We Are Uganda

Whew. What a crazy past few weeks. I haven't been blogging very much because research and paper writing are not nearly as exciting as dancing with genocide prisoners, visiting brothels, or bungee jumping. Also, I've been required to keep a journal about my research so after I did that each day the last thing I wanted to do was keep thinking about my day (they're pretty emotionally taxing). Also, for confidentiality reasons of vulnerable populations there's a limit on what I would be able to put on a public blog anyways. Mostly, after my days out at the center I just cooked dinner (which, with one burner, no microwave, and no pre-prepared food takes a while) and watching dvds on people's computers. There are tons of little stands that sell movies for 2000 shillings (roughly one US dollar) so I've definitely taken advantage of that.

I came back to kampala from gulu last week and spent all week sleeping, playing, doing research, and beginning to write my paper.

Last sunday we had a going away party with all of our homestay families. The consensus is that it was pretty awkward. It's pretty difficult to keep a conversation going for 2 hours with people who really have nothing going on in their lives. Since neither of my host parents have jobs right now and cannot afford to really do anything (including transportation) they mostly just sit around and watch tv and do chores all day. Most of the other students had similar experiences. It was nice to see my host family again though. I just realized I never really wrote much about them. I'll make sure to do that before the blog is over.

Right now I am on Ssese Island, which is a 3 hour (very slow) ferry ride from the coast towards the middle of Lake Victoria. Its incredibly beautiful and some fantastic (and some scary) wildlife. We've been here all week doing presentations on our research all day until 3ish and then playing on the beach and finishing our papers. Hearing about everyone elses projects are super interesting. People have done everything from the impact of chinese business and imports on the economy, to the link between malnutrition and HIV, to domestic violence in refugee camps, to censorship of press.

I finally settled on the experiences of forced mothers in the LRA and their views and relationships with men and sexuality upon return. It brought up a lot of interesting issues on mental health versus cultural preservation and acceptance. Also, like when I was in Rwanda, I spent a lot of time thinking about acceptance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Uganda currently has offers of amnesty extended to any LRA rebel whenever they decide to leave the bush, except for top commanders. Most Northern Ugandans are in support of the amnesty act, but former LRA rebels (mostly who were abducted and forced to commit atrocities against their will) still face a lot of stigma.

I did my presentation yesterday and think it went well, and I'm almost finished with my paper. It's going to end up being a little more than 30 pages of text, 1.5 spaced, which is about twice as long as any other paper I've ever written. Definitely makes me feel accomplished and it's something that I think I ended up doing a pretty good job on, which is nice. I was worried that I was going to put in all this time and effort only to get to the end and realize that I wasn't proud of all my work.

Anyways, that's about all for me right now. Heading back to Kampala tomorrow, doing last minute souvenir shopping and visiting my homestay family on saturday and then flying home on Sunday, which means I'll be home on Monday. I'm really ready and excited to go home, but the fact that I'm leaving here for an indefinite period of time hasn't really hit me yet. Pretty sure as soon as I board the plane I'm going to become a huge mess. I never fit in here at all, but I still feel really connected to both the land and the people.
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