Winning a By-Election

When I first moved to Kitchener I often found myself lonely and bored. Kitchener is a small and quiet city, a former blue collar town now dominated by a struggling technology industry, and I was finding it hard to meet people who I could relate to.

About two months after I moved to town a Provincial By-Election was called in the riding just North of mine, Kitchener-Waterloo. Then I started hearing rumours that one of the board members for Reception House, where I work, was expected to win the NDP nomination. Could the situation be any more perfect? 

A few days after Catherine Fife won the nomination I called her office to offer my services as a foot canvasser for her campaign. The person on the other end of the line seemed excited that an experienced political canvasser was volunteering their time.

On the first night I volunteered I had the opportunity to canvass with Catherine and four other volunteers in an apartment building.I had never canvassed with a candidate before and was excited to watch her in action. Throughout the campaign I had opportunities to canvass with a diverse group of NDP supporters, ranging from a couple of MPPs from Northern Ontario, people coming in from other ridings to offer their support and with new friends from Kitchener. 

As time went on the campaign grew dramatically. An original staff of five seemed to almost double and there always seemed to be at least twenty volunteers filling some role at any given time. One evening after an all-candidates debate I was invited to attend an after party with some other volunteers. I was discouraged to learn that some of they young people who I thought were fellow volunteers were actually filling roles as poll cats who apparently assist in the office and canvass. It was disappointing to know that people were being paid to do the same job that I had volunteered for, especially when you encountered individuals who were not acting in their roles effectively. 

The week of the by-election was a busy one for me. I had committed to canvassing, was holding a charity BBQ at work, and I was rehearsing for an upcoming swing dance performance.

On the day of the By-Election, September 7th I was assigned to both inside and outside scrutineer in a small poll where Catherine only had ten confirmed supporters. Later in the evening I was also asked to scrutineer the vote count. I did not expect Catherine to win in the poll given the low level of confirmed support in the poll. 

When I started volunteering for the campaign I was really unsure of how Catherine would be received as the riding had never elected an NDP MP or MPP, and provincially the riding had been held by a conservative for almost two decades. However, talking to people canvassing Catherine had a lot of support and the day before the election the Waterloo Record predicted that Fife would win.

Despite the low level of committed NDP voters in my poll Catherine did take the most votes, and won by a much larger margin in the by-election as a whole. This brings more legitimacy to my claim that I have never worked on a losing election campaign. 

The victory party was epic :)

Uganda's Stories

A few months ago I pledged to write a blog post detailing some of the stories that impacted me most while I was in Uganda. As usual things have been busy and I've also been trying to get my mind around which stories to tell and how to tell them. below are a collection of people who shocked me with their tenacity and inspired me with their courage and conviction. 

This is only a sample of the people who I met and interacted with. I also had many friends who chose to reveal very little about their personal lives. One said to me once "Yes Kirsten, we all have stories, but we keep them to ourselves"

In Uganda it's common to see newspapers with large headlines posted to trees and other inanimate objects. One day on my way into work I saw a newspaper with the headline "Musevini Proposes the Death Penalty for Rape." Being vehemently opposed to the death penalties I was furious and felt justified enough that when I got to my office I expressed my dismay to one of my colleagues. She responded that she didn't really care about criminals and when I asked why it turned out that her father had been murdered and the justice system had done little to bring her fathers' killer to justice. She said that with her father gone that she found it difficult to see the value in protecting anyone else's life.

In Nebbi, which is in the West Nile region of Uganda (far North West), I interviewed a woman who was the principal teacher at a nursery school who had been elected as the chair person of her cooperative. She said that her husband had found it difficult to accept her role as a principal teacher but that when she was elected as chairperson that he abandoned she and her children because he felt she no longer had time for him.After giving her an ultimatum to quit her responsibilities in the cooperative, he abandoned she and her children. She continued to work for her community and her children. 

In Bweyale, I met a woman who left her husband after she lost four consecutive babies because she believed he was cursed. She later returned to him after discovering the children had died from measles and diarrhea, conditions which are easily contracted by living in close quarters such as those found in camps for internally displaced persons. She eventually had two children. In Uganda, the average household has seven children.  

In Arua, also in the West Nile region of Uganda I spoke with a man who was a self-proclaimed feminist. He believed that because God made women the companions of man that men should treat women well so that they could work beside one another. Given the typical relationships between husbands and wives, this position was really quite progressive. 

My regular boda boda driver in Kampala, Kevin, was 24 and left school after his parents died so that he could make sure that his younger siblings could finish their educations. His goal was to return and finish highschool.

My friend David grew up in Eastern Uganda. The only child of his father and mother he had several half-siblings from each parent. As a young adult his father chose to pay for his education in Kampala but insisted that he study finance rather than his true love, art. David continued to struggle through his courses to maintain the approval of his father. 

I also had the great fortune of working with a Peace Activist Rose Othieno. Rose is the Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution (or CECORE), which helps to mediate conflicts at the local, regional and national level, produces research papers and offers training on conflict transformation. Rose left a government position in 2003 and help to found CECORE in response to the ongoing conflict in Northern Uganda. Her work has been internationally recognized and she is a fantastic resource to the country. I couldn't have been luckier than to have the opportunity to work with her.

Finally, I also had a friend  whom I knew as a Ugandan and saw on a regular basis. He often seemed tired but otherwise seemed well adjusted. One day he surprised me by disclosing that he was actually Congolese. He had been kidnapped by a rebel group in North Eastern Congo and forced to work for them as a porter. When the rebels attacked he lost most of his immediate family. He was granted refugee status after crossing the Ugandan border. His hope was to find work or be resettled to a country like Canada.

I still worry about the political situation in Uganda. The government continues to pursue legislation to ban homosexuality, the environment continues to degenerate as the population grows and there is little hope for a truly democratic government. 

I also often think of the rural areas and slums where I visited where there is very little access to basic needs such as clean water, electricity or adequate food. At times it makes one wonder how much undiscovered potential lies just out of reach. 

I am however, encouraged by the people who I met who are pursuing their dreams or working towards a better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. I hope every day that efforts in Ugandan and around the world will contribute to a more just and equitable global society. 

I think of the places and friends I left behind often, and hope that they think of me too

Three Months at Home.

I've been thinking a lot about this post, how to word it, what to write in it. I considered writing it in June, and then in July and now here we are in August.

About a month ago I realized that I wasn't really telling many people much about Uganda. After this realization I shared it with a recently acquired friend who simply said "Why not?" which seemed like a simple enough question. Or maybe not.

