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Mackenzie Brown's Story

When we last wrote about Mackenzie Brown, a 2009 graduate, she was headed to Uganda to teach at BULA (Better Understanding of Life in Africa) Children’s Home. Her hometown television station in West Virginia had done a story about her upcoming adventure. That was last July.

Mackenzie arrived in Uganda in August and found the school and her work there just as rewarding as she thought it would be. One her blog entries from mid-August reads: “The children are very sweet, and I have been welcomed so warmly!! They have trouble pronouncing my name, so I have become Sister Brown instead.” Her blog has lot of photos and some videos of the children and her work.

But her story took a very scary turn in September when she was caught in a crossfire ā€” literally ā€” between rival Ugandan factions. Because of the dangers, Mackenzie has returned to the States, but she posted an incredibly poignant, and frightening, description of the events of September 10 to her blog. You can read them here.

But the last paragraph of her post is particularly eloquent:

“I don’t want people to fear Uganda, and that’s why I haven’t written this sooner. It’s not a bad place, and it has some amazing people (like Henry). Right now, though, the tension has not been completely resolved, and I feel better staying in the US. I miss my students and my friends, and part of my feels guilty about being able to leave. Most of the people I know there don’t have that option. That night, I couldn’t stop thinking that these people shouldn’t have to live like this. It’s not right, and I wish I knew how to fix it. I have never been so scared in my entire life. I am safe now, but my friends are not, and it kills me each day.”

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