishop Peni advised the Minister of Education not to dismiss the voluntary teachers, but rather send the teachers without proper qualifications to a college to be trained.  And in future years to come,  the Ministry of Education will have a greater number of qualified teachers.

The conclusion of Bishop Peni's prayer was followed the Minister cutting the red ribbon, and Nzara Secondary School is now officially open.

Bishop Samuel Peni, Leading us in prayer.

Visitors From Afar

For the last two weeks of August the Zande villagers were feverishly preparing for a week of uninterrupted celebrations, that the first week of September had in store. The Youth Convention, was to be held in the first week of September brought youth from all over Nzara, and other neighboring villages to the Nzara Cathedral to participate in celebrations of greater magnitude then they have ever before experienced. These youth took part in a week long program coordinated by the Flame International Organization from England, and also a personal friend of mine from the USA, Timothy Smith. Flame International was founded by Jan Ransom, and is a Christian ministry with a passion to reach out with God's love to broken and hurting people, particularly those in the poorest countries of the world, and to see nations healed and walking in forgiveness and reconciliation.

However, for all this to happen a surplus of arduous tasks needed to be completed prior to the arrival of our guest such as, general cleaning of the land, and also five new houses needed to be build to accommodate our visitors. It was indeed a time of great anxist, but with the help of all the youth who volunteered their assistance the houses were complete and everything was only uphill from there.

Timothy Smith is a recent graduate of Yale University and is a family friend of mine whom I met many years back through my Mother's church, St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in West Des Moines IA, he arrived a few days before the Flame International group and stayed a few days longer as well. While here Timothy will have the opportunity to witness for himself life in Nzara and what that means. Inspired by everything he saw and observed Timothy was determined to contribute. Once he returned to America, Timothy would raise enough money for the medical clinic in Nzara to hire a midwife and give her a salary for three years.

The Youth Convention was a gathering of great magnitude in fellowship fore not only had villagers from far and near come to part take in this event, but never before in Nzara has there been so many foreigners come together at one time to help better life of the Zande's. And for that, the Sudanese were extraordinarily gratified.

As part of the program lead by Flame International each morning began with a teaching from the Gospel. To surpass the language barrier there was a translator to assist in the teachings. Not only was each lesson taught very well, but to insure the audience understood everything that was taught, the Flame International group also had skits that correlated with each teaching. And after each teaching each member of the Flame organization went around the room and prayed with each individual present. Looking around at the unfolding events I could see the self-defense barriers protecting the Sudanese's emotions melt away like butter and they began to open up. The Flame group had succeeded in gaining the trust of the participates and could now address bigger issues and then start the healing process. Each morning a new lesson was taught to the youth followed by a skit and prayers, and leading in to small group time. Within these groups the Flame leaders main target was have the youth share their past traumas to the group, and then each member of the group would say a prayer for the individual sharing. The aim was for the youth to open up to the group, telling them all the horrible things that has happened in their lives, so then as a group, we could help them began their own healing process.

Within the group I choose to be apart of, I realized all my group members were from foreign villages and I was not familiar with any of them. In view of the fact, that as a group we all were not very acquainted with each other, I knew it would take some time to get to the comfortability level we needed with each other to the point of sharing our saddest stories, and time was something we did not have much of, thus I shared my story. I used myself as an example to show the process our group leader, Frank outlined. I shared my story of growing up in a broken home, going through foster care and being adopted into the Cole-Duvall's family. I spoke of the hardships I endured, traumas I experienced and how I found God. With the feeling that we, as leaders, are here to help the youth, pray for them and help them on their healing process, they began to open up.

The magnitude of the stories shared were enough to make even the Tin-Man feel compassion. The horrors these young men have faced thus far in their lives seemed like more trauma than one person would ever experience in the course of their life.

After going around the circle and hearing these stories there was one common denominator, and that was past involvement with a witchdoctor. Whether it was the individual whom had the experience with the witchdoctor or one of their family members, any involvement with a witchdoctor may bring temporary contentment but also brings long-term suffering.

When we had completed our first session in small groups, we as team leaders gathered together to discuss the success of each group. One of the Flame leaders, Frank stated, “I can't imagine what these youth have gone through in their lives, I feel blessed for having the only trauma of my grandfather passing when I was young.”

Each Evening there was a sporting activity set up for the male participants of the Youth Convention as well as arts and crafts for the females. The younger male leaders of Flame Nick, Pete and frank as well as Timothy and myself taught the youth games such as, ultimate frisbee, rounders, rounders, basketball, and participating in relay races. Because ultimate frisbee was a sport I enjoyed through high school and participated in a ultimate frisbee club organized by fellow peers that met every wednesday after school, I was very interested in assisting in teaching the youth how to play this game.

