51 Days Left in Uganda

My leave time is officially over.  I'm sitting in the Kampala office right now.  For some reason I didn't have internet access all morning, and now I do, so I'm updating this before getting back to work.

Kevin and I had an absolutely wonderful time together here.  The trip started with him coming to Kitgum for 5 days, during which I had to work, he came to the office and hung out with some coworkers, we went to Kidepo Valley NP (and crossed the unmarked and unguarded border into Southern Sudan), and we went to a memorial day cookout several Peace Corps people, a Spanish MSF employee, David from Oxfam (who thankfully returned my Its Always Sunny dvds that his colleague had borrowed in Feb and failed to give back when he left Uganda in April) and a few other random people who happened to be/live in Kitgum.  From there, we braved taking the bus from Kitgum to Kampala - Homeland: The Northern Express - and arrived, very much to my surprise and probably thanks to Kevin for staying awake the entire ride, without being victims of theft.  After a night in Kampala, we were picked up by Nile River Explorers and headed to Jinja to go whitewater rafting on the Victoria Nile.  Neither of us had been rafting before, and I think we were both a bit disappointed with the lack of adventure and the high amount of "downtime" during which we had to paddle for about two hours to get to more rapids.  Either way, it was still a fun experience, and hopefully we have a DVD of the day heading to Boston as I write this.  Unfortunately there are no photos, both because we didn't think to bring a camera for before/afterwards, and because they don't have photographers taking action shots (but you all know that if they did, I'd probably have purchased some of the ultra-touristy action shots).  After that all-day adventure, we crashed in Jinja for a night, and headed back to Kampala to stay at the Golf Course Hotel for one night before embarking on our safari tour.  The GCH was awesome - perhaps the nicest traditional hotel I've ever stayed at; it's right downtown, super-fancy, catered towards business travelers, I believe (the ICC conference seemed to be providing most of the clientele while we were there).  It also has the 6th revolving restaurant in Africa, and the only one in Uganda, which we were able to eat at.  The safari was lovely - we began on Friday morning and drove just under halfway, stopping at Mihingo Lodge  at Lake Mburo National Park for the night.  It is by far the most gorgeous lodge I've ever been to; it's built into the mountains with fantastic views.  Unfortunately we were there for less than 24 hours, but we were still able to see zebras & elands drinking from a watering hole from the balcony of our luxurious tent and vervet monkeys playing on the rocks right next to the deck!  We also had a boat trip on the lake, during which I had a minor panic attack and discovered what is quite possibly my biggest fear in life: hippos. No joke.  Our boat was very small, and hippos are quite large and cause many deaths to people in boats.  We went with an AK-47-wielding UWA guide, but that's not very comforting when he's in the back steering the boat directly towards herds of hippos and you're in the front.  The next morning we left Lake Mburo bright & early for the drive to an equally amazing stay at Bwindi Lodge in Buhoma.  To my surprise, we drove a slightly indirect route that took us through the outskirts of Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we saw some herds of elephants and the destruction that elephants can cause when they knock down many trees.  We arrived too late in the afternoon to go on our scheduled nature walk, so we instead tried to do a self-guided walk within the park, but were told it was closed because the mountain gorillas were in the area.  So we instead went for a walk along the river on the property, walked around the community, visited a couple craft shops, and went to the local orphanage and saw children sing & dance in what was quite possibly the most non-touristy tourist attraction ever. We had a relaxing night, hanging out in the main building, and talking with the manager.  The following morning, we woke up super early to go mountain gorilla tracking!  Hooray!  We both expected it to be much more difficult than it actually was; they say that it can take the entire day to reach where they are, but it only took us about 10 or 15 minutes to reach where our group of gorillas was.  We spent about an hour seeing them/photographing them, and one of the juveniles even came up and tugged on my pants leg (and didn't bite me)!  They say that you're supposed to stay a certain distance away from them, but lot of the gorillas came close to us, and the UWA guides were great about positioning us in the best places for great shots/views.  Since we were done with our tracking in about two hours, we headed back to our lodge to change and have a snack; we got there, the staff told us that the gorillas had reached  the property before us; unfortunately we missed most of them, but we were able to see a straggler next to the main building!  Later that day we went on the self-guided walk in the park as well as a nice 3-hour hike  up to 3 waterfalls in the rain before returning to the lodge for  drinks, dinner, and good conversation with our guide and  the two other guests staying at the lodge.  The following morning we embarked on the day-long journey back to Entebbe, where our hotel was decent, but definitely outdated and sub-par compared to the GCH and lodges we'd recently stayed at.    Our trip ended with a day in Kampala, picking up my packed suitcase to send home with Kevin, eating some good, American pizza at the muzungu shopping mall, and braving the taxi park to buy some underpriced bootleg DVDs.

