Forever Young in Uganda (swear to God I hear that song everywhere I go)

Next Stop: St Jude’s Orphanage (the patron saint of lost causes). We spent much of Father’s day with those who didn’t have any. The orphanage is isolated from the city and made for a very lengthy/bumpy ride and is unlike any other orphanage in Uganda, this is specifically for those whose parents were killed in the conflict. As soon as we got out of the vans the children ran and instantly all fifteen of us had at least one child holding our hands. Greeted with singing and dancing and afterwards we toured the grounds if we weren’t asked to play soccer or frisbee. While there are coordinators who organize and run the orphanage, there are also 9 mothers who live and raise their children and other orphans. Either these mothers’ husbands were killed in the conflict or they were taken into the bush and raped by the rebels. In Uganda there is a stigma against these “rebel babies” who are stereotyped as aggressive and stubborn inside and outside of the classroom and thus are not accepted at normal schools.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the orphanage was the portion dedicated to students with special needs such as learning and behavioral disorders or even children whose limbs were cut off as a testament to what the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) would do to its victims. Few in our group decided to this area, however the children here seemed just as happy if not more so than the healthy children. It was perhaps the most difficult portion of the trip so far to watch. Up until this point we had all read about what the LRA had done, heard the stories of children, yet here we were face to face with victims. One child was running around with bright eyes and grin to match and only seconds later as he approached me could I see several scars unmistakably made by a knife running along the top of his head. From that moment until I left that area, I could barely speak let alone smile.

Yesterday was my first day at Gulu High when the students where there. While I was waiting for my teacher to show up I witnessed what is an every day occurrence in schools all over Uganda. Three kids were getting yelled at by a teacher and then took a push up position and were caned three times each. I never found out what the punishment was for but it was most likely having their shirts untucked. Then today, 8 girls were caned, and as it turns out if you flinch while being caned, you get an additional two hits. All of the American teachers were prepped on the law that went into place a year ago in Uganda that made caning illegal, but truth is no one really abides by it. It was a weird to watch, and today when a girl was crying during her caning, the teacher next to the teacher caning her was laughing. Clearly Uganda has got a ways to go as far as education goes. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that wouldn't go down well at Holy Names...

I swear I'll blog about something happy sometime soon.

Fast Times at Gulu High (tales of sunburns and volleyball)

Yesterday I checked out my school for the first time and it was pretty impressive. Gulu high is a boarding school so the campus is fairly large for Gulu. Its about a 20 minute ride there in the morning, which will sometimes be 7:30, so thats going to be rough. Interesting things that are included on campus are things such as a mill (used to produce the regulars meals of something similar to piaya, I know for certain thats not how you spell it), a couple dorms (including a teachers dorm) and a cafeteria that was bumping Jay-Z when we walked in. I got to take a look at the classroom which I will be teaching in. Upon first glance the only thing I noticed were the chickens surrounding the classroom door (reminds me of 4th street). As it turns out I'll be teaching about 70-100 kids in EACH CLASS. The classroom definitely doesn't have 100 desks so I'll be interesting to see how they cram in there. The school also has a special building for the deaf and blind, hardly any schools have this because it is already expensive to send your children to school and if you have to make the decision between sending your blind child or your healthy child, without doubt the families in Uganda will only educate the healthy child. We walked into this classroom and heard a remarkable sound, turning the corner to reveal that three blind students were playing the keyboard and producing this music.

As for adventures outside of school, we've watching a few of the world cup games at some of the bars. One night we watched one for awhile and couldn't catch the second half because our curfew (yes we have one) was fast approaching. The Boda ride home was freaky for a number of reasons. There were two of us on the same Boda, going about 20mph, in the dark for about 15 min. About one block away from our house our Boda came to a standstill because we were in a pothole, he decides to stop and make a hairpin 180, which promptly causes us the topple over pushing all three of us off the motorcycle and the light goes out. Now we are lying in the middle of the street in pitch black. Fantastic. What we didn't realize is that the Bar owner had a dog which followed us the entire way home. We couldn't bring it into the IC compound so it whimpered outside the fence for the entire night. The owner said he was going to pick it up in the morning. the next day the dog was nowhere to be found.

Last night we caught a bit of the Cameroon game and another bar/pool hall. We asked if there was a deck we could sit on, and the owner took us upstairs to the roof where we got a private viewing of the Ugandan skyline, granted there aren't many lights but hey it was still cool. Upon riding back to the house from the bar, Mandy (the girl that was on the boda when we fell off) and I were dropped off about a block away from the house when it went from dry to monsoon rains during a single clap of thunder. Amazing experience and all in all one of the best nights yet. If you're not singing "The Rains Down in Africa" yet, I will end this blog now so you can youtube it.

