Karamoja

So where to even begin? I guess I'm just going to run through the past two weeks like a narrative supplementing from my journal- here goes nothing...

8/11 I've been told by the CLIDE staff (Community Livestock Integraged Development Consultancy)

that we will catch the noon bus that runs between Soroti and Moroto. (See the map on the previous post) I would be traveling with Dr. Moses and Ann, two CLIDE staff members. We heard that the bus that left just before we arrived was too packed to get a single other person on. As we waited for the next bus to come more and more people kept arriving at the bus park. Finally the bus arrived and people began to get on. As the only white person in the crowd around the bus doors I stood out so the people who's job it is to load the bus grabbed me and pulled me around to the driver's door. I realized what was happening and said I wouldn't get on until the other two I was traveling with were also on. Some how we were physically crammed in. There was another person holding Ann's 9 month old son so after she was on he was passed through the window to her. There were several other children who were passed though windows and even an adult or two. The bus was fuller than I would have ever thought possible. And there were still others outside. So a cattle car was obtained and followed the bus with the extra luggage and people. The bus was supposed to seat 67 (so the worn paint on the outside said) but I counted easily 120.The ride is about 4 hours by car on single lane poorly maintained dirt roads. On the bus it proved to be more than 8 hours.We left Soroti around 3pm and arrived after 11:30. I was standing in the aisle for most of those hours- though a Karamojong man took mercy on me about an hour from our destination and gave me his seat. The bus was hot and packed to say the least and it was quite a challenge. Early on I dropped my water bottle and we were too packed together for me to get it again. When we arrived in Moroto (exhausted) we hopped on a boda to a small guest house just outside of town. Our room had a bed and a mosquito net so Ann, her son and I crawled in a fell quickly asleep.

8/12 In the morning I discovered the one gender neutral bathroom down the hall didn't have any plumbing but did have big drums of water you could scoop out of to flush the toilet and pour into a basin to bathe. Ann and I prayed together thanking God for a safe place to rest, safety in travel, strength and a new day. Dr. Moses, Ann and I walked into Moroto town for breakfast (We had not eaten since before we arrived at the bus station at noon the day before.) Around 9am we walked up to the CLIDE office and I got the meet the staff there. Judith, Moses, and Victor would also be traveling with the group to the peace villages.

A little bit about CLIDE at this point. Their mission is to empower local people to for sustainable socioeconomic transformation and holistic healing. Dr. Val is a veterinary doctor who started CLIDE several years ago and has turned the primary running of the organization over to several great Ugandans who are doing amazing work throughout Karamoja district. Karamoja is an area of great conflict between warring sub-tribes. CLIDE conducts peace talks between opposing warriors and has established two peace villages. God is doing some amazing things through their work. Because of the struggles, floods and drought there is much poverty in the region which leads to cycles of despair and hopelessness. (I'll post Dr. Val's most recent newsletter which explains a little more later on).

Anyway, back to Thursday. The CLIDE staff, with several area pastors, spent the whole day in meetings preparing for the upcoming mission. I began to feel a little sick and had a headache that just wouldn't let up, but it was a really low key day for me to just sit and listen to their planning while praying for their decisions. (CLIDE had a plan for the team to live and conduct trainings and medical clinics right in the villages where the village health workers were, but the roads had become impassable due to heavy rains and increasing insecurity so the original plan had to be almost completely scrapped and a new one made with new places to stay, new places to work and ways to get the locals to where we were going to be.)

8/13 Friday morning. Woke up feeling almost non-functional. But things to do and with no desire to stay at the guest house any more than I had to I continued to tag along with Dr. Moses and Ann with their preparations. By mid morning I had vomited several times and felt really lightheaded with the headache that persisted. I should have told someone (the CLIDE staff were wonderful but were working so hard to get things together that I just really didn't want to be more of a burden so I kept quiet. Stupid pride.) I had finally decided to walk back to the guest house and rest for a while when the American team landed on a little 8 seater plane. Dr. Bob and Dr. Will, two American doctors, accompanied by Janelle and Susan, two American nurses had arrived in Uganda the day before and that morning flew to Moroto (to avoid the 11 hour drive from the international airport). I decided, I really wanted to get to know them and for the sake of team unity, I could buck up and hang on a little longer (by then I had stopped vomiting) so joined them for a walk through town. We had only walked about 20 minutes and had stopped to pray when I passed out. Oops. So, once the fog cleared I found myself in bed doing some aggressive re-hydration for the afternoon. At least the medical team had arrived and were well supplied. They didn't seem to mind that I was their first patient.

8/14 Woke feeling only slightly better, still wiped out with that kicking headache but mostly able to eat and could stand upright without difficulty. Discussed figuring out how to get home, but wasn't up to another bus ride and really had no other way. Which turned out well and I'm glad I hung in there. Dr. Val arrived in Moroto so we spent the day as a whole team preparing. We talked about culture, safety, the plan for the time, and pretty much spent the whole day getting to know each other. One other team member, Heidi, arrived with Dr. Val from Kampala (after driving straight through-yuck!). She had also just arrived in the country and is a vet student that will be “interning” with Dr. Val for the next 7 months. She was a great addition to the team. The plan was to send an advance team of CLIDE members to Iriri, the village that would be our home base through the training time with supplies, to get the huts set up, cooks arranged etc. However, the driver who had picked up the American team at the airport and brought them to the little MAF plane had not yet arrived in Moroto. That was the advance team's transport. So when he finally arrived late afternoon (we learned that he had car problems) it was decided that the “advance team” idea needed to be scrapped because the car couldn't make it there with them and still have time to come back for the rest of us. So I, Dr. Moses, Ann, Judith, John (the driver), Anyakun and two pastors all piled in the land rover with tents, medical supplies, food and bags strapped on top. We arrived in Iriri after midnight, unloaded, strung up some mosquito nets in the huts and fell asleep.