TRIP TO GULU

“Gulu, the largest town in the north of the country, is heavily militarized – it is the supply centre for the government’s war against the LRA. As long as the war continues, there is absolutely no reason for tourists to come here and plenty of reasons to stay away (…)”
(Description of the place by Lonely Planet Guide book, 2003)

Here some reasons why to go:

In an IDP(Internally Displaced People)-camp

Children at a health and activity centre

Children in an IDP-camp

Together with a friend of my family that have worked as a missionary in Uganda for the past 20 years Kathrine and I went to visit Gulu the 24th-25th of March. This is a place in the north that has been affected by a conflict that started in 1986 as President Yoweri Museveni took over the power by a military coop. The LRA (Lord Resistance Army) under the lead of Joseph Kony have fought their war up in north apparently as a way to overthrow the sitting President. LRA have had little success besides loosing the little support they had to begin with because of their way of acts. They have kidnapped a lot of children and trained them to be soldiers or/and sex-slaves. Children couldn’t feel safe, especially at night. Many of the children in the villages therefore went into the nearest towns to find a safe place to spend the night. Lacor hospital right outside Gulu town is one of the places they found a shelter. When the conflict was on its worse in 2003 it housed about 30 000 children.

Parts of an IDP-camp

Gulu is now a safe place to stay and have been for about three years. Our family friend started to work in the north, Gulu included, for three years ago. Then the fighting some kilometers outside town had just ceased. My first impression of Gulu is that it looks like a normal town with surrounding villages. But as I already knew it weren’t. The ”normal villages” – were mostly IDP-camps. People have lived here for too many years… The children have to bee taught how to play and how to work for food. Most of them have only experienced to get food from WFP (World Food Program)-trucks amongst others. Not one school sponsored by the government has been built in the north since the conflict first started. And here in the west, were I stay, you will find many new ones as well as many other advantages like a pretty nice road. A coincidence that the Presidents home place is here in the west… Sorry to say but I don’t think so…

My visit to Gulu included both a visit to “Karin Clinical Medical Centre” and an IDP-camp. At the clinic children met us with songs and dances. The clinic also functions as an activity-centre/day-centre for children. About 150 to 200 children come every day. Many of them are orphans or have just one parent left living. The daily life is hard and here they play and participate in different groups – counseling, music and drama ++.

Some of the children singing and dancing for us…

The children have gone through too much than I even can start to imagine – still I see many smiling faces… They will never forget things happened to them, but I hope they will have the opportunity to find out what a “normal” life is and live it themselves. If someone deserves a good life it is these children…

Some of the children watching the performances as we did…

In the IDP-camp Awer, we visited a church as well as being shown around the camp. It was about 20 000 that lived in this camp… In the beginning I felt I was kind of intruding in their lives, but learnt that they thought it was ok. Several were smiling at me, babbling in a language I didn’t understand and wanted me to take their picture… Some people are just amazing…

Okello James (from the left), Kibwoja Wilbam and Oyet David are taking a rest under a tree in the camp – listening to the radio…