Back and ready to move forward…

Hi everyone!

I’m not sure if you’re still reading this as we have been away for quite some time, but I’m hoping some of you will take a look. Lara and I are both back in Toronto now; where I am working on the upcoming GuluWalk and Lara is working on her MFA at Ryerson University.

I wanted to write again for 2 reasons; one, to tell you how the final days in northern Uganda went and two, to tell you about our upcoming projects and ideas.

First off, the final goodbye from Padibe was definitely a sad time. Although we were ready to leave camp life, I was not ready to leave my new friends and neighbours. I still miss them daily. The people of Padibe showed us a kindness that you can only see so often in this world and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.

Upon arriving in Gulu on the night of July 31, we were in quite a state of disarray. The culture shock was unbelievable! Both Lara and I had both grabbed a couple candles on the way out of Padibe and we only remembered about regular electricity when we returned to the hotel in Gulu. The city was much busier than Padibe and it took some getting used to. The next few days were a whirlwind, and so rushed that it was hard to concentrate on anything. After hearing some sad family news, I was kind of in a state of shock.

However, we have not forgotten about Padibe and we are working towards bigger things to raise more awareness about IDPs. In the last two months, preparations for the annual global GuluWalk has been in full force. This year the event will take place on October 25, 2008. Please join me, Lara and thousands of others worldwide as we walk for peace in northern Uganda. You can register or get more information at www.guluwalk.com.

In addition, Lara is working on an event for June 2009. Hosted in the City of Toronto at Dundas square, Lara will be focusing on IDPs and raising awareness about their plight. If you would like to find out more information email us at info@guluwalk.com.

Well that’s it for now. We will continue to spread the word about IDPs and about northern Uganda. With over 27 million IDPs in this world, it’s our duty to find out more.

Thanks to everyone who supported us this summer and thanks for staying involved. We’d also like to say a big thank you to everyone in Padibe, to Ojibu for always being such a great help and informant, to Augustine for his tremendous support, to GuluWalk for all their efforts, and to everyone that read this blog and passed it on. It’s been a long time coming for this thank you but we have not forgotten.

More to come…

~Andrea