photos

Here are an assortment of photos:

Christmas day with Annie and Emma (the adopted girls that I have lived with for the past month). We are all wearing our tradtional Ugandan dresses. I got mine made in Gulu but the girls got theirs given to them as a gift for Christmas.

This was taken at Pabor IDP camp. every month they get 2 truckloads of food delivered by World Food Program. They get 50% of the min daily requirement given to them and they have to meet the remainder 50% by growing their own food. here is a photo of the classroom list for one of the schools at Pabor IDP. P1 stands for primary class 1. So for P1 they have 1 teacher for 337 students that somehow squish into one classroom.

here is a poor little boy we met in hosptpital. His mum is sick with TB and he has malnutrition..it made me so sad that I had teary eyes when i left just seeing his miserable little face and little stick arms and legs...

Myself, Tandala and her little boy Mark when we went out to dinner...little Mark is a little cutie.

Geoffrey and myself. Just showing you guys the diff btn skin colours. The northern Ugandan ppl are very very black. My camera had trouble adjusting properly...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone.
Especially to my Robert, family and wonderful friends.
God Bless
have a safe and Mery Christmas.
Remember how wonderful our Father in heaven is that he sent us His one and only son. Praise God that we can spend a whole day celebrating that and thanking Him for his immeasurable love for us.
lots of love from Uganda
love maz

Photos

ok here are some pictures
hope they all work.
God Bless
Love maz

here is little Jenny. She is often at Bushikori clinic with her mum, as her big sister violet has burns. She is such a cutie and runs to me when ever I arrive with her tummy always sticking out. She loves to throw herself on the ground. At least she doesnt have far to fall.

Here is little Violet. She was trying to be mummy and cook dinner when her dress caught on fire. her mum brought her in to the clinic and was tld to bring her back everyday but she didnt come back. Back in the village poor little violets flesh started rotting away so much so that the lady who lived in the hut next door could smell her rotting flesh. So that lady brought violet back to the clinic where she has been ever since. So she is always ready to play with me when I arrive at bushikori.

here are some snaps from the IDP camp Pabbor in Gulu. It is the largest IDP camp.

this is nt an uncommon sight to see a little kid carrying a very little kid on their back. hmmm i wonder how many get dropped on their heads. At least over here the little children learn how to be very responsible very quickly.

Here I am with the group of kidies that followed me everywhere. sorry its not a very clear photo.

Here is some cute little orphans. We visited as orphanage that actually adopts the kids so no one else can. They have a mum for 10 kids and a cute playground and schooling facilities. The little girl on the left (so my right) was born in captivity. Her mum was an abducted child that was given to a senior soldier to be his wife. She most likely was a girl of 13-17yrs old. The mum was then killed when the UPDF soldiers attacked the LRA and so they brought the baby she had strapped to her back to this orphanage.

GULU-finally the Gulu update

here is an averagely packed truck we saw in Lira. some trucks are packed almost to twice their own height, with people still sitting on top.

GULU:
Ok here is my update from Gulu in Northern Uganda. It will be quite long so I have put subheadings for easy reading. Remember I always update my prayer points (which can be found on the bottom right hand side of this page so you can always check them if you cant be bothered to read the whole thing.

Ok :
Why:
Ok so I went out for dinner the other night I met a girl named Tandala who is in the process of adopting a little boy from Uganda. Her and her father (who is an MP from Canada) decided to go to Gulu to see some of the organizations that the Canadian government has been supporting. In the north there are hundreds of thousands of people that have been displaced because of a rebel group named the Lords Resistance Army. Their leader Josef Kony has been working under the name of God, being led by the spirit of Lakwena (a female rebel leader that claimed to be a reincarnation of the Holy Spirit.) and has for the past 20years been abducting thousands of children, forcing them to kill family members and brutally kill other children and to fight in the hope of taking over the government from the current leader Museveni. They have also in the process killed thousands of civilians.