Here's why:

1. It's really difficult to explain what exactly it was that I was doing in Uganda. For review I was completing a CIDA internship with the Uganda Cooperative Alliance where I was trying to help make a development project in Northern Uganda sensitive to the legacy of conflict in the region. This might seem pretty theoretical and unimportant but if you run a development program in a non-inclusive way or you provide the wrong types of assistance, this can aggravate existing tensions within the community you're working in and undermine peace. So it wasn't a simple case of doing something wonderful and humanitarian but instead trying to effect systems and programs which are not easily changed. This meant doing things like research and workshops which are interesting but don't make for great stories.

2. I feel some embarrassment and guilt about my experience. My placement was no walk in the park. I was working with a supervisor who had a background in agricultural economics and who was really good with financial management but not so great at Human Resources Management. I found out about 2 days before I was supposed to go to Uganda that the job description which had been sent for me was the same as for the intern who had, had the position the previous year. I found out after I got to Kampala that the organization never requested a peace and conflict officer and that it was suggested by someone with the Canadian Cooperative Association who had since left their position. This left me fighting an uphill battle to get what little work I could done. And because of a lack of interest in what I was working on in combination with inexcusable budget delays I didn't get as much work as I might have done and I've been left with an unfinished report which is making me feel incredibly guilty, yet it's hard to find the motivation to finish it when I'm not sure if anyone would ever read it.

3. I saw a lot of problems in development both through involvement as an individual and with the organizations I worked with. As a result I became extremely critical of the development system which is an important and relevant point of conversation, but not one that is relevant for most of my friends and family.

I also feel like I have already run most of these topics into the ground on my blog and they are also not terribly reflective of what impacted me most about my trip.

When I came home from Uganda both at Christmas and in May I was confronted with an overwhelming sense of calm. The roads are perfectly paved, people follow traffic signals, no one carries large shot guns, the police for the most part do their jobs well with a minimal amount of aggression, most people have access to food and health care and Canada is so much quieter than Uganda, it's almost unsettling.

Almost immediately after returning home to Canada I quickly began to develop a sense of annoyance with my friends and family over complaints they had about things like other drivers, the weather, the cost of clothes etc. These complaints are still bothering me although I have readjusted to my white-middle class position of privilege relatively neatly.

When I visited the Kibera slum in Kenya in December where almost 4 million people live in absolute poverty most of whom are under the age of thirty, it's vastness struck me. Here is a slum with 3 times the number of people that live in Toronto, who struggle to access food and health care and have no access to clean water or education. I learned about girls who risked sexual violence just to have the privilege of attending one of the few schools available to them. I noticed almost everyone carrying out their routines. Two things struck me about this. The first thing that struck me was how much untapped potential must exist amongst the four million people living in the slum and how if they were given the same opportunities that I had to access education and other opportunities I had received growing up that we might have advanced far past the point we are at today in terms of development, conflict resolution and even scientific advancement. The second thing that struck me there as well as throughout my trip, was how lucky I was to be born in Canada to my family, even with it's problems.

If anything these are the two lessons that I've taken away from my trip. Gratitude and the need to do better by our brothers and sisters around the world. This by no means is meant to suggest that developed countries should instruct developing countries on how to develop and provide these opportunities because there is more than adequate academic and anecdotal evidence suggesting that they absolutely should not. It's also not to say that there isn't also work to be done in Canada, or wherever you happen to be reading this from. On the contrary, it is far less problematic to contribute to development in our own communities through working with foodbanks, advocating for human rights or lending a hand it a friend in need and the results are far more visible. I believe if we strike a balance and consider both, including educating ourselves about human rights and development issues around the world.

And so, in my next blog entry I'm going to share some stories which profoundly touched me that I heard or witnessed in Uganda all of which I feel demonstrate the challenges to accessing development and empowerment and the courage of those who are working towards better lives for themselves and their communities throughout Uganda.

What Toronto and the DRC Have in Common

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the second least developed country in the World. It is a tenuously Democratic country where political parties battle for control of the government not in election booths but in the streets with guns and tanks. It is a refugee producing country, with an armed conflict in the East which has claimed the lives of million. Enough food and running water are considered a blessing.

Toronto is the largest city in one of the top ten most developed countries in the World. It is a refugee receiving city, a low unemployment rate and a social safety net. Most of it's residents apathetically enjoy the benefits of living a secure and comfortable, if not privileged lifestyle.

It would seem that these two places are quite literally a World away from each other. Yet recently, they are suffering from the same problem; gun violence.

This week 12 people were shot late in the evening on July 18th at a street party in Toronto. Less than a month ago 7 people were shot at the Toronto Eaton Centre and two died. The response of the the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments has been to call for stricter gun control and an increased police presence. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went so far as to suggest people convicted of gun crimes should be deported or at the very least removed from the city (obviously he has no knowledge of the Constitution let alone the Charter). As nice as these things sound they reflect a tough on crime approach which is responsive and tries to regulate access to guns and restrict the people that use them. This is only half of the equation.

Community leaders in the Toronto community affected by the most recent shooting have called for more social programs, social housing and better resources for a community stretched thin by discrimination and poverty. This fact is often included as an after thought in news items and is seldom addressed by politicians, and yet it is an approach backed up by a great deal of reason.

The Small Arms Survey, a research organization focusing on armed violence in Geneva Switzerland has done a significant amount of research on the demand for small arms and light weapons and more recently armed violence and development. Both areas of research suggest that in order to reduce armed violence and gun crime, the reason that people acquire and choose to use weapons must be addressed alongside the laws that regulate gun ownership and the people who use them.

This assertion is supported on the research that I did for my M.A. thesis with Congolese refugees which suggested that lack of livelihood alternatives (needing to find a way to secure money and food, which in the case of Toronto might drive teens towards gang membership and in the DRC might drive men toward militia membership), lack of protection from authorities and inequalities were major factors contributing to the perceived need to use and own a weapon.

In order to address the demand for small arms/ hand guns, countries, provinces and municipalities must do is implement social programming which doesn't only cover the needs of the majority of people but particularly that reaches minorities, vulnerable people and those who commonly face discrimination. This can include library programs, after school programs, access to health care, more easily accessible social assistance and job training and more options for individuals seeking to leave street gangs behind.

Unfortunately the municipal and federal governments in Canada see little room for such programs in their "cut the gravy train, tough on crime" budgets despite the fact that such initiatives would actually make those programs more effective. The provincial government also seems to be skirting the issue by presenting it as a municipal problem and not a provincial one.

If we are to avoid further gun violence within our communities and our country we must entice our leaders to act to support people at risk in our society rather than continuing to pass through laws that pander to their perceived target audiences.

Refugee Health Cuts

When I started this blog I was working with refugees for the first time. I was in South Africa and I watched as many refugee claimants struggled to get by in a highly xenophobic society where they faced barriers to accessing essentials such as food, health care, and employment. I will never forget the day when I had to bring two women to the hospital who had severe food poisoning after eating expired food from a shelter they were staying in that had no food or running water.

