Halfway!

Well, I am almost halfway done with the summer! I am doing well in Pader, and keeping busy. This week (and into July) I will be visiting communities and schools around the camps to do lectures on the importance of education. A lot of children are kept home from school in this area to work (since there is a lot of poverty families rely on children to make money or harvest crops or watch little children at home), and a lot of girls get married young and don't continue education. So hopefully we can inspire some of the organized groups to work with their communities to encourage children to stay in school.

It has been very dry and hot here, which is very bad news considering this should be the rainy season. Desertification is a serious concern here, with overgrazing, deforestation, and global climate change causing an expansion of the Sahara Desert. I am hoping to do some work talking about environmental concerns, and helping the groups figure out some ways they can improve their ecosystems. But vulnerable people are the first to suffer from environmental damage, a lot of which is caused by outside forces (especially countries like America). We are one of the top producers of greenhouse gases and the victims are people like the ones here. So, we should all be aware of the destruction our country (and we as individuals) is doing in the world and take responsibility.

Anyway, I am going back down to Kampala to pick up my passport and visa from the immigration office on Monday, so I am looking forward to that. I have finished reading War and Peace, and now I'm reading a book by Noam Chomsky on American foreign policy in the Middle East. He is incredibly intelligent and its interesting to see the true nature of the American government and its corruption. I recommend his works highly. Well, I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all terribly!

Short Update

Hey everyone! This will be really short, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing well. Last week I spent a couple of days in Kampala just to relax, and got to hang out with one of my friends from UCU named Jones. But I'm back now and ready to work hard again! This week we are going around to visit schools and hand out some uniforms and books to children that can't afford them. Then on Saturday we are having a training session for EI's Why Wait program, which offers education on HIV/AIDS around Uganda. Next week I'm going to be helping local teachers incorporate some of the material into their curriculums and stuff like that. Anyway, I've started reading War and Peace to pass some of the time, and its very good! I highly recommend it! Also, there are now three puppies here with me, and I named them Ringo, Pavlov, and Tolstoy. Reverend Kenneth's daughter Glory is now with me in Pader, and she will be working as my translator here. So, its not so quiet in the house anymore, which is a good thing lol. Well, I hope everyone is doing well! I only have a little over 2 months to go!

The Only Mzungu

Well, I'm just about finishing my first two weeks in northern Uganda so I figured I'd give a little update. This week I have been visiting different IDP camps around the area leading discussions on improving sanitation. The Ugandans in these camps need a lot of prayers, because the war with the LRA has left them extremely vulnerable. There is a lot of disease and malnutrition, and the crops haven't been growing very well this season. Also, they keep expressing a need for more water pumps because usually there is just one for an entire IDP community. It is also difficult to see how much the conflict has affected all the people I am working with. There are so many widows and orphans left to fend for themselves, and a lot of people that had been abducted as child soldiers that are now trying to live normal lives. The war forced them to move into IDP camps, which are forced communities so that the government could protect them from the rebels. THat meant that they all had to leave their original home farms and live in an area where farming wasn't possible. Even though the LRA has been gone from the area for a couple years, most people are too afraid, or lack the necessary resources to move back to their land. THe farthest they've gone is establishing satellite camps halfway between the original IDP camp and their own land. But its still really bad, and they need a lot of help. I am one of the only mzungus in the central town of Pader...I see one once in a while but for the most part there are no other westerners. Its funny because down in southern Uganda most people assumed I was american, but here they keep yelling "Canada! Canada!" at me. I think thats because the majority of NGO workers are Canadian, and they rarely see any Americans. Well, I am heading to Kampala for a couple of days on Monday, so I will talk to everyone later!

Greetings from Pader!

Sorry I have not written in here for so long! I have been moving around like a madwoman, and I rarely have access to the internet (its a long process of dragging out the generator, hooking it up to a power converter, trying to find a connection with a little MTN wireless hookup...etc.) Anyway, I miss EVERYONE so much, and I can't believe all the USP people are back in America now! I originally came to Pader on the 9th, but we went to visit Reverend Kenneth's family in Gulu that following Tuesday. I just got back yesterday, and today was my first day where I officially sat down at my desk to get some work done for Emmanuel International.

I am staying in a compound right outside of the town center in Pader district in Northern Uganda. On the compound is my own little house (it looks like a two story silo, kind of. It has a straw roof, so think of a vertically extended African hut), where I have a bedroom (there are 2 other empty ones), a bathroom/washroom, and a little kitchen area where I cook my own meals. Kenneth, a Ugandan missionary, lives on the compound in another little house. We have a guard stationed at the front gate, armed with a bow and arrow (not kidding), a little area for the cows, a resource center (where they also hold the community's church services), and an office (where I now have my own desk as the Coordinator for Ministry and Education). A woman named Millie is also on staff here, and she is paid to clean the house and dishes for me lol. EI has a couple permanant staff up here, including counselors, and then a handful of volunteers.