Here's a summary of our trip in photos (I'm excluding things from Kidepo because I got really excited about it after we went and already posted some photos).  There are many, many more photos; some I uploaded to facebook when we had internet access in Kampala/Entebbe, but the rest will have to wait until I'm home or somewhere else where facebook isn't blocked.

1. The day after Kevin arrived, at our monthly staff feedback session (free dinner & drinks)
2. Before going to dinner at the revolving restaurant in Kampala
3. The mass of long-horned cattle that blocked the road to Lake Mburo
4. Sunset view from our deck at Mihingo Lodge in Lake Mburo
5. View of our banda at Mihingo
6. Walking along the river at Bwindi Lodge
7. Mountain Gorilla
8. Juvenile gorilla playing 
9. Silverback
10. Third waterfall that we hiked to
11. At our hotel in Entebbe
12. At the "beach" at Lake Victoria

Kidepo Valley National Park

On Friday evening, Kevin & I along with my coworker/friend Judith & two IRC expats visiting Kitgum headed up to Kidepo Valley NP in the far northeast of Uganda, bordering Sudan & Kenya.  We went in an IRC vehicle with a very good driver (Jacob), who has driven up there three times before, so he knew the roads and what to expect.  Though it rained at some point and there were definitely parts of the road that were terribly muddy, the drive there was uneventful, took about 3 hours, and we didn't get stuck anywhere.  We arrived just in time for dinner and to watch the moon rise.  As we were driving into the park on our way to our hostel, we saw buffalo & giraffes in the distance.  We enjoyed an evening by a large campfire, a nice dinner, and good (though controversial) conversation with our UWA guide and some other rangers/visitors.  We also ran into another IRC employee, who was up for the night with a group of her friends, which was kind of ironic, considering we were about 3 hours away from Kitgum, and national staff don't usually tend to go to the park.  Saturday morning we left at 6:30 for a game drive, which was awesome.  The UWA truck was broken, so we did our game drive sitting on top of the IRC LandCruiser, the 5 of us and our guide.  Jacob once again did a great job as our driver, being especially careful with us on top, which was definitely much appreciated.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of all of us piled up there, but it's okay, because we saw many wonderful things, including lions, lionesses, baboons, giraffes, antelope, many many many buffalo, waterbuck, jackals, elephants, zebras, an old abandoned hotel that Idi Amin built, and so much beautiful scenery as Kidepo is surrounded by mountains.  We returned from our morning game drive around 10am, enjoyed some tea and Rolexes (chapattis with eggs inside rolled not unlike a burrito), and went out again to see some more animals, visit some natural hotsprings, and see the Sudanese border.  While out the second time, we also passed through the area where the rhinos will be eventually; years ago there were rhinos native to Kidepo, but during the 60s & 70s they were all killed during some chaotic times.  Overall, the park was wonderful, I'm very glad we got to go at least for one night (planning was quite difficult), and I definitely hope that I can visit again before I leave Uganda.

Just a few photos of what we saw.  There are many, many more, but these are some of my faves.

this is the view from the top floor of the old Katurum Lodge, built by Amin.  

