At the mango tree, there is a path

Wow! I can’t believe it’s Saturday at 4:30PM..So much has happened in the past 48 hours…where do I begin? First let me apologize this blog may not be in perfect paragraph form, but we’ll see how I do.

Thursday morning began with a 7 hour drive from Kampala to Gulu, along a fairly decent road if you exclude the numerous speed bumps that are in the road. Supposedly to slow the traffic, as road workers are working alongside it, the trip was uneventful. We passed many villages, waved at lots of kids and noticed the ubiquitous buildings with various advertisements painted on them; Coca-Cola, Mobile Phone, Cement, Paint and Detergent companies all paying the owners of the buildings a small fee to paint their building a bright red, yellow, blue, or all of the above.

Things I noticed:
Small children as young as 3 or 4 carrying jerry cans to fetch water from who knows how far away.

Primary and Secondary schools fairly frequent some within just a few miles of each other. These schools are typically one room buildings, and education is not free in Uganda.

Large bags of coal strapped on the back of bikes, balanced on heads, in large trucks.

Fruit stands of mangos, limes, Jack Fruit (seriously bigger than your head, I’ve seen some big Jack Fruit in SE Asia, honestly Uganda has them beat big time)

Very lush, green landscape, it does get drier the further north you travel, but overall Uganda is pretty green.

Many police checks, we were stopped about 4 times, bloody police checks make me nervous in any country.

We also crossed over the Nile, we had to stop prior to the bridge to take a photo, because it is illegal to take pictures from the bridge…word on the street is due to “security purposes”, they even have a guard that stands on it to make sure no one takes a picture. Quite humorous.

Gulu is vastly different than Kampala. Kampala is a large booming city, where as Gulu is more like a small size town in terms of infrastructure and supplies, there are about 1 million people that live in the Gulu District. 750,000 of them children, many with out parents.

We arrived to Hotel Roma, our accommodations are fine, but so far I’ve taken only cold showers here. I really don’t mind, as I’m usually so hot, sticky and gross by the time I get back to my hotel, I do not care.

Once we got checked into our hotel, we took our big ol bus to Jeffrey’s house to store all of the blankets, nets, bibles and mats in his shed. Jeffrey works with the organization African Leadership and has quite a nice house, with barb wire around and a locked gate. Most houses near him are huts; there is quite a difference between his land and the people around him. As he was giving directions to Rose he said, “At the Mango Tree, you will find a path”, that cracked us up. Kinda like in Nashville, when I say “take a left by the big church on the corner”.

After we offloaded at Jeffrey’s we headed to the Abili Camp, it is formally an IDP that is now “closed”, but people still live there. The government is working on getting people back to their villages and out of the IDP camps. The kids were adorable, friendly and LOVED getting their picture taken and then looking at themselves on the screen. We watched the older kids who are part of “Village of Hope” (an organization that works with Sweet Sleep in identifying who needs a bed- which is pretty much everyone in this town, but you have to start somewhere), they performed a number of songs for us. Rose (a Gulu local who works for Village of Hope), then explained to them that they would be receiving beds from us the next day, two kids got up to say thank you so much, may god bless you and the people of America, we will be praying for you all…all this stuff, that of course made me cry. Jen shot video of it, so one of these days it’ll be on my blog but not from here, as it took Jen 50 tries and lots of hours before one video finally uploaded and was sent to the states.

Friday morning we got to sleep in, which was glorious as the traveling, sun, and heat can really take it out of you. We went back to Jeffrey’s picked up 70 blankets, mats, nets and bibles to take to Abili Camp, we were greeted by the same sweet kids we had visited with the day before, along with many other kids. We enjoyed more song, dance, picture taking and then it was time to pass out the mattresses and the items we had brought from Jeffrey’s house. It was organized chaos; it was also amazing how well the kids waited in line to receive their items. Rose told us that some of these kids now live in villages 12KM from where they would receive their mattresses. Many of them were rolled up, put on back of bikes, balanced on heads away they go. All of these kids live in huts that are no bigger than about 8 feet in circumference, I know many of you have in your mind that these beds are on frames, for the children of Gulu that is not the case and you will see that from the pictures I will post. The beds we gave them consisted of a straw mat, a foam mattress with “fitted” sheet, fuzzy blanket, a mosquito net and a bible. I said to Jen or Beth last night, I’d love to see how many of the kids squeezed onto one bed last and how well they slept this morning, prior to receiving these beds, many slept on the ground or a papyrus mat. After the beds were passed out we left the camp and headed back to the hotel. Beth and I went and grabbed dinner down the street. We had tilapia and fries, it was very good, but I did have to de-bone Beth’s for her, as she doesn’t like eyeballs staring back at her…I suppose I’m still a savage at heart 

This morning we got up early and headed to Lapora Camp which is about 10 miles outside of Gulu and down a very bumpy, pot hole-y kind of road. This camp was much larger than the Abili camp and the kids were in worse shape than the ones we saw yesterday. You’ll notice from my pictures, these kids’ clothes-- the ones in Lapora some are wearing essentially rags. I’m assuming they don’t get clothes as often as the Abili camp because they are off the beaten path.

Today I busted out fingernail polish which was a big hit, a jump rope and three of the donated cameras. Kids of all ages had a big time getting their nails painted, jumping rope and snapping some pictures. I’ve been trying to avoid using the word “shooting” or “shots” when referring to photography among these kids. I ventured around this camp a bit more than the one yesterday and got some great photos. The kids had a blast telling me to take pictures of goats, ducks, cats, themselves, etc. Most kids speak a little English, they will say “hello”, “how are you”, “I am fine”, “what is your name?”, “my name is”. I’m attempting to learn Acholi, but it’s a bit difficult.

In both camps, I’ve been asked by kids for a drink of water, I have to say no because I simply am not carrying enough to share, there are wells within the camps but it breaks my heart to have to say no. I find myself taking very small, quick sips, so I’m not doing it in front of the kids. I did notice today in Lapora that the kids were eating mangos and possibly oranges, but there are many kids with distended bellies, along with symptoms of TB and malaria.

Other things I’ve seen in the past 48 hours:

Small kids as young as 5 and 6 carrying their younger brothers and sisters on their backs.

A woman in a wheelchair who was so thin, I bet her wrist was no more than 2 inches in circumference.

A sign demanding “our teachers deserve better pay”

Loads of UN vehicles

Dead chickens hanging from the handlebars of a bike

A baby sleeping on the ground in a hut.

A beautiful African sunset.

A couple of young boys saying “Mzungu (white person) where are you going?” on our way out to the Lapora camp.

Tonight we plan on laying low, there is a rocking DJ ½ block from our hotel…currently bumping the jams at 6pm, hopefully the rolling blackouts will begin sooner rather than later. I’m hoping to go to bed very early tonight.

Tomorrow morning a new Bishop is being inaugurated to Northern Uganda and President Museveni is going to be in attendance. Jen does not want to go, Beth is still TBD, but I plan on hopping on a Boda Boda (motorbike) and hitching a ride to where it’s all going down….I’m sure there will be plenty of photography opportunities, Depending on how far away it is, I may walk back…because that always adds to a better experience with the people when you’re on foot.

I can’t believe today is only our second full day here. I feel like I’ve been here a lifetime. It should be a requirement that all Americans experience a week in a third world country. We would all come back thankful and appreciative for all that we have right at our fingertips.