The work I have started is going around to the IDP camps and giving lectures and demonstrations on hygiene and sanitation to vulnerable groups (widows, orphans, returnees from the LRA, child-headed households), and assisting the counselors to those same groups. EI has a couple other projects going, including bead making for widows to earn a profit, and seed distribution (which I'm also helping with). We have a lot to do, but it is very quiet here and I have a lot of alone time. I'm on page 850 of the book Atlas Shrugged, which I started a week and a half ago, so that should give you an idea of how much free time I have. Haha.

Anyway, I love you ALL and thanks for all of your financial and emotional support you've given me. I'm excited to work here, and I'll keep you all updated as much as possible!

Onward...

I returned from Rwanda last week, and it was a really intense experience (and I will write about it when I have more time later). God really taught us all many lessons from that trip. Right now I am at the Emmanuel International house in Kampala with Anita Bertrand and another volunteer my age named Jacob. We are waiting until the 9h to go up to Pader, where I will be staying for the summer. But right now, they are letting me relax for a couple days, use the washing machine (a washing machine!!), swim in a nearby pool, and read a lot. More later!

End of the semester...

Well, I am officially at the end of the semester. I just took my East African Politics final yesterday, which consisted of four different essays: Political integration in East Africa, political coups in African governments, power-sharing deals (like the current government in Kenya), and the effectiveness of government intervention in the economy as a way to stimulate growth. This morning I have a final for Democracy and Human Rights, and I have a couple papers due between now and next Wednesday for Faith and Action and Ugandan Politics. Next week we are having elective workshops with some of the USP staff, and I am taking one on Christian Callings with Mark, and one on Peace and Politics with Brooke. I’m actually looking forward to my paper for Ugandan politics, which we have to write on a human rights issue of our choice that is a problem in Uganda. I have decided to write on freedom of the press as a vital human rights, which has really been neglected in Uganda. I’m actually reading a really interesting book right now that I got out of the USP library, called Media and the Rwandan Genocide, which is a collection of articles analyzing the role of journalists and media outlets in the time surrounding the events of the genocide. One article in the book contains a chart which shows that the O.J. Simpson trials got over double the coverage on mainstream news stations than anything to do with Rwanda! 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda, and the news talked more about a celebrity murder case! Another interesting point made was that Bosnia, a similar atrocity, got far more extensive coverage at the same time, because it took place so close to many major news hubs in Europe, and therefore coverage was way easier for journalists. Most foreign reporters in Africa are based out of Nairobi, which is pretty far from action in Rwanda, and there are substantially less present than in a European country. One BBC reporter, Mark Doyle, recounted his time in Rwanda (he was often the only western journalist in the capital city of Kigali during the genocide) and said his editors back in London often tried to dismiss massacres as indiscriminate tribal killings in a chaotic African country. He had to fight to get the right wording put out, that the genocide was a well-organized, systematic method of eliminating political opponents. Anyway, I don’t know if I can get the book in America, since its published in Uganda, but I’m hoping to get it at some point.

If anybody’s interested, here are some articles I’m using for my paper on freedom of the press in Uganda:

http://www.cpj.org/africa/uganda/

Well, tonight at 5:30 we have orientation for our trip to Rwanda because we are leaving next Wednesday! We will be there until May 4 (I think), studying the genocide and visiting memorials, etc. It is actually the 15th anniversary of the genocide this month. We will all need your prayers though, as I’m sure learning about the things that went on, in a country very similar to Uganda not so long ago, will be pretty hard.


I hope everyone had a wonderful easter! Mine was somewhat uneventful, but improved when I got to watch videos my mom sent me of everyone from home saying hi! I also got to talk on the phone with my family (although I didn’t get to talk to my little brother, who I assume was at work). Well, I’m signing off probably until after Rwanda, so have a good two weeks!

Safari!

I just got back yesterday from a safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is on the western border of Uganda. In fact, we could see the mountains of the Congo across Lake Edward from where we were staying! It was wonderful, being able to see all these amazing animals in their natural habitats. Over the weekend I saw herds of wild elephants, hippos, warthogs, buffalo, some really large species of deer, antelope (or gazelles, I'm not sure), and mongooses (mongeese?). Oh, and we saw one lion. Just one. At one point, a whole herd of elephants crossed right in front of our van, like 30 feet away!

Besides that, there's not much going on right now. Classes end this week, and finals start soon. I am going to the Ministry of Internal Affairs tomorrow to apply for a special pass to extend my visa for the summer. It is a little strange knowing that all the other USP students are leaving soon, and are preparing for a transition back to America. It is a little hard, because it feels like another four months is a really long time at this point. But, I'm praying a lot and am still confident about the summer. I'm sure by the end it will have seemed like even eight months wasn't enough time in Uganda. I love and miss everyone back home, and don't hesitate to write or email! (Despite the rumors, I do receive letters here lol)

Happy day-after-Palm Sunday!

"In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."