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.
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