Upcountry

My trip to Gulu this past weekend was a bouncy and exhausting one but one that is well worth the bumpy bus rides, lack of electricity, icy cold showers, and long days. Gulu is the second largest city in Uganda. It is in Northern Uganda about 338.8 kilometers (210.5 miles) from Kampala a ride that would take approximately 3.5 hours on US roads but takes anywhere from 5-7 hours depending on traffic and road construction. The road to Gulu is not great to say the least. It is riddle with pot holes and in some parts the pavement has been worn down to a small strip in the middle of the road barely big enough for one vehicle. There is construction being done currently which is promising for the future but a pain right now.

Once you finally make it to Gulu it is quite lovely. It is small town that has come a long way in a short time since the years of LRA control and general political strife and civil war in Uganda. A friend just shared his experiences of Gulu in 2006 with me and explained it as having little infrastructure and one restaurant with C+ food. Now Gulu has many restaurants and some even have A+ food (A+ for Uganda that is which is an entirely different rating scale). When I arrived in Gulu I hopped off the bus and headed to a popular restaurant to enjoy their delicious brick oven pizzas. After a late lunch I made my way to the girl’s home HALO supports. I rode a boda (motorcycle taxi) and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. The air is so much fresher in Gulu and I found myself sucking it in trying to clean out my lungs of the gross Kampala fumes. The ride was also quiet which is such a treat for me. In Kampala I am assaulted daily by noises from all. Such is big city life.

Ahhhh, peace

When I got to the girl’s home I was greeted with smiling faces running towards me bombarding me with hugs. It was so great to see those girls again. 

We spent the evening doing art as we always do and taking pictures. We had a delicious traditional Ugandan dinner prepared by the girls. 

It was a lovely evening but I was ready to turn in early after the long bus ride. I feel asleep immediately (which never happens to me) but woke up in the middle of the night to the rain pounding on the tin roof. Despite being woken up I was happy for the rain because it brought the temperatures down and made everything less dusty. It hasn’t rained in Kampala in months and the dryness is getting to be too much. The plants on the side of the road are no longer green but have a thick coating of reddish brown dust stirred up from passing vehicles. It was nice to smell the rain again.

In Kampala

Poor plant, it was once green.

Dust Prints

The girls were in school all day Friday so I did some work and charged my electronics at the same restaurant I went to the day before. I ran into some people I know so I ate breakfast with them and we spent some time catching up. It was nice to see them at breakfast because I never really have time to socialize with the people I know in Gulu since I only go for a few days and I spend them working. That afternoon I went to see our girls who are in boarding school. The school they attend is called Restore Leadership Academy. It is a great school inspired by the visionary Bob Goff and run by a few people who I am proud to say are my friends. Check out their website for more information. http://www.restoreinternational.org/

Restore Girls

The view from the school

Me waiting on the side of Juba Rd, the road that goes from Uganda to Juba, South Sudan, for a transportation opportunity. A boda eventually drove by.

I only had an hour with the girls since they had to get back to class but we had a good time catching up.

After visiting Restore I had a meeting with the mentors who manage the Gulu home. I was so happy to hear everything is going really well and they didn’t have any major problems to discuss. Finally the girls got home from school around 5pm. I did some art with the girls who were not busy preparing dinner. We had another delicious dinner and after eating the girls treated us to a few performances. First the girls performed a danced they choreographed themselves. Then they did a news broadcast that I really loved. The girls wrote stories about what has been going on in Gulu Girls home and reported them like they were newscasters. One girl read the headlines then the other girls read the in depth stories. It was adorable and I actually learned a lot about what the girls have been up to! To end the night we watched Shrek on a laptop. The girls loved the movie.

The Neighbors 

The Neighborhood

Main water tap at the house

I left early the next morning for Kampala. I was able to catch a ride with someone I’ve never meet but heard about many times. His name his John and he worked for Restore International in Uganda for five years. He left last May about a week before I came to Uganda to attend law school. He was back in Uganda visiting and working with Restore. He shared many stories with us on the ride down to Kampala and I really enjoyed hearing about what Gulu was like six years ago. Six years may not seem like a long time to you but a whole lot can change in six years in Africa. Gulu has definitely changed a lot in the past six years.

I am always happy to be back in Kampala because I am not much of a small town girl, but I always wish I could spend more time with the girls in Gulu. 

HALO Homes - Uganda Style

HALO has five homes in Uganda and each home has a name and its own personality. Four homes are in Kampala and the fifth is in Gulu which is a town in Northern Uganda. The homes are simply named by the area of the city they’re located in. The greater Kampala area is broken down by districts and parishes. Each district and parish has a name. Our homes are located in three different districts but they are only about 20 minutes from each other. Each home has a unique vibe and I’d like to talk briefly about each home.

All of the Kampala homes are ranch style houses that are within a walled off compound. The yards are medium sized but with enough room for the kids to run around and play. The houses typically have four to five bedrooms, a small kitchen, one bathroom, and a storage closet. Each house also has a separate bedroom outside as well as an outdoor bathroom and kitchen which are standard features for houses in Uganda.

