Yesterday evening was pretty crazy. I was playing pool with Jeff and Ceaser at a bar called Havana in Gulu, when a guy in an army uniform grabbed Jeff and dragged him outside. I ran out to see what was happening and Jeff was sat on a plastic chair in the seat, surrounded by 6 guys in army and police uniforms, all pointing AK-47s at him. I asked what was happening and a guy dressed in civilian clothes (who later turned out to be Jeff’s brother) said “you are guilty too” and a solider pointed his gun at me. I put my hands up in the air and said “I was only asking, only asking”. The soldiers/police then grabbed Jeff in a headlock and dragged him off up the street towards the police station.
Caesar and I went back inside for a moment or two, if only to avoid being shot or arrested ourselves. We then went to the police station to see what was happening. The police informed us that Jeff’s brother (Moses) had alleged that Jeff had stolen 2.6million Shillings from their joint account by forging Moses’ signature. I asked if the police had any evidence or if it was just one word against the other to which I was told “shut up or we arrest you too. You are guilty with him”. Ceaser called his friend (Solomon) who is a final year Law student at the university in Gulu and he came down to see what was going on. Solomon told them that they had to grant Jeff bail as they had no evidence against him. One of the officers shouted at Solomon “you are obstructing justice”, to which I (somewhat foolishly) scoffed “this is justice?”. The bolshy officer did not take well to this and pointed his gun at me again and shouted “leave”, but his superior told him to sit down and be calm. They refused to grant Jeff bail and he remained in the cell for the night and we left as the police were clearly in no mood for discussion. I eventually got home at 2am.
I had to wake up at 7am to walk 4km for a meeting at a centre for former-combatants in a village called Kasubi (needless to say a 4km trek in smart clothes on only 5 hours sleep is not a great start to the day). The person I was supposed to meet at the centre turned up 1 hour and 15 minutes late and said “so perhaps we can meet on Monday, I am very busy today”. I was a little pissed off, but he said I could watch some of the lessons that they teach at the centre if I wanted. I figured I had walked far enough, I may as well not completely have wasted my journey. It was explained to me that the centre takes former-rebels and abducted women (known rather misleadingly as ‘bush wives’ – in fact they were forced to marry rebels and kept as sex slaves) and teaches them business, life skills and gives them counselling for 1 ½ years, and then after successful completion of this period, they are given some money with which to set up a business based on what they have learnt. I sat in on a music class, where about 40 former-rebels and bush wives were being taught a song about forgiveness and reconciliation. The children of many of the young women were running around at the back of the classroom amusing themselves. The people were fantastic singers and the song was very powerful, even with my understanding only a few words (forgiveness, happy village, better, thank you and praise).
It was a very surreal experience to be sat in a room surrounded by people who had been abducted and abducted people themselves, been raped and raped people themselves, mutilated and murdered innocent people, yet to be hearing a beautiful song and for them to be laughing and smiling as they sang with each other. Being surrounded by them and speaking to a few, it was not possible to ever imagine them in army fatigues with weapons in their hands doing the sort of things I have read and heard about. It was great to see them enjoying themselves so much. I am going back on Monday to speak with some of them about their experiences whilst they were in the bush.
After this, I went to the police station to see what was going on with Jeff. He absolutely reeked when he came out of the cell, as it turns out four people were locked in a tiny space just about big enough to lie down in, without a toilet. I spoke with his brother who had calmed down somewhat and apologised for accusing me the night before. It turns out Jeff is actually a bit of a dodgy geezer, and he had in fact stolen the money, which had been paying for his lavish lifestyle for the last few weeks. I was surprised as Jeff had in fact borrowed money from me and paid me back the next day, often paid for meals we had and generally never gave any indication he wanted anything other than to be a friend to me. I guess if he had nearly 3 million Shillings in his pocket then he really had no need to rob me! Still, a bit disappointing as I enjoyed his company but c’est la vie.
The police told me that if he pays back the 2.6 million he won’t go to prison and will be set free, but if he can’t pay it back he will go to prison for around 6 years. I’m fairly certain he doesn’t have 2.6 million just lying around, so I’m guessing the next ‘hotel’ he stays in will be courtesy of the Government of Uganda.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Jackie Chan, Racial Slurs and Malaria? T. I. A.!
On Friday we (Jeff, Ceaser, Grace, Concey, Oyet Pato, Janet and I) hit Gulu’s various night spots to celebrate Jeff’s 24th birthday. It was a pretty heavy night that kept us all out until 4am (and in bed until 4pm the next day – Worst Hangover Ever!). I have been amazed by Gulu’s nightlife; it is possible to find a bar/club playing music, full of people drinking and dancing until 3am, every night of the week. Part of me thinks it may be something to do with the fact that being able to move freely at night is still a relative novelty, after years of LRA raids rendered periods of darkness as times of fear and necessitated hiding until daylight came again. Either that or people in Gulu just loved to get fucked up and part-ay!
On Sunday I went (with Jeff) to visit the family in For God for dinner. They had a lot of family friends there, including the mother of the family’s brother and his two children. One of his girls was incredibly sick with malaria and could barely be woken from her sleep. She was absolutely boiling hot from the fever and was dripping with sweat. You could even feel her freakishly high temperature in her feet. I had a couple of strips of anti-malarials with me so I gave them to the father. I’m not sure what good the limited dose I gave them would do, but hopefully it will help, as she was so sick that doing nothing didn’t really seem an option.
For dinner we had spaghetti, a bitter green vegetable (I forget the name), rice and some beef stew. It was all very good, and they bought me an endless supply of sodas as well. They wheeled in the TV that usually sits in the communal area of the village and put on a copied Jackie Chan DVD they had for me. It was badly dubbed as it was, but then there were further subtitles too, which bore absolutely no relation to what the bad dubbing was saying! I have no idea what the film was called, but it also starred Lee Evans, to which everybody in the room took great delight in pointing out how I looked just like him. I pointed out that they only said that because he was a Mzungu (a white person) like me, hoping to induce some sort of culturally sensitive; “yes you are right, what a terrible racial slur we have just made. Terribly sorry my good man”, but instead being greeted with a broad grin and the statement, “yes, all you Mzungu look the same to us”.
On Monday I fell sick all of a sudden with a temperature, blinding headache and dizziness. The guy I was with at the time was suffering from a bout of malaria, and so to were other people I had spent time with recently, so I was a little concerned I had the same. I tried to go to sleep at 8pm, but I couldn’t sleep until about 4am because every time I closed my eyes the headache intensified. The people at the hotel I am staying took me to the hospital in the morning, where I was tested for Malaria. Fortunately it came back negative, but they said “I have a bacterial infection, most likely flu”. I always thought Flu was a virus, not a bacteria, but I know shit all about medical issues so I’m probably wrong!
