{"id":2134,"date":"2013-11-01T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2134"},"modified":"2022-04-20T10:20:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T02:20:53","slug":"91-on-pilgrimage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2134","title":{"rendered":"91. On Pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home<\/span>. [<\/span>Luke 10:38<\/span>]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

[L] Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, by Johannes Vermeer, 1655. [M]\u00a0At the debrief on the eve of our departure<\/a>. [R]\u00a0Bethany House, Entebbe<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

From July 21 through August 1, 2013 we were privileged to make a second trip to Africa on \u201ca pilgrimage of pain and hope\u201d, led by Fr Emmanuel Katongole, a Ugandan priest who is a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our reflections on the first trip are spread over five articles and are posted on this same website, beginning on 16 September 2010 with post No. 16 titled \u201cA Pilgrimage with a Difference!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This time round, our main objective was Rwanda where we hoped to learn from the massive deposit of wisdom the people have accumulated since the genocide started in 1994. But there were a few things we needed to do in Uganda and a few places to visit including the Saint Maria Goretti Girls Training Centre, a report on which will appear in the next post on November 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

For this first post, we offer a quick glimpse of this second trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. From the Physical Journey to the Interior Journey<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We realized very early on in the trip that this indeed was going to be a \u201cpain and hope\u201d journey. At the Entebbe Airport, we were greeted by Fr Emmanuel and team and brought at once to the coach. Our \u201cpain\u201d began there and then when we realized that it was the same old diocesan coach we used three years ago, except that it was now three years older and having logged many more miles in the mean time. So it was easy to sense the \u201cpain\u201d segment of the journey real early while the \u201chope\u201d part remained a promise. And then, lo and behold, even the air-conditioning system in the coach failed. The \u201chope\u201d segment was getting increasingly more difficult to imagine. And yet, in no time, we encountered something which money literally could not buy. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we all adjusted to the situation.\u00a0The human ability to adapt is such a wonderful gift. Looking back, we were amazed at how well and how readily we adjusted to what we would consider to be some material deficit, and became spiritually grateful for the comparative \u201cexcess\u201d that we normally have.<\/span><\/p>\n