The Long Awaited Kasese Post

So there's been a lot going on in my life recently, some of it good, some of it bad, most of it making it hard to find time to Blog. Obviously when I travel I spend a lot of time away from my computer so that doesn't help but there are some other things too. Work has been a bit hectic with a few deadlines coming up and mounting stress about how I am going to get it all done when I leave in April, if I leave in April. On the side I have been preparing applications for a PhD program in Canada that I'm interested in as well as the Parliamentary Internship Program. In addition, things have been rocky on the friendship front; two of my friends are leaving for home permanently this week and last week one of my friends was in a very bad accident in Ottawa which has certainly been preoccupying and that's all on top of my normal stuff.

Anyway here I am now writing to you about Kasese
.

I traveled to Kasese on November 27th with two staff members of the Center for Conflict Resolution with whom I have been working on conflict-sensitivity training courses with the UCA. It is a long drive from Kampala to Kasese, about 6 hours through winding hills. Two things surprised me during the drive. The first was that several of the hills were covered with Evergreen trees. I was informed that these were of course not native to the area but the government had decided that it was a "good idea to plant them there". The second thing that surprised me was that while going through the Kabale forest we came upon 6 Baboons on the road. These were the first monkeys that I saw since arriving in Uganda and I ended up being even more surprised when we found one on the road again on our way back.

Upon arriving in Kasese we checked into our guesthouse called "The White House" it was a clean place with standard African rooms (a bed with a mosquito net, a chair and a table) and a restaurant which was reasonable serving African food. The first night I was in town I met a fellow Canadian at the guest house who invited me to join her for dinner. We had chicken curry which I must say was surprisingly spicy for African food. Sadly I went to bed that night with a pounding headache.

Monday I woke up feeling much refreshed. I was a bit
anxious as the women from CECORE turned in the opposite direction of the Peace Expo which was the purpose of my trip and started heading to local offices to try to drop off my reports. I was particularly anxious because the day was starting with a peace march which I did not want to miss. Fortunately, African time saved the day and despite arriving an hour late we still made it in plenty of time for the march.

Near the beginning of the expo an official announced that the tents to the left of the stage were reserved for child-mothers (mothers under the age of 18). I stared in disbelief there were at least two hundred young women with their children there and they were all from Kasese. Later in the event we would learn that there were over 3000 child-mothers in Kasese alone. The main reasons for this trend were listed as poverty, conflict, cultural practices and gender based violence. Further we learned about many of the challenges facing the mothers including early marriage, abandonment by their families, difficulties finishing high school and accessing medical treatment and a lack of livelihood options.

The Peace Expo was focused on eliminating sexual and gender based violence throughout Uganda as well as reducing the number of Child Mothers in Kasese. At the beginning of the expo we all received bright pink shirts with messages like "Be the Change you want to see in the World, stop child marriages" which everyone put on so when we set off on our peace march we were surrounded by a sea of pink. I was surprised to see many of the local people in Kasese came out to watch the march although none chose to join the group and attend the expo which was free. My greatest concern about the expo was the fact that the majority of participants were either working for a peacebuilding organization or members of local government. There were very few community members and almost no men who of course would also be important recipients for the topics we were discussing.

Nevertheless, the Peace Expo was very informative. The first day speeches were given by the organizers as well as the members of local government in attendance and the second day we heard from several child mothers as well individuals with expert knowledge of sexual and gender based violence. The speeches were interspersed with cultural performance by elementary and high schools related to Gender Based Violence.

I also enjoyed the different craft tables that were set up by various community peacebuilding organizations which gave me the opportunity to meet with women from many different communities. I was able to make contact with some organizations working in the communities I will be visiting. I also had a particularly meaningful conversation with a group of women from Kitgum in the far North who were part of a group of women living with HIV (or living positively as the the Ugandans put it. Two of the women described how they became infected, one from her husband in whom the disease is dormant and the other who contracted the virus when her husband took a second wife because she had produced six girl children and no boys.

On Tuesday, the second day of the Expo, something rather remarkable happened. Three organizations including the Center for Conflict Resolution launched reports which were affirmed by the deputy-Prime Minister of the Rwenzori Kingdom, as part of her speech she invited all of the foreign delegates attending the conference to join her on stage including, much to my surprise, me! All of the people who were on the stage were asked to take an oath that they would help to reduce Gender Based Violence in their home communities and were given a copy of one of the reports by a local government representative. Mine was delivered by the Mayor of Lira which was neat because that is one of the districts that I will be conducting my fieldwork in early next year.

On the side I also enjoyed interacting with the local people who I met. One of the staff members at the White House was intrigued to see me writing post cards to people, it seemed she had never seen one before. Further, I found the people of Kasese a bit less aggressive than those in Kampala so I heard a lot less "Muzungu How are you?" I also was not hit on for the entire trip which was something of a relief.

We left Wednesday morning although the expo ran until the end of the day Thursday. On the way back we stopped several times again to drop off reports. This time I took the opportunity to get out and walk around. In one small district during my walk from a distance I saw a family with several small children so I decided to approach. As I got close the three smallest children started screaming and ran for their mothers. Apparently they had never seen a muzungu before. The older children and father greeted me with curiosity, they spoke not English.

On the way back we stopped at several vegetable markets and I purchased the best sweet bananas I've had since arriving.

Anyway Off to Nairobi tonight, expect more updates soon! Enjoy the pictures!