Northern Uganda Lobby Day & conference

The Northern Uganda Lobby Day & conference was amazing. I learned SO much. Monday was panels and discussions about what's currently going on in Northern Uganda, then Tuesday we went and lobbied senators and represenatives for the US to actively support peace talks in Juba and to dedicate much more humanitarian aid. It was definately a great learning experience. I actually talked to aides of our representatives! and I am so uncomfortable doing things like that. I was really proud of myself. I think the 2 biggest things I got out of this experience are 1: the people organizing the event and a lot of the grassroots humanitarian organizations are like 25. These people are just a few years older than I am and doing so much. It was really inspiring. The other thing was that even actresses are terrified of public speaking. One of the people lobbying for PA was Melissa Fitzgerald, from the West Wing. She is such a nice person and has done a lot of advocacy for Uganda, but she said she is terrified of public speaking. Made me feel so much better. lol.
I think our funny story from the trip was we went to speak with Michelle Hart's aid and asked him what her position was on what's going on in Northern Uganda and how she feels about the issue. He told us he was not at liberty to disclose that information. We were like that's funny. She's a publicly elected official, that should be public knowledge.
Another really awesome part of the trip was hearing Betty Bigombe speak. She's been the primary person leading peace negotiations for almost 20 years, so that was really awesome.