Property Grabbing

Dear friends and family,

I was recently perusing the IJM website, and they've posted a new article on IJM Uganda.The article summarizes the findings of a survey our office did this year, on the prevalence of property grabbing in the area where we work.

Property grabbing victimizes the most vulnerable of Ugandan society--widows and orphans--whose land and property are stolen from them (usually by perpetrators related to them) after the death of their husband or father. This crime can include physical attacks, violent threats, and leave a widow or child destitute and hungry.

What I like about working for IJM is that IJM exists to bring hope to victims of violent oppression and injustice. IJM works with the local government to ensure that Ugandan laws are upheld and aid those for whom the laws were established--the poor and vulnerable.

I hope the article on our survey sheds a little more light on why IJM exists in Uganda and to what I have been contributing my administrative skills for the past nine months.

Nine months. I can't believe I've been here that long. I have just under four more to go, and know it will fly by. It will be so hard to leave this place which I now call home. It's too bad Uganda is so far away from California--I'd visit often if I could, but a flight to Africa is terribly expensive and too long to randomly join my colleagues for morning prayer or a lunch of matooke, beans and beef.

Life has been pretty low key as of late. I'm currently house-sitting for a week which makes for a nice little vacation while still in Kampala. The house comes with a pool, TV, access to four seasons of Grey's Anatomy, and a very comfortable bed. What more could I want? Besides work I've been hanging with some new friends and trying to make headway through my current bookclub assignment--Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov--which is painfully long. It's also challenging to read it when I've picked up Jeffrey Eugedides' novel Middlesex instead. Book club is in 10 days. I'm about 40 pages into Brothers. Thank goodness for Sparknotes.com.

I want to thank those of you who have been praying for me. As most of you know, I suffer from anxiety attacks, and went on medication to combat my anxiety in early July. At my counseling appointment last Thursday, my counselor and I decided that because I haven't had any panic attacks since going on the medication, I am going to start going off it! Thank you so much for your prayers--I am so relieved not to suffer those paralyzing attacks any longer. I know that they could come back as I go off the medication or next year when I transition back to the States, but I don't fear the next step of going off the meds. And I would appreciate further prayers that the tools I've developed for handling my anxiety would continue to keep me "attack free." Thank you! I've been truly blessed by your prayers and am eternally grateful for you!

Hopefully some new adventures will pop up soon so I can fill you in on more exciting aspects of my life. Until then, lots of love to you all!

Love,

Meg

P.S. I watched a chicken cross the road in front of my boda-boda on my way to work this morning. I don't think that will ever cease to amuse me.