Archive for October, 2007
Rwanda
October 10th, 2007. Published under New Countries, TIA, religion, thoughts and questions. 1 Comment.
I went to Rwanda this last weekend with Ilea, Julia, Karis and Kristen and it was unforgettable. We stayed in Kigali, the capital. We rented a three bedroom two bath house at a hotel so I got my own room and bathroom! Haha. Kigali is probably the cleanest and safest capital city worldwide. No joke, maybe its because I’m used to Kampala which is up there for dirtiest and least safe capitals in the world, but Kigali was immaculate. There were traffic police all over, standing at intersections and random places along the roads, which led to safer taxis and bodas. Bodas wore helmets and passengers had to too, and there seemed like there was a speed limit as well. (In contrast to Kampala where bodas go as fast as they can until they are cut off or crash, don’t wear helmets and just terrify everyone. Some people say that Alaskan King Crab fishermen have the world’s most dangerous job but I’m here to tell you the world’s most dangerous job goes to the Kampala boda-boda drivers) It was really quiet too. It felt almost like we were in the suburbs. We left at 3 am Saturday morning on a 9-hour bus ride. I had slept pretty much all day Friday so I was wide-awake until a Tylenol pm shut me down. I was still pretty sick (Karis had to sit next to me and I was an unwanted heater due to my fever and sweating) but we were able to pick our seats ahead of time so we sat at the very front with legroom. After about 2 hours at the border (we had to go through immigration for Uganda and Rwanda) in which they search all the bags for plastic bags (Rwanda has outlawed plastic bags, no joke. Not like ziplocks but ones you get at the grocery store) we finally got to Kigali around noon. We got a special hire taxi to our hotel, had lunch at the hotel (which took an hour, Rwanda is notorious for very slow service) then went to the main genocide museum.
Rwanda is popular for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi tribe by the Hutu tribe. I’ll be honest my only prior knowledge of all this was from the movie Hotel Rwanda, which most people here claim did a decent job painting the picture of what happened. I was really anxious to learn a bit more for myself and see what really happened apart from the Hollywood version that I knew. The museum was incredible. I’m not saying it was fun and we enjoyed ourselves, it was really rough and hurt to see some of the stuff, but amazing. It was really informative and told the story of the genocide in full detail. The building went in a circle, so it started with the colonization by the Germans and went through till today. Something I didn’t know was that the Hutu and Tutsi as a whole held a bitterness toward each other for many years. When the Germans and then Belgians were in power, they separated the Hutu and Tutsi by forcing them to register as one or the other. When it couldn’t be decided by looks what tribe you were, you were given a tribe based on how many cows you had. 10 or more cows and you were Tutsi, less than 10 and you were Hutu. The Tutsi were thought to be smarter and more skilled so they were given all the jobs and political power, but the Tutsi were like 10% of the population. The Hutus naturally grew very resentful towards the Tutsi. So when Rwanda gained independence in like the early 60’s, I don’t remember when, the more populous Hutu took power and started trying to wipe out the Tutsi. Since they were 10% of the population, they were only allowed 10% of any paying jobs, 10% of the student population, etc. So many Tutsi fled the country to Uganda, Congo, Burundi, and Tanzania. Then president Habyarimana took power in like the 70’s (held it till his death in 1994) and persecuted the Tutsi even more, so even more fled then. By 1990 one of those that had fled had started a Tutsi rebellious force (he was actually one of the main generals in the Ugandan Pres. Musevini’s rebellion, which took him to power. So the Rwandan rebellion was helped a little by Uganda) and started fighting back. I can’t remember his name but he is the current president. Anyway, they started a war of sorts to regain power for the Tutsi. By 1994, the Hutus had a normal government with a president, who was actually in peace talks with the Tutsi rebels. But, they had some sort of militia aside from the government soldiers called Interahamwe that were being trained and funded by the French in guerilla warfare(officially France denies any ties to this but the leaders of the genocide admit to their involvement. Most Rwandans I’ve met strongly dislike the French. Just last year Rwanda kicked out the French embassy and most French people left with it). The leaders of this group had a hate radio station (just like what was shown in Hotel Rwanda) and promoted Hutu dominance and predicted something major to happen on April 6th. On April 6th the president was in a plane coming back to Kigali when his plane was shot down and everyone aboard died. Within hours there was roadblocks set up all over the city and the Interahamwe had lists of Tutsi they went around killing. 