Gulu Updates

Hey friends!

So I’m finally getting around to updating this thing, there’s so many stories to share but I’ll try and limit it to the main points from the last few weeks! I’m still obsessed with Gulu and am so sad that I have to leave it in just one short week. The people I work with are amazing and so is everyone I come in contact with here. It’s also really starting to feel like home, more than Kampala ever did, simply because it’s so chill and everybody makes you feel at home right away. I’m even over craving American food and now crave things like posho, fried cassava, or pork. Who would have ever guessed!

Okay, so rewind to Easter a few weekends ago. We went to a Catholic service at Holy Rosary because we knew it would be in English and it was a really great experience, despite being away from home on a holiday. It was a really cool mixture of traditional Catholic practices with traditional Acholi culture. For example, the altar girls (?? I’m really ignorant about Catholicism) walked down the aisle in more traditional wear doing a traditional dance and the band playing the music the whole service used traditional instruments like drums, etc. Also, when women are excited here at ceremonies/celebrations they do this shrill shrieking thing (Ay yi yi yi!) and so they would do that whenever they were really into a song or what the priest was saying. The service lasted two and a half hours, which wasn’t bad compared to what I was expecting for an Easter service in Uganda.

For Easter dinner, I had the best meal I’ve probably had in Uganda, especially because it was finally a home-cooked meal made with love. We were talking to Big Momma, our tenant, and she said “No, tonight I cook for you. You eat here.” We were totally down for this, considering we eat out pretty much every night and so we agreed we’d buy the dessert and sodas. She made us chicken, rice, peas, and chapatti and it was UNREAL. Also, the chicken was extra delicious because it was the stupid rooster that woke me up at least four times the night before (what ever happened to roosters just crowing at sunrise????). I actually had a dream about breaking its neck so watching Big Momma kill it for Easter supper was truly refreshing. We got to eat the dinner outside in the tile courtyard by candlelight, and it was so incredibly wonderful. We’re really very lucky to have Big Momma because every time we’re struggling to cook on a charcoal stove or hand-wash our clothes she steps in to take care of us. I’m really going to miss her. Also on a side note, we were cooking grilled cheese the other week and when we offered her one she said “No, I don’t like cheese, I like Blue Band (butter).” We all died because that’s SUCH a typical Ugandan response…

Easter Dinner

So the next week our friends who stayed in Kampala came up for the weekend to visit Gulu and see what we’d been raving about. We had a great time with them and packed as much stuff into one weekend as we could. On Friday, Invisible Children showed the KONY 2012 videos (Part One and Two) at Pece Stadium (small soccer stadium) in Gulu, so we all went to that. It was a really interesting experience and the stadium was WAY over capacity. You had to fight to get in and then we had to push through the crowd to get near the stage. They had a lot of really popular African artists come too, so that was neat. Then they screened the videos and it was cool to see people’s reactions, especially after all of the global criticisms. In general, people reacted positively to the video and you could tell they were in agreement over hatred of Kony because every time his image popped up they all jeered. I think the only issue was that they maybe don’t understand what the purpose of the video is and why they were watching it, but I think it was a genuine effort by Invisible Children to let Acholi citizens see the video that is after all, about them. Anyways, so we went out that night and had a blast (4:30 AM…Ugandans go hard), and then headed to the pool at Acholi Inn on Saturday. Our Ugandan friends Tony and Jacob were also along for the ride the whole weekend, so it was like a huge ongoing party and it was so nice to have everyone together again. That night we also got to watch a pirated DVD of Hunger Games, so that was the cherry on top of a mzungu-filled weekend.

After they left on Sunday morning, it absolutely poured as the start of the rainy season was coming in. I’ve never seen rains like this before in my life, and I can’t say it’s very fun to experience them almost daily. However, on this particular day we turned into an opportunity and decided to make a slip and slide in our tile courtyard where we’re staying. We were already wet from walking home so I forced Jake and others to come outside and join. We ended up “slipping and sliding” for about an hour, and I can only imagine what Big Momma was thinking. She already thinks we’re so bizarre so I’m sure we just further added to it that day.

