quick update

Our party Saturday was lots of fun, then we went to another party at an NGO near our house for a guy there who's leaving this week.
Anyways, I probably won't be online much and may not update til I get home...just wanted to give you all a head's up.

Last week in Gulu...

Tomorrow, Nive and I are having a going away/birthday party at our house. (Her birthday is Monday.) Friday, we're going to head to Kampala to see Wyclef, then Saturday, we're planning on going to a Rugby World Cup qualifying game, or something like that. Uganda is playing Madagascar. Sunday, I'm going to head to Jinja and do a day of white water rafting and then Monday take a day long course on white water kayaking. I'll then head back to Kampala and spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Entebbe. I fly out Wednesay night and get home Thursday =)

We had more cockroaches last night. I woke up at around 5am to hear one scurrying around my room. They're so loud! I called Nive to get the Raid and come save me, and as as soon as she got out of bed, she saw another one in her room. She killed one and the other one disappeared. I hope it left the house! Rainy season has finally begun. It was supposed to end in May I think, but the seasons/rains here are all messed up b/c of the changing climate. This is the 2nd day in a row with no power here in Gulu, so I'm spending the day at the internet cafe to get some work done so I can go out with Nive a couple days next week.

tentative plans for the next 2 weeks

For the next day or 2, I'm just putting my data into excel and writing up a report on that. Then next week, I'm going to work with Nive.
Aug. 1, we're going to Kampala to see a Wyclef Jean concert. Then the next day, we're going to head to Jinja for some white water rafting at the source of the Nile. I'm probably going to stay there for a couple days and take a kayaking class or some other adventury kind of thing. Then I'll head to Entebbe Aug 5 or 6 and check out the wildlife preserve and maybe hit up the beach, then I fly out really late on the 6th and get home the 7th.

frustration

I started doing my research today. It's pretty frustrating. I was looking over some of the surveys. There are people checking off the box that they are sexually active then saying later in the survey that they have had no partners and are abstaining. Then I have people who say they've never heard of HIV/AIDS yet say they've been tested. I'm not really sure how to handle such situations when putting together the data.
Saturday was our mobile "clinic." That also frustrated me. It was set up on Thursday. There was no meeting or anything to organize how the day would go. So Saturday morning, I'm told to be at the office by 8am. We don't leave til 10. It's a bunch of volunteer med students. We go to a market in a camp about 45 min from here. They give a 3 hour lecture on HIV/AIDS, Hepetitis E, and hygience/saniation. It should've been no longer than an hour, and organized ahead of time. I felt so bad for all those people who were sitting there for 3 hours just because they happened to be in the market when we came.
I feel like nothing here is ever properly organized. It drives me nuts! (and I'm not exactly the most organized person to begine with)
I think the end of this week/part of next week, I'm going to go around with Niamh so I can do some consulting work for GRG (the org she works for - Grassroots Reconciliation Group) from home.

cockroaches and other creepy, crawly, jumpy things

There was one in my room last night. I heard it running around, then it started climbing up my mosquito net...I am SO glad we got those put up. I had grabbed my bug spray and through the lid at it which knocked it to my curtain, so I took a deep breath and ran out of my room to go turn on the generator. Once the lights were on, it didn't like that and scurried out of my room a dark room. (All the doors end about 2 inches above the ground). I called Nive who was staying at her boss' since it was too late to come home and asked her why she had to be gone the night the scary things came out. haha. We had made an agreement that I'd chase out any mice or rats if she would take care of the bugs. I ended up just putting some plastic that my mattress had been wrapped in under the door of the other room to trap it in there, then blocked under my door too. Thankfully, I was tired enough that I fell asleep despite worrying about the cockroach. I also didn't wake up to pee in the middle of the night, which was my other worry b/c I didn't want to go out in the dark! Are cockroaches even good for anything? Them and mosquitos...

Funny story...the other night, Nive and I were coming home and she went to open the gate, but saw something moving on the other side. She screamed and tried to hide behind me and I tried to hide behind her, then we saw that it was just a toad, but still, neither of us wanted to walk past it. Our neighbors must be so entertained by us mazungus freaking out over every little creature. We live in a house surrounded by a bunch of huts, but our house is walled in with a gate.

Anyways, I've been working on the website. Getting information from my boss is like pulling teeth, so it's still pretty sparse content wise, but it's getting there. (www.uyapgulu.org). Saturday is our mobile clinic. I'm looking forward to that.

I can't believe I'll be home 3 weeks from today!

Why you always need male friends...

We had a couple guys we're friends with come over lst night to play cards...aka put up our mosquito nets for us. haha. It was pretty funny watching put nails up using a rock as a hammer and debating over the best positioning. Then, they taught us an African card game. It was a fun night. Best of all, Niamh and I finally got a good, peaceful night's sleep!

life without electric

While we do have a generator, it goes through fuel ridiculously fast, so we also got a kerosene lantern. We pretty much play cards and go to bed early at night. The worst thing about the house is the mosquitos. It's hard to sleep at night b/c they're always buzzing around. Hopefully we'll get up our nets today and it'll be better. I've just been throwing mine over my head in the mean time.
This week I think we're having our mobile health clinic. That should be interesting. We get some doctors and volunteers from the local university and clinics. Then next week, I will hopefully be able to do the research I wanted to do.
I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left! It's flying by.