After returning to Canada from South Africa I was hired as an intern with the Halifax Refugee Clinic. The main focus of my internship was coordinating aspects of the Invisible Women/Concrete Barriers project which sought to help refugee claimant women and their children gain access to resources, including health care, in their community. As part of my work I followed up on research that had been conducted on the challenges facing refugee women in the community and became familiar with the Interim Federal Health Program, which is meant to provide supplementary health care services to refugee claimants and government assisted refugees. At the time in Nova Scotia, refugee claimants who were covered by the program were ineligible for provincial health care coverage which of course caused a number of problems. Fortunately at the time the coverage provided under IFH was enough for refugee claimants and government assisted refugees to access basic health care like seeing a physician and taking prescription medication.

Then I took a break from working with refugees, I worked with the government and I went to Uganada. Now I'm back in Canada and back working with refugees, but this time it's government assisted refugees. As part of my job I help to coordinate a weekly health clinic for newly arrived government assisted refugees and listen as the case workers around me try to find family doctors for their clients. I'm also already acutely aware of some of the health and psychological needs of our clients which require prescription medication,  special equipment and counseling all of which are covered for one year through the Interim Federal Health Program. In Ontario government assisted refugees and refugee claimants are immediately eligible for provincial health coverage.

On July 1, 2012 significant changes to the Interim Federal Health Program will take effect. The cost of prescription medication, medical equipment such as wheel chairs and walkers and services such as counseling will be cut, except in emergency situations. Even worse; if you're a refugee claimant from one of the designated countries of origin, which as of yet have not been identified, or your refugee claim is denied you will only have access to health care if your medical condition is deemed to be a health risk. 

Government Assisted Refugees (GARs) are individuals whose refugee claims have been approved by the International Organization on Migration or the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and who are approved for resettlement in a country such as Canada. They receive a travel loan and when they arrive in Canada they have permanent residence status. Many GARs have spent months or years living in a refugee camp. Many refugee camps do not have proper sanitation and residents do not have access to adequate nutrition which means that individuals arriving from camps may be suffering from malnutrition or water borne diseases and need prescription medication to treat these conditions. A smaller number of GARs are permanently disabled and need access to mobility devices or are chronically ill and need access to medications. Almost all of the individuals arriving in this category have little to no money, particularly if they have been living in camps and cannot afford to cover these costs.

Refugee claimants are often individuals who have fled their countries of origin very quickly. Although they have a variety of financial backgrounds many individuals in this category may face the same health concerns as GARs and may also have injuries or conditions requiring immediate medical intention, particularly if they came on a container ship. This category of refugee is less likely to have been living in a camp situation and does not have permanent residence status. They have less access to resources in their community to support them and face substantial uncertainty until a decision is made about their claim.

Both categories of refugees have significant mental health concerns resulting from trauma, torture and adjusting to a new culture and under the changes to IFH will not receive the support they need. I will never forget when one of the clients of the Halifax Refugee Clinic killed himself after he was deemed ineligible to make a claim because he could not face the prospect of returning to his country where he knew he would be tortured and killed for abandoning the army. 

Refugees living in provinces where they do not receive immediate provincial health care coverage may not even be able to access a family physician.

The government claims that through these cuts it expects to save over 20 million dollars a year. Critics say that the cuts will end up costing tax payers more because of an increase in emergency room visits and public health issues.

When questioned at a news conference by a doctor about the changes, Health Minister Joe Oliver said the government was undertaking the changes to make sure that all Canadians have equal access to healthcare If the Conservatives truly believe that all Canadians should have the same access to healthcare perhaps they should be providing coverage for prescription medication and counseling for everyone rather than cutting access to it for the people who need it most.

If you would like to get involved you should write to:

PM Harper

M.P. Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

M.P. Joe Oliver, Minister of Public Health

For more information or other ways to get involved:

 http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/federal-cuts-put-refugee-health-care-danger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiSe00HOec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75FmimeFnu8&feature=player_embedded

http://www.nursesunions.ca/news/canadian-doctors-refugee-care

Doing It My Way: My Last Month In Uganda

So I haven't blogged in a while... first I got wrapped up in leaving Pretoria and then I came back to Canada which has been overwhelming in a number of ways. But here I find myself again writing my blog.

I'm going to start with a post on my last month in Kampala and the move on from there.

Overcoming Disappointment

In one of my earlier posts I discussed the shock and disappointment of discovering that the Canadian Cooperative Association would not be sending another peace and conflict officer to fill my place after I left. This meant that much of the work I had done would be unsustainable and fruitless.

My disappointment from this decision didn't result from any personal sense of insult. I knew I had done the best I could. I also knew what I was doing was important. The field staff and cooperative members who I interacted with throughout my stay in Uganda had been excited to engage with a sense of conflict. Many participants in the field training were eager to discuss conflict dynamics within their homes and within their cooperatives. Some also seemed interested in discussing conflict at the community level, including fears over the possible return of Kony to the Lango Sub County and issues involving poverty and relationships between pastoralists and agriculturalists.

While some of the conflict dynamics and situations we discussed were unrelated to the cooperative movement, many were. For example, my colleagues and I learned that land disputes are common throughout Northern Uganda, resulting from histories of violence, displacement, political unrest and inter-clan relations and that some cooperatives choose to endorse crops which require large amounts of land putting even more of a strain on limited resources. In some respects, gender inequalities were also shown to be aggravated within cooperatives and communities through cooperative involvement and there are major concerns over transparency and financial management.

Conflict sensitivity, the idea that development interventions should not only be aware of conflicts among the beneficiaries of the project but also should work not to have a negative impact on such conflicts, would serve to address and ameliorate many of those impacts and make the project I was working with more sustainable in the long run.

Throughout my internship I worked hard to ensure that it would be easier for the intern that replaced me. I worked hard to develop strategic relationships with peacebuilding organizations, to introduce our field and head office staff to the idea of conflict sensitivity and to make sure there were resources available along the way. I also chose to engage in activities which were open ended and would create more avenues for the next intern to take their internship. I saw the importance of what I was doing.

I guess it was about as clear as mud for everyone else. One of my biggest challenges during the internship was communicating and working with my supervisor whose background was in agricultural economics. He was a very good financial manager but not particularly interested in how his staff were feeling. When I would try to talk to him about the relationship between armed violence and development he would often defer decisions to me, which was a bad sign in a culture which prioritizes indirect communication. Later in my internship, his reluctance to work with field staff to coordinate field visits and training sessions and his continual lack of interest in my work gave the distinct impression of someone who wasn't particularly interested in seeing that aspect of the project advance.

While there wasn't much expertise on the subject at CCA either when I found out that the position had been cancelled I assumed the decision came from my supervisor. In a way I couldn't blame him. My understanding was that he had not chosen to open the position in the first place and that his priorities were elsewhere.