The hospital gave me a bag of tablets, with no markings on them, no indication of what they were, when they went out of date or even how I should take them. I took them and spent the next two days asleep basically; only awoken by Jeff’s frequent visits to check I was ok. If I hadn’t have insisted otherwise I’m pretty sure he would have kept a permanent beside vigil for me! He even cancelled his return back to Jinja where he had meetings scheduled as he was so concerned for me! It all felt rather unnecessary but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I woke up this morning however feeling perfectly fine, and have thus far spent the day trying to catch up with all the work I haven’t been doing this week! I had two meetings today with the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative who have been fairly instrumental in the peace process between the LRA & the Government. Tomorrow I have a further meeting with an organisation called Terra Renaissance at 8am (who schedules meetings for 8am, honestly!), and I also have two meetings on Monday, one with a Captain in the Ugandan Army. I feel I may have to alter my questions and tread somewhat carefully for this one!
In a further incidence of multicultural mishap (Greg Smith, 2009: Center Parcs!), I was playing pool earlier today in a small town about 7km out of Gulu called Lacor (pronounced La-Chow), when three people came in and started watching us. They were speaking animatedly in Acholi and laughing a lot, so I asked Jeff what they were saying. He smiled a mischievous grin and informed me that “they are trying to decide if you are Chinese or not”. I looked puzzled. He then added “they say you are very white, but you have small squint eyes like China people. They are confused”. He then joined in their conversation briefly. I asked what he had said to them to which he replied “I told them you are Chinese like Jackie Chan”. Brilliant…! Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Gulu: A haven of racial tolerance!
Finally, today I went to use the internet and the guy who runs the place said the power had gone. I asked how long he thought it would be gone for, to which he raised his hands to the sky, shrugged and said “T.I.A. This is Africa”. I was rather excited by this, as previously I had heard no one other than Danny Archer (played by the mighty Leonardo Di Retardo) from Blood Diamond say this; except of course for Antony (Danny #2), Jon (Danny #3) and I (Danny #1), who said it constantly throughout our time together in our amazing (read also as: shitty!) South African/Rhodesian accents! I realise this is of no great consequence to anyone other than me, and perhaps Antony and Jon, but I enjoyed it greatly, and thought I should share!
Oh, I have also been offered a piece of land in Gulu by a friend. It will be interesting to see what materialises of this offer! I’m told its prime real estate though, right next to the university. Needless to say, I’m fairly sceptical!
On Sunday I went (with Jeff) to visit the family in For God for dinner. They had a lot of family friends there, including the mother of the family’s brother and his two children. One of his girls was incredibly sick with malaria and could barely be woken from her sleep. She was absolutely boiling hot from the fever and was dripping with sweat. You could even feel her freakishly high temperature in her feet. I had a couple of strips of anti-malarials with me so I gave them to the father. I’m not sure what good the limited dose I gave them would do, but hopefully it will help, as she was so sick that doing nothing didn’t really seem an option.
For dinner we had spaghetti, a bitter green vegetable (I forget the name), rice and some beef stew. It was all very good, and they bought me an endless supply of sodas as well. They wheeled in the TV that usually sits in the communal area of the village and put on a copied Jackie Chan DVD they had for me. It was badly dubbed as it was, but then there were further subtitles too, which bore absolutely no relation to what the bad dubbing was saying! I have no idea what the film was called, but it also starred Lee Evans, to which everybody in the room took great delight in pointing out how I looked just like him. I pointed out that they only said that because he was a Mzungu (a white person) like me, hoping to induce some sort of culturally sensitive; “yes you are right, what a terrible racial slur we have just made. Terribly sorry my good man”, but instead being greeted with a broad grin and the statement, “yes, all you Mzungu look the same to us”.
On Monday I fell sick all of a sudden with a temperature, blinding headache and dizziness. The guy I was with at the time was suffering from a bout of malaria, and so to were other people I had spent time with recently, so I was a little concerned I had the same. I tried to go to sleep at 8pm, but I couldn’t sleep until about 4am because every time I closed my eyes the headache intensified. The people at the hotel I am staying took me to the hospital in the morning, where I was tested for Malaria. Fortunately it came back negative, but they said “I have a bacterial infection, most likely flu”. I always thought Flu was a virus, not a bacteria, but I know shit all about medical issues so I’m probably wrong!
The hospital gave me a bag of tablets, with no markings on them, no indication of what they were, when they went out of date or even how I should take them. I took them and spent the next two days asleep basically; only awoken by Jeff’s frequent visits to check I was ok. If I hadn’t have insisted otherwise I’m pretty sure he would have kept a permanent beside vigil for me! He even cancelled his return back to Jinja where he had meetings scheduled as he was so concerned for me! It all felt rather unnecessary but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I woke up this morning however feeling perfectly fine, and have thus far spent the day trying to catch up with all the work I haven’t been doing this week! I had two meetings today with the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative who have been fairly instrumental in the peace process between the LRA & the Government. Tomorrow I have a further meeting with an organisation called Terra Renaissance at 8am (who schedules meetings for 8am, honestly!), and I also have two meetings on Monday, one with a Captain in the Ugandan Army. I feel I may have to alter my questions and tread somewhat carefully for this one!
In a further incidence of multicultural mishap (Greg Smith, 2009: Center Parcs!), I was playing pool earlier today in a small town about 7km out of Gulu called Lacor (pronounced La-Chow), when three people came in and started watching us. They were speaking animatedly in Acholi and laughing a lot, so I asked Jeff what they were saying. He smiled a mischievous grin and informed me that “they are trying to decide if you are Chinese or not”. I looked puzzled. He then added “they say you are very white, but you have small squint eyes like China people. They are confused”. He then joined in their conversation briefly. I asked what he had said to them to which he replied “I told them you are Chinese like Jackie Chan”. Brilliant…! Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Gulu: A haven of racial tolerance!
Finally, today I went to use the internet and the guy who runs the place said the power had gone. I asked how long he thought it would be gone for, to which he raised his hands to the sky, shrugged and said “T.I.A. This is Africa”. I was rather excited by this, as previously I had heard no one other than Danny Archer (played by the mighty Leonardo Di Retardo) from Blood Diamond say this; except of course for Antony (Danny #2), Jon (Danny #3) and I (Danny #1), who said it constantly throughout our time together in our amazing (read also as: shitty!) South African/Rhodesian accents! I realise this is of no great consequence to anyone other than me, and perhaps Antony and Jon, but I enjoyed it greatly, and thought I should share!
Oh, I have also been offered a piece of land in Gulu by a friend. It will be interesting to see what materialises of this offer! I’m told its prime real estate though, right next to the university. Needless to say, I’m fairly sceptical!
Friday, 23 July 2010
Crossbows, Homicide and a Little Bit of Perspective
The last few days have been very busy with meetings; including a four hour, one-to-one meeting with a Senior Government Officer, a meeting with the Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council and with a teacher who also works for a Child Reintegration NGO. I have many meetings planned for my last two weeks in Gulu, including the possibility of meeting with a Presidential Candidate for the upcoming elections in August 2011, should all the appropriate strings be pulled.
