Soroti , Uganda . 2014

I never knew Joseph Kony’s insurgency came this far south and this far east. My young, bright-faced staff member speaks matter-of-factly about his middle school shutting down back when only the town center was safe at night. He indulges my strange desire to go “deep” in the village to a three-room school surrounded by nothing but orange and mango trees. The ten-story tall glacial boulder that marks Soroti town disappears from the skyline and we enter the buzzing Educate! classroom of 40 hopeful young students. I sigh with relief that even in the farthest, most rural school in our network, everything in our class is as it should be.