Unfortunately, that assumption made it very hard to face work. During my last month in Uganda I stopped going to work on time, which was pretty much the best thing I could have done. Initially I started going in an hour and a half late, which became one hour and then a half an hour. The reason I was late was that in the face of discouragement at work and a one month extension of my contract I decided to focus more on my health. I slept longer and ran farther and slowly my anger subsided, although it is not completely gone. While I was in the office I kept my head down and worked on my research paper which was 25 pages long when I left Uganda and still is, although I do intend to finish it once my life has settled down a bit here.

Something else happened in my last six weeks in Uganda that made the stay more worthwhile, I made some wonderful friends. After I came back from fieldwork my friend introduced me to another Canadian who was into having dinner parties, music and playing board games, all things which I am also interested in. And as it turned out Mark had more friends who did the same and so I found the stable companionship that I had been longing for, for my entire trip. I did of course have friends before that but not ones who were particularly interested in coming for dinner or playing Settlers of Catan and having adventures on the weekend. Some of my weekend adventures included going to the Bahai Temple a second time and seeing a million monkeys for the first time, going to visit the Lubiri Palace and meeting one of the princesses of the Bugandan Kingdom and going to Jinja a second time and discovering a whole new side of it, including a delicious tapas restaurant and a private boat ride. In my last few weeks I also became more involved in Salsa dancing and I feel comfortable saying I now dance with an adequate level of proficiency.

Life threw me a couple of curveballs the last week that I was in Uganda. The first was what I described witnessing in my last blog post which I won't repeat here. The second was that my friend's brother called me to ask for some advice in a job interview, which contributed to a chain of events which now has me working with a community based organization in Kitchener which I'll describe in more detail in my next blog post.

The third was a little bit more personal. I haven't really shared this with many people so I'm not sure why I feel inclined to publish it in a blog post but here goes... I had a friend of interest while I was in Uganda who I was interested in dating. However, after some time of flirting and unrealized intentions I concluded it wasn't going to happen. Things continued along on the same path and then he left Kampala for Kenya. On my last night he returned to say goodbye with a kiss. We haven't spoken since; I don't know where to start.

In my next Blog post I'll talk about the excitement of my trip back to Canada for all the wrong
reasons, readjusting to being in Canada and how helping my friend's brother with a job interview helped me get a job but also gave me more insight about the decision to cancel my internship.

For now please enjoy some pictures from my last month.

An Assault on Parliament Ave.

Since it's my last week in Kampala my friend/co-intern, Carolyn, and I have decided to go out for lunch everyday. Today while we were walking down Parliament Ave. a pickup truck stopped beside us and some men and a woman jumped out. Suddenly, they surrounded a woman selling mangoes from a bowl on her head on the side of the road. They took the knife she was carrying in the bowl to peel the mangoes and held it against her neck and she started whimpering. They then took the bowl from her head, and grabbed her by her hands and feet and threw her into the back of a pickup truck with a KCCA (Kampala City Council) label on the back. At this point the woman was wailing. There was another woman sitting in the back of the truck who looked equally as terrified.

Initially I thought she was being robbed, then worried that she was going to be raped. It wasn't until someone standing with us pointed out that it was a city council truck that I got a sense that it was a human right violation.

Parliament Ave. is a very busy street lined with government ministries and the front entrance to the Ugandan Parliament. While some people stopped to take notice with us, many others continued to continue with their business, not paying much attention to the violence unfolding in front of them.   

Before we arrived in October, a law had been pass making street vendors illegal. At the time many shops were closed by force but the presence of fruit and airtime vendors has persisted throughout my stay here. It is quite possible that this woman was threatened and assaulted because of her "illegal activity". Yet, the people who accosted her were not wearing uniforms and did not speak to the woman before they attacked her. 

There were also two other mango vendors standing further down the street that these individuals ignored. If nothing else this was a blatant violation of human rights in the interest of city beautification

It's very hard to know what to do in these types of situations. There is no one to report it to and no way to intervene. What's worse is that very few people seemed to notice and even fewer seemed to care.

Field Work

You may be wondering where I disappeared to for the last month. Well two things happened at around the same thing. The first thing that happened was that I discovered that Canadian Cooperative Association would not be sending another Peace and Conflict Officer to replace me when I leave on April 30th which means that a lot of the work I have done will be unsustainable.

Approximately three hours later I went to a party where I made several new friends. Since then my time has been filled with exciting adventures, dinner parties and board games... and trying to make the most of what's left of my internship.

In Mid-February I left Kampala for five weeks of fieldwork in Northern Uganda. During my travels I reached Masindi, Kiraydongo, Lira, Apac, Koboko, Arua and Nebbi. All of these districts have been affected by conflict to varying extent. Lira and Apac we very badly affected by Joseph Kony's Northern War which is still fresh in the memories of our cooperative members. In Masindi and Kiryadongo you can now find a diverse mix of ethnic groups (including Langi and Acholi people who were again affected by the Northern War) since it has become a center for Internally Displaced Persons and refugees which contributes to the use of numerous languages and a variety of needs. Finally in Koboko, Arua and Nebbi, which collectively make up the West Nile Region, you might find traces of long lived political dissent relating to the military Dictatorship of Amin and shared experiences of past frequent displacements.

While I was in the North I was engaged with two separate and equally important endeavors. First, working alongside the Centre for Conflict Resolution I coordinated three conflict-sensitivity and transformation training sessions which were attended by 36 to 44 cooperative members from each of the districts listed above.

Each of the training sessions was different. This is partially because two different facilitators participated from the Centre for Conflict Resolution and also because of the different conflict experiences of the participants and probably also some cultural difference thrown in for fun.The trainings were developed with the goal of encouraging conflict sensitivity within the cooperatives and also with the hope of developing participants' conflict resolution skills.

The first training, held in Kiryadongo, went very well with the exception of some confusion over travel refunds for the participants. It was interesting to watch people who spoke two different languages interact with eachother through group work. It became clear that individuals who spoke English were dominating the discussions so an effort had to be made in order to include everyone. By the end of the training participants were expressing their pleasure at having had the opportunity to interact with different cooperative members throughout the region.

The First SACCO I visited in Masindi as part of my research

The second training was held immediately after in Lira. Participants were somewhat less vocal in this training which made the role of the facilitator a bit difficult. However, the presence of members of Lira's peacebuilding community who had been invited by one of my project's field officers certainly did add a different dynamic. The ability to integrate those participants into the training in different ways was certainly one of the strengths of the training.

One thing that really struck me between the experiences between Kiryadongo and Lira was how much more reluctant women were to participate in Lira. This was an issue of great concern for me and probably speaks to the gender dynamics prevailing in the region. What was simultaneously encouraging and hear breaking in Lira was when a male participant put up his hand and said "The woman sitting next to me asked me to tell you that she learned that women are able to act as administrators after watching you coordinate this training." Of course it was heartbreaking because the woman was unable to get up and say that herself.