I am also being taken to a village about 10 miles outside of Gulu where there stands a monument to those who were massacred there by the LRA. The person taking me there is originally from that village, and during the massacre, his hut was set ablaze with his two infant children inside, burning them alive. He now works 6 days a week, only resting on Sundays, to help reintegrate the children who were part of the LRA that carried out this, and countless other atrocities. It is this kind of strength of mind and forgiveness that I cannot help to admire and be inspired by.
I have become friends with the night-watchman at my hotel, a Muslim Ugandan named Saidi who, despite being 27 years old, resembles a 14 year old boy. I originally doubted this diminutive figure’s credentials as the guardian of the security of myself and the hotel. However, returning home through the side-gate at around 1am one night, I wondered along the driveway towards the side entrance to the hotel. I had no idea anybody was there. Then I heard my name being called, turned around, and in the darkness beside the gate, was Saidi standing proudly holding a crossbow that stands about 5 inches taller than he does! I asked him why on earth he has a crossbow, to which his reply was “because I can’t afford a gun”. Well of course, what a fool I am! What other possible reason could there be to own a crossbow!
I probed this further, as this isn’t the kind of sight one encounters everyday when wondering home slightly drunk! He said that in his village he is a very skilled huntsman, and kills lots of animals like deer, to eat. I then asked had he ever shot anyone whilst working here. He grinned and said “many”. I must have looked very shocked by this, as he defensively added “he was trying to steal a light bulb”. Again, a logical reason to shoot someone with a bow and arrow! I asked would he not get in trouble for killing someone, and he said “no, I can only shoot once he has the light bulb in his hand, then the police see there is evidence and they give me money to say well done”! Bear this in mind, should you ever need to murder anybody in England, just stick a light bulb in their hand after you’ve done it, and you’ll be rewarded handsomely!
In a later conversation he told me he is paid 60,000 Shillings for his shift which starts at 5pm and finishes at 6am. He is therefore paid less than £2 per hour. He said he would love to work somewhere else, and said that “one day, when you have a business, you can call me and I will come with my arrows and shoot people for you”. I’m fairly sure he meant he wants to be my security guard, not a hired hit man. Fairly sure, but not certain!
Despite all the tales of me having quite a lot of fun and generally mincing around Gulu fancy free, I feel the need to highlight that Northern Uganda is a very poor, harsh place to live; just to give a little perspective. Whilst I may be out here playing ‘let’s do research and hear about stories of how hard life was/is’, this is a reality for many people in Gulu, and the North. I want to relay the story of a girl I have met.
Jackie is 21 years old. When she completed her O-Levels (GCSEs), at the age of 18, she scored some of the highest marks in her class. She is bright, bubbly, attractive, friendly and hardworking. She wants more than anything to work as a lawyer, so she can ‘help people who need justice’. However, when she was five, both her parents were murdered by the LRA. She was sent to live with her grandparents, who were both healthy and worked to pay for her to continue her schooling. However, by the time she reached her O-Levels, both grandparents became very frail and elderly (they are now aged 73 and 80 – which is an incredible age in a country where the life expectancy is around 60 years). Now, the tables have turned, and Jackie must work to support them. Getting a job is very difficult in Gulu. Luckily Jackie found a job, working as a cleaner/barmaid in a hotel in Gulu. However, the hotel she works at demands she works from 6am-11pm, and if she won’t do this, they will find someone else who will. Jackie works these hours every day of the week, returning home to look after the house, sleep and then return to work in the morning. She has no time for school, she has no time to rest, she has no time to do any of the things a 21 year old woman wants to do, and she has no time to work towards the dream of helping others that she desperately craves.
I just wanted to share that.
I am also being taken to a village about 10 miles outside of Gulu where there stands a monument to those who were massacred there by the LRA. The person taking me there is originally from that village, and during the massacre, his hut was set ablaze with his two infant children inside, burning them alive. He now works 6 days a week, only resting on Sundays, to help reintegrate the children who were part of the LRA that carried out this, and countless other atrocities. It is this kind of strength of mind and forgiveness that I cannot help to admire and be inspired by.
I have become friends with the night-watchman at my hotel, a Muslim Ugandan named Saidi who, despite being 27 years old, resembles a 14 year old boy. I originally doubted this diminutive figure’s credentials as the guardian of the security of myself and the hotel. However, returning home through the side-gate at around 1am one night, I wondered along the driveway towards the side entrance to the hotel. I had no idea anybody was there. Then I heard my name being called, turned around, and in the darkness beside the gate, was Saidi standing proudly holding a crossbow that stands about 5 inches taller than he does! I asked him why on earth he has a crossbow, to which his reply was “because I can’t afford a gun”. Well of course, what a fool I am! What other possible reason could there be to own a crossbow!
I probed this further, as this isn’t the kind of sight one encounters everyday when wondering home slightly drunk! He said that in his village he is a very skilled huntsman, and kills lots of animals like deer, to eat. I then asked had he ever shot anyone whilst working here. He grinned and said “many”. I must have looked very shocked by this, as he defensively added “he was trying to steal a light bulb”. Again, a logical reason to shoot someone with a bow and arrow! I asked would he not get in trouble for killing someone, and he said “no, I can only shoot once he has the light bulb in his hand, then the police see there is evidence and they give me money to say well done”! Bear this in mind, should you ever need to murder anybody in England, just stick a light bulb in their hand after you’ve done it, and you’ll be rewarded handsomely!
In a later conversation he told me he is paid 60,000 Shillings for his shift which starts at 5pm and finishes at 6am. He is therefore paid less than £2 per hour. He said he would love to work somewhere else, and said that “one day, when you have a business, you can call me and I will come with my arrows and shoot people for you”. I’m fairly sure he meant he wants to be my security guard, not a hired hit man. Fairly sure, but not certain!
Despite all the tales of me having quite a lot of fun and generally mincing around Gulu fancy free, I feel the need to highlight that Northern Uganda is a very poor, harsh place to live; just to give a little perspective. Whilst I may be out here playing ‘let’s do research and hear about stories of how hard life was/is’, this is a reality for many people in Gulu, and the North. I want to relay the story of a girl I have met.
Jackie is 21 years old. When she completed her O-Levels (GCSEs), at the age of 18, she scored some of the highest marks in her class. She is bright, bubbly, attractive, friendly and hardworking. She wants more than anything to work as a lawyer, so she can ‘help people who need justice’. However, when she was five, both her parents were murdered by the LRA. She was sent to live with her grandparents, who were both healthy and worked to pay for her to continue her schooling. However, by the time she reached her O-Levels, both grandparents became very frail and elderly (they are now aged 73 and 80 – which is an incredible age in a country where the life expectancy is around 60 years). Now, the tables have turned, and Jackie must work to support them. Getting a job is very difficult in Gulu. Luckily Jackie found a job, working as a cleaner/barmaid in a hotel in Gulu. However, the hotel she works at demands she works from 6am-11pm, and if she won’t do this, they will find someone else who will. Jackie works these hours every day of the week, returning home to look after the house, sleep and then return to work in the morning. She has no time for school, she has no time to rest, she has no time to do any of the things a 21 year old woman wants to do, and she has no time to work towards the dream of helping others that she desperately craves.