Mengo Home – The Mengo home is an all girls home with 22 girls ages 9-18. About half of the girls are 13 or younger so the home has a very youthful feel. The girls love to play with each other so they are always playing games, dancing, and hanging out as a group. The majority of the Mengo girls enjoy dancing and singing. They choreograph their own dances and hold practices every week. The Bukesa boys, from the Bukesa home which is a short five minute walk away, usually join the girls for dance practice. Overall the Mengo home is a playful home with the sweetest girls who love a good giggle. It is always a joy to spend time with the Mengo girls.

The girls dancing and singing

Sisterly Love

Bukesa Home – The Bukesa home is a busy place filled with 21 rambunctious boys who love to have fun. Fun and silliness is the unofficial motto of Bukesa home. These boys love to run, jump, skip, flip, and fly around. It is near impossible to get one of the younger ones to sit down with you and concentrate for more than five minutes. They are always finding interesting ways of entertaining themselves. Sometimes I find them chasing the chickens around the yard. Sometimes half of them are up a tree doing who knows what. Other times they are all working together to take apart and repair old electronics they’ve found. I never know what I am getting myself into when I visit Bukesa home.

Unloading food from the truck

I wasn't kidding...Nathan and the chicken he caught

Karim! How did you grow your hair so long?

Typical. In a tree.

Lungujja Home – The Lungujja home is a home for girls who were involved in prostitution. The girls are older and more serious than the Mengo girls. They are pretty typical teenager girls. They’re into clothes, music, and hanging out with their friends. The Lungujja girls are more interested in doing well in school and learning practical skills than playing and having fun. In their free time they like to sew, dance, and to spend time relaxing and chatting with each other. I deeply admire the strength and courage these girls have. They are learning how overcome their pasts and to be strong confident young woman who look forward to their future possibilities.

Hanging out

Art

School work

Makerere Home – The Makerere home is a home for older boys who were living on the streets. All but two of the boys in this home are older than 15 and all of them have had very hard lives. Due to the nature of their childhoods the Makerere boys are tough kids who do not like to show emotion. They are not really into playing as much as the Bukesa and Mengo kids are. Most of the boys are in secondary school so they spend a lot of time focused on school and doing homework. Despite their rough exterior they are really sweet boys who love deeply. They enjoy playing soccer and making crafts like beaded bracelets.

Sadam's application for school prefect

Gulu Girls Home – The Gulu home in Northern Uganda is quite different from the homes in Kampala mostly because of the cultural and structural differences between the two places. The Gulu home is in what we in Uganda call the bush or the village. The home has a lot more land than the Kampala homes and instead of being located in a city it is located in a rural farming area. The kids do not encounter the same distractions as the Kampala kids do because there are none of the features of a large cosmopolitan city. Gulu is a quiet and small town that has far less infrastructure than Kampala. The girls are very well behaved and the home operates in peaceful unity. The girls are very sweet and they love to perform plays and dances. They keep themselves busy each week by organizing game nights, debates, and intentional family time where they share and the mentors teach lessons. They also enjoy taking care of their garden. It is always a treat to visit the Gulu girls. 

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Let's start off with this cuteness....

From left to right we have Ibra, Abudul, and Karim. These three are always hanging out with each other so the other day I asked each one why they like the other two. The first kid I asked was Ibra. Ibra is never in to answering my questions so in true form he just said "because I love them" using a very obviously-that-is-the-reason-mary-why-are-you-asking-me-this tone of voice. Of course I probed him a bit more and tried to get him to tell me what it is about Abudul and Karim that makes him love them. This is what he finally said

Ibra said about Karim, “I like his skills in somersaulting.”

Ibra said, “I like his dancing” about Abudul.

These three boys really enjoy gymnastics. They are always flipping, cartwheeling, hand-standing, and so on. They refer to these activities as somersaulting. 

Here is what the other two said about each other...

Abudul said about Ibra, “There are many things. He likes playing. He likes to be with his brothers or friends. He goes to school and does not miss. He likes to be with his friends, play with them. He likes to go to the parties (at school).”

I think my favorite reason Abudul loves Ibra is that he goes to school and doesn't skip! What a great reason to be friends with someone. 

Abudul said, “He is a somersault boy. He likes to read story books. He likes to talk with us and the uncles. He likes dancing. He is a boy. We are good friends” about Karim.

My favorite reason Abudul gave for liking Karim is that he is a boy. 

Karim said he likes Ibra because “Ibra likes to eat, play, fight, study, and he likes jokes.”

Karim said “Abudul like to play so much! He likes jokes. He likes to fight, and to somersault. Abudul is a hard working boy and so is Ibra.”

Of course Karim means play fight when he says he likes the boys because they like to fight. 

These boys are in the Bukesa home which is an all boys home. All of the boys in the home consider themselves brothers to the rest of the boys. They are one big family and they are all friends but naturally each child has one or two brothers that he is closer to. Karim, Abudul, and Ibra are very close and now you know why they love to spend time each other.