Lazy Weekend

Last weekend I meant to be really productive.  I had big plans.  Unfortunately, I wasn't so productive.  I spent all day Saturday hanging out with a friend from the Peace Corps and another expat who runs/works at a nice local restaurant/hotel in town (that basically only expats or NGO workers hang out at).  We didn't do much, just hung out, chatted, drank some beer.  In the evening a Kenyan NGO worker stopped by.  I'd never met him before, but I found the conversation with him to be very interesting, especially hearing his views about maternal health & nutrition.  He didn't share too much, but talked about how his parents are/were pastoralists.  Sunday I spent laying in the sun at my house and reading a book, because I was too lazy to go anywhere, and because my bank card no longer works, so I don't have any money to spend on anything in town.  That's okay, though, because I very much enjoyed having some sun for a change.  While I was outside reading, I happened to look up and see a circular rainbow around the sun (hence the photo).  

Upcoming Events

things I'm looking forward to in the next month:

1. Kevin arrives on Wednesday!
2. Trip to Kidepo Valley National Park!
3. White water rafting on the Victoria Nile!
4. Seeing Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park!
5. Sending my suitcase of useless things (and gifts for people) home with Kevin.  
6. Traveling to Karamoja for 3 weeks, including a trip back to Nakapiripirit (which I have decided is my favorite place in Uganda), staying in Moroto, and a trip to Kotido.  This will hopefully include the purchase of some beaded jewelry (hopefully a collar neckalce, beaded earrings, and beaded waistbands that they wear), a Karamojong plaid skirt, a piece of plaid fabric to wear as a cape/shawl, and a fun hat that the Karamojong men wear.  I also aim to take many photos of the Karamojong wearing all of the above-stated things in the sad event that I am not able to purchase any/all of them for myself.  

things I'm not looking forward to in the next month:

1. All the work I have to do, especially things like creating charts and graphs in excel.  
2. Attempting to find a real job.  I should really start this tedious process, but I have very little motivation.

LRA Disarmament & Northern Uganda Recovery Act

From an email that I received today....

"Wednesday evening the US Congress passed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act following an affirmative vote in the House of Representatives. The vote was accompanied by several strong statements of support from influential Representatives calling for US leadership to support viable efforts to apprehend top LRA commanders and permanently end LRA atrocities in central Africa, as well as to hold the Ugandan government accountable for ensuring a transparent and comprehensive reconstruction process in northern Uganda. The legislation is now on President Obama's desk, and he has 10 days to either sign it into law or veto it.

The bill's passage reflects unprecedented consensus in Congress that President Obama should take stronger steps to help stop LRA violence and support efforts to secure lasting peace in northern Uganda. The legislation was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 65 Senators and 201 Representatives, making it the most widely supported Africa-specific bill in US history. Tens of thousands of US citizens mobilized in support of the legislation, including nearly 2,000 who participated in a Washington, DC lobby day last year and thousands more who participated in hundreds of meetings with Congressional offices across the country."

For more information on the bill, check out the ResolveUganda website here.

Photos From KJA

Near the border of Moroto District & Nakapiripirit District.  The Moroto municipality is at the base of the mountains.  Kenya is somewhere nearby.

Along the drive from Moroto to Nakapiripirit

View from the doorway of the Nakapiripirit IRC office.

Patrick & Lilly (IRC GBV staff) translating our questions into Karamojong & interviewing the 3 community support volunteers, their coordinator, and the CBO leader

Patrick, Lilly, & I with some of the women from WAPIIK

Me with some of the women in front of the WAPIIK office

Some of the kids that came to see the mzungu at WAPIK

A K'jong woman walking back from WFP food distribution.  You can't really see that she's wearing a somewhat traditional Karamojong outfit, but she is.

This is the road that the IRC office is on in Nakaps.  Warriors have crossed this road very close to the IRC office recently.  

More From my First Trip to Karamoja...

I wrote this last week, but I'm posting it now.  

