Safe and Sound!

The weekend has been awesome, but very eventful!
Saturday was the HIV/AIDS fesitval that we have been planning all summer and it went fairly well. It didn't go exactly how we imagined it, but it all turned out! I won't bore you with the details, but there were many bumps in the road and many stressful headaches, but there were so many incredible moments as well. Our children's choir from Ssanyu school sang their songs that they had prepared and they did AWESOME! I was so proud of them! There were 11 kids in our choir and Ally and I had so much fun taking care of them all day! We had a mad dash to buy them bananas and had a little picnic outside after their performance. It was so adorable because after they would sing, I would run back to the area where they came off stage and they would all just run and cover me with hugs! Such a happy moment! It was just so amazing to think back to where we started with the project. No, it didn't turn out like anything we planned. We had hoped to start it for children with disabilities and that wasn't successful. But through the process, we had stumbled accross some kids who loved to sing, but didn't have a choir at their school so I still consider it to be very successful! Although after meeting with the children with disablities, I keep thinking there must be something that we can do for them, even if it is just to make them smile or feel loved.
We also performed our Mzungu african dance! ha ha . . . . . it was very interesting! We had ginormous skirts with a ton of layers to accentuate hip movements! But we did it and we had the whole audience falling out of their seats from laughter! But it was a lot of fun!
After the festival, we headed out to have a sleepover at Rose and Paul's orphange to say goodbye! It was so great to be out there with those kids again! We had a great time playing volley ball with them, singing, dancing, and after dinner, we introduced them to Smores and they LOVED it! I was passing out marshmellows I couldn't get them out of the package fast enough! We also brought a laptop and watched Aladin with them and read books. It was possibly one of the best days ever!
If anyone is wondering about the terrorist bombing in Kampala, we live about 50 miles away so we were all very safe and took many precautions. We are all safe and very happy to get back to work! All I can say is that being in America and hearing about a terrorist bombing on the other side of the world is very different then being there.
This week, is our eye camp! It has been amazing so far and super busy! We have had tons of people show up and have done hundreds of vision tests, about 60 surgeries, and handed out tons of glasses and medications. I was just thinking today as I was watching the nurses remove the bandages from people's eyes about how it felt being there. Ever since I have come here to Uganda, I have seen so much need everywhere! It is very overwhelming at times! But usually, there isn't a whole lot that we can do in one day. You can help them start projects, but you don't get to see their happiness when their quality of life gets better. With cataract surgeries that is exactly what you get to see! One moment, someone is blind. The next day they remove the bandages and although the eye is sore and swollen, they can see! Or when a school kid tries to read the eye vision chart and can't get passed the second row, but you hand him some eye glasses and he can see!! It has been such an incredible two days so far and I'm so glad we will be able to continue until the beginning of next week!
Pretty much every day, I will just be working and thinking to myself, "how did I get so lucky to come here and have this incredible experience?" Although everything has been so incredible lately, it has been so hard at the same time. I am meeting and spending time with so many amazing people knowing that I only have one more week here before I leave. It's probably going to be one of the hardest things ever, especially because they just look at you and say, "please don't forget us."

