Wednesday...Back to Kampala

Haven't posted for a few days - it has been a bit full on, trying to finish off at the Project and get myself sorted for leaving today - especially the money which has been a bit of a mission to get together since they don't take traveller's cheques anywhere and there are issues with the ATMs.  Am now in Kampala, back at the Hotel Bougainviller until I fly back to the UK on Friday.  Has been a long day - we left Kitgum at 7am to drive to Pader which is around 1 to 1.5 hours away.  The roads are better than from Gulu but still very challenging in parts and there were a couple of occasions when I thought we would get stuck.  We arrived at the airfield - literally in the middle of the bush.  A number of the team had travelled with me because they wanted to see me off.  I contacted the airline just to check on things, only to discover that the flight wouldn't be leaving until around 1 or 2 in the afternoon!!  We arrived at 9am.  Wasn't a good start for anyone.  Another vehicle then arrived with the country director for another NGO and he was severely unimpressed, having also been advised to arrive at 9am for the flight.  He then made several phone calls and in the end they diverted a flight from elsewhere to collect us at around 11am.  Until then, we headed back to Pader town where I treated the team to breakfast.

Was a nice send off at the Project yesterday - we had some barbecued pork (actually quite nice) and salad, a few drinks and everyone made a speech to say what they thought of me (!) - I then gave a speech on how much I had enjoyed the experience and working with them all and how sad I was to be leaving.   I hate good byes especially when I was leaving feeling that the work there had only just begun.  But I think I have made some useful contributions in terms of strengthening their systems, developing new templates for reporting and providing training for Robert on both Quickbooks and also more general areas to enhance his knowledge and skills.   There were one or two issues to deal with towards the end which I wasn't expecting but at least they felt open enough to disclose these for discussion.  In the afternoon, me, Chris and Robert met so that I could give a verbal summary of my key findings, the development work achieved and what further work there was still be done.



Looking out from the Town Meeting Room



 In the morning yesterday, I went on another field trip - to Namokura which was around an hour's drive from Kitgum, heading towards the mountains.  It is a beautiful area as you can see from the pictures.  Namokura is the main town for that particular district.  They were holding a child protection committee meeting there made up of various people from a range of disciplines.  It was good to go on the field trip but it is challenging when the entire meeting is conducted in Luo.  On the way to Namokura, we stopped at the village where Chris's family is from (the Programme Manager).  They are in Kitgum now after the rebels torched the village in 2002.  People are now beginning to return there and rebuild the village and he hopes to move his family back there next year.  I discovered that he is one of 10 children of which one was abducted and killed by the rebels.  He also told me that he was abducted too but luckily managed to escape after one month.

Chris at his Village

On Sunday, I went to the orphanage run by Lois, the New Zealand lady.  I am not sure how I feel about the day - it was very hard to be there confronted by so many children.   My immediate reaction was one of wanting to leave as soon as I'd arrived because it was too overwhelming to be there but I did stay and spent the day with Lois.  When I arrived, most apart from one or two of the children were at church.  Those that remained included Alfred, who was around 5/6 years and was sleeping on Lois's bed - he had malaria and was sound asleep.  There were two severely disabled children there also, a girl with severe learning disabilities and a boy who had only recently come to the orphanage.  They found him lying naked on the road and with a gangrene foot.  They think he had meningitis as a child but are not sure the extent of brain damage.  He has severe learning difficulties and mental health problems and they need to get him to Kampala so that he can be cared for and assessed at a special hospital and also to treat his foot - but the challenges of getting him there and admitted are complex on so many different levels. 

Lois is a remarkable woman - she has been in Uganda for 12 years and was in southern Sudan before that.  She is there because of her religious beliefs and has never married.  The stories she told are too numerous to mention and some too disturbing but she lived there throughout the war and has been exposed to bombings, been held up by rebels and seen many, many people die.   She started the orphanage 7 years ago - it was built by funds from American donors, specifically as one large dormitory which could be secured and the children kept relatively safe - rather than the traditional thatched huts which people live in there which would have left the children dispersed and much more vulnerable to rebel attacks.  There are around 12 local women who work there to help with the care for the children.  Lois has just two rooms - her bedroom and a kitchen and these are very modest indeed.  It was hard to take in all that she told me but I felt like she had a need to talk about her experiences, in detail.  I asked her how she keeps going and she said it was her faith in God.   She also told me that she was going to care for one of her friends who had been paralysed from the neck down in the Kampala bombings which took place in July.  Amazing and I felt so humble. 

Lois prepared lunch (lovely corn fritters and salad) whilst I went and spent some time with the children who had returned from Church.  They all came back and were amazed to find a visitor and they greeted me with big beaming smiles, each one shaking my hand and introducing themselves.  They seemed genuinely happy and went about their business, made lots of noise, played games etc.  There are 90 children there and Lois knows them all by name!  They stay until they are 18 years.  One boy was sick though, Isaac, around 5/6 yrs - I'm not sure what was wrong with him but he was very poorly and on medication.  He just wanted to hold my hand so he came with me as I walked around and took some photos - but he didn't stop crying.  It was heartbreaking.  The other children loved having their photos taken and they all crowded round to see the pictures!