If you haven't seen the previous pictures post yet, then you probably don't know what happened during my last few days in Gulu. Basically, to explain my absence and my lack of blogging, on the Friday before leaving, my backpack that help my laptop, iPad, money, work and health forms, and my passport were all stolen from me during the Sports Gala. Thankfully, I still had all of my medications and my health, so losing all of that was more annoying than life threatening. Who ever stole it probably doesn't even know that he hit the jackpot. Whatever, somethings are replaceable, and I'm happily back at home with my family.
Since it's been so long, some details might be a bit hazy. I'll do my best to fill you all on what we did in our last week, which includes the Sports Gala, my stolen backpack adventures, and rafting on the River Nile. Ready?
Here goes nothing!
On Monday (I believe it was), Clara selected the scholarship recipients pretty much on the same day as we did the interviews, with advice coming from myself, Francis, and a few other staffers. All of the candidates had different backgrounds in health and education, some more fortunate than others, but they each seemed to be passionate about continuing their education, and it's a shame that we couldn't help them all out. Hopefully we'll be able to expand the program in the future!
Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit slow, and it was really frustrating considering it was our last week working in Gulu. We were supposed to visit the Goat Lending and Seed Lending sites in Alero, but we weren't able to it this time around. We more than made up for it, though, because on Wednesday Clara, Josh, Tabu, and I all went out to visit a scholarship recipient and do Goat Lending evaluations in Kochgoma! We hired a car the night before, and when it came it was just a mini van with no modifications to make it off-road capable, which left Ben and I thinking that the "female" car wasn't going to be enough to take us. Oddly enough, it was able to maneuver everywhere needed, albeit wounded afterwards. It was a long day, but we got a lot of work done. When we got back it was pretty late, but the long journey was worth it. | |
| Josh, Tabu and I dancing around |
On Thursday, I attended the final Sports Gala meeting to hash out some last minute details with the rest of the partner organizations. Each seemed to be pretty excited about the event, so that was a rather productive and quick last meeting. After that I struck out with a community caretaker in Pece to do some Goat Lending evaluations in the area. It turns out that we were right - the program was doing really well and there were four subgroups of caretakers with a very stable structure for loaning and lending between families. My theory for its success is that, because the community is large and close, it was much easier for recipients to access treatment for their goats and make money in the local market. It's something I'll bring up later when we're discussing the future of these projects! I stayed at work afterwards to type up the surveys and print them out because my handwriting is illegible.
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| "RISEVED" (Reserved) |
Saturday I woke up in a fury and decided to take action! While Josh talked to Francis about the MOU, I stormed out and went to every place in Gulu that exchanged money and told them about my stolen backpack, warned them that someone might come in with a lot of USD, and asked them to give me a call if anything happened. As it turns out, I was unsuccessful in my endeavors. I took my mind off it for the rest of the day and attended a meeting with a different organization that focused around helping out adults with HIV/AIDS. The meeting lasted for a couple of hours, but afterward I went back to the Gala to enjoy the rest of the tournament. By six o'clock, everything had ended and the team representing Red Cross had won! We also distributed condoms out to over 800 individuals and handed out a couple thousand condoms that were donated to us by the Ministry of Health. It was a success, apart from the stolen backpack!
That night Julia and I went to BJ's with GROW Columbia to celebrate our last night in Gulu with each other. It was bittersweet, but we had a great time drinking, talking, and dancing with all of the friends that we've made. I also was able to see Franny for the last time as well as some drivers from GWED-G that I'd met a few nights ago. It was a good way to go out, and it took my mind off of the backpack situation.
Sunday, we woke up early and were taken to the office by Francis to get ready to leave. Again it was another bittersweet moment. On one hand we were coming to the end of our trip, and I would be able to see my family in a few days. On the other hand, it was really sad to say goodbye to Francis, Tabu, Emma, Carol, and everyone else. We had gotten really close to them over the past six weeks, and saying goodbye to them was hard. Yet, we will all be able to communicate through Facebook, so that's a plus! We spent the day heading to Backpackers in Kampala where we stayed at the beginning of our journey. It was a long trip, and once we got there we realized nothing had changed apart from the internet, which they were now charging us for!
On Monday, I made the trek to the US Embassy to sort out the passport situation. After a couple hours of waiting, taking a terrible passport photo, and talking with the nice Chinese woman about everything, I was told that the temporary passport would be ready for pickup on Wednesday and that I'd be able to travel outside the country and to London without trouble. Once that was sorted, I walked around a bit and walked up and down a multi-story mall for a bit, then headed back to hang out at Backpackers with the team for the rest of the day. There we built up the anticipation for what was to come the next day: RAFTING ON THE NILE!
Yes, rafting on the River Nile. How many people can say they have done that? That's the reasoning that Josh used to convince me to go, especially after he told me that there would be Class 5 rapids. For those who don't know, Class 5 is the second highest class of rapid, and is harsh enough that it'd be nearly impossible not to slip off. Being someone who hasn't rafted before, I knew it'd be intense, and I was admittedly scared. So many thoughts of drowning to the sound of 80's love songs were running through my head as we sat there doing all of the drills before going through our first rapid, a Class 5. Long story short, it was a blast, but I nearly drowned twice over the harsher rapids. I'm so happy I went on that trip. It's something I would have never done before, and now I can say that I have rafted/swam in the River Nile.
The next day wasn't as exciting. Josh and I trekked out to Kampala to pick up my passport and get some money from an ATM. The passport part was easy, but it turns out every single ATM in the area next to the embassy was broken. Because of this, we had to take a boda boda in to the center of the city to the Barclay's HQ to withdraw some cash. After that, we ended up walking around the city for a bit and grabbing lunch. It was a really nice day, and definitely worth doing after being cooped up for so long in Gulu and Backpackers.
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| First meal: Fish n' Chips with Vinegar, Brown Sauce, and mushy peas. |
The whole experience was fantastic. I met a lot of amazing people, had some of the most memorable experiences in my life, and was able to see the impact that all of our hard work at UNC had had on our project recipients. It's an experience that I'll never forget, and I'll carry the memories with me for the rest of my life.
Alright, enough sappy stuff. This will be my last post on this blog, so I just wanted to say thank you to all of my friends and family for reading and keeping up with this. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Olara
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