At the moment I’m not sure if you are aware but the government has been holding Peace talks in Juba Sudan in an attempt to end the violence so for the past 6months it has been relatively safe for people to move from the south up to Gulu in the north.

So Tandala asked me if I would like to join them and I accepted.

Picture here: the bus we caught to get to Gulu.

So at 7am we caught the bus in town. Huge old thing, chockers with people everywhere.
After 8hrs of a amazing bus ride experiences here are some to note:
-squashed together in boiling hot temperatures
-chickens tied by their feet lying on the floor
- people standing everywhere in the isles
-at every stop people would run up to the windows with chooks to sell you, water bottles, bbq’d maize on sticks, cooked chicken on a stick, hard boiled eggs.- all trying to sell them thru the windows so you just lean out when you make a purchase and pull it back to where you are sitting. (at so many of the stops I wondered whether they sold portable loos…I was busting for the loo for about 4 hours. Terrible on unsealed hugely bumpy roads.)
Picture: here is a lady selling bananas at the bus stop
Once there:
So once there we got driven around the corner by our designated driver for the week Jacob. We then chucked our stuff inside (Tandala, 3yr old Mark and myself were to share a huge double bed and David her father had a room to himself)
We met Dr Fred who had organized everything for us and Geoffrey (whom we all called Godfrey for the first few days because of the way they pronounce his name over here).

IDP camps:
So on the first day was a visit to the largest IDP(internally displaced peoples camp) in northern Uganda. So as a result of the conflict I mentioned above these people have had to leave their villages, their little farms and anything else that could possibly have supported them in the past for the safety of these camps. Here they live in mud huts, with barely food to keep them sustained. I saw so many children with huge stomachs from malnutrition.
I really loved the IDP camps. The people were very friendly and happy to see us. They didn’t mind having their photos taken and the children all run after me fighting to hold my hand. So everywhere I walked I had about 20 kids surrounding me. No body asked me for anything (which was great as in Mbale so many Ugandans ask me for money because I am white and they think all whites are super rich). One old lady however asked me to take her little baby back to America to give it a better life. That almost made me burst into tears there and then. We visited the hospitals at the camps. They were in terrible condition with heaps of people everywhere seeking treatment and not a doctor in site. Only nursing aids. We visited the school which was great to see. Each classroom is an average classroom size in Australia however they somehow manage to squish 300 students in each classroom.
We also visited a school for deaf children at the IDP camp which was probably the most inspiring thing. There were at least 4 teachers for around 30 children and they seemed so happy and well cared for.

The Child is innocent program/war child
Another day we visited some of the programs that have been set up to attempt to assist the people in these situations. The child is innocent was founded by our young guide Dr Fred and sponsors the children in these IDP camps so they can go to school and university. War Child trains psychologists that work to assist and counsel children and parents that have suffered major psychological problems as a result of abductions and the terrible torture they have suffered (ie they have their lips and ears cut off them and then they are forced to eat them or they are forced to bite off another persons leg or more commonly they are forced to smash peoples head in with blunt objects to teach them a “lesson”… terrible terrible things. ) They also look at supporting them in legal situations as well to help people work towards supporting themselves in the future.

Lacor hospital
Dr Fred himself was sponsored by some Catholic missionaries to study medicine and now works at Lacor hospital. Here there were lines and lines of people for any of the services. People, mainly women and children camp out on the footpath. I saw some terribly thin starving ladies and starving or sickly children not even being tended to by a doctor. Every night they have 2-3 children dying from malaria and malnutrition. Which is a huge number for one hospitals childrens ward. It is however an impressive hospital for the area and has been able to provide fantastic help to the people in northern Uganda.