I just wanted to share that.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
For God
A brilliant few days have passed.
A few nights ago I travelled with CinemArena, which is a locally ran, but Italian funded NGO project that goes to rural villages and talks to people about HIV/AIDS. They then make a film of people talking about it, and do drama plays and traditional dances, and show the video on a big projector screen at the end.
It was a lot of fun, and the people seemed to really enjoy the drama. I'm guessing it was funny, but I couldn't understand a single word. Damn my lack of basic Acholi!
It was quite weird however, as since the bombings, no public gatherings are allowed past 10pm. So the whole time, the village was flanked by guards with AK47s, who got rather insistent that we leave at 10!
Yesterday I went with a new friend, Jeffrey (who works for an Agro-Development NGO in Jinja, but is from Gulu originally) to meet a family he has known since he was a child, in the rather charmingly named village of 'For God'. Its about 4km from Gulu down a dirt track that runs mainly through fields. It was the dustiest and bumpiest boda ride I've been on! At the village the family greeted me like some sort of hero. They bowed to me, bought me sodas, and made me food and deserts. It was rather embarassing, but I couldn't refuse their hospitality.
We had bought a doll to take to the little girl, Regina, and she absolutely adored it. She kept introducing it to her family members. Lucy, the mother of the family, is now widowed due to the war with the LRA, and looks after her three children (Regina 10, Emmanuel 11, and Renato 18) alone. She also looks after Susan, a 21 year old girl who lost both her parents in the war. Lucy seemed incredibly concerned that I was staying in Gulu alone and so I am now invited for Sunday lunch with them. They have very little money and I know they will pull out all the stops with the food, so I feel a little bad. I'm going to take them a chicken as recompense (I just hope to God I don't have to be the one who kills it!)
Today we went back to see Lucy and family again as Jeffrey had got very drunk in the night and had had an argument with Susan, so Susan had decided to go to his hotel room and remove all his valuables to her house "for security". As a result Jeffrey had been unable to travel to his meeting in Masindi becuase all his documents were at Susans. Susan decided I should mediate and so I had to take her to talk to Jeffrey, then take them both to Lucy's house for her to rule on what should happen. It was very strange. They were both clearly very cross with each other, but both remained calm, made their points, then Lucy told them what should happen. Perhaps UN Peacekeeping could learn a thing or two from the 'For God Model of Mediation'!
Talking of God, I told them I was a Christian, as is unavoidable when you are sitting in a room surrounded by pictures of the Virgin Mary, with a Jesus statuette on the table, and with a family that prayed for me before I took food. Unfortunately, this resulted in them inviting me to their Catholic Mass on Sunday. I'm pretty sure I have a meeting on Sunday morning now....
A few nights ago I travelled with CinemArena, which is a locally ran, but Italian funded NGO project that goes to rural villages and talks to people about HIV/AIDS. They then make a film of people talking about it, and do drama plays and traditional dances, and show the video on a big projector screen at the end.
It was a lot of fun, and the people seemed to really enjoy the drama. I'm guessing it was funny, but I couldn't understand a single word. Damn my lack of basic Acholi!
It was quite weird however, as since the bombings, no public gatherings are allowed past 10pm. So the whole time, the village was flanked by guards with AK47s, who got rather insistent that we leave at 10!
Yesterday I went with a new friend, Jeffrey (who works for an Agro-Development NGO in Jinja, but is from Gulu originally) to meet a family he has known since he was a child, in the rather charmingly named village of 'For God'. Its about 4km from Gulu down a dirt track that runs mainly through fields. It was the dustiest and bumpiest boda ride I've been on! At the village the family greeted me like some sort of hero. They bowed to me, bought me sodas, and made me food and deserts. It was rather embarassing, but I couldn't refuse their hospitality.
We had bought a doll to take to the little girl, Regina, and she absolutely adored it. She kept introducing it to her family members. Lucy, the mother of the family, is now widowed due to the war with the LRA, and looks after her three children (Regina 10, Emmanuel 11, and Renato 18) alone. She also looks after Susan, a 21 year old girl who lost both her parents in the war. Lucy seemed incredibly concerned that I was staying in Gulu alone and so I am now invited for Sunday lunch with them. They have very little money and I know they will pull out all the stops with the food, so I feel a little bad. I'm going to take them a chicken as recompense (I just hope to God I don't have to be the one who kills it!)
Today we went back to see Lucy and family again as Jeffrey had got very drunk in the night and had had an argument with Susan, so Susan had decided to go to his hotel room and remove all his valuables to her house "for security". As a result Jeffrey had been unable to travel to his meeting in Masindi becuase all his documents were at Susans. Susan decided I should mediate and so I had to take her to talk to Jeffrey, then take them both to Lucy's house for her to rule on what should happen. It was very strange. They were both clearly very cross with each other, but both remained calm, made their points, then Lucy told them what should happen. Perhaps UN Peacekeeping could learn a thing or two from the 'For God Model of Mediation'!
Talking of God, I told them I was a Christian, as is unavoidable when you are sitting in a room surrounded by pictures of the Virgin Mary, with a Jesus statuette on the table, and with a family that prayed for me before I took food. Unfortunately, this resulted in them inviting me to their Catholic Mass on Sunday. I'm pretty sure I have a meeting on Sunday morning now....
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Gulu's Got Talent - well kind of...
First off, here are some pictures of Gulu from the third floor balcony of my (and formerly Antony's) accommodation:
Antony and I spent the day yesterday working - Antony at meetings with the UN, and me in email contact with the UN - as well as doing internet-based research. Antony was put in contact with the office of the Head Chief (King or something I think) of the Acholi tribe, but as Antony has left for Kampala now, I am going to the meeting instead. No idea how one should act around an Acholi chief, so I expect much cultural insensitivity will ensue!
In the evening we met with our friend Frank (pictured below - complete with Antony's hat and my jacket!), a Ugandan who works for an Italian Project that goes to rural communities and uses film/drama to help them address health issues such as HIV/Aids. Frank wanted to hear some of the music I liked, so I played him some dubstep. His reaction was to look quizically at me and say "your music sounds strange to me", followed by removing the earphones and giving my Ipod back. Uganda clearly isn't ready for Burial yet!
Later, we went for drinks at the oddly named BJz bar and met up with the other people working on the project including some Italians from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We then headed to a 'nightclub' called Herms for possibly the strangest night out of my life!
