Tres

June 13, 2007

Well I have now been in Gulu town, Gulu district for a week. Gulu is the largest town in the Northern Region and one of the largest in Uganda. But that doesn’t mean it very large. By US standards it is actually pretty small. Overall there are probably about 100,000 people but that includes refugees at a local camp and the seasonal population of aid workers. There are a bunch of muzungus here. (Muzungu of course meaning white person.) Im sure that a many of you recognize this but for those that have never lived in a place where you are a definite minority, it’s a funny phenomenon that happens right around the time that you start to feel comfortable. You start noticing all the other white people around and thinking how weird they look being in this location. And though you are happy that you aren’t the only non-African person around because that can be really overwhelming, you are also a little annoyed that other foreigners are around because inevitable there very non-Africanness is somehow an affront to you and makes you think that they look very silly being here. And you forget that you yourself look just as silly. Anyway I have noticed this to be true and have verified these impressions with other travelers so I assume that they are universal.

Anyway, as for Gulu, it was the most northern city in the North during the civil war that enjoyed even marginal safety due to the military base. So there are a lot of people that migrated here because their own homes were so unsafe and also a lot of aid workers that moved to meet the humanitarian demands of the larger population. So like I said, a lot of muzungus. I am actually not staying in Gulu town proper, but in a smaller village called Lacor about ten minutes away by car. I think that I said something about that last time. Well it turns out that were we are staying is very nice and cheap. We both have bathrooms with real toilets and showers in our rooms and are paying less than 15 a night. That might not seem so exciting, but it’s actually pretty great . Of course the power is out more often that it is on, so no hot showers and no outside entertainment but really, you get used to that pretty fast. Actually the power has been out pretty constantly since Saturday. The UNFPA office has a generator that barely powers the building so we can charge up our computers and Ipods before we leave (in fact I am writing this from the office now and will put it online when I get back home where there isn’t power but there is wireless internet). But once the battery dies (which takes about 15 minutes max), there really isn’t too much to do.
The people that I am staying with are amazing. First, there is a guy who just graduated from Seattle U (yay Seattle!) in December and moved here to volunteer with the Jesuits to build a school. He is originally from Costa Rica and whenever he actually talks to us (which isn’t very often), he’s has some pretty interesting things to say about being a visitor to the States. And then there is the father who lives there, Father Felix. He is hands down one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. Currently, the rebels and the government are in peace talks. Therefore, the rebels are in camps in Sudan and the DRC where they have very little freedom to leave and little access to basic services. To keep the rebels from attacking local villages and pillaging, Father Felix makes weekly trips to their camps and brings them food, basic health supplies, and psycho social counseling. Most of the fighters are abducted child soldiers who require extensive counseling and aid. There is no real guarantee that he will return safely, but he still goes each time, working to reconstruct and ensure peace. Yeah. Amazing. I am constantly in awe of him. Next weekend he is going up to Sudan to take part in the peace talks and try to help broker a final end to the war. And then he will come back next week and continue offering counseling to returned children and displaced families. Sister Margaret also lives at the center and does much of the same work. She is a trained psychologist and counselor and works extensively with children and women who have been abducted, raped, and abandoned, as well as returning child soldiers. But despite all of this incredible difficult and emotionally draining work (or maybe because of it) she is one of the happiest, kindest, and cheerful people that I have met. She is always laughing and offering aid and joking around. And there are so many other people that I have met that amaze me too. No one here is untouched by this war. Everyone has a story of violence or death or deprivation. But there is so much hope. You can see it in the rapid rebuilding of the houses and the towns and of the gradual desertion of the IDP camps. It’s terrible to see what people are capable of doing to each other, especially what we are capable of visiting upon children, but it is amazing to see how it is possible to forgive and move on. If anyone wants to get a better idea of what went on here, read “Aboke Girls”. I just started it and even though it makes me cry, it’s a very powerful retelling of the recent history here.

I have much more to say about the camps and the poverty here as a result of the war but I think maybe I have just gotten depressing enough. So instead I will talk about what I actually do.

For the most part, we have been in the office. Everyday we come in, get really frustrated at our inability to do anything and rework our research projects to reflect this. Then we think that we have everything figured out and go home to our powerless rooms. But then we talk about what we changed and how maybe this or that is still infeasible or was better before or doesn’t make sense and we go back to the office again the next day and start all over. Except for yesterday… I went to district meeting of all the UN agencies in the area and met people from UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, WHO, CARE, and several other international humanitarian agencies. The meeting itself was very ceremonial and took twice as long as it would have in the States, but overall it was interesting to learn about the coordination of emergency efforts and the work that has been to improve the quality of life in the area. It was in Amuru town which existed of exactly two building, a giant UNICEF tent and ten or twelve bandhas, which are mud huts with thatch roofs. It was literally in the middle of nowhere. I took pictures of the landscape. It’s beautiful but there are no signs of people other than a road and some chickens. On the way back I saw a wicked snake. It was at least four feet long but I suspect even longer. I am not sure if it was a black mamba or a cobra. I felt stupid asking because I was so excited at seeing it to begin with and made a huge deal out of it. It was HUGE. Thank god I was in the car. If I wasn’t, I am sure that it wouldn’t have been nearly as cool.

Our research is coming along. Actually the past two days have been pretty beneficial. We hired our first research assistant and are keeping him occupied doing all the useless training that we had to do to come here and he now has to complete so we can use the data that he helps us collect. Yesterday, we got permission from the district health official to actually conduct work so probably not next week but the week after, we will actually start data collection. I think that that will give us about two or three weeks of actually getting information, out of nine weeks being here. Just about what we expected.

Well with that heartening thought, I think that I had better continue with work. Funny how I never feel like I really have that much to say but once I start writing, it seems I have quite a bit. And I didn’t even get started on the naked cannibal witch doctor I saw the other day!!! (There isn’t really much more than that to say. It was just a naked guy with some jewelry around his head. Lacey said he might be a cannibal because the witch doctors sometimes are but who knows. We didn’t get out of the car to check)

Love you all
Linnea