With the intent of teaching these youth how to play ultimate frisbee we, as the sport leaders, knew it would be to difficult explaining the physics of throwing a frisbee, so instead we designed a more demanding method of learning basic throws of the frisbee. This method was a basic drill with two lines of men facing each other roughly 20 yards apart. The idea was for the youth to throw the frisbee to each other and if they failed to catch it or throw it properly then they would have to run a 50 yard suicide. For to early stages of learning the frisbee throws, it seems as if we had began teaching the youth of to how because they all failed to throw properly at first and consequently had to do their 50 yard suicide sprint. However, when they seemed to grasp the concept of throwing to a certain degree, we spread them wider. Because in a game of Ultimate frisbee longer throws occur frequently, and we wanted the youth to become accustom to throwing longer distances. It was very interesting to see how different participants figured out the right angels and the right amount of force, in the Zande language the moment of figuring something of importance out one will boldly say “Iowa.” To see these youth going through trial and error for being fluent in the throws, allowed me to gather that: the Sudanese are very clever people, once one takes time to observe.

One they got the youth got the hand of throwing we were able to put them into a heavily structured game of Ultimate frisbee, with sport leaders coaching the youth on what to do once they have received the frisbee from a fellow teammate. But soon they were on they own and just about playing as if frisbee is second nature to them.

Games such has basketball and grounders are a lot more complicated so teaching the participants this game was a tad challenging, but nonetheless we taught the youth and they very much appreciated it. The other option available for those whom did not want to participant in sports, which seemed to be the majority of the females, enjoyed arts and crafts lead by the remaining Flame International members, Jan, Sarah, Gariff, Charite, and Karenza. Things that were being taught within this group were of the arts. Gary left the crowd in awe as he sketched a draft of a mango tree just in the distance onto a notepad. Among having art lessons available to the participants there was also sculpting lessons happening simultaneously.

That coming Sunday was a very interesting one with the goal of spreading the message of forgiveness and salvation to as many people as possible. For this to happen we, as leaders, split up into paris of two's and traveled to different churches to spread this message. At each church the Flame International member preached these messages to the people along with a skit to ensure understanding.

Pete Douglas and I traveled to the church of Nakiri, which was only two kilometers from the Nzara Cathedral. Once there we were warmly welcomed with rings of flowers made by the people of the church. Once Pete began preaching the Word-of-God and then the skit caught everyones attention, Pete invited every member of the congregation to come up and receive prayer. With that, Pete invited me to the front of the church where he and I listened to what each person requested prayer for and prayed for more than one hundred church members individually. Praying for the people in the manner in which we did was something I had never before done and I am very glad I had the opportunity to do so. Having each person stand before me recite their problem and ask for prayer was a powerful experience I could never forget. Lines of people flowed outside the church to the outskirts of the streets. For the hours that passed of Pete and I praying for these people, the only thing we thought of was, how we could ask Jesus to help each person. That has been one of the most powerful experiences I have had while in Africa, and I am glad to have had it.

One the day the Flame International missioners departed from Zara was a sad day for the youth of The Youth Convention; but nonetheless they were more then grateful for the time Flame spent here, for not only had they taught the youth many things, they also help heal them. And that above all was the main goal of this organization and they achieved it.

Rumbek

Christian Health Association of Sudan (CHAS) is a private NGO head by Joy Mukaire, a personal friend of my family and me. The goal of this agency is to provide quality health care to all individuals. Within the organization there is a team of highly qualified doctors that visit many different cities/villages to lead workshops and educate people on health awareness.

It was my father, The Rev. Cannon Milton Cole-Duvall, who established a good relationship with Joy, before she and I had ever met. When she heard that I will be in Southern Sudan for 1 year, it was only a matter of time before we would meet. In our first encounter of each other Joy was on her way back to Juba from Nzara, and I met her at the Airport. Being the extremely hospitable person she is, within minutes of our meeting she invited me to stay with her for a couple weeks in Juba.

Once I arrived in Juba, I met the half the team of doctors in the CHAS agency, the other half was in Rumbek leading workshops on HIV aids. I quickly learned that the doctors still in the office were heading out to Juba and I was going with them. The few days I spent in Juba before going to Rumbek were filled by talking to political people, asking questions regarding the development of Southern Sudan, politically, economically and culturally.

The plane trip from Juba to Rumbek was 50 minutes and the view of the land was magnificent. Once there we settled in to our hotel, we stayed at Afex, (AfricanExpedition). This hotel was unlike anyother because Afex builds its hotels in a forrest area, each room was a very large tent with a bathroom, sink, shower and toilet in the back section of each tent. The following day workshops started, educating the community about HIV and also preparing to test villagers the next day.

Last year the health leaders of Rumbek only tested 14 people for HIV, and in their defense they stated, “The people here dont want to be tested for HIV.” On the first day of our testing more than 150 people showed up, and this was without broadcasting it. It was evident that there was in fact a desperate need from HIV testing. At first I was very apprehensive to testing villagers but came around in the following days. The next day we broadcasted over the radio that we, (CHAS) would again be testing villagers for HIV. People form all over came to be tested, and there was an estimate of over 300 people. After I worked up the courage, I was able to test more then 20 people, adults and children.

