Gulu

January 28, 2007 - Sunday Gulu The first bad thing happened to me on Saturday, I was getting off the bus from Gulu and there was a large group of people at the doorway which everyone had to squeeze through. Stupid me was guarding my backpack and forgot my wallet was still in my pocket, and that got nicked with about 60,000shil ($40). I don't mind so much about the money but since I was on my way to an internet café and ATM to withdraw cash I had therefore had put my Credit/debit card in there as well. So that has thrown some plans out, I needed it for booking stuff in the UK etc... My bank can't send a replacement to Uganda because they won't send a card to a PO Box which is the only postal service here. I was my fault; I should have been more alert… We went up to Gulu this week where there are 1.4 million people in 53 IDP camps… We visited just one of these camps with 7000 'huts' which could mean a father a mother and 1-12 children. We did not see many of the adults and even most of the teens, they had already gone to work the farm areas or with brick making. The kids on a whole were generally happy it seemed even through the situation was appalling. Many of the children had obvious wounds of some sort but have no way of getting treatment. I met an old man whose hands had been cut off by the rebels and was told that if we saw many of the adult there would be similar scars of the war. We went there for a few reasons one being simply to see it and also to get information on the best way to go about things if OCA decides to set up a center in Gulu. There is much that could be discussed about the state of affairs in Northern Uganda but if you are interested do some looking around on the internet. I didn't get as many photos as I thought, I wish I had taken more so you could see the different parts of the camp and the life the people live there. I've put in a small video from my camera, sorry about the quality. The bus ride home from Gulu was a shocker, the driver would take dirt roads at 100k and we're talking a full sized coach, there were a few life before the eyes moments. One funny thing was at every stop there was a herd of people trying to sell things to us passengers, quite good service really. I was a little suspicious of the 'meat' sticks since I could get no more info other than that it was 'meat'. Doing a bit of the touristy thing we went to the source of the Nile and just down river to where they start the white water rafting. It was a very amazing place, the water thunders along at incredible speed all year round. This time of year it is a bit slower than it can be. There were guys there who would jump in the river with a plastic bottle and ride the rapids for 5000 or $2. They were doing this in category 5 rapids, which are apparently the second highest degree of danger. A few days ago I heard a sudden roar come from outside, stepping out to hear more clearly, it sounded like an entire city was cheering. I couldn't work out what was happening until Anthony simply said it was the entire city was cheering. I asked what for and found out that Arsenal had just scored a goal in the premier league, so just imagine the MCG at full capacity times 50 and that's what this entire city sounded like. We have visited quite a number of orphanages in the Kampala area; this is again mainly to get more information on ways that OCA can improve and also to enable the girls to get details for grant writing and also to see how things are run. During this I have seen many cool things there has been traditional dancing and singing there has been some amazing display of traditional drumming and also the story of some of the children are heartbreaking but then to see how the Orphanages have changed their lives is great. As a whole things are going well and it is continuing to be very busy, thanks for your continued prayers and support. James