Giving the Field Staff in Lira a Thank You Note

Finally the training in Arua was a whole different ball game. That group was the easiest to work with because the fieldstaff had made a point of inviting participants with a good grasp of English. However, it almost never happened because the program administrator for the IFAPI project (which is the project I'm working on and I'm not going to tell you what the abbreviation stands for because you won't remember and I'm trying to keep myself out of trouble) failed to work with our field staff to finalize the budget and said in an email that "If they could not bring the budget down you should just cancel the training" without consulting me first which was very frustrating. Fortunately, after I took a look at the budget I was able to find a number of ways for the field staff to reduce the cost, two days before the training was to take place.

The field trainings were a really good introduction to learn about how the cooperative members perceive conflict, their experiences with armed/violent conflict and their approaches to conflict resolution.

An Elephant on the Border of Murchison Falls National Park on the Way to Arua

In addition to the training, I also conducted research through which I hope to identify conflict indicators for the project. Conflict indicators are used to measure the impact of development projects or emergency relief on conflict dynamics which exist in the communities they work in. Conducting the research was complicated by language barriers and the distance between our field offices and the cooperatives themselves. In Lira this meant having to travel up to 60km in one direction on the back of my colleague's motorbike over bumpy dirt roads to reach the cooperatives. My butt still hasn't recovered.

With Research Participants in Nebbi

I have to say that after collecting information from over 182 cooperative members with assistance from our field staff that I was very ready to come back to Kampala in Mid March. However, I wasn't ready to return to Canada just yet. You might recall that my internship was supposed to be 6 months. After I started collecting the data for this project it became apparent very quickly that the two weeks I had left in Kampala after I returned from the field were not going to be enough to record the data I collected, no less write a report. Since I had faced so many delays in the field CCA was kind enough to extend my internship for another month, although this was not a decision I made lightly.

So you can imagine how unhappy I was when I discovered they were not replacing me, the day I renewed my contract.

Conducting research in Barr. The entire community of Barr was displaced because of Joseph Kony's Northern War but was reestablished in 2005. While a lot of development work does need to be done for the Northern Region to catch up with the development of the South, Northern Uganda is no longer menaced by "bad surroundings"

Since my return to Kampala I have slowly and steadily been working to finish my report, spending time with friends, exploring and salsa dancing.

I'll be back in Canada on April 30th.

In the mean time if you happen to hear of an jobs that might be of interest (human rights, international development, immigrant or refugee settlement, community development or emergency management) don't hesitate to let me know.

None of my Ugandan Friends Vote

... Or at least most of them don't.

Over the last six months I've spoken to many young people both as friends and just in passing on matters of a political nature in Uganda. Many of them hesitate to talk to me about political issues or at times will reflect on Ugandan politics as a joke.

Some of my friends also claim to be apolitical which in their minds means not supporting a particular party rather than not being political. Those who fall into this category often have well developed personal philosophies and theories relating to politics in Uganda and are frustrated by human rights abuses and corruption.

In Northern Uganda I met more people who openly criticized the government which is likely related to their experiences with conflict and historical structures of violence and political struggles (Finnstrom, 2008). While I was sitting in an office in Lira my colleague looked at a calendar entitled "African Leaders" and said more like "African Dictators" after commenting about the restrictions placed on opposition parties in Uganda. After looking at about 10 of the leaders and suggesting three or four that I thought might be dictators (or at least be dictatoresque), he smirked and said "you missed a few."

Today when I asked one of my colleagues in Kampala what his aspirations were for his newborn daughter he said "she can be anything, although I hope she won't be a politician." When I asked why he said because of the uncertainty (read insecurity) associated with that kind of life.

Although their participation in political dialogue and their opinions differ rather dramatically the one thing that most of these people have in common is that none of them vote because they don't see the point in participating in a political system which always turns out the same way.

This stands in striking contrast to the experience that I had as a door to door canvasser on behalf of a politician during the Federal election last year in Ottawa. I would frequently knock on doors only to have a youth answer and tell me they did not plan to vote because they felt like their voices would not be heard.

This is the same sentiment but the settings are almost completely opposite. In Canada we have an open press that reports frequently and openly on politics even if with some bias whereas the Ugandan press is only relatively open and much of it is state controlled or sponsored. In Canada there is freedom of association and protest, where as in Uganda protestors are met with bullets and tear gas. In Canada there are many avenues for political participation in comparison with Uganda where there are relatively few. Finally, in Canada we have a free and fair electoral system (minus the recent harassing phone calls complained about by some voters).

As a very political individual, I find it hard to reconcile these two realities. I find it even more difficult to understand why young Canadians would choose not to vote or participate in the political process in other ways when there are so many young people around the world with the desire to influence their countries' political systems and economies who don't have the opportunity to do so.

Just some food for thought.

Kony 2012 Part III: Reaction in Northern Uganda

Last week when I first posted about Kony 2012 one of my friends asked me about how Northern Ugandans felt about the movie. At the time I didn't know, very few Northern Ugandans have consistent access to the internet so it was slow to make waves.

That changed yesterday when an organization called AIYNET held a public showing of Kony 2012 in Lira, where I recently conducted field work. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the screening since I'm currently in Nebbi, but I was able to convince my colleagues in Lira.

When I spoke to my friend and colleague Mike Kitara (with permission) over the phone about it this morning, he said in is usual friendly tone that the film provoked a lot of debate in Lira. He indicated that the film included out of date facts, including the suggestion that Kony was still in Uganda and that the situation remained dangerous, and that many of the people who attended the screening saw the film as a cash grab.

More importantly people both questioned the timing of the release of the film since the attrocities it describes ended in 2006 and people even went as far as to question the decision to show the film at all in Lira.

You might also be interested to know that over the weekend New Vision, one of Uganda's leading national newspapers ran an article indicating that while the government appreciated the renewed attention on catching Kony, that no one should misinterpret the campaign to signify that the Lord's Resistance Army remains active in Northern Uganda.

Even if the increased awareness of the LRA does bring about Kony's demise it must not entitle anyone to feel justice in participating in the Kony 2012 campaign. The world sat by while 65,000 children were kidnapped and hundreds of thousands of Northern Ugandans were murdered, maimed, displaced and raped including some of my friends and people I've met through work. A trial at the ICC will bring little peace to those who've lost loved ones and have otherwise been affected by the LRA.

What we can learn from this is that in the future we need to act quickly and in unison to stop mass violation of human rights and the laws of war. Before 65,000 more children are kidnapped.

Let's work together and stop the use of child soldiers.

http://childsoldiersinitiative.org/

Kony 2012 Part II: My Letter to Prime Minister Harper

I believe in practicing what I preach. While I still find the Kony 2012 campaign highly flawed I also believe that Kony should be arrested and that steps should be taken by the international community to fully dismantle what remains of the LRA.

