Well. We went. We saw. We are back safe and sound in Jinja.
So we've been in Gulu for the past 2 days....for those unfamiliar, Gulu is in Northern Uganda where the Invisible Children movie was filmed, and where many of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps are for the 2 million people who have been forced out of their homes in the past 20 years because of the war between the Ugandan Goverment and the LRA rebel soldiers in the north.
It was safer than it sounds, I promise. We were never in danger. There were soldiers everywhere, but the town of Gulu itself has actually been pretty safe and free from LRA activity for the past year or two. Also, the peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan Government that started a month or so ago have been going well and there is a cease-fire between the two in effect right now.
We were there to meet with some pastors regarding opening a branch of STAO in Gulu, and to do an informal "needs assessment" of the people, the children, the schools, etc. We got in Tuesday night after the longest hottest busride in the entire universe....let's just say Ugandan public transportation isn't any of our favorite....heh. We saw a few of the displacement camps along the road on the way, and many houses that had been abandoned by people after the LRA had come through the area. Anyhow, we met the pastors who were hosting us, found our really nice 5$ a night guesthouse (seriously, it was sweet), and went to bed....
Early Wednesday morning we went to the World Vision Children of War Rehabilitation Centre....for kids who had recently (within 6 weeks) either escaped or been rescued from captivity of the LRA (hey if all this LRA talk is confusing, invisiblechildren.com will explain it for ya....) soldiers. We got to sit with them for their morning devotions and prayers and worship...there were only about 20 kids staying there at the moment, many had recently returned to their villages, but it was really insane being able to meet these kids of whom, we were later told, many have been forced to kill their own parents, siblings, friends, and the young girls are used as sex slaves for the older LRA commanders. I could see the visible scars on many of them....wounds from machetes mostly , a couple were missing limbs, but most of their trauma is psychological. Yet, they sing and dance like normal kids...I was pretty amazed. There is another program that WV runs for child mothers...there were about 50 or so young girls(13-18) that were used as sex slaves and now have young babies as a result....so after their escapes, WV helps them with caring for their kids, getting job skills, counseling, etc. But the best part, for us, was to watch them all sing songs and run around playing games (which we got to join in...wait till you see the pictures)...the staff told us it's to help their psychological trauma. Really great time for us though...how they ran around with their babies on thier backs still baffles me.
After WV we got to go tour the Invisible Children offices. I actually ran into one of the guys, chris, who I had worked with in Seattle on the IC night commute in April....I didn't know he was coming to gulu, so it was neat to see him. But we met with a girl named Katie, whom I've heard about for probably 2 years now since I first got involved with IC, she gave us a run-down on exactly what IC is doing in Gulu, how effective their new programs have been, etc. I won't go into detail, but talk to me when we get back if you're interested....but they are doing some GREAT things in gulu, so that was really exciting to see.
After the IC offices we got to tour one of the IDP camps. Little did we know at the time, but we were being taken there by Uganda's President Museveni's sister-in-law. The camp had about 20,000 people...pretty big. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected.....though, we were told we were at the "nicest" camp of them all, I sort of wish we had gotten to see the worse ones, but we would've had to pay to have soldiers come with us (roads further out from gulu are still not completely safe from LRA). There were just thousands of huts packed together....kids everywhere....the camps are really unsanitary though, because of the congestion, also there are almost no jobs for the people, so they are mostly reliant on aid organizations for food and other necessities. Still, there were malnourished and sick kids at this camp, and we were told that many more people are starving to death and dying of malaria in the other camps.
Wednesday night we got to go visit an organization called AMAREF, which has a compound for the child night commuters that have not been able to sleep at home for fear of being captured by the rebels. So, they walk there every night and go home every morning. There were only a little over 100 kids (down from over 1500) , because technically it is supposed to be safe for them to sleep at home now, but many still choose to come to the center out of fear, and many are homeless. We sang with them and talked with them a little, they are really precious kids and it kills me when I think of what they've gone through....
Today we came home in a much cooler but cockroach infested bus, and we shared our foot room with crowing roosters (thats africa for you...). We are so, so glad we got to go to Gulu. Everything I wrote really doesn't begin to explain the experience, it was so amazing to see this place, and there is so much hope for peace and rebuilding there.....it was cool. I feel really blessed that we got to go experience it a little.
Anyhow, now we're really tired and ready for bed.
love and miss you guys....
kate :)