Gusco
Is an organization that takes all the children that have been rescued or have escaped from the Lords Resistance Army. This organization was the best one we visited. It is run by around 40 staff total and it counsels the children returing from being child soldiers. It gives them medical treatment for their gun shot wounds, and all other terrible wounds they have been subjected to. For those children that have been in the army from a very early age often feel that they can no longer go back to school so they teach the girls tailoring and the boys things like woodwork and other trade work. They also give them a sowing machine or any tools required so that when they leave the rehabilitation center they can begin working and earning money straight away.
Here I met a 17 year old boy named Patrick. I shook his hand and greeted him in Acholi. I knew that as I was shaking his hand this boy had probably killed hundreds of innocent children and other civilians. We asked him how long he had been in the LRA and his response shocked me. For 10years he had been fighting for Josef Kony against his will. Imagine at 7 years of age he was abducted, forced to kill other children or family members in an attempt to desensitize him. He has known nothing but raping and murdering for the last 10 years of his life. A life or kill or be killed. He is only a boy.

Back at my hotel I made friends with the Ugandan girls that worked there. Only one of the girls was from a village area and so I asked her about her life. Ever since she was 4 years old, every night of her life she has slept out in the bush. This was a tactic her parents had formulated in an attempt to save her, her two brothers, twin sisters and her cousins. Every night at 5pm they would walk into the thick bush to a new spot and sleep the night there never sleeping in the same place and never telling their parents where they were sleeping. On two occasions she narrowly missed being caught by the LRA. One time she was walking to her new sleeping spot and a man came running saying…run run the LRA are coming. So she ran and was safe. Other boys and girls from her village were not so lucky. Another time when the LRA was desperate for girls (as they make them become wives of top soldiers) she had hid and the soldiers had been told that in her hut were many girls. They came to her hut and bashed her grandma and dad (by this stage her mum had died in childbirth). But as her relatives did not know where they were they couldn’t get them. Since then her twin sisters were killed when someone tried to poisin her father at a dinner and the meal was accidentally given to the twin girls instead of the father. These stories are so so common in the north. Things here are terrible and the people suffer so much.

Dinner & food poisoning
I went out for dinner on the 2nd last night and got food poisoning so I was sick all day sat. but managed to go to a music concert put on by groups of people living in the IDP camps. They sang about human rights but it was all in Acholi so I didn’t understand it. However it was so great to see African people perform they are such great singers and dancers.


Aboke Girls
If you would like to read more about the situation in Northern Uganda there is a great book called the Aboke Girls by Els De Temmerman. It recounts an amazing story or 139 girls being abducted from a Catholic girls school.

PLEASE PRAY
Please pray for the situation in the North. Please pray that the peace talks will put an end to the child abductions and that these children can be returned to their homes. Pray that they can still be loved when they return, that it was not their choice that to join the Army and that they did not wish to become murderers.
Please pray that from knowing the suffering that these children face that you will no longer take the many blessings you have for granted. That you can remember that God has blessed you for his purpose and that you can use your blessings to help others. More important however is just to remember to pray for the hearts of these children that will be so confused by Kony working under the name of God and yet so blatantly living an evil evil existence. Please Pray that Josef Kony may come to know God as his Father and Jesus his Saviour and that he can know that if he is willing to ask for Gods forgiveness God will forgive him for these terrible inhumane things he has done for the past 20years.

things to note

Thank you to Tess McLaren, Robbie and Chanters who have all discovered the comments section. Thank for being such a faithful reader Tessie. btw I have to send you you bday pressie from April so can you send me you home address too. I have forgotten now.

