Finding Beauty, Purpose, and Significance in Obscurity: The Northern Tour (Part 2)

The bulk of our northern tour was spent in the town of Gulu.

For anyone who has ever seen the popular documentary “Invisible Children”, you will recognize Gulu as a town that suffered much during the civil war that ravaged Northern Uganda from the late 1980’s to 2006. During the 1990s and early to mid-2000s, the majority of the population of Northern Uganda lived in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. A rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army terrorized the local population, enforcing illogical and random rules that would result in maiming or death for those who did not follow them. This group was also infamous for abducting children to use as soldiers and forcing them to commit atrocities. When the LRA finally left the area for good in 2006, it took the local population several years to even leave the camps and return to their homes. The entire region had been decimated, and it would take years to rebuild homes and would take lifetimes to recover from emotional scars that had been inflicted.

Today, people are again thriving in the villages, on their own land. Memories from the war are still strong, but people can now put those horrors behind them and continue looking to the future for hope and healing. Homes have been rebuilt. Crops are planted again in regular season. Life has returned to “normal”… for those who can even remember what “normal” used to be before the war.

Jeff loved the plethora of animals...

Tea and "g-nuts" (peanuts)

Students practicing traditional dances

A village church

Cooking over a local "burner"

Pumping water

Just chillin' in the village

Helping with the meal

We spent the majority of our time visiting the homes of Hope Alive! students and mentors. It is a special treat and an authentic look into local life to be able to visit friends in “the village”. We’re talking a hike, boda ride, or drive through several kilometers of tall elephant grass with only a small worn path to follow. The path eventually opens into a beautiful space where you typically will find a cluster of huts, a field of crops, and numerous animals ranging from chickens to cows. This is “the village”. And every home we visited extended us the most gracious hospitality imaginable. These people live off the land, off of their own hard work. They do not always have much, but they always shared the best they had with us. This typically included a traditional meal, as well as “gifts” to take with us. Ugandans do not always eat meat or other expensive foods (such as greens and fruit) with every meal. But we were always fed the “best” foods everywhere we went. We were given gifts of clothing, cassava, peanuts, bananas… all from people who understand that the richness of life is not found in monetary things, but rather in friendship and generosity. For many of them, these gifts were given at a significant level of sacrifice on their part.

Assistant Gulu Site Manager (and good friend) Samuel with his three boys

Hope Alive student (and now mentor) Juliet and family

Inside Juliet's village home

Typical meal served in the village.

This one included rice, chicken, bo (greens) in g-nut sauce, and bananas.

Part of the cassava we received.

I personally cherish every single one of these visits. I feel incredibly at peace being in these villages where life is pure and simple (for the most part). And where the people live in a natural state of community. It is something we simply cannot experience in the ever-present culture of individuality and consumerism United States.

We also visited the Hope Alive! feeding center in Koro Abili. This center was originally constructed to feed sponsored students who lived in the adjacent IDP camp. The camp has been dismantled for over six years and all the students have returned to outlying villages or to schools in town. But the center still remains as a place of gathering for Hope Alive functions and the location of the main office for the HA Gulu site.

At the feeding center with Samuel.

Hope Alive’s new vision for Gulu site is to build a school. The majority of schools in these outlying villages provide a poor level of education. Hope Alive has a vision of starting a school that will provide quality education to the surrounding communities. The land has already been purchased and plans are currently being drawn up for the school(s). The plan is to start small, with a primary school, and to eventually add a secondary school and vocational school in the future. The existence of this school could potentially revolutionize the local community by providing better opportunities for the younger generation through education.

Hope Alive's Land

We were only in Gulu for about four days – certainly not long enough. I was sad to find that Gulu site was not having “Saturday Club” on the weekend that we were there. Usually, I can see most of the children at one time when they gather together for Saturday Club. But this time I was only able to “catch up” with a small group of students. This was a big disappointment after waiting for four years to be reunited with everyone, but I was still extremely grateful for the opportunities to make visits to individual families and students. I cherish the opportunity to continue building these relationships and to be able to witness the "growth" I have seen in these families over the past eight years.