This evening I composed an email to Prime Minister Harper outlining my concerns and demanding that Kony be brought to justice.

If you would like to send him your own email he can be reached at:
stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca

If you are a bit more sentimental and write him a letter you can send it to the following address:

Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

My email read as follows:

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

I am writing to you today about Joseph Kony.

My name is Kirsten Van Houten and I am currently working as a CIDA intern in Uganda where I am a Peace and Conflict Officer with the Uganda Cooperative Alliance. The project that I am working on is focused on alleviating poverty for poor rural farmers in Northern Uganda, including in areas affected by the Northern War and the Lord's Resistance Army. I am currently in Arua in the West Nile Region having arrived from Lira and Masindi where I have been conducting conflict-sensitivity training for cooperative members and conducting research to identify conflict indicators for the project.

I am sure you have received several emails over the last few days resulting from the Kony 2012 campaign. While I do not agree with how the campaign is being orchestrated and recognize that it is missing some key facts, I too believe that Joseph Kony must be stopped.

As you know, since 1988 Joseph Kony has kidnapped over 66,000 children who have been forced to work as child soldiers and sex slaves. In addition the LRA is known for its brutal attacks against civilian populations which include rape, murder and mutilation which breaches International Humanitarian Law under the Rome Convention. While the LRA's attacks were predominantly centered in Northern Uganda since 2008 they have moved to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. I'm sure you are aware of the conflict which has raged in the DRC since 1998 and has claimed over 5 million lives (directly or indirectly) according to the International Rescue Committee.

In 2005 the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Kony. The Ugandan army and the Congolese armed forces are currently searching for Kony in the DRC. Both of these armies have been accused of poor discipline and themselves violating international humanitarian law through the use of child soldiers and attacks on civilian population.

Mr. Prime Minister, Joseph Kony needs to be arrested as soon as possible. While I am not an expert on international military operations I implore you to take action either to support the Ugandan and Congolese troops searching for Kony while complying with international humanitarian law or to support a UN or African Peacekeeping mission to assist in his arrest.

However, I would also like to ask you to take a few more steps. While it is important that Mr. Kony be brought to justice, his arrest alone will not dismantle the LRA or heal the damage which it has caused. As a result I suggest that you send a delegation to facilitate peace talks with the remaining members of the LRA. Further, I would also suggest that that you should provide funding to organizations such as War Child Canada, Save the Children and the Child Soldier Initiative who can provide assistance in disarming, demobilizing, rehabilitating and reintegrating child soldiers back into their community.

In addition, I would like to stress that in the event that Kony is arrested and brought to trial in front of the ICC it should not entitle any Canadian to feel a sense of justice because we as Canadians and as members of the international community have allowed the LRA to operate with impunity for far to long and no justice will be felt by those who lost loved ones to this army in East Africa. In the future rather than waiting for over twenty years Canada should act as quickly and early as possible to prevent such grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

I believe that Canada still has the capacity to be a leader in international human rights. Arrest Kony, support Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration and recognize our Responsibility to Protect.

Sincerely,

Ms. Kirsten Van Houten

Kony 2012

Several People have asked if I can include sources in this blog post. Much of the information comes from books which I don't have with me in Arua but I can give you the title and the author of the books which the information comes from and that you can refer to for further information.

Also to give you some additional context, I have an M.A. in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University and wrote my thesis on Armed Violence in the DRC. I have presented a couple of conferences on the topic and I was a member of War Child Dalhousie. I have also participated in the Gulu Walk which does a fantastic job of raising awareness about the use of Child Soldiers by the LRA and I have volunteered with the All Party Parliamentary Committee on the Prevention of Genocide. I really appreciate that so many people have taken the time to read this post and send me feedback.

I have spent the last four weeks in Northern Uganda and will be here for one more week. I am currently conducting research through which to identify conflict indicators for the project that I'm working on. I have also just finished training over 120 people in conflict sensitivity and conflict transformation with help from the Centre for Conflict Resolution. My work has been in Lira, which was directly affected by Joseph Kony's Northern War, Masindi where many of the internally displaced people from the Northern War resettled between 1988 and 2008 and West Nile which receives refugees from North Eastern DRC which is currently being affected by the LRA among other things.

When I was in Lira last week I met a child soldier for the first time. It was a 16 year old boy who was kidnapped when he was about 7 and released when he was about 14. He is not in grade 6 at school and is being cared for the owner of the hotel I stayed at, not his parents. He didn't talk much and seemed very timid although he warmed up to me over the week that I was staying at the hotel. One of the questions I ask as part of my research is whether participants feel that their communities are peaceful. In Lira, several participants indicated that they were not at peace because they feared the return of Joseph Kony.

Who is Joseph Kony? Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Its stated purpose is to enforce the 10 commandments in Uganda and to oppose Musevini's governing party the National Resistance Movement (Aboke Girls, de Temmerman and The Lords Resistance Army Myths and Reality, eds. Allen and Vlassenroot).

If you've watched the film "Kony 2012" you probably didn't get that information, in fact you probably heard that the LRA has no stated objective. That's only one of the factual errors

The LRA emerged out of the Holy Spirit Movement in Northern Ugandan which combines Christianity and traditional beliefs. The LRA started to advance towards Kampala in the late 1980's after Musevini ejected a Northern leader, Okello, out of office in 1986.

When you consider the LRA's tactics including the abduction of children to be used as child soldiers, rape, murder and mutilation. Victims eyes, mouths and ears were often cut off so they could not see or hear the attrocities that were being committed around them or so that they could not tell the authorities (Aboke Girls, de Temmerman). And for years the Ugandan government did nothing about it, until it launched a military operation in 2008 which all but exiled the LRA in Sudan, the DRC and the Central African Republic.

If you haven't seen "Kony 2012" it is a 30 minute film by the organization Invisible Children demanding immediate action in Western countries to demand that Kony be arrested by any means necessary.

I agree that Kony must be stopped, but they are leaving out some information you might care to know.

The first point of the video that I would like to challenge is that the "LRA uses girls as sex slaves and boys as child soldiers." In fact this is a very gendered take on the LRA where both boys and girls are used as child soldiers AND both boys and girls are used as sex slaves, although girls are the more common victim (Aboke Girls, de Temmerman AND They Fight Like Soldiers and Die Like Children, Dallaire). Children are also used to cook, care for wounded soldiers and to carry equipment.

The second point is that Kony has no clear objective which I've already addressed.

Third, the movie claims that Kony enjoys no international support, when in fact he is known to have received direct support from the government of Sudan and from AlQaeda (U.S. Exclusion List for Terrorist Organizations AND The Lords Resistance Army, Myth and Reality).