here are some things that I have noticed about uganda but may have forgotten to mention.
-most people wear no shoes-especially children
-many many people walk along the sides of the roads so when you drive you have to watch for walkers, bicycles, on coming traffic, potholes, motorbike riders and chooks
-women wear dresses that are so bright and colorful. They generally have a baby strapped to their backs with a piece of material and are balancing a huge weight of food or something on their heads.
-most people smell pretty bad but I am adjusting to peoples BO and now don’t have to hold my breath for like 20mins at a time.
-its common to see men with huge machetes walking beside the road. (they are cutting the grass with them -not jst walking around with them for the sake of it)
-people never seem to be in a rush, everyone hangs around talking to people walking together or just sitting by the road.
-its common to see 4or 5 year old children with babies strapped to their backs as well.
-we have a guard at our house during the day and another man stays awake all night and sits outside our house to keep watch.
-cars, buildings and shops always have huge signs saying “God cares” of “Jesus Loves” or “Christ Saves” written in huge letters every where.
-i catch a boda boda most places:which is a bike with a padded seat on the back for people to sit on.
-butcher shops are just standa with huge chunks of meat lying in the sun or hanging for all the flys to land on. so if you want meat you have to get in quick to make sure it is not off.
-at school we have glory time every morning at 7:30 where we sing praises to God, and share bible passages together, have a pray then sing again.
-most trucks are piled so high with mattresses, drinking containers, and people sitting on the top. They often topple and many people get killed.
-most people have to fill up water containers from a water pump in town or at water holes.
-woman often give birth alone in the bush as it is seen as being strong.- even though many die in the process.
they dont like to give birth in the hospital as they want to squat to give birth and the hospitals make them lie down.

Hmm that’s all I can think of for now…
But im sure there will be heaps more
Take care
Marianne

Returned from Gulu

Hello peoples!!
ok so I have returned from my travels in the north. It has been an amazing trip. Seen many sad situations. For people here it is a common occurance for people to die and be killed. A girl I was talking to had her mum die in childbirth, her sisters were poisoned by mistake when some villiages were trying to kill her father and instead the meal was given to the twin sisters. Her home was also burned down at some point and her family has no money...
Ok dinner is ready.
Hopefully I can blog later and put some photos on this blog and let you all know more details.
God Bless

Uganda -end wk1

Uganda
Hmmm…I love this country so much already!
Ok well I went to the Aids day even at this local primary school on Friday. It was meant to be starting at 9am. Beth (an American girl) and myself were to wait for Anne (a Ugandan woman) to come in the same vehicle but she took forever to come. “No rush” she said …”its African time. They wont have started yet. If you got there at 9am you would be the only one there” once we got there she was right. It only just started.

Being a muzungu (or white person) we got to sit right near the front. We heard some amazing stats for aids in Uganda and in the Mbale district. It was pretty sad. The we had some singing and dancing and other performances…all fantastic thanks to Africans natural ability to sing and dance very well. Then a girl got up and told her testimony of her life with aids. It was so sad. In Africa it’s a myth that if a man is diagnosed with HIV positive then if he has sex with a virgin or pure girl then he will be cured. So there are many cases of young girls and babies being raped. So this girl went to visit her uncle who’s wife had just died of Aids and he raped her. She then contracted Aids and at school was terribly discriminated against. She had to eat and drink in different rooms from her class mates. Anyway she now gets treatment and looks quite healthy again. It was however a great encouragement at how this country is dealing with its Aids problem. They really encouraged only having one sex partner and also encouraged men to get tested with their wives rather than thinking its only the womans fault that someone gets aids. So they offered for 2 whole day free aids testing, free family planning (ie. Condoms) free immunizations, free treatment for pregnant mothers (as they can now stop a mother passing aids on to their unborn baby) and free counseling for sufferers.

So I met some great girls there from Uganda and we were able to talk about differences btn the west and Africans. I was also asked by a few young men if could find wives for them back in Australia (after having to let them down that I have a boyfriend.) But I quickly informed them of the possible difficulties in marrying cross culturally especially if they have never met before.

I had dinner that night with quite a few muzungus (white people) and spent the night talking to a Canadian girl that had come to Uganda when she was 22 and started work in an orphanage. She then began fostering a baby that had been found down a drop toilet and was infected with maggots and other bugs. She somehow managed to take little mark to Canada as a single mum and looked after him till now. So she is here attempting to complete the adoption process. Quite an amazing story.

Ok well I will leave it there and im sure it will be updated again shortly.
Unfortunately I somehow deleted all my photos so far so stay tuned. I will snap some more and attach them to my blog.
God Bless
Maz

Ps. Read prayer points section to find out how you can pray for me:
Thanks