10 Belgian soldiers were also immediately killed, which the Hutu hoped would drive out all the Belgian peacekeepers, which it did. The radio called all Hutus to arms to kill the Tutsi “cockroaches” and blamed the president’s death on Tutsis. Within days normal citizens started killing their neighbors who were Tutsi and anyone sympathetic towards or married to a Tutsi. No one was spared, men and women, young and old. Most people didn’t have guns so they were beat to death by machetes and clubs. The museum had several video stories of survivors who saw their parents and family members killed by friends. One woman told of her best friend’s dad coming to their house and slaughtering her family while she hid under a bed. It was just horrible. I can’t describe some of the gruesome pictures and videos that were shown, but know that this was one of the worst atrocities our world has ever experienced. 1 million people were killed in 100 days, a rate of 10,000 people a day. Rwanda isn’t even the size of New Jersey, its more like Rhode Island and a million people were killed in a few short months. They weren’t killed and then buried; they were killed and left to rot, to have their flesh eaten by dogs. The Hutus had to eventually kill all the dogs because there were so many sick dogs due to their eating of human flesh. It was horrible.
Despite all the evil, there were a few heroes who saved hundreds of people. There was a story about an old witchdoctor who hid close to 100 people on her land and told anyone who came to kill them that if they stepped foot on her land the evil spirits would kill them. Kind of strange how evil can be used for good. The story of the manager of that hotel in Hotel Rwanda is also true, we walked by the hotel one night. There was one lone American who didn’t flee the country and stayed alive. He was in a few videos at the museum and wasn’t touched by the Hutus (He had a really interesting comment. He said at the beginning he could reason with some of the Hutus and talk with some at the roadblocks etc. But he said near the end of the conflict they ceased to be people and he said looking at them reminded him of pure evil. He said it was like looking into the eyes of a demon). They respected the mzungus and left most of them untouched. Most of them, not all. Quite a few fathers and nuns were killed. There were several others, a few brave UN soldiers who broke orders and helped save several hundred people (they were ordered to in no way get involved or save people). There were two UN soldiers, without guns, who stood in front of a church filled with women and children and told the Hutus they weren’t allowed in, the Hutus just turned and walked away. Two men without any means to defend themselves just stood boldly and told them no! Hotel Rwanda did a good job about the UN commander too. He did all he could to get more troops and to be able to fight back until the UN completely pulled everyone out and he was forced to leave.
It was really sad, PBS did a long (over 2 hours) documentary on the whole conflict and it played in one of the rooms. I honestly was almost ashamed to be an American or from any western country for that matter. The UN commander said several times that with just 5,000 soldiers they could stop the genocide. There were many interviews with the UN secretary and the guy in charge for the U.S., both during and after. The U.S. guy said we don’t get involved unless we have something at stake and the UN lady kept saying they didn’t see the need or benefit of bringing more soldiers. So they end up taking them all away?! The guy on the ground says give me more soldiers and this thing will end. Instead they take all UN soldiers out. They literally showed the UN soldiers leaving on trucks while people with machetes wait for them to leave so they can go slaughter the people the UN was protecting at the hotel. On the interviews from after the genocide the UN lady cried several times because she knew she had the power to stop it. She made the excuse that they just didn’t know the gross amount of killing that went on, but it was a blatant lie because earlier on the video it shows the UN commander speaking on TV early on in the massacres that people were dying at a rate of 10,000 a day. It was really sad to watch.
