Sunday February 7 2010. 8:12 am Gulu, Uganda.
I am staying in an apartment with this guy, Julius, who is in his 20’s and his fiancé, Doreen. They are both really busy with work and get home late but they are incredibly sweet! Today was so much better than yesterday when I was extremely homesick! I made friends with this guy George who drives us around! He is 24 and is trying to make enough money to go back to school and study mechanical engineering! The car is a wee bit small and has no a/c (which is really not fun in this ridiculously HOT weather) and getting driven places here is always an adventure! Today when we were driving he ran out of gas so we had to get someone on a “boda boda” (which is the main form of transportation here: motorcycles) to go get us a jerry can filled with petrol. Almost everyone here uses the boda bodas to get around but our program does not allow us to ride on them.
At first it was very difficult to deal with the poverty I am surrounded by and for some reason I felt a very big emotional disconnect and was having trouble processing what I was seeing. But since I have been talking with people and making friends I become more and more touched by the fact that although life here is difficult for many they are still happy, laughing and making the most out of their days. It is especially difficult hearing about how peoples lives have been so affected by the war in Northern Uganda, especially here in Gulu. This region has been in war for 23 years and only since 2006 has this area been safe enough for people to leave IDP (internally displaced people) camps and go back home to live a “normal” life. It really really makes me appreciate how lucky I am NOT to have to suffer through a war and losing people who I love. Thousands (I think 30,000) of children are unaccounted for in this region and have either lost their lives, been abducted by the LRA or have just “disappeared” and it does not seem real to me when I hear stories from people who’s lives have been changed forever because of who knows what? Money? Politics? Revenge? Selfish interest? Another thing I am learning is that all I can do at this point in my life is to learn. For some reason I had this idea that I would be able to “help” but I am realizing who am I really to “help”? what does that even mean? I do think the most important thing right now is for me to just listen and learn through interacting with the people here who each have something to teach me in their own little ways.
