June 8, 2007 -- Jennifer spent her second day back in Uganda visiting with her mother, sister, cousin and friends in Gulu. She still seems ecstatic and they still are treating her as though she is a movie star -- with the exception of her 2-year-old sister Sharon. Sharon was only six months when Jennifer left Uganda to spent 15 months in Philadelphia and metro Washington DC to undergo surgery for her face and hand. Sharon obviously didn't remember Jennifer when they saw again yesterday. Jennifer was very patient in slowly getting Sharon to let her hold her. Now, Sharon will walk around holding hands with Jennifer or letting her big sister pick her up. Still, as Jennifer said, "she's acting funny."
Jennifer, Michael and I met with Sister Pauline, who works with the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services humanitarian organization. We had Cokes on the patio at the restaurant of our hotel, the Roma. I had two purposes in meeting with Sister Pauline and bringing Jennifer along. CRS has an interesting program to train northern Ugandans to be paralegals in the displaced persons camps. As the region becomes stable and people are returning home, issues such as property rights are beginning to emerge. I'd like to learn about that. Also, I have asked Sister Pauline for her help if Jennifer has readjustment problems. Sister Pauline wasted no time acting: When we met, she said she already had arranged for Jennifer to have a counseling appointment on Monday. To my enormous surprise, Jennifer agreed to see a counselor.
I actually spent more time yesterday with Regina, Jennifer's mom, than with Jennifer. Some U.S. families who got to know Jennifer want to help support her family, so I am making arrangements to open a savings account in Regina's name. We got Regina's photos taken at a local studio so we can have an identity card made -- part of the requirements for opening an account. There were some interesting challenges in these preparation, but I'll get into those when I return to the United States and write a fuller story on Jennifer's return for the paper.
