Gulu Survey Trip – Part 2

Living in Gulu over the past 10 days has been really awesome and I’ve made some good friends and great memories. One of the more memorable sights came on the first morning on the way to the property. We stopped off just a few kilometers before we reached our destination. We saw a very large rock outcropping and were told that it was a former hideout for the rebels when the LRA was active in Gulu. The LRA left Uganda about a few years ago. It was strange to be so close to part of history that was so recent and so violent. The LRA has massacred thousands of people since the late 80s. John, another Watoto employee, found some gun shells a few days later as he was walking around the property. Crazy!

It was really great getting to know Peter and John, brothers that sold the land to Watoto. They are both in their sixties which is rare to see in Uganda. They have both lived in Gulu all of their lives. The lived through the war and have some incredible stories about the LRA and the havoc they wreaked for many years in Gulu. This is Peter walking through one of the "trails" created with machetes to be able to walk through the area. It wasn't much of a trail.

We also got to experience the Ugandan elections while we were in Gulu. It’s the only thing people have been talking about for weeks. Back in Kampala, EMI has taken precautions and the office was closed last Thursday and Friday. All of the international staff and interns stocked up and didn’t leave their respective residences from Thursday until Sunday. Fortunately, Gulu was expected to be much calmer since it is so far away from Kampala, the capital and political hub in Uganda. As a result, we had a lot more freedom. We still worked last Thursday and Saturday. We took Friday off because that was the actual day of voting, but we still went out the compound for a walk.

The final were released just a few days ago and Museveni won by quite a lot.He has been in power since 1986 so this comes as no surprise to most. This is probably the most peaceful result that could have occurred since power will not be shifting hands. There has been a some controversy with dead people voting and other corruption occurring. There was a riot in the city on Wednesday over the corruption in the election for the new mayor of Kampala, but it looks like an isolated incident. Everything is calm today. Here are a few more photos from the trip:

 

The day we went out on a walk we stopped off at a local shop for sodas. A nice man brought over some nice wood benches for us to sit on. Notice the political posters in the background. These are plastered everywhere.

Citizens of Gulu standing in line waiting to vote.

The back seat of the car on the way out to the site. Peter and John are on either side of me in a tiny 1996 Toyota Starlet.

The drive to the site was about 45 minutes on a bumpy dirt road like this one. We saw lots of men like this riding bikes with huge bags of charcoal to go sell in town. He would probably get about $10 for a bag like that. That's not very much considering it probably took several days to prepare and will take about half the day to get it to town.

We also saw a lot of these along the way. Men were constantly making clay bricks in these large kilns. Bricks are sold for 200 shillings (10 cents) each.