We also went to a church outside of Kigali that is now a memorial for the victims. At this particular church, 10,000 people were killed in a few hours. Hours. It was the hardest thing to walk through; they left the church pretty much as they found it, except they removed the dead bodies. There was normal sized room filled to the brim with the clothes and belongings of the people killed there. Literally filled, you could open the door but couldn’t take a step inside because the entire room was one big pile of clothes and belongings. The pews were covered with bloodstains and one wall was covered with blood because it was used to throw children against to kill them. The ceiling was still stained with brain matter and had bullet holes through it. Our taxi driver spoke English so he walked around with me and the lady in charge spoke to him in French and he interpreted. Out back there were two tombs. One had 40 coffins in it of people who were thrown into latrines and then stoned to death. The lady was with me when I went in there so I knew what to expect. The next tomb I walked down into on my own because she was talking to someone. It had shelves to the ceiling lining both walls, filled with skulls and bones of the people who had died, thousands. I wasn’t expecting it at all and I almost threw up. It was one of the saddest moments of my life. Standing there looking at skulls of people killed for no reason, expect race. It just didn’t make sense. This genocide happened overnight, almost like God left for a few months and let the devil run free. It was pretty emotional for all of us.
One night we stayed up really late talking through everything we experienced, it was a really good discussion. We all hoped that we would have stayed to help but the reality is we most likely would have gotten on a bus and gone home. To look at it another way, if I were deathly sick and a local here was sick and there was enough medicine for only one of us and I had the money to pay for the medicine and the other didn’t, I would most likely buy it for myself. I wish I could say I would buy it for another but the reality is most of us wouldn’t. And I believe that is wrong. Jesus said we must put others before ourselves. We also discussed a lot about the poor and what we are called to do about them. We encounter people begging everyday and most of the time we walk right by trying not to make eye contact, because it makes us feel bad. As we were discussing it, we all felt convicted. There is tons of aid here in Africa and programs to help, but that doesn’t mean I should walk by when someone is begging. I can at least stop and talk, ask their name, maybe give them gum or whatever I have on hand. Ya, God has blessed us for hard work we’ve done or for being faithful to him but in reality our possessions are not ours, they are His. Jesus’ words are straightforward and so many times as Christians we try and say, “Now what did Jesus really mean when he said, if one of you has two coats he should take one and give it to him who has none or sell all your possessions and give to the poor then follow me?” He said what he said; there is no hidden meaning. We are all guilty of disobeying Him. The first followers of Christ left their families, homes, jobs, everything to be homeless and to serve and give to the poor. I definitely see the need for rich people though. Paul and the apostles would have been screwed if there weren’t wealthy people in each city to take them into their home and provide while they travelled. But we don’t use our resources like that. I don’t think the Christian church is doing what Jesus called them to. I don’t think the American version of Christianity is the bride that Christ would want to come back to. And it probably never will be. But the Church starts inside of each one of us. Yes, the Church as a whole isn’t what it should be but neither are we. I’ve internally criticized modern Christianity many times because of how the different denominations don’t see eye to eye and fight each other. Yet personally I’ve done the same thing with other believers. I’ve writ off or disliked people who think differently. The Church is made up of many members and if we as individuals follow Christ wholeheartedly things will change. We are all in it together. I don’t know where I’m going with this but walking by true poverty everyday really gets you thinking and convicts you. I’ve felt like we were doing what James says not to, seeing someone cold and hungry and just saying, “God bless you, I wish you warm and well fed,” but not actually doing anything about it. The least we could do is give them some food or water or small change. So we’re trying to make a point of not walking by and ignoring people who ask of stuff from us. Ok I’m done.
Later on Sunday we went to the Youth Corps home to meet up with Deus, he runs the show there and I got his number from the YC guys in Gulu. Deus is like 27 and all the guys in the house are in their 20’s. They were awesome, they invited us in and treated us like family. We sat around getting to know each other for a while then we sang some worship and prayed. It was a really neat time, these guys had a huge vision for impacting Rwanda for Christ. Later that night we took them to dinner and then we went home. Through talking with them we asked what life was like for Rwandans after the genocide. Because a majority of the people were involved in the fighting, the new government couldn’t throw everyone in jail. One of the guys told us to imagine what it would be like to live next to and see everyday the man who killed your parents and siblings. Then scale that to a majority of the country. I can’t imagine how hard it would be. Most “families” in Rwanda aren’t exactly what we call families. The parents consist of an aunt or uncle or older sibling, brothers and sisters are cousins, best friends, etc. Its crazy. One of the guys, Emmanuel, took Ilea and I to the Cornerstone Leadership Academy on Monday. The other girls went to a popular lake and actually met Rick Warren there. The CLA was absolutely beautiful. It was on top of a hill overlooking a lake. It was a really good experience, we met the head teacher, the teachers and some students. This school was a three-year process in getting built and started up, so it was really good to see the fruit of all the efforts to get it started. After three years they still don’t have a title and ended up paying for the land twice because a corrupt politician ran off with their money. Our school isn’t built yet and we are only in year one, so it was good to see that in the end all the work is worth it. It really pumped me up.