Slip 'n Slide

Regarding real life updates, I’m still doing research and working at the Acholi Cultural Institution. It’s been really great and exciting, although some days I do wish I had more free time to go on adventures and explore. However, I got quite my fill of adventure last week when we went to settle a land dispute in Amuru (2-3 hours north of Gulu). For background, land disputes are a huge issue with post-conflict Northern Uganda because since the LRA war went on for 26 years, a lot of land ownership is unclear because after decades of displacement, people are unclear of who the original owner was or disagree on who’s entitled to it now. So our job that day was to go into this area (middle of NOWHERE, my boss called it simply, “going into the bush”) and mediate between the two conflicting parties and begin to reach a settlement. We get out there after all this time and find out that the party basically in the wrong didn’t show up at all, so we’ve arranged this whole big meeting for nothing. The team we came with decided it would be a good idea to start walking through these acres and acres of nothing and find the Lamogi people then to try and talk to them.  We’re walking through a plots with huts on them until we get to this one where this guy stands on this huge ant hill with a spear and tells us we can’t pass. After some negotiating, we manage to get through and find ourselves at another piece of land where a few people are congregated around a few huts. I should have taken this as a red flag, but this one guy was standing on the edge of the property blowing an antelope horn that was basically an incredibly loud war cry. All of a sudden, I see people coming out of nowhere from miles and miles away moving towards us. What ensued was probably the craziest/scariest experience of my life. My boss, Santo and a few Acholi chiefs began to try and discuss with them the situation, but before we knew it the other side was becoming very hostile. Apparently their leader wasn’t in town, but his son came to be the main voice and he was PISSED. He yelled at us for bringing so many “useless” people that had nothing to add to the conversation, as he apparently preferred that we had come with fewer people instead of coming off as so confrontational. He also absolutely freaked that a mzungu was there, and that’s when I almost s--t my pants. He pointed at me and said “And what is she doing here? Did you bring her here to arrest us? I don’t know if she has pistols or grenades in her bag. I’m going to have to protect myself.” I guess he just assumed because I’m white that they had hired me to come in and forcefully settle it, which is completely the opposite of any intentions I had…clearly. At this point I notice he keeps hoisting up this heavy bag on his back that we eventually found out was full of weapons. COOL. He went on aggressively rambling for like 20 minutes about how even if everyone around him left he would still take us all out by himself and that if we came back again, he could kill us. because of “fighting fire with fire”. Also, all of his pals are just standing around him at this point with spears and evil glares on their faces. A few other guys had some more threatening words for us, and the best we could do on our side was to try and calm them and insist that we only came for peaceful mediation. When we finally managed to pull ourselves away from the situation they yelled after us promising they’d kill us if we came back. On the way home I also found out that they had been hiding in the tall grass when we arrived and were watching our every move. (Sorry you probs had to watch me pee in the bush!) So yeah that was a pretty ridiculous day, I’m going to try and stay away from those events for the rest of my time here. My organization is going to go back again because they refuse to let the situation go because it’s clearly very volatile and important, but next time they’re going to get police and government officials to go with. On a good note, that’s going to be a baller story for my paper!

Betty and I before the land dispute

Other than that, my research is going well. I’m getting to interview some pretty cool government officials and others, and I’m really enjoying collecting the information and realizing how important culture is in restoring stability and peace in a post-conflict area. The only issue I face is people are very hesitant to be critical of the national government, so some answers they give me are clearly false.

This last weekend, we broke about a dozen program rules and went to Jinja where the source of the Nile is to go rafting and bungee jumping. COOLEST WEEKEND EVER. I seriously didn’t want to leave. I went in only planning to raft, but true to style, I gave into peer pressure and decided to bungee jump too. It turns out I thought rafting was actually way more terrifying.  I thought we would get a choice of levels of rafting, but it was one path and one path only. So after we went over the first rapid, our guide casually said “oh yeah that one’s a Grade Five”. Sweeeet. The second rapid everybody got thrown out, it was pretty much impossible not to, and that was by far the scariest moment. I got trapped under the raft for awhile and while the rapids were raging above my head I was trying to swim to the surface and no matter how hard I tried, couldn’t reach it. I hit my foot on the bottom and my mouth on something, and by the time I finally came up my friend Aimee said a ton of water came out of my nose. But hey, I survived! The rest was smooth sailing, I really enjoyed the next rapid we went over where we went completely under water through a rapid and then just held on tight enough to pop back up on the other side of it. It was seriously so much fun and I can’t wait to do it again!

Falling Out on the second rapid--I'm in the orange

Then came bungee jumping. Most of the group that went did it, which made it a lot more reassuring and since I was towards the end of the line I was actually excited to do it by the time I got up there. However, it started drizzling so I made the “bungee master” promise me that he was sure I could do it with that. He said he wouldn’t let me go if he wasn’t positive it was fine, so I figured it was fine. However, when I jumped off the platform it was drizzling and by the time I was dangling at the bottom it was MONSOONING. The three people after me didn’t get to go and had to leave the platform after I jumped, so that makes me feel so safe! I’m sure he was like oops, definitely shouldn’t have let her go! But it worked out fine and actually made it a super cool experience. The hardest part is just getting yourself to jump but after that it’s just so much fun. I also dove hard enough that I got my fingers dipped into the Nile so that was sweet. I’ll try and post the video soon, I just need to figure out how to rotate it first.

Bungeeing! Notice the rain

Since it's rainy season, it's also MANGO season and that's one of the things I'm undoubtedly going to miss most. They're so plentiful that you can buy six small ones for two hundred shillings which is less than TEN CENTS. Yep. I eat like four a day, because I can just walk outside our office and hit them off the tree. It's fantastic. Also one last story, I got bored with the chief meeting on human rights yesterday so I walked outside and saw that kids were playing drums down the hill and dancing around. I walked down and asked them to teach me, so I ended up playing drums and learning the Acholi cultural dances for about two hours. Of course all the kids laughed at me, but it was so fun. 

As for our last week in Gulu, I’m trying to go out big. Tomorrow two of my friends on the program and I are headed to Murchison Falls for a game drive, boat tour and hike so I’m really pumped for that. Then on Tuesday it’s Uganda’s Labor Day and luckily this year the celebration is in Gulu! Guess what that means?! President Museveni is coming and since my organization is going to the celebration, I get to be in the same stadium as him. And Pece Stadium is VERY small, so we’re practically going to be right next to each other (kinda). Also my brilliant friend Jake has decided he wants to open a mzungu rolex (chapatti with two fried eggs—delicious!) stand next week instead of writing our final papers, so that might happen as well. Can’t wait to see the awkward stares we’ll get from that.

Sorry for this being so long!

Lots of love,

Jessamy