By Erin Hunt

Our 1 for 1 organic tee stock has finally been temporarily filled. We are sorry for the delay but things have been busy for our small team.

The shirts are available only online for the next 3 weeks and we have a limited number (140 or so). The popular fire tree design is available in the usual colors as well as in a new purple (or ultraviolet) shade and in women’s sizes. The polaroid design is also back and in the popular black version of it.

Last year, during our pilot project in Gulu, we purchased 210 balls (see below for pics) for the local soccer-based peacebuilding framework that we are supporting. This was partly due to the fact that 160 1 for 1 tees were purchased before the project started (The Charity Pot of LUSH Cosmetics made up the rest!).  We are hoping to sell all of the 140 shirts before the end of the 3 weeks to guarantee the minimum amount of balls that we need to buy in Uganda this year.  If you guys blow us away with your efforts and it gets to the point  where we don’t need any more soccer balls for this year, then the funds will be used to buy other important equipment (e.g., local first aid kits for each team).

Shirts are available here: 1 FOR 1 and we get enough interest we will order more.  Thanks for your continued support of the youth in northern Uganda.

New balls bought in Gulu, Uganda - June 09 — with funds from sales of 1 for 1 tees

By Erin Hunt

I’ve been a little busy lately but I’m getting back to writing about changes that I noticed in Gulu when I returned in 2009, with OA. To get back on track (and ease myself into it), I thought I’d talk about everyone’s favourite topic – food!

In Gulu Town there are a few ‘grocery’ stores which I can most relate to you as sort of like the average corner store but most of your fresh food you buy at the market or “owino.” Actually almost anything you want could be bought at the market but the centre (physically) of the market is the food area. There’s the meat section, the fish section (which I tend to avoid), the fruit and vegetable ladies (including a second section that is almost entirely bananas) and the dry goods ladies selling things like millet, soghrum, rice and beans etc etc.

Now when I first arrived in Uganda, the market was intimidation personified but once you sort of figure out how much stuff should cost and what the layout is, it’s fine. There was one restaurant that made western food but I preferred to cook for myself. Since I could rarely find ‘western’ food in Gulu back then, and I didn’t know how to cook local food, I made frequent trips to the market for rice, vegetables, and fruit (including delicious pineapple and passion fruit). I also frequented the one bakery that sold “salty” bread, which I prefer to the more popular sweet bread to combine with staples I’d bring up from Kampala like pasta sauce or once a box of Special K.

Fast forward to last spring (2009), the market layout remained pretty much the same, though the fish section had moved, but what I did notice is that there were a lot more food available in the market. It seemed like there were more variety in the types of food available in all sections of the market, which I thought might be a sign of increasing agriculture in the area as people return home. Costs had risen dramatically but that might be a topic for a later post.

The biggest food change I noticed, though, was the increase in restaurants in town. Where before I knew of only a couple places that made any non-local food, all of a sudden there were at least half a dozen of places that made western inspired food, or Asian food. Although we tended to stick to our local dinners of rice and beans, sometimes with boo in sim sim paste (greens in nut sauce), I couldn’t believe the options for those nights when that just wasn’t going to cut it. Still though nothing could beat going to the market buying a pineapple and just cutting right into it when you get home. (Ok I better stop writing this – all I can think about now is market fresh pineapple with some passion fruit juice!)

What do these changes tell me? That people are secure enough in the current peace to invest their money in new businesses and that farmers feel safe enough to expand and diversify their production. I’d say those are two good signs in the overall rebuilding of northern Uganda.

By Erin Hunt

This week I want to share an informative online radio piece I found about women and peace in northern Uganda. The first half of IRIN Talks’ Bulletin 5 (from Nov 12, 2009) includes conversations with Betty Begombe and Santa Okot about women’s involvement in the peace process in northern Uganda.

While it will give you some background on the two women who they interview, here’s what I know. Betty Begombe was a Ugandan MP and Minister from Gulu when she headed up failed peace talks with the LRA in 1993/1994. She also participated in later peace talks in 2004-2005. Santa Okot was a negotiator in the Juba peace talks for the LRA. The LRA approached her to represent them at the negotiations.

Now I’m not quite fancy enough to link this posting to the actual file so you’ll have to find it on the IRIN Talks web site or for free via iTunes - it’s “IRIN Radio” under podcasts. It’s Bulletin 5 from November 12, 2009.

I find it interesting to hear about the experiences of these women at the negotiation table. We’ve been working at the grassroots level to support the inclusion of female youth in grassroots peacebuilding activities. To have strong role models like these two women is very helpful in demonstrating that women are essential participants in peace talks and mediations.

Anyone have additional information to contribute to this conversation?

By Erin Hunt

I’ve been talking about the changes in northern Uganda between when I first arrived in 2006 and when I went back this year with OA, but this post is going to be a bit different – a bit more personal.

By Erin Hunt

(post #4 of Looking back into northern Uganda with OA).

We’ve been talking about the changes I saw in northern Uganda between when I first visited in 2006 and when I went as part of OA’s team last spring. One thing that the conflict was known for were the night commuters. During the height of conflict, the Lord’s Resistance Army was abducting children so frequently that many children would walk each night into the major towns to sleep on the street because it was relatively safer than sleeping at home.