It was a karaoke show originally, expect people just mimed to songs, rather than singing them (probably for the best), and the audience went and stuffed Shillings notes into the hands of the best mimers. Pretty weird. However, that was nothing compared to the drag act! YES, thats right, a drag act, in Uganda, a country where homosexuality is illegal and taboo, in Gulu, where the incredibly traditional Acholi people live. We were not expecting that one at all! It got weirder still when the compere proceeded to highlight everything about the drag artists that indicated they were really men - including peeking up their skirts!
Then followed a 'comedy' sketch set to music and conducted largely in the Acholi Language - even with in-depth explanations from our Acholi friends, its fairly safe to say, we still didn't get the joke! As usual the night ended with the consumption of large quantities of Waragi.
We woke at 7am this morning and drove north from Gulu to an IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) Camp named Pabbo. The drive took about an hour on dirt track road through ridiculously rural areas. The land is so fertile but nobody farms their due to their residing in these camps. One of the Elders at the camp that showed us around and allowed us to interview him told us how Northern Uganda used to be the 'breadbasket of Uganda', and even in the mid-1990s, during the height of the LRA's attacks, they produced bumper crops. It seems such a waste that these people and their skills and potential is all going to waste, as they live disjointed and unproductive lives in tightly packed camps, in communities that aren't their own.
The guy also told us about the Acholi conception of justice, which involves forgiveness not punishment, and how former-LRA soldiers who have committed atrocities against them are welcomed back into communities aslong as they confess and perform a cleansing ceremony. It seems odd to me that you could ever forgive someone who potentially raped/murdered/mutiliated your family members, but this approach really seems to bring peace the community.
It was a very interesting, eye-opening and humbling day.
Antony has now left for Kampala so I am all alone in the wilds of the North to face spider attacks, power cuts and water outages alone (power and water have only just come back after being out since yesterday evening). Sad times!
Antony and I spent the day yesterday working - Antony at meetings with the UN, and me in email contact with the UN - as well as doing internet-based research. Antony was put in contact with the office of the Head Chief (King or something I think) of the Acholi tribe, but as Antony has left for Kampala now, I am going to the meeting instead. No idea how one should act around an Acholi chief, so I expect much cultural insensitivity will ensue!In the evening we met with our friend Frank (pictured below - complete with Antony's hat and my jacket!), a Ugandan who works for an Italian Project that goes to rural communities and uses film/drama to help them address health issues such as HIV/Aids. Frank wanted to hear some of the music I liked, so I played him some dubstep. His reaction was to look quizically at me and say "your music sounds strange to me", followed by removing the earphones and giving my Ipod back. Uganda clearly isn't ready for Burial yet!
Later, we went for drinks at the oddly named BJz bar and met up with the other people working on the project including some Italians from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We then headed to a 'nightclub' called Herms for possibly the strangest night out of my life!It was a karaoke show originally, expect people just mimed to songs, rather than singing them (probably for the best), and the audience went and stuffed Shillings notes into the hands of the best mimers. Pretty weird. However, that was nothing compared to the drag act! YES, thats right, a drag act, in Uganda, a country where homosexuality is illegal and taboo, in Gulu, where the incredibly traditional Acholi people live. We were not expecting that one at all! It got weirder still when the compere proceeded to highlight everything about the drag artists that indicated they were really men - including peeking up their skirts!
Then followed a 'comedy' sketch set to music and conducted largely in the Acholi Language - even with in-depth explanations from our Acholi friends, its fairly safe to say, we still didn't get the joke! As usual the night ended with the consumption of large quantities of Waragi.
We woke at 7am this morning and drove north from Gulu to an IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) Camp named Pabbo. The drive took about an hour on dirt track road through ridiculously rural areas. The land is so fertile but nobody farms their due to their residing in these camps. One of the Elders at the camp that showed us around and allowed us to interview him told us how Northern Uganda used to be the 'breadbasket of Uganda', and even in the mid-1990s, during the height of the LRA's attacks, they produced bumper crops. It seems such a waste that these people and their skills and potential is all going to waste, as they live disjointed and unproductive lives in tightly packed camps, in communities that aren't their own.
The guy also told us about the Acholi conception of justice, which involves forgiveness not punishment, and how former-LRA soldiers who have committed atrocities against them are welcomed back into communities aslong as they confess and perform a cleansing ceremony. It seems odd to me that you could ever forgive someone who potentially raped/murdered/mutiliated your family members, but this approach really seems to bring peace the community.
It was a very interesting, eye-opening and humbling day.Antony has now left for Kampala so I am all alone in the wilds of the North to face spider attacks, power cuts and water outages alone (power and water have only just come back after being out since yesterday evening). Sad times!
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Gulu: Home of Spiders, NGOs and Powercuts!
Antony and I got the 6 hour bus to Gulu, in Northern Uganda, yesterday. It was quite a cool drive, though the driver seemed bent on killing everyone by speeding like a madman, and preferring to use his horn to avoid collisions rather than his brakes!
As we crossed the river Nile at Karuma Falls (the limit for what used to be considered safe to travel during the LRA's reign) a baboon ran alongside our bus hoping for food to be thrown to it. Was quite a cool introduction to Northern Uganda.
The north is so different from Kampala in the centre; the tower blocks of Kampala Road are replaced by small huts with thatched roofs, nestled amongst corn fields and surrounded by nothing by abundant vegetation and trees.
We arrived at Gulu around 2pm. Gulu is known is NGO town and is full to the brim with signposts for various NGO offices and UN 4x4s with their characteristically huge aerial masts attached. The town is small, scruffy and considerably less friendly than Kampala. The people too, look very different from those in Kampala, with the tribal differences being the Southern Buganda and the Northern Acholi, very noticeable.
We checked into a fairly smart hotel with en suite and television. They were asking for 52,000 UGX a night (close to £20) but we said that was to expensive so they instantly dropped it to 31,000 (£5 each a night) - haggling has never been so easy!
The night's main highlight (well more of a lowlight) was the discovery of 5 huge spiders in our beds; two of which were carrying egg sacks with them! Neither Antony nor I, despite our desires to portray ourselves as Danny Archer like characters, are fond of spiders to put it lightly! So what entailed was two adult men attempting to kill massive spiders with flip-flops and deet spray for around about 2 hours. This process including stripping both our beds, quite a lot of girlish screaming and much jumping onto beds when the spiders made a run for it! We were slightly concerned by what the hotel staff thought we were getting up to, what with the thudding of us jumping, the yelling and the moving of beds around!!
After great effort and profuse sweating, with a huge thunderstorm as the backdrop, we killed all the spiders, settled in with our bottles of gin and watched a film. The power then went off and the water ran out. All in all, a cracking night!!
Welcome to the North!
As we crossed the river Nile at Karuma Falls (the limit for what used to be considered safe to travel during the LRA's reign) a baboon ran alongside our bus hoping for food to be thrown to it. Was quite a cool introduction to Northern Uganda.
The north is so different from Kampala in the centre; the tower blocks of Kampala Road are replaced by small huts with thatched roofs, nestled amongst corn fields and surrounded by nothing by abundant vegetation and trees.