Hopefully this entry will turn in to a series of entries and I will share pictures of kids and the things they say!

How HALO Rocks it in UG

I came to realize that many of you probably don’t fully understand how HALO operates in Uganda so I thought I’d take some time to explain our system because it’s actually pretty cool.

One of the most important aspects of HALO UG (Uganda) is our partnership with the local nonprofit Cornerstone Development Africa, more commonly referred to as Cornerstone. Cornerstone has been operating in Uganda for 30 years. They are deeply connected to the country. Cornerstone’s main program is their schools. The Ugandan school system is quite different from the American system. Without getting in to too much detail the Uganda system works like this…primary school (levels 1-7), ordinary level secondary school (levels 1-4), advanced level secondary school (levels 5-6). Not everyone goes to advanced level secondary school. Cornerstone runs advanced level schools for boys and girls. The Cornerstone schools are always in the top 10 best schools in the country and many of their alumni go on to play important roles in Uganda (some are members of parliament and part of the local governments). HALO partnered with Cornerstone because of their deep connection to many communities in Uganda, their vast knowledge of Uganda, experience working as a nonprofit and working with other nonprofits, and their values and organizational integrity. It has been a very fruitful and productive partnership for both organizations for the past four years.

As the HALO Ambassador in Uganda I work very closely with Cornerstone. My office, the HALO field coordinator’s office, and the resettlement coordinator’s office all reside within the very large Cornerstone head office located in the heart of Kampala (Uganda’s capital). We work very closely with the Cornerstone staff to ensure a strong partnership.

HALO has five youth homes in Uganda. These homes are directly run by mentors or as we call them in Uganda, Aunties and Uncles. The mentors are graduates of the Cornerstone schools. The mentors are hand selected by the Cornerstone staff (mainly their alumni coordinators and the head mentor) with the approval of HALO staff. The mentors live in the youth homes for three to four years while they are in university. The mentors are held to very high standards and are given a great deal of support from HALO and Cornerstone staff. They receive training throughout the year in the form of weekly meetings, and occasional guest speakers and leadership conferences. 

The nurse who tends to our children giving a lesson on first aid to the mentors

The mentors are the ones responsible for making sure the kids go to school every day, eat three meals a day, receive medical care when necessary, and are loved and cared for. We could not do this without our Aunties and Uncles. They pour themselves in to the HALO homes and we are so thankful for their compassionate souls and their commitment to the children and to HALO. HALO would not function in Uganda without our mentors.

Me and Uncle John at community service

Aunt Harriet and Aunt Teddy of Lungujja home giving directions for community service

HALO also could not function without our field coordinator and resettlement coordinator. Asiimwe, the field coordinator, is a passionate and caring individual who is sharp with numbers and never lets unexplained costs slip by him. Asiimwe is HALO’s accountant in Uganda, but he is so much more than that. Asiimwe cares deeply for all the HALO children. I seek his advice daily on all sorts of issues. Asiimwe helps me make informed and culturally appropriate decisions in regards to HALO work and my own life. He negotiates the rental contracts for all the HALO homes (we rent four of the five of our homes in Uganda) and he even negotiated the rental contract for the house I live in. He frequently visits and checks up on the HALO kids who are sponsored in school but do not live in a HALO home. He makes sure the mentors are aware of their homes financial situation and he is great at reminding us all of the financial implications of our program decisions. HALO Uganda would be fumbling around in the dark without the guiding light that is Asiimwe.

Me and Asiimwe rocking our HALO t-shirts at community service 

We recently hired a new resettlement coordinator and she is already a rock star. Molly was in the Mengo Home before HALO even worked in Uganda. At this time Mengo Home was not well financed and they could not pay for her upper level secondary education. Molly did not give up though. She is an excellent dancer. She dances all the traditional Uganda dances so she joined a dance troop and started dancing and weddings and other events. She paid her own way through upper level secondary. Then she continued to work and support herself through vocational training school. Now she works part time for Cornerstone and part time for HALO. Since she shares a similar background as many of the HALO kids she really understands their troubles and is able to connect with them. It is Molly’s responsibility to prepare our kids to leave the home. She starts talking to the kids up to if not more than a year in advanced. Molly’s ability to communicate with the kids is a priceless addition to HALO UG.

Then there is me.

I am responsible for overseeing HALO’s programs here and I serve as the liaison between the US and UG. I write monthly home updates and keep our HALO US branches stocked with pictures, stories, and information from the kids and program in Uganda. I manage the scholarship program. I facilitate individual and group art projects with the HALO youth. I spend a few evenings a week hanging out with the kids doing various things. Sometimes I just sit on the couch and wait for them to come talk to me while other times I arrange games, projects, or seek out specific kids to check up on. I also strategize, brainstorm, and work to make our programs the best they can possibly be!

 

While we all have different job descriptions and various responsibilities we really work as a team. I could not do my job without my coworkers in the US and Uganda.

GO TEAM HALO!