Oddly enough this is not something I knew that much about when I first arrived in Gulu in August 2006. I had heard vaguely about night commuters but hadn’t given it a second thought. I noticed that every evening a steady stream of children walked up the road in front of the compound and a lot of covered up people sleeping on the street (it took me a week or so to realize that all the people sleeping on the street were children). I slowly learned that the children were night commuters and there was a shelter for them across the street from where I was living.

Every trip up north after that I was conscious of the children sleeping on the street, in the shelters and everywhere else. Being conscious of that meant I noticed that as the ceasefire took hold and the security situation improved fewer and fewer children were sleeping on the street. By the time I left in 2007, there was only a trickle of night commuters – mainly children who were fleeing violence at home not the possibility of abduction.

Flash forward to this spring. The security situation has improved even more and OA and the Youth Coalition for Peace have selected the field at Laliya Primary School, which is a few minutes north of Gulu Town for rehabilitation. I don’t know if the rest of the OA team realized at that time but they had selected a school where most of the students would have been night commuters. Three years ago they would have been hurrying into town after school to find some shelter and hopefully some safety instead of playing soccer with their friends on a rehabilitated field.

I think that is part of why I love what I do with OA – I’m constantly shown that children, youth and communities are unbelievably resilient.

By Erin Hunt

So we’ve been talking about northern Uganda and the differences I observed between when I first visited in mid-2006 and when I went back with OA this spring. The parts of northern Uganda where OA works is home to the Acholi people who are one of the many ethnic groups in Uganda. The Acholi make up about 5% of the Ugandan population and speak a language that sounds very different from the Bantu languages of the southern part of the country. Many of my Acholi friends have told me that some other groups in Uganda are suspicious of them because there is a stereotype that Acholi are warriors who like to fight – I don’t know how accurate or prevalent those views are but I do know that many people in Kampala had never been up north and thought I was a little crazy for going up there all the time. I recently found a blog (linked here) that hasn’t been updated in a few years but it provides some insider views about Acholi culture that you might find interesting.

In 2006 many of my colleagues and friends talked about the breakdown of Acholi culture due to the conflict. This makes sense – think about what makes up your culture, and your community. Would things stay the same when everyone is forced out of their homes and into crowded camps? No one is able to work or even leave the camp because of the conflict and all authority is skewed.

This was one impact of the war that I couldn’t see because I had no reference of what Acholi communities and families should look like, but I quickly learned that neither did my Acholi peers. People my age had to ask their elders for guidance on what was ‘normal’ for their society.

This year when OA was in Gulu, I was able to see some aspects of Acholi culture re-emerging. As I’ve mentioned before there were signs that families were returning to more traditional living arrangements in homesteads or small farms instead of internally displaced persons camps. In the soccer camps for peace, the Youth Coalition for Peace (OA’s partner in Gulu) was working to support the re-building of Acholi culture. The daily peace talks often included traditional teachings and, as you may have seen in this video blog, Acholi dance was incorporated into the daily warm-up activities. The Youth Coalition for Peace (YCFP) also supports local dance and drama groups across the region who use those mediums to promote cultural resurrection. As we are planning future projects in northern Uganda we are working with the YCFP to find even more ways to tailor the coaching curriculum and the soccer camps for peace to Acholi culture.

By Erin Hunt

So last week I mentioned a  bit about the physical rebuilding that is going on in northern Uganda and some of the changes I saw between when I first arrived in Gulu back in 2006 and coming back this spring with OA.  There is another type of rebuilding that is going on in the Acholiland (the main tribe in Northern Uganda is the Acholi) but it is much harder to see than new buildings.  People are rebuilding themselves after traumatic events from the war.

Due to the nature of the conflict it took quite a toll on the mental health of some people.  I won’t get into the kind of atrocities that occurred here but you can check out the SWAY reports to learn more about the experiences of youth during the conflict, needless to say some people in Gulu are dealing with issues of trauma.

Our local partners, the Youth Coalition for Peace (YCFP) are all trained in peer to peer counselling to help provide support to others in their communities.  I’ve seen them in action and they can be very effective either as counsellors or as a referral to other mental health resources in the community.  This is one of the reasons I was really happy to be working with the YCFP again.  We didn’t know the background of the children who were coming to the camps so it was great to have mentors who also had experience counselling.   The links made at the soccer camps have given the children another adult who they can turn to if they need it.

By Erin Hunt

It’s been a few months since the end of our pilot project in Gulu, Uganda and with the reporting done, plans for Rwanda moving along and discussions just starting for the next phase in Uganda, we finally have a moment to reflect on our time in Uganda. This was my first project with OA but not my first time in Northern Uganda. I first arrived in Gulu in August 2006 right before the LRA and the government signed their ceasefire and after a number of work visits I moved up there for a while in 2007. So in a way this was a homecoming for me.

As you know, OA is working in Northern Uganda because the region is emerging from over 20 years of conflict. Communities are rebuilding themselves, both physically and emotionally. The first thing I noticed as we arrived back in Gulu after two years was the physical changes to the area. Families are rebuilding their homesteads in areas where it wouldn’t have been safe to stay even a night in 2006. In town, I cannot even count the number of new buildings, businesses and houses which have been built in just two years. Although there some new buildings, there is still a long way to go in the rebuilding process - most of our friends and colleagues do not have running water at home, health care is no where near adequate and the scars of conflict are still fresh and very apparent. But those are all topics for further blog posts, at the moment let’s just say that it’s a really exciting time in northern Uganda - the communities we are working with are rebuilding themselves but there is still so much left to do.