We arrived at Gulu around 2pm. Gulu is known is NGO town and is full to the brim with signposts for various NGO offices and UN 4x4s with their characteristically huge aerial masts attached. The town is small, scruffy and considerably less friendly than Kampala. The people too, look very different from those in Kampala, with the tribal differences being the Southern Buganda and the Northern Acholi, very noticeable.
We checked into a fairly smart hotel with en suite and television. They were asking for 52,000 UGX a night (close to £20) but we said that was to expensive so they instantly dropped it to 31,000 (£5 each a night) - haggling has never been so easy!
The night's main highlight (well more of a lowlight) was the discovery of 5 huge spiders in our beds; two of which were carrying egg sacks with them! Neither Antony nor I, despite our desires to portray ourselves as Danny Archer like characters, are fond of spiders to put it lightly! So what entailed was two adult men attempting to kill massive spiders with flip-flops and deet spray for around about 2 hours. This process including stripping both our beds, quite a lot of girlish screaming and much jumping onto beds when the spiders made a run for it! We were slightly concerned by what the hotel staff thought we were getting up to, what with the thudding of us jumping, the yelling and the moving of beds around!!
After great effort and profuse sweating, with a huge thunderstorm as the backdrop, we killed all the spiders, settled in with our bottles of gin and watched a film. The power then went off and the water ran out. All in all, a cracking night!!
Welcome to the North!
Bombings in Kampala
As I'm sure most of you heard on the news, Kampala was attacked on the night of the World Cup final. There were 3 bomb attacks; two within a minute of each other at a local Rugby ground that was showing the final on a big screen, and one at a popular Ethiopian restaurant, which was also showing the game.
The number of deaths has now reached 76 according to a newspaper published this morning.
The bombings are suspected to have been carried out by a extreme Islamist Somali group named Al Shahaab; undertaken as punishment for Ugandan peacekeeping troops being present in Somalia under a African Union mandate.
For whatever reason they were carried out, and by whoever it was done, the attack on innocent people, busy enjoying themselves with friends and family, revelling in a World Cup that was seen as a momentous occasion for all of Africa was sickening.
These people had absolutely nothing to do with the Ugandan Government's decision to involve itself in Somalia and there can be absolutely no possible justification for the targetting of innocent humans.
The leader of Al Shahaab was quoted as saying that he is happy with the bombings; that Uganda is their enemy and whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. Uganda may be the enemy of this group, but innocent civilians are not, and the fact that this group is revelling in the destruction of human life, in such a cowardly way, highlights the sheer disgust with which groups like this should be viewed. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for this kind of action.
It may seem far away, and it may not seem important to you, but just spare a moment to consider these innocent people, and their families, whose lives have been torn apart by these cowardly, deplorable and despicable actions.
The number of deaths has now reached 76 according to a newspaper published this morning.
The bombings are suspected to have been carried out by a extreme Islamist Somali group named Al Shahaab; undertaken as punishment for Ugandan peacekeeping troops being present in Somalia under a African Union mandate.
For whatever reason they were carried out, and by whoever it was done, the attack on innocent people, busy enjoying themselves with friends and family, revelling in a World Cup that was seen as a momentous occasion for all of Africa was sickening.
These people had absolutely nothing to do with the Ugandan Government's decision to involve itself in Somalia and there can be absolutely no possible justification for the targetting of innocent humans.
The leader of Al Shahaab was quoted as saying that he is happy with the bombings; that Uganda is their enemy and whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. Uganda may be the enemy of this group, but innocent civilians are not, and the fact that this group is revelling in the destruction of human life, in such a cowardly way, highlights the sheer disgust with which groups like this should be viewed. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for this kind of action.
It may seem far away, and it may not seem important to you, but just spare a moment to consider these innocent people, and their families, whose lives have been torn apart by these cowardly, deplorable and despicable actions.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
A couple of photos thus far
Ugandan Fayre
That's just the way I roll!
Night out at Bamboo Nest Bar following Ghana vs. USA
Sunset on Buggala Island
Fishing boat on Lake Victoria
Kampala City
Massive Birds
Poster regarding DDR in Uganda (obligatory 'yes I am actually doing some work' picture)
Kenya vs. Uganda - Victoria Cup (rugby)
Friday, 9 July 2010
Rafting the Nile, Drug-Addled Germans and Befriending a Policeman
The River Nile...AMAZING! Jon, Antony, Nicole, Zoe, Nadia and I rafteed rafted the River Nile, down Grade 3, 4 and 5 rapids. We had a massive spill as our boat flipped on a Grade 5 called 'Big Brother' and all "went for a swim" (basically being dragged along under white water until you eventually surface again however far down river the rapids decide!). It was pretty scary and I ended up stopping when I hit into some rocks which was pleasant. Our rafting guide said it was the fourth longest time he had ever spent under water, so it must have been a pretty hardcore one!
It was Nadia's birthday that day too, so after rafting we stayed at a hostel overlooking the rapids, and got massively massively drunk with everyone else who rafted that day and the guides. One of the other rafters was Shawny from Big Brother if anyone remembers him. He is absolutely mental but a proper nice guy. An indication of how mental he is was when he approached Nicole at the bar at about 10am and said "I just tried to do a fart but shit came out in my pants. I cleaned myself up though". ooookay...?!
We were rudely awoken the next morning by Velvet Monkeys fighting each other on the roof of our hut and spent the entire day incredibly hungover!
The next morning we got a ferry to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria, and stayed at a camp ran by two perma-drunk/stoned Germans (we arrived at 5pm and they were already both absolutely wankered!). The camp was cool though - all solar powered and hippy-ish - and they had a massive Great Dane called Shaka Zulu who guarded the place! We sat on the beach and watched the sunset over Lake Victoria which was absolutely beautiful, and the fact that it was just Jon, Zoe and I on the beach made it really nice. Zoe and I swam in Lake Victoria, though Jon sensibly refused. I'm pretty sure he will rather pleased when we contract Bilharzia and he doesn't!
The next day we had a tour through the jungle with a local guy called Thomson. His African-English was very strange. When we asked if he knew the football score from the night before his response was "I was not entirely present at the scene, but I shall gather all the statistics and tell you later"! Anyway, his guiding was excellent (despite it including random snippets of philosophical musings - "what is free will?" and "what do you learn from this tree? We learn that life is a struggle") and it only cost £3 each. We gave him our guide book to Uganda as a tip because he said he wanted to learn more to improve his guiding.
After the tour we went to the local Police Station to report Jon's camera missing, which took about two hours! We ended up being seen by the Chief of the Station who was wearing a Birmingham City FC shirt. He was very keen to talk to us and insisted we exchanged numbers. Whilst we were talking he had a call from one of his officers to help with something that happened "at the roadside" but he made him wait whilst he finished talking to us! He was a cool guy, who was studying 'Human Rights and Corruption' at the weekends to try and make the Police better for people.
