Happy New Year from Gulu!

Happy New Year from Gulu!

The other day I was going to start my blog “and then there were two”, but really there are four now in Gulu. On Wednesday, we waved goodbye to Beth and waved hello to Stuart and Josephine. Stuart is Sweet Sleep’s VP of Operations and Josephine is SS in country staff person, she lives in Kampala, but came up for a few days.

Before Beth left, she and I hopped on Boda Bodas (motobikes) and cruised on over to Home of Love. Boda Bodas are always an experience in any third world country. I like taking them, but they can be dangerous, Uganda is no exception. You always see families on a two person boda boda, Dad, Mom, four kids and a chicken, it seems, but they are an experience you should have, if you get the opportunity.

Beth wanted to hang the swings she had made and I wanted to do some finger painting and drawing with the kids one last time. I’m sad to say that Patrick and Fa Fa had been picked up by their mom for a few days, so we missed them, but all the other kids from Christmas were at the orphanage. Now I know you are wondering what these kids from an orphanage are doing with their mother, but she is basically unfit to take care of them, however she has the right to pick them up for a few days if she wants. I’d love to tell you more about these kids but in the interest of not exploiting them, I can’t tell their story.

Beth is in the process of getting the swings hung with Bosco (HOL’s full time social worker and all around great great guy). I’m in the nursery school getting the paints and paper out with Catherine, Moris, Junior, Alan and little Moses. I’m demonstrating doing hand prints when I realize I have nothing to wipe my hand on, so what do I so just wipe them on my pants, the kids thought that was hysterical. I told them to wipe their hands on my pants, until we could get a bucket of water for them to wash their hands. Catherine, Moses, Alan and Junior all did some great painting…Little Moses (who I found out is 2 and seriously eats like an NFL linebacker thanks to ringworm) proceeds to pick up a jar of paint (I have my back turned to him), unscrews the lids and dumps almost the entire contents onto the concrete floor. About 10 minutes later, I’m helping Jasper with a painting, so I set my camera down, I then say “oooh Catherine, I want to take a picture of you with your painting”…”where is my camera?”…oh yeah about 2 millimeters away from being in little Moses grimy hands….I’m like slow motion “noooooo”. Later on Bosco is sitting with Moses, oh yeah moses is eating some blue colored pencil….I’m like Bosco- Moses is eating colored pencil… got some great shots…err I mean snaps of blue pencil oozing out of his little mouth.

Once Stuart and Josephine arrived from Kampala, they were picking up Jen and then heading out to HOL, to drop some of the bedding supplies they had brought with them for HOL from Kampala and pick up Beth and I. I didn’t have my phone, so Bosco had to text Candis (I’ve been spelling her name wrong in this blog the whole time btw) to get Jen’s number (I wasn’t sure Jen knew how to get out there), then he didn’t have any airtime. Quick side note- in Uganda, no one has a phone plan, you have to buy airtime, X amount of Shillings at a time. They sell airtime all OVER creation here. HOL is a bit out of town, so I say to Bosco, I’ll give you 5,000 shillings, can you go buy airtime. He says “yes I’ll be right back” I kid you not he was gone for less than 10 minutes, where in the world he bought that airtime I have no idea, but it’s funny to me that airtime is so readily available anywhere in Uganda.

The team made it to HOL, we offloaded mats, nets, bibles and blankets. The mattresses for HOL are due to arrive on Tuesday, unfortunately we will be back in Kampala and won’t be able to help with the installation of the beds. BUM-MER!

We then said goodbye to the kids, unfortunately, it will be the last time we see them this trip. However, I’m traveling with an AWESOME photo printer and just printed off about 50 snaps to give to Candis and Jerry to give to the kids.

We also had to say goodbye to Beth, but not before she tracked down the only vet in Gulu to get eyed drops for a dog named Wendy down the street. Beth has the biggest heart for all animals, you could call it a curse and a blessing. Beth pet and attempted to feed every stray dog that we came across. Along with picking some MONGO- ticks off one dog with her bare fingers….grrrrroooosss.

So it’s not Saturday night and I’m just getting back to working on this blog…so let me summarize the past few days.

