The second part of our time up North was spent in the little town of Adjumani, which is about an hour or so south of the Sudanese border. Adjumani was nothing more than a small stopping point before the UN and other aid groups arrived in the area. The town now boasts a hotel, a myriad of small shops, three short paved roads, and… well, that’s about it. It is very, very hot and dusty there with temperatures that reached into the upper 90s (and it isn’t even the hot season right now!). Most everything is brought into the town on trucks - even the bread arrives from Kampala every other day. Consequently, it can be very difficult to get certain goods. And the electricity is only on 3 hours each day (from 7PM to 10PM). Sometimes, there is even no fuel for vehicles. Adjumani has become a stopping point for people on their way to Sudan.
Adjumani's main road and Hotel Zawadi:
The road to Adjumani really takes you through the “bush”. It is unpaved the entire way and it can sometimes take hours to traverse if rain has washed away the smooth areas. Luckily, the road was not too bad when we passed. It is also very common to see trucks (lorries) on the road that are loaded as high as possible with food, animals, supplies or whatever else might be needed across the border.
The road to Adjumani (with refugee camp in distance):
An overloaded lorry:
Most of the children enrolled at this site are Sudanese refugees who fled to Uganda with their families in order to escape the civil war in Sudan. The Sudanese refugee camps around the Adjumani district, although not wonderful, are in a better state than the IDP camps. The huts are spaced out more and there is more room for keeping animals and growing subsistence crops. We visited one camp called Mire (pronounced “meer-ray”) to take a picture of one of our students. The refugees were quite surprised to see a bright blue Toyota Rav4 drive into the camp. The people living in the nearby huts welcomed us and brought out seats for us. Within 10 minutes, we there were about 40 people surrounding us, staring at us. Although I am sure that there have been many other Mzungu aid workers who have visited, they are still intrigued every time they have white visitors. (Plus, they realize that many mzungus bring “gifts” with them when they visit.) Once we finished the picture, we had to clear the mob away from our car so that we could drive away.
Mire Refugee Camp and our spectators waving goodbye:
Our purpose in Adjumani was to check in on the site and to take care of a few tasks such as getting the children school supplies, correcting letters, and taking photos to send to sponsors. We did not get to meet very many of the 160+ students there because they had just started their next school semester and thus were back at school during the day. The Adjumani site has had its share of problems in the past few years. Initially, the only way to get to Adjumani was by plane or in an armed convoy because of rebel attacks, which meant that Catharine had to fly into Adjumani whenever she visited. (Now, the road is safe to drive.) When COH first started in this area, they enrolled children all from the same camp which made it much easier to keep track of everyone. However, that camp was attacked by the rebels (LRA) several years ago, and everyone in the camp scattered and fled to other areas. As a result, the COH children became scattered in different camps throughout the district. Some even returned to Sudan. It took COH several months to track down all the children. And then, just last year, Francis and Catharine discovered that the site manager in Adjumani was taking some unauthorized actions and was not keeping up with financial responsibilities. When they attempted to confront him, he disappeared… with much of the money from the cash box at the site. His absence and betrayal left a gaping hole in terms of management and trust at the site. Since that time, Catharine has traveled to Adjumani on several occasions to apologize to the students and to reassure them that we care about them and will continue to take care of them. The situation has mostly been rectified, however, we are still lacking a site manager to run things in Adjumani. Two of the mentors at the site, John and Joel, are “filling in” right now with the running of day-to-day activities and responsibilities with the children.
Picking up school supplies:
There is still a lot of work to be done, but things are starting to get back “on track”. The major prayer right now for Adjumani is that we can find a new site manager. It is the site with the most children and also the furthest away from "home base" in Kampala. There is a lot of need here and a whole lot of potential.
Some more sights from the trip:
Baboons:
Streets of Lira:
Kids wanting attention:
Bad drivers (notice that there are three cars across and traffic coming the other direction):
Kids wanting attention:
Bad drivers (notice that there are three cars across and traffic coming the other direction):
No comments:
Post a Comment