A day and a half later after leaving the states, the GSSAP group arrived in Entebbe, in southern Uganda, on the coast of Lake Victoria. The following day, after visiting Lake Victoria we made our way to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. As we drove towards Kampala, the reality that we were actually in Uganda started to set in. You could see everyone from those who lived on the streets to those who lived in the houses built on the rolling hills.
When we arrived in Kampala, the environment changed dramatically. Kampala had a haze of muggy air from the hustling and bustling streets of the busy city. Fumes ran through the streets everywhere you walked and the traffic was unbelievable. We traveled around in a “Matatu”, a 14-passenger taxi. Every time you get inside a Matatu in Kampala it is a potentially perilous experience. Sometimes it seemed that two-lane roads turned in to four-lane roads as vehicles tried to skirt around other vehicles, possibly leaving two cars heading straight towards each other until just the last second. On top of all the Matatus and cars, there are “Bodas” (moped taxis) that speed around in between traffic with literally no room to spare. This hardly describes the experience of driving on the city streets of Kampala but lets just say it is often stressful.
The highlights of our two days in Kampala were going to Miracle Center Church and visiting the Ugandan Parliament. Sunday church, or rather performance and preaching was an incredibly unique experience. The singing and dancing in the church really brought about a spiritual atmosphere that flourished throughout the entire congregation. This was in some ways contrasted by the fiery message that faith leads to financial prosperity. Our group was recognized on stage and Dr. Hackett had the opportunity to tell the community about our Gulu Study and Service Abroad Program to which they were very receptive and responsive. The next two days we visited parliament and were able to meet with Betty Amongi, a Member of Parliament and Honorable Jacob Oulanya, the Deputy Speaker (Discussions with these two individuals will be detailed in another post).
The next day we headed to Gulu, in northern Uganda, where we will spend the rest of our time in Uganda. For the next week we are listening to lecturers from the local communities about the history of the Ugandan conflict and how they are trying to now restore peace and have reconciliation between the people.
Today we heard from Ketty Anyeko, a Team Leader for the Justice and Reconciliation Project here in Gulu. She spoke mainly about Internal Displaced Persons Camps (IDP), child soldiers, and Formally Abducted Women. The IDP camps were where the Ugandan government brought people to stay in order to try and protect them from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). She also talked about the consequences of these inhumane treatments and how the challenges have developed and are still developing. Just a few of the consequences that she mentioned were broken cultural and social structures of the Acholi people, orphaned children, many psychological problems, sexual abuse and exploitation, poor or no access to education and health services, early marriages, forced prostitution, and spread of HIV; these are just the start of the challenges. What made this speaker so inspirational and moving was the fact that she lived so close to everything that was happening and she has been very involved in the peace process, trying to help people reconcile with each other and themselves. She was not giving us simply a history lesson, but instead provided a very sincere dialogue, so that we could more humbly understand this complex conflict, and the lost and damaged land and culture that the Acholi people are trying to restore.