Whilst we waited for Jon in the station a group of children randomly came up to Zoe and I, and started singing hymns and songs about Uganda and dancing - quite surreal!
Now we are back in Entebbe, and Jon leaves tomorrow for the UK. Zoe and I will go back to Kampala and then Antony and I will head to Gulu.
It was Nadia's birthday that day too, so after rafting we stayed at a hostel overlooking the rapids, and got massively massively drunk with everyone else who rafted that day and the guides. One of the other rafters was Shawny from Big Brother if anyone remembers him. He is absolutely mental but a proper nice guy. An indication of how mental he is was when he approached Nicole at the bar at about 10am and said "I just tried to do a fart but shit came out in my pants. I cleaned myself up though". ooookay...?!
We were rudely awoken the next morning by Velvet Monkeys fighting each other on the roof of our hut and spent the entire day incredibly hungover!
The next morning we got a ferry to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria, and stayed at a camp ran by two perma-drunk/stoned Germans (we arrived at 5pm and they were already both absolutely wankered!). The camp was cool though - all solar powered and hippy-ish - and they had a massive Great Dane called Shaka Zulu who guarded the place! We sat on the beach and watched the sunset over Lake Victoria which was absolutely beautiful, and the fact that it was just Jon, Zoe and I on the beach made it really nice. Zoe and I swam in Lake Victoria, though Jon sensibly refused. I'm pretty sure he will rather pleased when we contract Bilharzia and he doesn't!
The next day we had a tour through the jungle with a local guy called Thomson. His African-English was very strange. When we asked if he knew the football score from the night before his response was "I was not entirely present at the scene, but I shall gather all the statistics and tell you later"! Anyway, his guiding was excellent (despite it including random snippets of philosophical musings - "what is free will?" and "what do you learn from this tree? We learn that life is a struggle") and it only cost £3 each. We gave him our guide book to Uganda as a tip because he said he wanted to learn more to improve his guiding.
After the tour we went to the local Police Station to report Jon's camera missing, which took about two hours! We ended up being seen by the Chief of the Station who was wearing a Birmingham City FC shirt. He was very keen to talk to us and insisted we exchanged numbers. Whilst we were talking he had a call from one of his officers to help with something that happened "at the roadside" but he made him wait whilst he finished talking to us! He was a cool guy, who was studying 'Human Rights and Corruption' at the weekends to try and make the Police better for people.
Whilst we waited for Jon in the station a group of children randomly came up to Zoe and I, and started singing hymns and songs about Uganda and dancing - quite surreal!
Now we are back in Entebbe, and Jon leaves tomorrow for the UK. Zoe and I will go back to Kampala and then Antony and I will head to Gulu.
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Kampala is freaking sweet!
Antony, Jon, Nicole and I went for a proper look around Kampala the other day, which was a lot of fun. It's a really cool city if you look a little deeper than the main road. We walked around for a long time, and then ended up at Nandos! I had a double chicken burger - I'm not going to lie, its the best moment of the trip so far!!!
That night we met quite a lot of new people at the hostel including a very very interesting Ugandan guy who works in Sudan, about whom more will be written later. He is possibly the scariest looking guy I have ever seen in my life though, but he is also a really nice guy. We went out with him, and his friend Joel who is a student in Kampala, and some English guys who have just arrived in Kpa. We went to a club called Iguana which played incredibly loud shit dance music, but we had a lot of fun there, although one of the English guys got his wallet robbed, and another woke up in the morning with cuts all over his legs and a massive hole in his jeans, but with no memory of how this happened. I think he most probably fell off a boda boda.
Jon and I had a great deal of fun squeezing onto our boda, though Jon almost fell off, but managed to hold it at the last moment!
The next day Jon Nicole Antony Nadia and I (and we met Rach, Joe and Emma and Joel too) went to the Victoria Cup (a rugby match between Uganda and Kenya). Kenya cained Uganda though both teams were pretty awful to be honest! The best part was the celebrations at the end where all the kenyan team and fans spontaneously started dancing and singing together on the pitch!
Last night, after the Rugby, Jon Nicole and I went to a bar for the spain match where we met up with everybody again. The Sudanese guy and his girlfriend came too.
Jon and Nicole went home after the game but the rest of us went out to Iguana again. Most people left very early on, but the Sudanese guy, his girlfriend (Fiona) and I went to another club across town. This guy is seriously about 6"4 and built like a muscle builder, but we all somehow managed to fit on one boda boda, so with the driver, it meant there were four of us on one bike!
The club we went to was very cool (its turkish owned so lots of people were smoking sheesha) and there weren't many white people. A woman started 'dancing' with me, though honestly, its unlike any other form of dancing I have ever seen before, and basically seemed to be fully clothed sex. Was a little strange, but it made the sudanese guy and his girlfriend laugh a lot!
I have learnt quite a few key phrases in Luganda now, from Fiona, including - 'Drive Slowly' and 'How much? Thats too expensive!' which tells you a bit about what Kampala is like!
Today Jon Nicole and I met with Fred, a Ugandan guy who drinks at the bar down the road where we go, and he took us to a cultural show that is on at the moment to promote the history and culture of Buganda (which is a kingdom within Uganda). It was really good, with lots of stalls, music and food. It was also full of Ugandan families out for the day and we only saw one other white person which was odd, because it was exactly the kind of thing you would expect to be full of whites.
Tomorrow morning Jon, Antony, Nicole, Nadia, Zoe (who is arriving tonight) and I are going to Jinja to raft on the nile, which is going to be awesome!
Bad news: My wash bag has been nicked. I thought I was starting to get tanned, but I showered for the first time in two days borrowing Jon's shower gel, and it was all dirt. I am in fact still as pale as a Glaswegian in winter. Lame.
That night we met quite a lot of new people at the hostel including a very very interesting Ugandan guy who works in Sudan, about whom more will be written later. He is possibly the scariest looking guy I have ever seen in my life though, but he is also a really nice guy. We went out with him, and his friend Joel who is a student in Kampala, and some English guys who have just arrived in Kpa. We went to a club called Iguana which played incredibly loud shit dance music, but we had a lot of fun there, although one of the English guys got his wallet robbed, and another woke up in the morning with cuts all over his legs and a massive hole in his jeans, but with no memory of how this happened. I think he most probably fell off a boda boda.
Jon and I had a great deal of fun squeezing onto our boda, though Jon almost fell off, but managed to hold it at the last moment!
The next day Jon Nicole Antony Nadia and I (and we met Rach, Joe and Emma and Joel too) went to the Victoria Cup (a rugby match between Uganda and Kenya). Kenya cained Uganda though both teams were pretty awful to be honest! The best part was the celebrations at the end where all the kenyan team and fans spontaneously started dancing and singing together on the pitch!
Last night, after the Rugby, Jon Nicole and I went to a bar for the spain match where we met up with everybody again. The Sudanese guy and his girlfriend came too.