Moved in

I moved in last night. It's nice, except we have no electric yet. We do have a generator for at night, thankfully, since it's completely dark here by 7:30. I think me getting a hot shower was only a temporary thing b/c there was no hot water at the guest house for the past week, and we have no hot water at the house until the electric starts working.

interviews

Yesterday, I went with Niamh to interview some female former child soldiers in one of the camps. It's the first time I've really had to fight back tears. Many have children from being raped or forced to be "wives" of the commanders. One of them told us how they were forced to chop another who tried to escape with a bayonet until they killed her. Many don't have more than a 4th or 5th grade education because they now have to support their children. It's so heartbreaking.

Moving In

I went to check out Nive's house yesterday, and it's pretty nice. She moved in last night, and I'm hopefully moving in tonight if I can get a mattress and some sheets after work. It should be nice. Other than that, not too much exciting going on. I'm redoing the website for the organization because it's about a year old. I finally got the access info today, so hopefully I'll get it online by the end of the week.

Pictures

I didn't do anything exciting this weekend. Nive has a cold, so we didn't go to the pool yesterday. I'm glad we didn't because it ended up raining part of the afternoon. We laid around and read. We'll hopefully be all moved in to her house by the end of the week.
Anyways, I put up pictures from the mato oput ceremony today. Most of them are in my main Uganda album here. The really graphic/bloody/gross ones are here.

Mato Oput

(I'm feeling all better now)

Yesterday was really interesting. I have this 3 page document explaining mato oput that i'll have to type up sometime. I have a ton of pictures. I'm going to put them in a separate album though. I wouldn't recomment looking if you have a week stomach. Or maybe I'll just put the really graphic ones in a separate album. (for those of you who really want to see a sheep and goat being chopped in half and blood and guts spilling out of them)
Here's a brief run through of what happens.
First, the chief addresses everyone and explains the ceremony. Then 2 elders get a stick and a couple guys from each of the clans get on each side and hit the stick in a mock fight. Then, a sheep and goat are brought and laid with a head facing each side. They're then cut in half and sliced open. A little of their blood is mixed with root from an oput plant and some local brew. Guys from each side kneed on either side of the bowl and stick their heads in it to sip. (It tastes really bad so that they tell their clan never to kill again b/c it's so bad.) Then the meat is cooked, and they line up again and each take a couple bites from the head. Once that is done, they can have contact with each other once again, and everyone eats together.
In this case, 2 women had been fighting, and the unborn baby of one had been killed. It's still men from the tribe who go through the cleansing ceremony. There were a couple of us mazunga observing, and the one guy said there are some benefits of being a female in Acholi culture. haha.

Anyways, I hope you all had a nice 4th of July. I'm not sure when I'll put the pictures up. I hate slow computers! I just don't feel like being that patient today.

blah

Well, I managed to make it over a month without getting sick at all. I guess I can't complain. Since last night, I haven't been able to keep any food in me, it all comes out the other side. I'm taking some meds for it, so hopefully I'll be fine today or tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be very interesting. I've been told I get to witness a Mato Oput ceremony...although I'm not looking forward to witnessing animals getting slaughtered. I should get some great pictures though.

Mato Oput is a traditional justice mechanism when murder has occured. The two families or clans aren't allowed to interact at all until a blood feud has been paid and the ceremony is performed. The blood feud is a reparation payment. The ceremony involves the family of the victim and the family of the culprit getting a goat and a sheep (one gets the goat, one gets the sheep). Then, roots from an oput plant are ground up in a big bowl and blood from the slaughtered animals is added, then the 2 elders kneel down with their hands behind their back and dip their heads into the big bowl and take 3 or 4 sips depending on if the victim is male or female. They then eat roasted meat from the slaughtered animals and advise the 2 clans to live in peace. They can then interact again.

pics from an IDP camp

are here

back from Kampala

I had a great weekend. (the internet was down yesterday so I couldn't update) Anyways, Friday night we went out with some friends to the rugby club, which is a bar right next to a rugby field, and then to a dance club, which was fun. It's funny watching people dance here b/c the guys mostly dance with each other, not with girls or else people dance in a circle. Saturday we went to a market. It was crazy! People everywhere! I got a small basket that I really like.
Yesterday, I went to a workshop on Mato oput, the traditional Acholi justice process. It was mostly in Luo, so I didn't understand much, but they did some interviews for a documentary in English. I'm really interested in traditional peace mechanisms and wrote a paper about mato oput last semester, so that was cool.
Today, we went to Karuma Falls (which is actually just some rapids) near the source of the Nile. It's very pretty, but we had to get permission from a soldier to take photos and film, and we were only allowed about 10-15 minutes. We then went to an IDP camp and I got a lot of pictures while they were filming some clips for the documentary.
Nive is working here for a year and is getting a house. I'm going to move in with her as soon as she gets that all worked out and furnished. That should be nice =)