Put Aside Your Genocide

Now I'm coming to you live from Gulu, the city where the original Invisible Children film took place. The film was made in 2003, hit the nationwide tour in 2005 and now in 2010 Gulu has made significant advancements. While buildings, including banks and hotels, have been the concern of many construction projects, Gulu itself has not yet made "city status." Part of this includes sanitation and garbage collection, both of which seem to be in the distant future. On our first walk through the town yesterday, the aroma of garbage, some of which is burnt as a form of disposal, filled the air. Many of us didn't get to see most of the town on our tour, while we did walk through the majority of the town our heads were down trying to avoid stepping into gutters that lined the sidewalks with a green-brown slime. As of this moment I'm writing this from a cafe in which Jacob, one of the children featured in the film, works as a waiter. Also for those of you who have seen the film Jolie, the woman who could open soda bottles with her teeth, just walked in and said 'hi' to all of us.

A few things I forgot to mention about my travels before reaching Gulu stretch back to london. We decided to walk to the National Gallery and upon turning the corner and expecting the open square, we were instead greeted with a massive protest. This was far from anything we thought the citizens of London would be protesting about. Apparently London has a significant portion of the population which belongs to the religion of Sikhism. What I know of this faith is that it has a violent history in its conflicts with Hinduism. The Sikhs were protesting what they deemed was a "genocide" against their brothers and sisters who remained in India. Personally I had no knowledge of any conflict still going on. But the experience was mesmerizing nonetheless.

While in Kampala we had the chance to visit a program which provided a home for artists and singers outside of the school day. Whether its rap, painting, designing shirts, or bracelet making, the school offers a variety of avenues for children to express themselves. I got a cd of Ugandan rap that I'm pretty pumped to bring back.

One of the highlights so far in Gulu was our post evening activities last night. After dinner we ended up going to a bar and watching some world cup action. Beers in uganda are a bit...bigger and stronger than beer in the US. So anybody that might have said in the US that 40s are for toothless homeless people, come here and its your only choice and I've still got my teeth. We caught the first half of the South Africa game but had to head home to make our 11:00pm curfew. Walking back my have not been the best idea. Many in our group decided to take Boda Boda (little motorcycles that can hold two people on the back, they're fun until your driver picks up his cell phone in mid drive). But two people and myself decided that since it was such a nice night out that we would walk. Well it was nearly pitch black and granted we did make it home safe, I couldn't help but be on edge with each shadow that appeared from behind a clay wall lined with barbed wire.

There are plenty of things I'm sure I have forgotten to write about that I'll remember in 5 minutes but that'll happen in the next blog.

Uganda? No Myganda

The Lundquistador lands in Uganda and is immediately gasping for air because of the in your face humidity. But before we get to Uganda, lets talk layovers.

In NYC I happen to be waiting in a long line for British Airways and see some desheveled firl frantically trying to make her bag 7 pounlds lighter, which suddenly brings a thought to my mind that maybe my body bag is over the limit. As I get closer to this woman I start texting rnadom people telling them I'm in NY, when all of the sudden I hear "Are you kidding me?!" As it turns out this girl was one of the volunteers in my program and the one I've talked to the most leading up to the trip. She figured everything out turns out gummy vitamins weigh a lot.

At JFK we hang out at the bar for awhile and realize a large group forming tables outside the bar, realizing its our group we spy on them for awhile and finish our beers so as not to look like alcoholics in front of a group which we'll be staying with for the next 6 weeks (now you might be thinking, a group of teachers surely must be able to drink together, and yes this is true, found it out after some mini bottles of wine on the plane).

The flight to England had some turbulence which lasted awhile but we made it safe and ended up using our 12 hour layover to check out parliament, figure out what time it was at Big Ben and eager walk to the London Eye only to turn away after realizing how expensive it was.

And now the flight to Africa. This had even more turbulence, but my nerves were calmed with the movies and tv you could pick from (Best part: watching the episode "Worlds Best Burger" from the show How I Met Your Mother).

After the plane landed, we had to walk off the plane, down the stairs and there we were...in Africa. My first phrase included some profanity but it went something like "_________ we're in Uganda!" (Use your imagination). Checked in at the Hostle, got some food and pushed through the heat of the day. If you're asking yourself "huh when did Andy get the chance to sleep?" Well I got a few hours on the flights but from the moment I'm typing this, all the way back to when I got up at 6am (with a bit of a headache) in Seattle, has felt like one single day. Its been rough. And on that note I'm heading to bed.

Chapter 1, Book 1: Imperializing Africa

The voyage begins...



the charts have been mapped out, and the stars seem to be telling me the time is now... and that some Scorpio is in my future...hmmm...got to stop reading the stranger horoscopes.

Anyway, if you're reading this chances are you've donated (even if its one cent, thanks Tony), forgotten to donate or maybe just found out I'm in Africa. This blog will catalog the the inevitable adventures that are yet to come. So tune in for the hunt for endangered species, mining for gold and who knows what else lies in the land of the heart of darkness....