Out and About - Part ll

After a record five day stretch without any power, the latter part of the week has been spent getting to know Gulu better. Friday was my day off, so I arranged for one of the Boda drivers to take us on a tour of local NGOS. Tony has been working to create relationships with many of the local NGOS because he is keen to show as many people as he can about all of the positive work being done here. Rather than taking us to see the standard tourist destinations, Tony took Hannah (my favorite Irish volunteer) and I off the tourist map and into Kirombe for an authentic taste of village life. We wound our way along some 'interesting' 'roads'...(think mud slip-and-slide meets roller coaster, meets goat track), piled 3-up on a Boda. The word "Mummy!" may have been uttered a few times by the pillions on the back, but it was also interspersed with lots of laughter and "oohs" and "ahhs" as we passed some really pretty scenery and stopped to hang out with the locals.

Our first NGO visit was at Invisible Children.(www.invisiblechildren.com). I'm sure the website can explain their operation better than I can, but basically this NGO was established by a bunch of people who went to south Sudan to make a documentary, but ended up noticing a huge body of children commuting into town and sleeping in bus parks each night, to avoid being abducted by the LRA. Now they have a comprehensive and very effective operation going, which outreaches into areas where the LRA are located and provides ways for child soldiers to defect and return to their families. They make use of radio to broadcast messages from families to soldiers on the ground. Radio is also used as an alert system from village to village, to warn that the LRA is nearby. Invisible Children also conducts air drops of thousands of flyers in LRA areas. The flyers are picked up by soldiers wishing to defect...they show them where and how and also contain information that helps to counter the indoctrination and psychological torment dished out by the LRA.

Once soldiers have defected there is a comprehensive rehabilitation programme in place to help them re-enter their communities successfully. Women abducted as soldier's wives, and their children, are also helped by this programme. Invisible Children offers scholarships, schools supporting schools, teacher exchange and training, village savings and loan schemes, water, sanitation and hygiene projects, literacy support and vocational projects, like 'Mend', to assist with the rehabilitation process. Amazing, targeted & relevant and effective work being done by these folk. After Invisible Children, we visited Remnant, Crochet Kids, 31 Bits and Mend, all of which were set up in quiet little compounds in the back blocks of Kirombe village.

Remnant is an organization that has imported screen printing equipment and designs a line of fashion items which are sold overseas. They specifically look after Congalese women who were dumped by LRA soldiers in Uganda during the conflicts. These women are more vulnerable because they have no family here, are women in a male dominated, poverty stricken, postwar society and...they don't speak the local language! In addition to providing them with work, Remnant also has a comprehensive rehabilitation programme to take care of the womens' physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing (along with their children). A few accidental purchases were made here - to support the cause, of course.

Crochet Kids is a similar operation, kick-started by a group of Christian college guys who used to crochet beanies for their friends. It is now a 150 women strong team of crocheting ladies - many of whom have babies sitting nearby - and a team who manage the production line in a small building within the compound. They continue to expand on a line of different fashion items like hats, beanies, headbands, purses etc that are marketed overseas. Each item bears the name of the woman who made it and their stories can be found online. A happy bunch of ladies who are desperately in need of an in-house childcare facility! 31 Bits is, again, similar and based on Psalm 31. They make beautiful paper beads from locally sourced, recycled paper and turn them into beautiful jewelery and embroidery items for the overseas market. Mend do similar with high end, designer purses which bear the name and story of their makers. All fantastic organisation's which are providing women with freedom in every aspect of their lives.

We finished off our tour by taking Tony out for lunch. We figured we owed him that, given that we took way longer than any of his previous clients, on account of the fact that we yakked with anyone and everyone we encountered! Lunch with Tony took a somewhat sombre turn, however, when we started asking him questions about his personal life. As it turns out, Tony was raised in a polygamist family. His father had numerous wives and he was one of 27 children. It was amazing and disturbing to learn about the reality of these families...the conflict and struggles that go on - wives and their extended families fighting each other for position, scheming to get their children ahead; children losing hope and committing suicide by insecticide, because Daddy chose to buy a younger son a bicycle, rather than an older son shoes so he was allowed to attend school. And then the struggle of these children on all levels to make their way as adults. Tony is still beset by struggles on every side. It is amazing to me that he still chooses to be honest, honorable and good, when it would be so much easier to take a different path. Throughout the tour, Tony's good standing within the whole community was plainly evident. A humble guy who makes every effort to develop relationships with others and find ways to promote their causes, rather than his own. Very humbling and tragic because I am certain his story is one among thousands here.

So that was Friday...my day off. Yesterday, after working a morning shift, we took another tour to Fort Patiko, situated some 45 minutes drive out of central Gulu. Another great drive through small trading posts and settlements, along rough roads, to arrive at the remnants of an old Arab slave-trading post and Samuel Baker's fort. What an amazing place, consisting of some mighty slabs of flat rock, piles of giant rocks which had caves underneath, and brick fortifications. The basic story of this place, (from what I could gather from Salvatore - the colorful tour guide at the fort), is that Arabs abducted thousands of Africans, brought them to this holding and sorting facility, killed off the old and weak ones and made the rest march back and forth with supplies, between Africa and Egypt and beyond! They also sold them off as slaves in various places. We were shown the various trenches, courtyards, jails, sleeping quarters and execution spots. The axe marks are still visible in the rock, to show where prisoners were beheaded. Samuel Baker was instrumental in putting a stop to it all, from what I can ascertain.

Aside from this macabre history, I couldn't help imagining the other history of the place which remained untold...This giant outcrop of rock, with its caves and flat sections, rising out of the prairies, could easily have been frequented by much earlier civilisations. The views and scenery were astounding - another taste of pure Africa - and it was my very first encounter with the 'sausage tree' a rather comical looking specimen, which had sausage like appendages hanging on strings from every branch...who knew? We retreated from our rock hopping and I had just enough time to hang out with some local children and make it back to the land rover before the violently dark, purple sky let forth it's issue. Perfect timing for us...not so much for the bus load of university students we left in our wake.

My time here is rapidly drawing to a close. I am conscious that I will be leaving Gulu in just over a week, Uganda in just over another week and Africa a mere week after that! Still wrapping my head around all of that, but in the meantime, it's back to work.