July 22, 2009 - “The world is tough for some little children, where did it go wrong…”

Day 2 in the field and the reality is setting in…”The world is tough for some little children, where did it go wrong.” It is hard to believe we live in the same world as the people we are visiting, because our lives are so completely different. It’s purely luck of the draw in that where we are born that determines whether we lack the most basic of needs or live a comfortable prosperous life.

Today, one of the projects we visited was a group of people near Gulu who are planting ground nut (peanut) crops as part of a CPAR/UNDP joint program. They like others we’ve met are being affected by the unusual lack of rain in the past while, which is rapidly becoming a serious life and death problem in the region.

In spite of that, when we arrived they greeted us with a welcome song, which is such an amazing experience. We’d brought along a little travel guitar on the trip because in 2007 when people sang for us we thought it would be nice to sing for them too. So, just before it was time to leave, we sang ‘Marching’. For those of you reading this who haven’t heard it, it’s a song about strong women and how they keep going no matter what. It seemed appropriate for this group, largely comprised of women. I’m not sure how many of them actually understood English well enough to get the lyrics but their response was so lovely and warm. They were smiling and moving to the music while we played and then they cheered at the end!

I was already feeling a bit emotional and then they sang a farewell, safe journey song (in English) for us, led by a young woman from the group. As we thanked them, she said “Please don’t forget us when you go home. We won’t forget you.” I was glad to have my sunglasses on at that moment.

(Above) The farewell song

Remember yesterday I mentioned how people seemed unfamiliar with the name Sue? Coincidentally we visited a project today where we met an older woman named Dorothy, who is the village Chairman. Her daughter’s name is Sue. So she said I could call her Mama Dorothy.

Since arriving in the north on Monday, we have had the pleasure of visiting projects with some wonderful CPAR people who we’ve met this trip (Peter from Kampala, Dennis, James and Sam from Gulu) and in our previous trip (Henry from Kampala, and Henry from Gulu). We said goodbye to everyone today, except Henry from Kampala and this evening when we arrived in Kitgum we met up our hosts for the next few days…Michael, Charles, and Anthony. They are another great bunch of people.

Bumpy road report for the day…the road from Gulu to Kitgum is probably the bumpiest yet. I hope my internal organs are well secured or they are a jumbled mess inside!! Luckily Henry is an experienced driver and knows these roads well.

It was a VERY hot day today but it cooled down a bit this evening and we had a nice dinner on the grounds of our hotel. The hotel we stayed at in Gulu was a local one, and all the other guests appeared to be Africans. The guests at this hotel, here in Kitgum, are people from all over the world working with charitable organizations. You can tell by all the vehicles with logos in the parking lot. And of course all the “munu” faces!