Thursday, Jen, Stuart, Josephine and myself headed to the Obiya camp with the Village of Hope crew to deliver our last 110 beds to the IDP camps. The hardest part about giving these beds away in the camps, is not everyone gets one. The kids who receive the beds from Sweet Sleep are enrolled in Village of Hope’s program, so there are many kids who are still in the camps, yet don’t receive anything from us. I think that is one of the hardest things being over here. The need is so immense but you have to focus on one need and then you can’t give it to everyone, because the funds simply do not stretch that far.

We celebrated NYE here and boy did we go all out. I blow dried my hair and put on my jeans with my Merrells that give me just a little lift. We had dinner at Kope Café and then went back to Roma for a round of Phase 10, while the rest of Gulu drank their faces off and bumped the bass like nobody’s business. Seriously, Gulu has no infrastructure and sometimes we don’t have electricity, but these people know how to “pump up the jams” via generator. You really have to hear it for yourself, to hear exactly how loud it can be. As the clock struck midnight, three different locations shot off fireworks….for those of you following along closely, you know that it’s only been a year-ish since the LRA stopped all the fighting up here and there’s still a risk…the first firework went off and Jen and I jumped so high and then almost hit the ground. It was sorta funny and sorta not.

New Year’s Day we were invited to Candis and Jerry’s house and then we played a few games of Phase 10. It was pretty low key. Oh Jen did pluck my eyebrows for me, she was sick of looking at the caterpillars growing on my forehead, you know they are bad, when Jen is offering to pluck them for me.

This morning we went to an orphanage to check out their beds and needs. Until you see it for yourself, your comprehension of what it’s like to be raised in a third world orphanage, is hard to even fathom. Don’t get me wrong, I think this orphanage is doing the best they can with the resources and funds that are available to them…BUT….well BUT.
We were greeted as we got out of the car by a bunch of 3 and 4 year old who were excited to shake our hands, hold our hands, yearning for some kind of loving touch, along with looking at themselves in the rear bumper of the car. Brenda this little girl immediately latched onto my hand and walked with us into the Matron’s office. As soon as we had met the Matron, I asked if I could take photos, but she said she wanted to chat first which is understandable, before I started snapping. While we were in her office, I put Brenda on my lap and had so much fun just hugging her and bouncing her around. We then walked around the orphanage looking at all the beds, bedding etc. We had about ten 3-4 years olds following our every move…during that time I pulled a button out of a little boy’s mouth, that he was chewing on, a piece of wood from another one and a rock from another. Is it because of their age they all had something in their mouth or is it because they are hungry? I’m not sure I can answer that question.

This afternoon, we headed out to the Amuru district to learn more about the people who are still in the IDP camps out there, who are still waiting to be resettled. We were greeted by approximately 20 senior citizens, I was honestly shocked by how old some of them were, due to the fact there has been a war going on in this part of the country for the past 20 year. Some were as old as 90….most were women and all of their stories were the same: taking care of their grandchildren or other orphans, there own daughters and sons “slaughtered” by the rebels, not killed, not murdered, but slaughtered. There’s something about the word slaughtered that sends chills down my spine. Things they need: shelter, food, water, they aren’t asking for much but, the Amuru district is way the heck out in BFE and I’m not even kidding, even if these seniors were in shape to make a living, I’m not sure what they would do, the gap between old and young in this area is tremendous. The kids aren’t able to go to school out there yet, because there isn’t a teacher to teach them, as you can see you’re head could spin off your neck if you started to look at all of the needs there in Amuru District. Yet as we were coming into town, we passed a Boda Boda with a big ass speaker and sound board strapped to the back of it….at least the NYE party was bumping 

Not today, but in the next week or so, I’ll discuss my opinion on the NGOs working in Gulu and the importance of SUSTAINABILITY when working in a third world country.

It’s midnight here in Gulu and I’m tired. My hotel room is one gigantic hot mess and we leave around noon tomorrow for Kampala.

Today I was looking at my photos and my heart was heavy, I’m looking forward to being home, but I’ve definitely left a piece of me here and I suspect I will be back, hopefully sooner rather than later.