About five months ago TRP bought a large stack of beautiful mahoganyboards. The wood is surprisingly easy to access as it is grown here in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan.
As we began to plane back the boards in preparation for building a new bouldering wall we were met with a surprise: multiple bullets imbedded in the wood!
While we don’t know the origins of these bullets, they are a sobering reminder of the many years of violent conflict which touched almost everyone in this region.
Just outside the UN in New York is a statue of a man with a hammer. The figure depicts the words from Isaiah 2: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks”. It is an image of the transformation of the tools of war into tools designed to give life.
TRP now has its own version. The bullet-scarred wood we bought will now be part of an activity designed to help people rediscover life! It is a powerful and tangible visual that captures so much of what TRP is on about.
Recently TRP held the grand opening of the wall. As many people had a great time testing out their skills and attempting various routes we also discussed the many ways which TRP can incorporate bouldering into our various programs.
A huge thanks to the team from Celebration Community Church in Denver for both fundraising and coming out to help build the bouldering wall! It will be a real asset in our work and visible reminder of why it matters so much.