The sweet of the bitter-sweet

At last we have returned to Gulu – in the middle of an extremely dusty dry season. We have reached the ‘sweet’ part of the bitter-sweet goodbyes, when you get to greet the people on the other side. And what a beautiful welcome we have experienced these past couple of days: hand-written welcome signs above our new home; an impromptu dance/leaping embrace from Daniel’s old colleague; a boy in town selling peanuts who remembered us and welcomed Daniel back; old friends/neighbours who recognise our clothes and come over or our sandals at a door and know we have returned; talking for hours when reuniting with our awesome Kiwi mates; comments about how we have ‘grown fat’ and certainly been looked after by our family… but the highlight of all would have to be little Daniel Emmanuel. Daniel was born today at Lacor Hospital – he is the son of a dear teaching colleague of Jody’s from Layibi Techo. He was named after Dan and both mum and bub are doing great. Thanks Gulu – it’s great to be back!