One last, funny story from Rwanda. This one Rwandan guy approached Kristen and asked her if her friend, Karis, knew kung fu. Karis is Chinese. Kristen sort of gave him a sour look and said no, why would you ask that, so the guy just walked away. So he came back and asked again. Kristen was kind of mad and said no, why did you just ask me again?! The guy looks at her and says, I think I will ask her, but I am afraid. The guy approached Karis, who doesn’t know what the guy asked Kristen but saw her get mad at him and asks her, “Do you play kung-fu?” as he makes kung fu motions. Karis (who is hilarious and has a smart comment for almost anything) just looked at him and did the motions back and said no, I do not play kung fu. The guy goes on to tell her that he wishes to learn kung fu and maybe she could teach him or find someone to teach him. He then tells her he is planning on going to China to learn and asks her for a phone number or email address of someone in China that could teach him. The whole thing was hilarious and Karis retelling it is one of the funniest things. Ok that’s it. I definitely hope to go back to Rwanda someday, it was amazing.
Malaria Bites
October 4th, 2007. Published under Life in Uganda, TIA. No Comments.
So the last week and a half:
I went with Ilea and John, our driver, to the Cornerstone Ranch in Luweero for a night. The ranch is thousands of acres and has 3 schools on it, so we went so I could check out their schools and so we could see some people. The schools were really cool. All of the guys who live at the Youth Corps house with me went to the Cornerstone Leadership Academy at the ranch so it was good to see where they came from. The vision for the Restore Academy is something like the CLA so I was able to get a visual picture of what theirs looks like. One of Ilea’s friends runs a guesthouse at the ranch so we stayed there and got some amazing food from her. We also got to see a bunch of the King’s Daughters girls. King’s Daughters is a home for former prostitute and street girls here in Kampala. Restore has supported the girls some and Ilea has a really good relationship with the girls. Many of the girls go to the secondary school at the ranch so we got to see some of them again. After the ranch I came back to Kampala with them to relax, eat some good food and get some “supplies.” By supplies I mean Nutella, good peanut butter, etc. One of the IC (Invisible Children) guys, Jared, was staying at Ilea’s so I got to meet him and hang out for the weekend. He’s a really cool guy and will be in Gulu until November, so that’s good. The bummer is that most of the IC people I’ve met have been here for a while and are on their way out or are leaving in a month or two. But we had a fun weekend. Friday night I went to Bible study with the girls again, which is always cool. They have really good discussions. They are going through James so we went through chapter 2. Karis cooked some curry and Ilea picked up some pad thai and spring rolls before so dinner was delectable! Haha.
Saturday I really just relaxed and caught up on a million emails. I went to Garden City to get some lunch from a pizza place, which was really good, and to do a little shopping. Sunday I went to the Kabira Club with Ilea and her friend Meredith. Kabira is like a resort real close to her house that has an amazing pool and is open to the public for a small fee. It is basically a mzungu hangout. I tried working out a little and just got depressed so I went and lay by the pool. I started feeling really tired and had a bad headache so I just laid in the shade trying to sleep it away for a few hours. My conditions only got worse so we went back to Ilea’s and I took some Advil and drank a ton of water. I realized I hadn’t drunk much water that whole weekend and maybe the workout put me over the top. I literally drank 3 liters of water that afternoon. The good thing is after a nap I felt a lot better. Which was good, because that night Ilea was cooking and had a bunch of people over. She made enchiladas and chicken tortilla soup. It was amazing; she’s a really good cook. Jared and I bought a chocolate cake and some ice cream because Monday was Ilea’s birthday. So we turned it into a birthday dinner. Sunday night after dinner I felt really sick again. When I went to bed I was burning up with a fever but at the same time I was freezing cold and was shivering. It was really weird. I woke up not feeling great but not too bad.