Every night in Rumbek is always celebrated. Each night the villagers gather in the Freedom Square for Traditional dancing. The dance is simple, it looks as if theres a massive mob of people jumping for joy. The objective of this dance is to find a wife, but also to find a mate for the night. In Rumbek as well as in the majority of Africa marriage is viewed as a source of income. 

With the teachings CHAS brought to this village, and the supplies given, the people of Rumbek will be able to lead their own ministry in health.

“The goal of CHAS if for everyone to have access to quality health care, and the vision of a healthy Southern Sudan in the future.

Des Moines Register

A few weeks back I was interviewed via telephone by Kristin, a newspaper reporter for the Des Moines Register. Kristin was interested in doing an article about me and my studies abroad. On August 3^rd 2011, this is what was published in the Des Moines Register.

WDM man sees a country born

A West Des Moines resident is studying and volunteering in the Sudan this summer.

George Cole-Duvall, 19, is getting a first-person view as citizens there celebrate the independence of the Republic of South Sudan. The experience also allows him to jump-start his political science studies at the University of Northern Iowa.

George is studying Arabic and teaches English to adults. He is also visiting local churches with Rt. Rev. Samuel Enosa Peni, a family friend.

"It was amazing to be in the country that on day one was enslaved and the next day free. The desire to be free is a universal feeling - no one wants to be enslaved by other people," George said by phone from South Sudan. "Though the day of freedom did not mark a difference in the quality of life, it did mark a sense of joy for a new beginning."

His parents, Rev. Canon Mary Cole-Duvall, rector of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in West Des Moines, and Rev. Canon H. Milton Cole-Duvall, assisting priest at St. Timothy's, had met Peni three years ago when Peni was a student at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Waverly.

Peni had interned with Mary, developing a position paper on how the church could be an agent for peace in war-torn Sudan. He invited George to visit him in Sudan.

Milton later attended the consecration of Peni in 2009 at All Saints Cathedral in Nzara, Sudan, and St. Timothy's parish raised more than $6,000 to purchase approximately 50 bicycles for clergy in Sudan. It didn't take long for George to decide to go to Sudan.

George graduated from Valley High School in the spring. He was accepted to the University of Northern Iowa and contemplated studying abroad.

"His mom asked if he wanted to go on to college or take a year off. His initial reaction was not to travel, then said he's interested in public service. He also talked about going to law school, and there's a foreign service school at Georgetown," Milton said.

"He pondered what to do and asked about President Obama performing public service. Then George talked to a woman at Northern Iowa and asked her if she had the option of going to college or going overseas when a new country came into existence, what would she do.

"She said you could go to college at any time, but you couldn't be in many countries like that. Then we talked to another woman about studying abroad who referred us to two professors who carved an hour out of their full schedules to talk with George and make it possible."

After finishing high school a month early, George traveled to New York to perform with his high school jazz orchestra at Lincoln Center, then hopped on a plane and headed to Uganda and on to Sudan.

"He had never flown by himself, let alone overseas, and there was a terrorist scare on the airplane, which fortunately turned out not to be true," Milton said. "He traveled 20 hours to Uganda, spent five days there and then headed to the Sudan."

George presented Peni with $3,535 he received as high school graduation gifts that would help pay the preschool tuition of 101 local children.

He also donated more than $1,000 he had received for his birthday last August for their tuition.

After making friends there, he decided to ask his parents to skip purchasing his birthday gifts this year - he shares an August birthday with President Obama - and instead pay for the two friends' bus transportation to seminary in Kenya.

"He said, 'Dad, I don't need anything for my birthday. There are kids eating beans and rice. There's a hole in the ground that's the toilet. I don't need anything," Milton related. George Cole-Duvall also told his father that his two best friends had both received scholarships to go to seminary school in Kenya, but they had no money for transportation. His father and mother gave the two friends the $500 they needed. "George said it was the best birthday present ever," added his father. George spends his days enhancing his speaking of the Zandi tribal language, studying Arabic and teaching English. Peni has commissioned him as The Diocese of Nzara Youth Missionary. He teaches keyboard and trumpet to others and is teaching himself the guitar.

For his coursework, George has interviewed newly elected and appointed government leaders for The Western Equatorial State and the Republic of South Sudan. He marched with tens of thousands of locals and played his trumpet in the celebration July 9 when the Republic of South Sudan became its own country.

George will be oversees through May 2012. He will travel to Rwanda and explore the 1990s genocide there, which might open the door to an internship at the United Nations Genocide Investigative Unit in which he's interested.

"I hope to become more aware of our worldwide community and take that knowledge and share it with the people of the U.S. Only when people meet and know each other do they then realize the universality of humanity that binds us all together," he said.