Gulu

So here I am in Gulu! After a five-hour bus ride filled with many speed bumps, we pulled into Gulu on Tuesday, and moved into a pretty nice hotel for the time being. I really like the town--you would never guess that until recently it was right in the middle of a civil war. It's pretty small compared to KampalaÑquaint, if you will. There's no crazy traffic and far less harassment as we walk down the street. It is a different language of course, Acholi instead of Luganda, so another set of greetings and such to learn. There are a lot of good restaurants, and the staple here is millet bread, this gooey brown stuff that I love, and not matooke, the mashed plantain stuff that I do not love. There's also a cute market, and some (insanely slow) Internet cafes, a decent supermarket, and a pool at one of the nice hotels--so what more can you ask for? So on Tuesday we just got acclimated.

Wednesday I set out for my organization, Reproductive Health Uganda, which involved me walking for an hour in an unknown direction before calling the RHU director, who was like "No no no, you are very far, just go back to the hotel."So then they picked me up and I discovered that RHU was about 50 feet behind the hotel. Sweet.

So everyone there was very nice, and the organization does community outreach for the Internally Displaced Persons camps Monday through Thursday, so they brought me along to the days outreach, so I got to see the activities they do there as well as talk to people around the camp. In many of the camps, people have been moving back to their homes, but many people are still afraid to do so or are not able. The camps are areas densely populated with mud and grass huts. There's a lot of dirt, and not much vegetation, and not many other resources there. The government is tactfully trying to get the people to leave the camps by not providing thigs for them anymore. Somebody helped me translate as I talked to people in the camp, and I met this 18-year-old guy who is the head of his family after his father was killed in the violence and his mother left with another man (because the woman must always move to where the husband lives). He was not able to finish school, and he must care for his 4 younger siblings. So, really intense stuff. The next day I traveled with RHU to another camp where I was shown around again, and another intern tried to feed me sill-alive insects, which I politely declined. I got to lead a women focus group and the other intern helped me translate, which was really cool and I got to hear their thoughts on what RHU is doing for them. RHU's clinics seem to be the only thing going for these people-they don't receive much other assistance or funding, the local clinics are a joke, and they are still displaced. So they have to come to really rely on RHU. Unfortunately, RHU programs in the IDP camps are about to end since funding is about to end in a couple months, so I am really curious to see what is going to happen.

I made several more stops with the RHU staff on our way back home and they kept feeding me-sugar cane, beans, posho-and I feel kind of guilty because I haven't actually been doing any work for the organization. I really want to, but thus far I have been mostly just going everywhere with them and seeing what happens. When we got back yesterday, they were all like "Ah, we are so traumatized by the IDP camps, we must play a game." So then we played Ludo for a long time, which is like the Ugandan version of Parcheesi. They are a funny bunch, and I think I will like working with them.

Today I am just chilling, since RHU doesn't do programs on Friday. We are currently trying to get an apartment for the 7 of us that are here from my program-we have several leads so hopefully we can even move into one tomorrow. But, all in all, I really like it here. And my practicum is going well-almost TOO well, seems suspicious. But I'll just enjoy the ride for now.