Monday: So I took a bus back up to Gulu. I got to the bus park at like 11:30 and we didn’t leave Kampala until like 1:30. We got to Gulu around 7 Monday night. It was, by far, the most uncomfortable trip of my life. I wasn’t able to sit in the very front where the seats have the most legroom so I sat in an aisle seat. What I didn’t realize is that I don’t fit in these seats. I literally could not sit down normally because the seat in front of me was too close. So I had to sit sideways with my legs in the aisle. I definitely don’t recommend doing that, especially for a 6-hour drive. To make matters worse they kept piling suitcases and bags in the aisle and people started sitting on them/standing in the aisle. So pretty much a lady put a bag down and sat where my legs were, sort of sitting on my feet. It was horrible. To add to my discomfort, the road is absolutely treacherous with thousands of potholes and these buses take no prisoners on the road. They just drive as fast as they can, dodging potholes when possible (which means the bus feels like its on two wheels half the time) and running other cars and pedestrians off the road. So every bump we hit my left knee was just getting thrashed by hitting the side of the seat in front of me. And did I mention I was still feeling sick? Needless to say by the end of the trip I felt about 100 times worse. The good thing about the trip is I sat next to a lady with like a 3 yr old boy so I tried to have fun with him. Once I got to Gulu I took a boda home, had a clifbar for dinner and fell asleep around 8:30.
Tuesday: Ilea gave me permission to take Tuesday off because I felt so bad, so I didn’t get up till like 9. I was in bed for over 12 hours (Tylenol pm works magic), it was awesome. I felt really crappy though so the only thing I did Tuesday was go into town to get some lunch at Maq’s. Just doing that wore me out and I had to take a nap afterwards! Anytime I took ibuprofen I felt ok, so I was living off that. I did a lot of reading and talking to some of the guys and a few of the young girls who live at the home. I really got to talk to two of the younger girls, Patricia and Browsy for a long time. They are 10 and 13. Patricia had helped me with my laundry one time so I knew her a little but I didn’t know Browsy at all. It turns out Patricia used to live next door in a hut (her grandmother still does) but both of her parents have died. When I asked how they died she kind of closed up, looked down and just said she didn’t know. It was really sad but it was good to talk with them for a while. My mom called that night too, so it was good to talk with her for a few minutes at least.
Wednesday I woke up and wanted life to end. Haha. I honestly did not want to get out of bed. I felt like crap and was completely drained. My head hurt, my whole body ached and I had a slight fever. I had to get up to pee though, because I had been drinking water nonstop for 3 days. I was hungry too and all I had to eat were clifbars or a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, which in turn made me grumpy. I was also a little depressed and felt very alone because Tuesday night Ilea called and said she most likely won’t be coming back to Uganda. She is heading home at the end of October and if we don’t have a land title by then she isn’t coming back. So I was depressing myself thinking of not having a boss here and trying to think of what I could do to help with the title process (which is nothing but pray right now). So in short I was really sick, hungry, grumpy, alone and a little depressed. It was beginning to be a very bad day. Then Titus, one of the teachers for Restore who lives at the boy’s house showed up. I rarely see him because he goes to school at the university in the morning, teaches in the afternoon and then studies/grades at night. He skipped his classes for the morning because he was burnt out. He came in just to chat and just him being there really cheered me up. He sat there flipping through one of my books (Irresistible Revolution Buy it. It’ll jack you up but its really good) so I opened my Bible to read a little. I was in 2nd Corinthians 7. Six verses in I came across: “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” I was seriously shocked when I read it and a little tear came to my eye. I was down and out that morning and just sitting there “downcast.” Then Titus came in and unknowingly comforted me just by his presence and conversation. It just felt like a divine coincidence that I read that passage at that time. I thought it was really cool.