Fourth, the movie fails to acknowledge that the LRA has not been active in Northern Uganda since at least 2008 and that they now operate in North-Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic (Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, Stearns). That's where the movie falls apart. The U.S. did send 100 troops to Uganda to support UPDF (read Ugandan army) operations against the LRA, but since they aren't in Uganda, the operation also requires support from Congolese and CAR troops. I don't know much about the CAR but I do know that the Congolese Army does not have the capacity to hunt down Kony (I wrote my M.A. Thesis on the DRC so I'm not including a citation here if you want to read my thesis you can google my name).

And one might also ask why the group is supporting the use of a military solution at all considering the fact that the Ugandan Army has also been accused of using Child Soldiers, not repatriating returned abductees with their families and committing rape, as has the Congolese army.

I'm also concerned about the treatment of the subject of Child Soldiers by the film. First as my colleague Tanja Bergen points out, the fact they are showing video clips of a young Jacob crying over the loss of his brother, at an age where he could not have consented to be in the video is highly questionable from a research ethics standpoint. The second thing is that the movie oversimplifies what happens to returned child soldiers. Child soldiers who are rescued or escape are rarely able to return to their homes either because their parents were killed or because of the shame that their actions have brought to their families and communities. If these former abductees are lucky, they get to participate in a rehabilitation program led by UNICEF, Save the Children or War Child but many don't and their families and communities simply don't have the resources to support them (They Fight Like Soldiers and they Die Like Children, Dallaire). On another point you might notice that while the film focuses on the use of Child Soldiers it discusses the other atrocities committed by the LRA very little. This is likely because they would have to acknowledge the the abducted children are forced to kill, rape and mutilate their family members and others which makes them "Victim-perpetrators" which means that they were forced to commit crimes through their victimization and were revictimized through the process. And of course, that would just confuse people... (?)

As a fundraiser last year, I learned that sometimes it was better to have less knowledge on an organization to try to get people to support it because it raised fewer questions and made it simpler to explain, and perhaps that's what Invisible Children is going for.

When Amnesty International runs advocacy campaigns, they do not ask for money anywhere in the body of their campaign. However the fundraising component of this campaign is quite apparent as they indicate that in order to receive an advocacy kit that one must commit to making monthly donations. What is particularly worrisome about that is that the campaign targets you people who are least able to make that form of commitment. As my friend Jesse points out Invisible Children has never been externally audited and has other questionable rankings as a charitable organization.

Any reputable add campaign should promote activism before donations. Full Stop.

Although I think that the rhetoric the movie uses and the methods it is suggesting for activism are interesting and relatively effective I am also going to take a moment to cover on some of the theoretical underpinnings that bug me about the film.

First, I find it highly problematic that the film focuses on a small white child to try to help viewers relate to the plight of child soldiers. Although the kid is cute I think this undermines the viewers compassion and their capacity to understand that childhood should have universal norms.

The second problem that I think is more significant is that there is no discussion of what the victims of the LRA would like to see happen. Many of the former heads of the LRA have been subject to amnesty laws and have participated in traditional peace processes. Although I would personally love to see Kony tried in front of the International Criminal Court, I am not certain that, that is what most of Northern Ugandan's want.

To conclude, I would like to point out the almost complete absence of the voices of Northern Ugandans in the video which I think is its biggest flaw.

Joseph Kony must be stopped, together we can do something about it.

Like the video suggests, you can send your MP or Prime Minister Harper/Obama or whoever your leader is a letter, you can organize a march, put up posters and spread the word. But you can do that without Invisible Children, and certainly without donating to them.

If you want to watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

If you would like to read about the Norther War I would recommend reading "The Aboke Girls" or referring to War Child's Website.

If you would like to read more about Child Soldier's you can read "They Fight like Soldiers and Die Like Children" by Romeo Dalliare

If you would like to read about Justice in East Africa you can read "Drink the Bitter Root.

If you would like to send me an email I can be reached at k_van_houten@hotmail.com

Losing Mzee Kato

The first day I arrived in Kampala I attended a salsa dance class with my Canadian colleague Carolyn which was part of a couch surfing event (couch surfing is a community in which people invite travelers to stay on their couch (or beds) while they are in town). It was my first time attempting salsa dance and I was quite amused by the Mzee (swahili for old man) who took my hand and made sure that I got the footing and timing right.

I didn't like salsa as much a swing dancing and was a bit reluctant to venture out on my own so I didn't return to salsa for another month, but after that I began to attend regularly on Thursdays and Saturdays. As it happened Mzee Kato was the head teacher of the salsa lessons at Lotus Mexicana, a Mexican Restaurant owned by an American, and would take me from barley knowing the steps to being able to social dance with some degree of proficiency. Although his English wasn't great, his passion for dancing always shone through and as I got to know him I realized how experienced of a dancer he was. He was also the only Ugandan I've met who actually knew how to swing dance.

On a Thursday night about two weeks ago the Mzee was not leading the lesson, but instead arrived late and watched sitting down which was quite unusual for the spunky 88 year old. One of the other instructors, and my friend, Musa explained that Mzee Kato was sick and needed money for his medication. Knowing that medication costs are relatively low here I quietly inquired about how much he needed and provided the funds. He thanked me repeatedly then and on his way out. Although Mzee Kato looked ill he was walking around and interacting with people and so I assumed since he had the money for the medicine he needed that he would recover. So you can imagine my surprise when two days later my friends called to tell me that he had passed on.

As it turned out the Mzee had Malaria but had decided to go home to his village after dance class rather than back to the hospital. He woke up in the night very ill and did not make it to the hospital in time. It is difficult for many Ugandans to access the healthcare facilities which are available to them, for example I heard from a research participant this week that in order to get urgent medical care in the town of Bweyale you have to drive at least 2 hours to a major city. Although the situation is less dire in the Kampala area, poor road conditions and lack of funds can also hamper access to medicine.

In the days that followed it became apparent how prominent a dancer he was, as his death gained national media attention and brought together a large portion of the dance community. It also deeply affected my friend Musa who worked closely with him as a dancer and who related to him as a relative.

And so I'm taking this opportunity to remember Mzee Kato, who contributed so much to the salsa dance community in Uganda. His contribution lives on through the large salsa dance community in KLA.

I think we might have... Ralph(s)

So I'm currently writing a fairly long post about my trips to Lira and Jinja which I am hoping to finish really soon but I thought I might publish something to hold you over.

I recently acquired two lovely new German room mates who are both German, very tidy etc.

On Tuesday morning I awoke and went to the kitchen only to find small round black pellets all over the sink and our dishes on the drying rack. My immediate thought was "oh no, we have a rat!" I proceeded to diligently clean the counters and rewash all of the dishes. I did notice that some of the little black pellets had some orange fruit attached and briefly wondered if they were seed but I dismissed the thought because why would there be seeds all over our clean dishes?