Jon and Nicole went home after the game but the rest of us went out to Iguana again. Most people left very early on, but the Sudanese guy, his girlfriend (Fiona) and I went to another club across town. This guy is seriously about 6"4 and built like a muscle builder, but we all somehow managed to fit on one boda boda, so with the driver, it meant there were four of us on one bike!
The club we went to was very cool (its turkish owned so lots of people were smoking sheesha) and there weren't many white people. A woman started 'dancing' with me, though honestly, its unlike any other form of dancing I have ever seen before, and basically seemed to be fully clothed sex. Was a little strange, but it made the sudanese guy and his girlfriend laugh a lot!
I have learnt quite a few key phrases in Luganda now, from Fiona, including - 'Drive Slowly' and 'How much? Thats too expensive!' which tells you a bit about what Kampala is like!
Today Jon Nicole and I met with Fred, a Ugandan guy who drinks at the bar down the road where we go, and he took us to a cultural show that is on at the moment to promote the history and culture of Buganda (which is a kingdom within Uganda). It was really good, with lots of stalls, music and food. It was also full of Ugandan families out for the day and we only saw one other white person which was odd, because it was exactly the kind of thing you would expect to be full of whites.
Tomorrow morning Jon, Antony, Nicole, Nadia, Zoe (who is arriving tonight) and I are going to Jinja to raft on the nile, which is going to be awesome!
Bad news: My wash bag has been nicked. I thought I was starting to get tanned, but I showered for the first time in two days borrowing Jon's shower gel, and it was all dirt. I am in fact still as pale as a Glaswegian in winter. Lame.
Friday, 2 July 2010
Entebbe, Sunburn, Protective Fathers and Opposition Politics
Jon arrived on wednesday and we hung in Entebbe for the night. We slept in a tent which was immensely cool, except for the wild dogs that barked all night, the birds that started singing at 4am, and the guy next to the tent who insisted on revving his motorbike for what felt like hours.
At the hostel we camped at we met a lot of cool people, including a girl who had just returned from Gulu studying similar things to me, and a UN guy who is big in DDR in South Sudan. He was on his way back home to S'efrica for a week, but on his way back to Juba (Sudan) he is going to meet with me to give me lots of documents off his computer (some of which haven't even been published yet) which will be massively helpful. He gave me his email too, so when I get bored of life in Local Government, I'm going to bug him for a job in the UN (bugging people is definitely the way get places I have found - I think my new motto is 'if at first you don't succeed, email and call people until they do what you want'!).
Jon and I spent the next day on the beach at Lake Victoria where I got hench sunburn which now makes showering pretty unpleasant. We met a guy at the lake, who introduced himself by saying 'I'm Adam, I am a muslim' which was fairly interesting. He was praying in the lake though, which was quite cool.
We then attempted to walk back to the hostel from the lake, but got lost and ended up wandering through the army barracks, which was a fairly interesting detour! After that we got in a matatu (taxi-minibus thingy) to Kampala but it broke down and started smoking, so we all had to get out and get in another one.
In Kampala we met Antony again and a Candian girl named Nicole who informed us it was 'Canada Day', so we had to go out for beers. You can't not celebrate Canada Day right? I mean thats an important day, so we HAD to get drunk. It would have been rude otherwise!
So we went back to the bar Antony and I drank at the other day (turns out we're now semi-celebs as we danced on the bar apparently - I have no memory of this!). We played some pool with two local guys we met, and they're taking us to watch the football game today. We also spent a lot of time talking with a guy who works on the Radio here, but his Station got shut down because it was pro-Buganda (the southern and dominant tribal group) and the President/ruling group is not Bugandan, so President Museveni shut it down. He also predicted that there will be violence during the elections in 2011 which is not good.
He also explained how Jon looks like Steven Gerrard (and insisted on calling him Steve all night) and attempted to justify why Africans don't wash their hands after they pee and why they litter. I'm not going to lie, he had no case at all! I'm not sure we convinced him though. He is picking us up tonight to take us to a theatre to watch the Ghana game after we watch the game in the afternoon which is awesome.
Also, I met a girl the other night, and she gave me her number, but she wrote it wrong, and she got her brother to pass on a note to Jon with her number on, but Jon thought it was a prostitute or something dodgy (as I hadn't explained she lived near the bar) so he didn't take the note, and so my shot at love (HA!) is ruined! Also, I went to her house to say hey, and her dad said she wasn't in (even though she clearly was) but he had a massive knife in his hand, so I decided maybe to give that one a miss!!
At the hostel we camped at we met a lot of cool people, including a girl who had just returned from Gulu studying similar things to me, and a UN guy who is big in DDR in South Sudan. He was on his way back home to S'efrica for a week, but on his way back to Juba (Sudan) he is going to meet with me to give me lots of documents off his computer (some of which haven't even been published yet) which will be massively helpful. He gave me his email too, so when I get bored of life in Local Government, I'm going to bug him for a job in the UN (bugging people is definitely the way get places I have found - I think my new motto is 'if at first you don't succeed, email and call people until they do what you want'!).
Jon and I spent the next day on the beach at Lake Victoria where I got hench sunburn which now makes showering pretty unpleasant. We met a guy at the lake, who introduced himself by saying 'I'm Adam, I am a muslim' which was fairly interesting. He was praying in the lake though, which was quite cool.
We then attempted to walk back to the hostel from the lake, but got lost and ended up wandering through the army barracks, which was a fairly interesting detour! After that we got in a matatu (taxi-minibus thingy) to Kampala but it broke down and started smoking, so we all had to get out and get in another one.
In Kampala we met Antony again and a Candian girl named Nicole who informed us it was 'Canada Day', so we had to go out for beers. You can't not celebrate Canada Day right? I mean thats an important day, so we HAD to get drunk. It would have been rude otherwise!
So we went back to the bar Antony and I drank at the other day (turns out we're now semi-celebs as we danced on the bar apparently - I have no memory of this!). We played some pool with two local guys we met, and they're taking us to watch the football game today. We also spent a lot of time talking with a guy who works on the Radio here, but his Station got shut down because it was pro-Buganda (the southern and dominant tribal group) and the President/ruling group is not Bugandan, so President Museveni shut it down. He also predicted that there will be violence during the elections in 2011 which is not good.
He also explained how Jon looks like Steven Gerrard (and insisted on calling him Steve all night) and attempted to justify why Africans don't wash their hands after they pee and why they litter. I'm not going to lie, he had no case at all! I'm not sure we convinced him though. He is picking us up tonight to take us to a theatre to watch the Ghana game after we watch the game in the afternoon which is awesome.
Also, I met a girl the other night, and she gave me her number, but she wrote it wrong, and she got her brother to pass on a note to Jon with her number on, but Jon thought it was a prostitute or something dodgy (as I hadn't explained she lived near the bar) so he didn't take the note, and so my shot at love (HA!) is ruined! Also, I went to her house to say hey, and her dad said she wasn't in (even though she clearly was) but he had a massive knife in his hand, so I decided maybe to give that one a miss!!
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