Unfortunately the rest of my Wednesday didn’t keep getting better but worse. I took a shower (which I don’t get too often due to lack of water) and I started feeling worse and worse even though I was just lying in my room. I was waiting for Peter to come back from the school so we could go do some errands and meet with some members of the land board. Ilea texted me to go get checked up so when Peter came he took me to the hospital. The hospital was unreal. It’s huge (huge for up there, it only had one two story building but the compound is on like 9 acres), the biggest in northern Uganda and is the site where most of the children would hide at night when the war was going on. But we went to the walk in clinic and there hundreds of people sitting down lining the walkways just waiting to be seen. I started feeling like my aches and pains were petty because these people looked sick. Peter’s sister is a nurse and he knows a few doctors so he was calling people trying to see if there was a quicker way to be seen. We found a private clinic that opened at 2 (2:45 in Ugandan time) so we sat outside and waited. It was about 1:30 at the time. Peter left to go back to the school and to meet do the errands we were suppose to do. It eventually opened and I was the third person in line to be seen. I ended up having a blood smear and sure enough I have malaria. Awesome. Luckily I have a very mild case because I haven’t thrown up or had diarrhea at all. But if this is a mild case I do not want a severe case! I got some medicine and headed back to the house, then went into town to get some food so I could take the medicine. I stayed in my room all afternoon/night and Peter and William came in and talked for a while.
I decided to take the early bus to Kampala Thursday morning so I could eat some decent food and rest a little more comfortably at Ilea’s. We are planning on going to Rwanda early Saturday morning (it’s a holiday Monday and Tuesday so everything in Uganda is pretty much shut down) so I want to be better by then. I figured the earlier I traveled the more rest I could get here. The early bus is also more comfortable… translation: I fit in the seats. Unfortunately I got the worst seat on the bus: middle seat in the back. So sitting in the back, when the bus goes over a pothole or speed bump you fly out of your seat. Also, something about malaria is that once treated it gets worse for a day before it gets better. So every bump the bus makes (and there are thousands of them, no exaggeration. I lost count of the speed bumps at 50) felt like someone was tapping my head with a hammer. I had the worst migraine by the time I got to Kampala. That trip definitely beat the Monday trip for most uncomfortable. Once again I sat next to a lady with a little child, this time a little girl. She wasn’t too receptive to me though but I still tried to have fun with her when I wasn’t moaning in pain. John picked me up and when I got to Ilea’s I drank about a gallon of water and slept for a few hours. Now I’m feeling a lot better. It may be because I took some Advil, but I’ll take it.
So I’m hopefully heading to Rwanda this weekend. Our friends Julia and Karis were planning on going because they have off of work on Monday and Tuesday so Ilea and I had planned to go too. From what I’ve heard Rwanda is one of the most beautiful African countries. So I’m excited. It’s only a cheap ($12) overnight bus ride away from Kampala. We’re planning on checking out the youth corps homes and the Cornerstone school while we’re there along with the usual tourist activities – see some volcanoes, some lakes, hopefully a gorilla! I’m told the genocide museum and a few of the churches in Kigali are heart wrenching though, so I’ll let you know how it goes!
Land Board Training
October 4th, 2007. Published under Life in Uganda, TIA. No Comments.
September 25, 2007
The last two days have been interesting/boring… Starting Monday morning we facilitated the training of the land board for the Amuru district in which our land is in. If we didn’t facilitate and plan it, who knows when it would have been done. We need this land board to be trained so they can approve our land and we can get a title for the land. So we basically sat in the back of the room for the entire training the last few days, to make sure that they were actually training. And we had to pay everyone for coming (of course there was complaining from a few who wanted more money for doing their jobs-which they get paid for by the government already). Here in Uganda, any elected official gets a “sitting fee” or per diem as its called for any meeting or anything that they go to. So we had to pay the members of the land board, the trainers, everyone for coming to this training. Its ridiculous. But the Minister of Land came for the end today (and we had to pay him, his body guard, his driver), which was a big deal because he is a very powerful man so he gave the training legitimacy kind of. But all in all it was a boring few days with plenty of little bumps to complicate things. The land board is now trained though and has planned a meeting for next Friday to discuss our land and hopefully OK it.