So…I think there’s still hope that I may find a way to love at least part of Uganda.  Yes, that’s right, I said it.  I might not hate everything about Uganda.  As I write this, I’m sitting in my cottage at the Hill Top Resort in Nakapiripirit Town Council.  I’ve just had a lovely (albeit far more expensive than I’m used to at $5000 UGX – that’s about $2.50 for those of you trying to convert) dinner of matooke, beans and rice with some superb chili sauce and a Coke that tasted like it was bottled about 12 years ago.  But back to the fact that I’m staying at a hotel with the word “resort” in the name.  Let me assure you, it is, in fact, not a resort.  I am finding myself quite at home, though, bucket showers and all.  It doesn’t hurt that there are gorgeous mountains that form a semi-circle around us, though from the name of the place, you’d think we’d be located on the mountains. 

Before you continue reading, here’s a special warning for you, mom (and Colleen and Lynora if you’re reading this).  I know you three especially worry about me, and I feel like this is one of those things, like bungy-jumping, that’s best left until after the fact. 

Either way, I’m quite enjoying trip, and so far it has been filled with firsts: first time I’ve ever been in Karamoja (obviously), first time I’ve been East of Kampala, oh, and first time I’ve been left behind by a group of people (I was forgotten in Kampala, before the journey to Moroto even started).  Also, my first time wearing a bulletproof vest, and first time travelling in a convoy (okay, I’ve travelled in convoy before, but not for safety reasons), first time having to call someone for security updates on the road before traveling, ah and  perhaps most importantly, first time I’ve prayed before taking a car journey.  No problem with any of it, as everything worked out fine, the movement was safe, uneventful, and only slightly nerve-wracking. 

Today I left Moroto around 10:15, in a 2-vehicle convoy.  We had a regular pickup which carried some few staff, and me and a driver and the wife and baby of an IRC staff in a Land Cruiser.  We drove for maybe 20 kilometers only before we reached the district border.  The drive was absolutely stunning.  I didn’t know that there were going to be so many mountains so close to Moroto or Nakapiripirit, but there are, and they’re gorgeous.  I tried to take some photos and videos on the drive here, but I’m certain they wont do the landscape justice, especially since we couldn’t stop to take any photos.  Oh, speaking of photos, today I learned that they’re called “snaps.”  While meeting with the 2 GBV staff here, and the chairman of the CBO they’re working with (Bosco), he mentioned an incident in which some thugs attacked elderly & vulnerable people who were getting their WFP rations last week, and said that some of the CBO workers helped those who had been attacked, and even took some snaps of the scene to document it.

Anyways, we arrived a little past noon in Nakapiripirit Town Council (Ugandan districts are basically all the same, and not unlike having a state and a state capital with the same name).  We passed less than 10 villages/trading centers along the road the entire journey; as I said before, the landscape was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  Mountains and plateaus were all around, and the African bush was alongside the road except for when we came to small villages.  The road was dirt, but very high quality, as we were cruising well above the 80 km/hr IRC speed limit.  After arriving and meeting everyone (there are about 10 staff at the field office, which is the PERFECT size as far as I’m concerned), I had some few minutes to speak with Patrick & Lilly, the GBV staff, as the vehicles were being unloaded and reloaded for our trip to the village of Nabilatuk to meet with women from the local CBO called WAPIK (War Against Poverty in Karamoja).  We traveled in a convoy again, as just on Sunday some warriors were spotted crossing the road just down the hill from the IRC office.  I traveled in the Land Rover again, with Lilly and Patrick and the same driver that took me safely from Moroto to Nakaps.  In the other truck was someone from another department (I think health) who needed to stop at one of the Health Centers in a village along the way.  Lucky for him, we made it to the village where he was heading (called Tokora, which reminded me very much, but only in name, of Torocko, the Hungarian village we went to in Romania).  Just prior to reaching Tokora, we received word that there had been some disturbance on the “highway” (read: one-lane dirt road) earlier in the day, and that there were some 6 people shot in a scuffle between police/army and perhaps raiders/warriors.  We stopped at Tokora briefly so that someone could drop some things off, then headed back to the town council, following the UN convoy up a windy road that is apparently safer than the one we went down, though they seemed to actually just be opposite sides of the same road.  I’m still not quite sure what the cause of the exchange was, as I’ve heard conflicting stories.  I also heard that this news made its way to Kampala office, where the acting CD is, and that she was having some input into whether or not we will be able to go to Nabilatuk tomorrow (though that’ll obviously depend also on the LCs’ and IRC security recommendations/reports). 