Gulu

This past weekend, about 7 of us headed up to Northern Uganda to visit Gulu. Gulu is one of the main areas that was affected by the war in Uganda involving the Lord's Resistance Army. It was such an incredible experience! Instead of giving you all the details, I am going to just write the story that was told to us by a guy we met named James. He was asked to write his story, but they had him do it under a different name for safety reasons. So here it is:
"My name is Kilambus Charles. I come from Gulu district, which is found in northern Uganda. This district has been affected by the continuing civil war that has made great impact on the people living in the region.
"I was abducted by rebels together with my wife in the middle of 2003 and stayed with them for 3 months.
"It was around 9:00 p.m. and I was asleep in my room. Suddenly we were surrounded by rebels and I heard a kick at the door and was ordered to open it. Two rebels forced their way inside my room and tied my arms behind my back using my shirt. They looted my clothes, mobile phone, camera, bed sheet and many other things including the original of my exam certificate. They ordered my wife to carry all those properties and bring them out while the other rebels were busy looting properties from my mother's and brother's house.
"They took us to join about 70 other people who had been rounded up. I was tied around the waist with one person and they put my wife close to me and ordered me to take care of her. If she escaped, I would be killed.
"They too k us to the next village and put us there while other rebels went back to collect food that was given to us and carried it with them.
"We walked a distance of 50 kilometers that night without resting and carrying bean seeds of 75 kg. THose who were unable to carry such weight were killed.
"On our way, two of the former rebels whose feet were swollen and the skin was peeling off were killed and they told us that the same thing may happen to any one who could not walk.
"We were going towards Sudan straight away. We walked for four days without eating anything and with the heavy load. I got tired and my feet started to swell and peel off as a result of walking a long distance. I was weak already. Life was terrible.
"The rebel commander ordered that we had to increase the speed of walking because the Ugandan army, UPDF, was following us. But I couldn't walk. So I was beaten seriously and they ordered me to run quickly if I didn't want to be killed. SO I had to do it.
"During the process of beating, I was given dislocation in the bone and seriously injured in my body.
"When we entered in the campe, we were welcomed by other rebels. In the morning the rebel commander ordered us in line. They started selecting young girls who were 10 to 15 years old to be the rebel's wives, which is a violation of children's rights and at the same time is child abuse. Thos who were not beautiful or had problems in their legs or body so that they could not manage what ever was needed, must be killed and they did it.
"Now, with those serious killings we found it normal. Staying with them, I started learning from them how the rebels behave compared to home. But there was no way I could escape.
"Once day around 10:00 am we were attacked by an army helicopter gunship. We continued moving and taking cover in the tall grass and under trees.
"The rebel commander ordered killed people who were dressed in white and red since those colors would eaisily be seen by the soldiers in the helicopter. Two of the abducted girls were killed there and then. I had on white shorts and a green t-shirt. I feared I was the next person to be killed. But I was ordered to remove the shorts and remain half naked. I had to walk like that in the tall grass until we arrested some civilians who had a good pair of trousers.
"This is how I escaped from the rebels: One day I was chosen to be among the 150 people to participate in a battle with army soldiers. When we met with those soldiers and the battle was terrible, I was among the 30 abduted who luckily narrowly escaped death."

James was one of the very lucky ones. Most of the people who were abducted were children because then the LRA could brain wash them into thinking they were the good guys and that their families at home were all dead. We met another man when we were in Gulu named John. He also was kidknapped into the LRA, but he was only 12 when it happened. They told him that his family was all dead and that there was no point in returning. So he stayed with the LRA for 9 years and worked very closely with the leader Jospeh Koney. He ended up getting shot in the leg and because he had been such a good soldier they let him go home instead of being killed. He was very lucky. But because he had been in the rebel army all that time, the whole community looks at him as an enemy now. It is so sad.

It was a great experience going up to Gulu and learning more about Ugandan history. It is just incredible that it was only a few years ago this was still going on.

On a happier note, this Saturday is the Youth Megafestival! We have been so excited getting ready for it! Our little choir however, didn't exactly go as planned. It was frustrating because once the parents realized that we weren't providing free medical treatment, they stopped bringing their children. But there is a group of kids at a nearby school that love it when we come and sing with them, so we worked with Sandra and she taught them a song in Luganda to perform. It is so adorable! I will have to post a video of it once I get home. We also taught them "You are My Sunshine" in English and Sandra translated it into Luganda and they love singing it. SOmetimes you will just be walking around and hear some kids singing it! Also, TYOM is teaching us a traditional dance to perform at the festival. It was funny because they taught us the footwork which was very manageable, but then they through in all this hip shaking which made things to much harder! ha ha but we are ge tting it! And once we get our "dancing skin" on, I'm sure we will really be able to shake it!