Today, after the training, we went to meet with the landowners again to iron things out with the land. They have jacked the price up and are requesting all sorts of things like per diem for the meetings they have had amongst themselves, a solar power cell phone charger and I.D. to say they work for Restore (which they don’t). It comes down to the fact that they are just trying to get more money out of us any way they can. So it was a great, long meeting of them running in circles and repeating things that were already discussed or known. We brought Mzee Paul, an elder from Amuru and head teacher at the Cornerstone Leadership Academy and also a member of the Restore Academy board. We thought he could help us talk sense into these men since he was from their region and he is a very respected elder. Mzee (muh-zay) is a term used to show respect, for elders I think. But it was really good having him there; he spoke quite a few times to the landowners and charged them to not give us any problems so we can finalize this thing. During the meeting, which was out in the middle of nowhere in a tiny, stinky room, it started pouring outside. The room had a tin roof so we could hardly hear each other speak, so we had to huddle real close, like 10 people, just to hear what was being said. Unfortunately there wasn’t really an outcome to the meeting. Ilea basically said she has to discuss their offer with the U.S. team and get back to them. The land has gone from 100 acres for $10,000 to 9 acres for $8,000. In between there it jumped to 9 acres for like $19,000 but they came back down. It’s just been a whirlwind. Ilea was told back in like January that there was 100 acres for $10,000 but when the survey finally got done just recently, what the owners thought was 100 acres turned out to be 9. Then, we were told that the man who quoted us that $100 per acre hadn’t consulted the other land owners (it is owned communally) and owned a very small percentage of the land. Thus the jump in price. The good thing is that the landowners of adjacent land are willing to sell. But we can’t get a straight answer as to how much land they have, their price etc. “Expect the unexpected” is a well-used phrase here and applies to just about everyone who does business here.
After our meeting we met with Richard Tadwong, our friend who is the advisor to the President for the North. He is a really nice, down to earth and MORAL guy. He has helped Ilea out a lot and put some pressure on quite a few officials to help us. Something not a lot of people would do but he is great. Ilea, Peter, Laker, Robinah (a friend of Ilea’s from Kampala) and I met him for dinner at the Acholi Inn, an mzungu food restaurant at a hotel. Its so weird going out to eat here. There rarely is a menu and if there is you get one or two for the entire table. Then once you select what you want, you realize that they only actually have about ¼ of the things on the menu. Tonight we didn’t have menus and were just told they had chicken, pork and goat. So pretty much we had meat and chips (fries) or meat stew to choose from. Richard had invited the Chairman of Gulu to meet us as well, Mr. Mao. He is one of, if not the most powerful man politically in Gulu. So it was really great meeting him, he is funny and very nice. Unfortunately, he made it sound like our land problems were easy and should have had all this cleared up a long time ago had we written formal requests to the government etc. etc. According to Ilea, we had done this and our report was sent to his office months ago to see if he would help (She told me this later, she didn’t think it wise to criticize his office so blatantly). To add to it, the chairman or LCV or whatever the guy’s title is for Amuru that we have to deal with is corrupt and sort of threatened to sabotage our work, even though publicly he praises the work we are doing. Ahh what fun! He’s actually one of the men Richard has called out to help us and to stop giving Ilea trouble.
But the dinner was good; Richard and Mr. Mao told us stories of their trips abroad and to the U.S. They both were in San Fran a few weeks ago for a conference and it was Richard’s first time to the States. It is soooo funny hearing them talk about it. Everything in Western countries is backwards to them. Richard got off the plane and had no one there to pick him up and he didn’t know what hotel he was suppose to be in. He thought the Hyatt, but of course there is more than one Hyatt so he couldn’t just tell a taxi that. Everything was new to him. A lady at a check in counter told him to buy a phone card to call someone in Uganda (of course it was like midnight in Uganda) so he walked to the machine but didn’t know where to put his money. He had to go ask the lady where to put his money, then he didn’t know where the card would come out so he had to go back again. It was just hilarious, he had so many other things happen and Mr. Mao had a bunch of stories as well. One of them – on a former trip to San Fran the gay rights parade was going on, so he joined in the march just for fun. He started describing what he saw and how people were dressed. It was so strange to him that men with beards were wearing makeup and wearing girl clothes etc. Homosexuality is a huge taboo here, like people will practically get lynched. So he told us he had fun looking at all the weird people then asking a lesbian if she would marry him to see her response. It was just so funny, things we see everyday in the states are soooo foreign to them. Something no one here can understand is that at some restaurants in the U.S. you have to wait 30 minutes and sometimes much longer just to sit down! Ahh anyways it was a fun night, a good ending to a somewhat frustrating day.