By Leo P. Divinagracia

Leo P. Divinagracia is a former Mill Hill Missionary seminarian. Here he shares his mission experience in Karamoja, Uganda, a very dry place where sometimes there is no rain for almost the entire year. At Present he is an AMA Volunteer (Associate Missionaries of the Assumption) assigned in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte as a CLE teacher in St. Vincent’s Academy. His students were both Christians and Muslims. A parish run by the Columban Missionaries for a number of years.

After two years of theological studies in Tangaza College, Nairobi, Kenya, I came home for a two-month break. When I was in Kenya, there were times I felt like going home. But when I arrived home, I felt like going back to Africa right away.

After my holiday, I started another journey. This time I had to leave the classroom for a real mission. I was assigned to Uganda, where I spent two years on mission experience with the Karamojong tribe, a group divided into five major sub-tribes. Each tribe has a different way of life. I was assigned to the Jie people, who are semi-nomadic and pastoralist. Their cows, goats, sheep and donkeys are their property, their treasure. They would offer their very lives for their animals.