By Erin Hunt,

Since as they say here the Internet was disturbing me yesterday, I was unable to tweet or post anything to keep you updated on what went on during our trip to Amuru and Anaka yesterday. So here we go.

We were able to squeeze in a half meeting with the Amuru District Sport Officer which was great and we hope to finish the meeting another day when he is in town.  It was only a half meeting because he had to go meet with a Minister from the national government.

As we were driving around the countryside, I couldn’t help but remember what everything looked like in 2006.  There were huge expanses of nothingness, empty but fertile land and then IDP camps where thousands of people were crowded into an amount of land probably the same size as the UVic campus with no real infrastructure.  Yesterday was much different, it’s still a really remote and rural area but all along the drive you could see homesteads and villages surrounded by cultivated or at least cleared fields.  It’s really amazing to see the rebuilding and resettlement process with your own eyes.

The meetings in Anaka were great.  The Local Council III (LCIII) Chairman was super supportive of the project and he even stressed the importance of activities like ours to the resettlement process because an event like the soccer camp for peace will get youth out of their homes and new villages and bring them together.  Bringing people together in a fun and peaceful manner can help strengthen the community.  I wish I had been quicker on the draw because I would have loved to get his comments on video for you all.  I was able to grab a photo, though.  It’s so crucial to the project that we have local government and community support - if they don’t agree with what we are doing then there is no point in doing it.

Meeting with Anaka LC 3 Chairman

We also found a venue for the children’s soccer camp for peace, in Anaka and I’ve put a photo on twitter - we’ll try to keep the cows off the field during the camp!

Ok that’s it for now.  It’s time to try to have another conversation with Gulu District’s Sport Officer and get some venues booked for activities in Gulu Town.

It’s been almost a week since I arrived in Gulu for the second phase of Gum Marom so it’s time for an update.  This week has been mostly about meetings and planning.  I’ve met with members of the Youth Coalition for Peace (YCFP) everyday I’ve been here to devise work plans, plan for activities, divide up tasks, clarify any issues that didn’t come through well over e-mail and the phone and to see how things have gone so far.

We’ve also met with the Head Referee for Gulu District and invited him to come to speak to the coaches and answer their technical questions about the laws of soccer and ref’ing.  It should be a really interesting discussion.

On Thursday, three members of the YCFP and I traveled to Amuru District because we had invited government officials from that district to a stakeholder meeting.  Stakeholder meetings are a chance to introduce the project to the community and to get their feedback.  Alas, the stakeholder meeting did not happen.  When we arrived in Amuru, all the local officials were missing!  Turns out the President of Uganda was visiting the district the next day so everyone who was anyone was off preparing for his visit.  We did manage to meet with the District Education Officer though and he was supportive of the project.  He said we should reschedule the meeting but that he would share what the YCFP told him with his colleagues.  We will be traveling back to Amuru next week to chat with the officials we missed.

Friday morning and part of the afternoon was spent meeting with the coaches trained in the 2009 pilot project discussing their experiences as coaches and the plans for the project over the next few months.  They had a lot of interesting things to say and some really good suggestions so it’s now a matter of incorporating those thoughts into the plan (more to come on this).

All in all it’s been a good week, very busy and dusty but good.  Keep your eye on our Twitter feed www.twitter.com/OAProjects to get the “as they happen” updates.