Uganda Love It!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Arua, West Nile

I recently took a quick trip up to the West Nile region, to see the sights of Arua, its biggest town, and visit some volunteers posted there. The West Nile, home to the Alur people, is somewhat isolated from the rest of Uganda due to its division by the Albert Nile. Because of the convenience of Uganda's roads and public transportation system (sarcasm), it takes longer for me to get from my site in the north to Arua, then it would take for me to get to Kampala. That said, I think this was my one and only trip over, although I found it to be lovely and much different from the rest of the country. It's sandwiched between the DRC and S. Sudan, has paved roads and nice buildings. Nice time.

Local volunteers had us over for a lovely dinner

Veggies straight from her garden

Ladies selling fish and eel from the Nile

Grapevines.... do they make wine here?!?

You can't really see them... but there are elephants in this pic. Just hanging out alongside the road.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Water & Sanitation

I had my very first visitors to Pajule! Griffin and her co-worker John, a wat/san specialist, stopped by on the way home from Peace Camp to give a training at the vocational center in Lapul sub-county. The org that I'm working with for my secondary project is building eco-san toilets for the women's group. John gave a talk about how to maintain them and how to properly use the 'waste products' as fertilizer.

I also showed them all the sights of Pajule- the market, the piggery, my office, the church, etc. We also had delicious fried chicken and chips for dinner. Hopefully I can get them to come back to visit again sometime!
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John talking to the ladies

Florence and her kiddos

Building the toilets

Eco San under construction

Griffin and a worker

Funny pic of construction staff

Typical hut- this one is just behind the vocational center

The women learning about how the toilets will work

Sorghum field

Mr. Odong, Florence's husband and the only man working at the vocational center

The group with John and Griffin

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Peace Camp 2012

Last week, I participated in a week-long 'Peace Camp' for youth affected by the war in greater northern Uganda. It was a real learning experience for me and one that I won't soon forget. The 'youth' (17-25 year olds) participated in fun, educational and spiritual sessions in hopes of encouraging reconciliation among tribes, forgiveness of past events, to promote team building and positive communication and to provide skills and ideas for long and successful futures.

There were 80 youth in total, split into 8 teams of 10. I was the counselor for team 'Golden Peace,' named after our yellow shirts. My campers are beyond awesome. All of the youth that were selected for the camp were impacted by the war in some way. Many boys were abducted and trained in the bush as child soldiers, many girls were raped or forced to 'marry' LRA soldiers, and all lost family members to the war. The stories I heard at camp were horrific and unimaginable. I don't know how these youth have managed to cope with what they've witnessed and experienced. Their resiliency is astonishing. Their faith and hope for the future is inspiring. This isn't to say that they're fully adjusted. Many suffer from PTSD and few have received professional counseling.

I was particularly touched by the experiences one of my campers shared with me. It isn't my story to tell so I won't go in to detail here, but I'll be thinking of ways that I can help him fund his continued education. I don't think there's a more deserving person in the world. After surviving unimaginable circumstances, he now supports his only two surviving siblings (six siblings, including his twin, were killed) and his mother, all while continuing to pay his way through school. He is focused on his future and is working hard to attend school, despite the challenge of earning money in Uganda. I hope that I can come up with some way to help.

Peace Camp was a great learning experience for me, and this blog post really isn't doing it justice. The campers and their stories had a huge impact on me, and I think that they gained a lot from the camp as well. Since many of the youth aren't in school, this provided an opportunity for them to socialize with their peers outside their villages, become friends with people from other tribes, they could identify with one another's experiences, confront some of their past traumas, and learn skills and have fun in the process. I think that these camps are one of the most meaningful activities that Peace Corps sponsors and I'm glad I could be a part of it.