In addition to making my own food and trying to eat a bit less of the greasy, fried food, I started yoga. There's a place right by my office that has classes everyday at 6pm which is perfect for right after work. I've only done it two days so far and I'm so sore! It's been a while since I had some good physical activity (besides walking all over town). It was much needed! My body feels so much better! I'm going to try to go every day after work. So far, so good. A cool thing about yoga here is it's cheap, 5,000 shillings a class (less than $2.50) and it's free on Saturdays. Also, so far it's only been me and one other person so it's almost like a 1-1 session! I really appreciate how universal yoga is and that it's really the same anywhere you go. I remember in one of my classes that was attempting to prepare us for our internships abroad someone mentioned the importance of having at least one thing in your day be a constant, like tea in the morning, or meditating at night, etc. I think yoga is this for me. I can depend on it daily and I love that a yoga teacher in Uganda does the Warrior II pose the same as a teacher in the U.S. I guess I see it as just one more thing that connects us as human beings.
Another great thing about the place I moved is the people I've met. There are two girls from England (Sarah and Veira), and the head of the compound is a young guy from England (Tom). Then there's an Irish girl (Vanessa), a German girl (Anna), and two Danish girls (which I haven't met yet). I went to Arua Falls with some of them on Sunday. It's soooo nice to have people to do stuff with and who are going through similar things that I am. Also, the whole having a whole in the ground for a toilet isn't that bad. It stays fairly clean because it does flush and I'm a natural pro at popping-a-squat thanks to the times I went hunting with my Dad and brother when I was little. Who knew that would ever come in handy? lol
The rest of my field trip to Kitgum was good...and interesting. First, it's kind of eerie to be driving and walking around in a place that has a bunch of signs up that read "Beware of where you step! Landmines!" or "Don't step on any foreign objects." I meant to take a picture of one of the signs. I guess I'll just have to when we go back in July. Also a bit eerie, we visited former President Tito Okello's old family home since he was from Kitgum. It's abandoned now, besides for a young kid, his cat, and some goats. The kid doesn't own the house...he's just a wanderer who set-up shop in a perfectly good house. The person that showed us the house explained that there's a mass grave behind the backyard...however, I'm not quite sure why... I should probably ask someone about that...
Anyway, everything went fairly smooth until the end of the trip. We interviewed about 5 survivors and we were talking to the chairperson of the survivor's group when we were getting ready to leave... I can't go into too much detail with what happened due to confidentiality and not knowing who could read this, but political interests are definitely interfering with what could be an amazing report and documentation project for the survivors. It's really disheartening to see these survivors so hopeful of change and that they think this leader of their's can really help, but his political agenda is really getting in the way of truly helping them. I mean, yes, I think he is maybe helping to some extent, but not the best he could. He will sit there and say, "I have no political agenda," but then say, "Constructing a memorial is in my political manifesto." He'll also say, "Nothing should be left unsaid, even if it says something about the government," but then he'll say, "Don't forget, I am a part of the government." Sounds a bit like conflict of interest, eh? My favorite thing he said probably has to be, "I'm part of the government...but you shouldn't fear me or the government." The mere fact that he said that was to make us scared and the context in which he said it felt a bit like an indirect threat. It's all silliness and politics though. At least I'm getting this experience. And thanks to my classes, I'm not surprised by any of this nor concerned about it. It's also extremely interesting, and educational, to see how my co-workers who are locals deal with him and this situations. It's completely different than how I would deal with it and how I wanted to react. lol Toward the end of the meeting he became rude and was directly insulting one of my co-workers. The way I wanted to respond was...well, American. lol But there's a certain way of dealing with things here which usually consists of tip-toeing around what you really want to say and the subject that actually needs to be discussed. Anyway, we're attempting to appease this person while still working for the survivor's. If we don't appease him in some way then he'll pull the plug on the entire gig and we won't be able to help at all. I find this extremely hard to sit with because they're their own people and it's their own experiences, why should one person make the decision whether they can talk to us or not. It's dictatorship; maybe he will fit into politics just fine.
Sorry for the venting... Like I said, I'm happy I'm getting this experience and I definitely welcome the educational value of it. I know responding with my American instincts would have probably not only ended the project, but got us kicked out of the town so I'm definitely not saying I have a better approach or solution. I'm hoping I'll learn how to deal with difficult people like this in this context for future situations which will inevitably present themselves, I'm sure. I'll leave with you some pictures from Kitgum and Arua Falls. Miss you all! Xoxoxo!
Drive to Kitgum from Gulu
Former President Tito Okello's home
A peak inside the abandoned house
The mass grave of the massacre that happened in Namokora
Only 2 of the 4(!) chickens we had in the back of the car on the way home. When we left we had 7 people and 4 chickens stuffed in the Land Rover on the way home... lol
Storm <3
Beautiful Arua Falls (about 40ish min. away from Gulu)
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