When my room mate Anna woke up I told her what had happened. Very upset she also started to think about doing more cleaning. As I was getting ready for work my other room mate Ralph got up and Anna suddenly said to me "Kirsten, it wasn't a rat!"
and Ralph added "Yeah, don't you know the difference between papaya seeds and rat droppings?"

The question is, how did Ralph manage to get Papaya seeds all over our clean dishes?

Lira and Jinja

I managed to get out of Kampala twice during January, once for work, once for pleasure.

When I returned to work after the Christmas holidays I was anxious to visit the field since my project is primarily focused on Northern Uganda and I had not had the opportunity to go. Fortunately there was an opportunity to visit Lira within the first week so off I went, admittedly without much of a program in mind.

We arrived late on a Wednesday night and I checked in to the hotel that the field staff had booked for me. It, like the guesthouse I stayed at in Kasese, was called the white house, however it was more expensive and was not as nice. The rooms had been set up so that the window and bathroom were at the back of the room and the bed was as the front leaving only a narrow corridor for air to pass through making the hotter than Kampala temperatures even hotter. It was also a bit noisy and dirty. However, not wanting to be high maintenance I decided not to complain and stick it out.

When I did mention to one of my colleagues that I had not slept well because of the heat he ended up recommending a different hotel a bit outside the center of the city. After checking out the location I changed my accommodation and slept well my second two nights at a hotel that really had great service.

The first day I was in Lira I visited a SACCO (credit union) with the Microfinance and Data collection officers in a neighbouring district called Apac (pronouced Apache). They were visiting a SACCO to update their data to be incorporated into a database which is being developed in the district to help track SACCOs performance. This gave me the opportunity to meet with the loans officer who shared with me some of their strengths and weaknesses. I was interested to learn that many women in the district had complained that their husbands' behaviour had changed after receiving loans and it was something they were working on improving.

Once the others got down to business I had little to occupy my time so I decided to explore the area a bit. We had passed through a marsh on the way to the SACCO so I first walked back where I enjoyed watching cows drinking from a stream of water where some boda drivers were washing their bikes. One thing that I really liked about Lira was that people were generally less aggressive in their attempts to get my attention and sell me things. Following my walk, our driver for the day picked me up and we went for lunch. We at mud fish, which is a type of fish that live in the swamps and are caught with spears rather than fishing lines. I quite enjoyed that experience. We then visited a local market which was nice to see. In the market we met a developmentally delayed youth (who the driver referred to as insane) who took quite an interest in my camera so we had a little game of him pointing at something and asking me to take a picture, me doing so and then showing him said pictures. On the way back to the SACCO I mentioned to the driver that I was interested in seeing the inside of one of the round huts that dotted the country side and so he brought me to one that was owned by one of his friends where I was able to see the hut, which is used for cooking and some of the compound's inhabitants.

We returned to the SACCO to find our colleagues still working; fortunately I had brought a book. When that got old I decided to explore some more. This time I walked in the opposite direction from the swamp and found a small nursery school and met the owners. The head teacher names Harriet had decided to set up the school when her advice as a newly graduated teacher was not well received by her colleagues at her first job. She and James, her husband told me that the school opened in 2011 with 47 students and that in November, when the first class was having its graduation ceremony, that the ceremony was attended by some local officials who had been visiting the SACCO and had noticed what was going on. She told me that as a result of the visit they were expecting enrollment to be closer to 100 for the new year. Kind of neat to see the impact that cooperatives can have on their communities.

The next day I attended a training session on Soya beans with the gentleman described in one of my earlier posts who excitedly told us over the long car ride about his friend exploiting resources in the DRC, and the Marketing Manager. Although the ride to and from the Area Cooperative Enterprise was long and the conversation left something to be desired, it was neat to learn a bit more about agricultural practices in Uganda, even if I am allergic to soy bean protein.

My trip to Jinja was a completely different scenario. On the last Friday in January I made a two day-friend. Two day-friends are my term for people who you meet, click with instantly, but who are leaving the city within two days. This was the second two day- friend that I had made and she was a fellow Canadian. I was sitting and waiting for another friend at the national theatre, where there was a film opening taking place which I was not attending, when Tanja approached and asked if I knew what was going. We soon got down to chatting and discovered that we were both from Canada and that she was a research assistant doing work on transitional justice in Northern Uganda and so we compared notes. She spent time with my friend and I and we went for a drink. When she mentioned that she was going to Jinja the next day I asked if I could tag along since I hadn't been yet, and of course she said yes.

So the next morning we headed to the post office to catch the postbus to Jinja. For some reason the bus driver decided to leave 30 minutes early despite the fact that it wasn't full and we were left standing outside the station. Fortunately another friend and told me that one could take a minibus from the old taxi park so we headed in that direction and quickly found several buses waiting to take people to Jinja. After we first arrived in Jinja we hired two bodas to drive us to a coffee shop called Flavours that was in my guidebook. Although we had negotiated the price with the drivers one of them was kind enough to ask for an exorbitant price upon reaching our destination, I laughed and gave him what we negotiated. Flavours coffee shop was a very contemporary coffee shop by Ugandan standards with very artistic decor.

After caffinating ourselves we then headed for the source of the Nile by foot, viewing part of the city on the way. Admission to the source of the Nile is 2000 Ugandan shillings for locals and 10,000 for foreigners. This sort of price difference is common throughout the country at parks and other attractions and part of the reason I refuse to go on safari here (knowing how much less expensive it is in South Africa really doesn't help either). On this occasion I of course paid. Upon entering the park grounds we discovered a well developed craft market along the stairs leading down to the river where I bought a few things to give to people back home in Canada. At the bottom of the stairs we discovered the opportunity to go on a boat tour of the source which we also decided to go on, much to the dismay of one of the people with us, Brendan, who had a significant fear of boats and water. While touring the source we were able to see several species of birds including Kingfishers. There are two small islands which straddle the source of the Nile which is a bubbling spring which sits at the intersection between the Nile and Lake Victoria, one of which has this large tree which is full of different types of birds and is quite stunning save for the bird droppings which make the island appear as if it is covered in snow. On the island we also saw a three meter long lizard of some kind which was also rather neat. We were also briefly let off at the adjacent island where you could stand and have your picture taken with a sign that says "source of the Nile."

We then hopped on the backs of a couple of bodas to see the Bujigali falls, or what used to be the Bujigali falls. As part of the process of harnessing Hydro electric power in Uganda they are damming the Nile river which recently involved the flooding of the falls in Bujigali. Unfortunately this has resulted in the disappearance of the falls although does provide for some interesting scenery where the tops of taller trees are still sticking out through the river. I've also learned that this flooding has been a source of conflict for the community which is being mediated by the Centre for Conflict Resolution, which is one of the organizations I'm working with as part of my internship.

So I'm publishing this post from Lira where I've returned to conduct training and research. More to follow.