away and back again...

I am back in Kampala for the last couple of days but internet connectivity has been spotty here at the guest house and I have had no energy for the internet cafe's, so I am taking this opportunity to get something out. Last Friday we left Kampala after a few days rest.

We headed north east to Soroti to meet with an organization working with the northwestern Karamajong clans and their conflict with the people of Teso. These ethnic groups border each other - the Karamajong are historically nomadic cattle herders (similar to the Masai in Kenya - sharing a common lineage I believe) and are a warrior clan. The Teso are agriculturalists. The conflict centers around (bus is not limited to) access to land for grazing and water cattle. We met with a local grassroots organization that has been working with these two communities since 1991. The group is made up of Karamojong and Teso people who see a nonviolent alternative to the conflict and are in essence setting up peace villages in the most contentious areas to model peaceful coexistence. I was very moved by the work they do. They do much more than that but it revolves around this core.


In my guidebook all that was said about Soroti was this 'rock' that comes up out of the flat terrain and around which the town was built. Interesting...

From Soroti (6 hours by bus from Kampala) we continued on the following day to Lira (about 3 hours by minibus taxi) and spent some time with a 19 year old student we had met in Gulu at the girls tailoring centre (for child mothers and formerly abducted girls primarily). We enjoyed a night there and then continued north to Pader.

Pader is a town that came to be during the war because of the needs of the IDP camps. There are many IDP camps here and the town emerged primarily, it seems, to house local and international NGOs and is now a small town. This means however that it is not serviced by buses or even taxis. So, we get in the cab of a truck, carrying goods and people in the back as well and after about 2 1/2 hours we stopped at an IDP camp and the driver turned to us and said get out here for Pader. Well this was a camp and it wasn't Pader. He told us the truck was not going directly to Pader and Pader was 5 km away and he waved in the general direction. Okay - it's 1:30 pm and clear blue skies, not a cloud! and hot. But really, 5 km? We can do that. Yet, we hadn't planned on walking so did we have water? no. Had we eaten that day? not really very much. Was there any other option? no. Okay, off we go...below is the picture I took to mark the beginning of our trek...


It varied little. Well, I walk 5 km fairly frequently in Toronto and have an idea how long it might take. We think it was really 10-15 km. We finally saw Pader (see below snap) at the top of the hill at around 4 pm. We were dehydrated and exhausted and would have been seriously sunburned if I hadn't had the forethought to wear a long sleeved cotton shirt (do not travel in Africa without one!!!)


Pader is the same latitude as Gulu and is hot and dry. Sleeping was difficult as there was no air movement, but exhaustion enabled some sleep. The following day we met with an organization, Friends of Orphans, that works with returned and rehabilitated former child soldiers and other formerly abducted and vulnerable children, including child mothers. They have a vocational training school, human rights projects and HIV/AIDS education programs. They are a small staff, all war-effected themselves (their founder and director is a former child soldier himself). Again, a very moving meeting and inspiring people who are finding hope in the aftermath of this brutal war. I'll talk more about the war itself and the IDP camps in person - it's too much for me to sum up here)

Below are some images of Pader...




The next day we're up early to get the truck to take us back to Lira, to connect with the taxi to Soroti where we had a follow up meeting with the organization (Christian International Peace Service) that we'd met on the way up to discuss a possible visit to their project sites.

Well, we get to the truck (it's about 8 a.m.) and while one can 'book' the seats in the cab, when we arrived there were two women in the cab with very small babies. We weren't about to displace them. So, we climbed up onto the back of the truck and settled in with (at my colleagues count) approximately 35 other adults and children (most on their way to Lira which is the closest place to sell their goods or to buy many items). Needless to say we were packed in! I was very scared of falling off (I was sitting on a bundle of firewood at the edge of the truck, with my legs over the side) whenever the truck maneuvered around and through potholes, sometimes leaning quite far over. But, we made it with only one flat tire! Below is a picture of our truck as the tire is being changed on the other side - imagine it packed body to body!


And below is a picture my colleague took (she stood most of the way holding onto the bar behind the cab) of the density of people. Isn't she a beautiful little girl in purple? No complaints from most of the children. They are used to this mode of travel.


The trip took close to 3 hours and when we arrived in Lira - we were coated in red dust. But, we were safe and in one piece!


Another snapshot of people we saw along the way (really we can not even complain about our walk on Sunday - for most people here, it's not uncommon)

Finally, on Wednesday morning we boarded a bus back to Kampala - from Soroti the roads are good (mostly) and we enjoyed delicious fresh chapatis at the bus park in Mbale - see the chapati makers at work below.

We arrived back in Kampala late afternoon on Wednesday and last night were rejoined by our colleagues who returned from Goma and Bukavu (via Kigali in Rwanda) in DR Congo.

We are now preparing for Christmas here in Uganda.