Perhaps I need to explain, somewhat, the current situation in Karamoja.  The Karamojong people raise cattle, sheep, goats, etc.  They are somewhat nomadic in history, I believe, though there seem to be many small villages these days.  Poverty and hunger are both especially large-scale problems in this region, neither of which are helped in the least by the lack of care the rest of Uganda seems to have for this region.  Culturally, the Karamojong tend to use violence as a means to get what they want – whether it be raping women because the men want sex or ambushing convoys, or raiding cattle or any combination of several other things. 

Because we are not so far from the Kenyan border, there are Kenyan pastoralists (mainly the Kenyan Pokot, but also some Turkana, I think) who often come across the mountains to raid cattle.  Don’t get me wrong, from what I’ve heard, there is plenty of regional cattle-raiding done by Ugandan Pokot especially, but lately there’s also been a rise in the cross-border cattle raids.  I don’t know a ton about the situation, but from what I’ve heard, they don’t just raid cattle, but also goats, sheep, and other herded animals that are of value in this region.

Even though I've only been here about 24 hours, I'd like to provide some insight into why I might have a more positive attitude about Uganda if I'd gotten to live in the Karamoja region like I was originally supposed to.

Reasons why I like Karamoja so far:

1.     Everyone has been so nice to me so far.  And not the fake, “you’re a muzungu so I have to seem nice” type of nice.  When people say “you are welcome,” it seems like they mean it.  Both last night in Moroto and tonight in Nakaps IRC staff have taken me to my hotel, then come with me to reception to get my key and make sure everything was fine.  I’ve also just gotten a call from Sajja (coolest name ever?  Maybe.), the head transport guy in Moroto, just checking to see how my day was (well, I think, we got disconnected and I haven’t been able to get through to him, so that’s as far as our conversation was allowed to go). 

2.     Karamoja, Karamojong, and K’jong are all fun to say.  Oh, and so is Nakaps, the abbreviation for Nakapiripirit, though Nakapiripirit itself is fun to say too. 

3.     The K’jong girls wear amazing plaid skirts.   I really, really, really want to have someone make me one – most of them are kind-of patchwork-ish, and bounce and sway and make me want to twirl around. 

4.     The K’jong wear lovely beaded jewellery.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get some, though I am not quite sure where I could do that.  Perhaps the same person who helps me to obtain a fun plaid skirt can help me to get some new beads.  I hope.  They wear many layers of beaded necklaces – I’m sure there is some sort of significance to how/why/what colors they wear, but I’m not sure of it.  I have also seen some few women with what appear to be lovely beaded earrings, though from what I’ve seen, it kind of looks like you have to sit still while someone makes the beaded earrings through your ear piercing.  Oh man, if I could get a beaded hoop nosering…that would be STELLAR.  And by stellar, I mean the best souvenir I’ve ever gotten anywhere ever in life. 

5.     The K’jong wear a lot of plaid in general.  They have large pieces of plaid material that they wear as shawls, though some of the men wear them as skirts or a skirt-dress.  I’m sure I’m doing a horrible job of explaining this.  Hopefully we will be able to move to the village tomorrow and I can take some photos of the women we’ll meet with there.  Anyways, if you’re at all familiar with the Maasai of Kenya or Tanzania, the Karamojong are the Ugandan equivalent.  They are pastoralists, and have a terrible reputation among Ugandans as being backwards, dirty, uncivilized, dangerous, etc.  Almost all of my colleagues at IRC Kitgum were shocked when I said I was coming to Karamoja – they openly said that they’ve never been to this region because they’re fearing the K’jong.