Camp life is not fun…

After 4 weeks of staying in the camp, I think I’m finally starting to feel like a resident of Padibe. Those feelings consist of anger, frustration, hunger, tiredness, sadness, and last but not least, hope. I know I will never understand or feel what a real IDP feels and to be honest, I don’t want to…and I wish no one had to experience this state. We came here to witness the life of an IDP, but we will never ‘really’ experience that, because we are not.

In the past few weeks I have come to dislike, or even hate, camp life. Don’t get me wrong, I love northern Uganda (it’s such a beautiful country) and I love the kind people of Padibe that I have come to call my friends, but camp life is not something you can love or even like. In the time I’ve spent in Padibe IDP camp, I have been eaten alive by bugs, been dirty most of the time, been spied on while in the shower, have been hungry, have had to walk around feces (and not just animal!) everyday, have had to be more cautious of disease than ever before, have almost been robbed,  have been surrounded by cockroaches (they show up in our hut as well), have not had one night of soundless sleep, and have been witnessing and watching people around me suffering since July 1st! Camp life is not fun. Camp life is not somewhere you want to keep your family or raise children. Camp life is not safe. Camp life is not clean…and camp life needs to stop!

I do mention hope though because you can see it in the eyes of people we interview and talk to. Residents of Padibe are returning home, but only few. There are still 25,000 residents here! I grew up in the small town of Orillia, Ontario and it totaled 27,000 people a few years back. However, Orillians were spread out over much land and there’s no way I would have wanted to be herded into a small space, such as the space in Padibe, with everyone (no offence to the residents of Orillia!). For those of you from any small town, can you imagine that?

But that’s the thing, I go back to Gulu and leave camp life in 3 days. I get to go home in one week. When will the people of northern Uganda and Padibe get to return home? When will they be free to live the lives they have missed for decades now?

I also said I would update you on Helen, so here you go. Yesterday we went to visit her homestead again and we were happy to see the brickwork finished and the roof being prepared. 

 

Helen and her 7 children have already been staying at home (in the kitchen for now), and are thrilled to leave the camp. Yesterday we talked with Helen’s eldest daughter, Agnes.

We asked her what she wanted to do when she grows up and her answer, “I want to be a nurse so I can try my best to sort out and assist with my mother’s problems.” From the look in her eyes, I believe Agnes will become a nurse. From the look in the eyes of many people in northern Uganda, I believe they will succeed and I believe there will be peace. I just hope it’s sooner than later…the time is now!

I want to thank everyone for the supportive and informative comments over the past few weeks. We have received them all and are very appreciative. We thank you for paying attention and taking an active interest in IDPs!

Until next time,

~Andrea

No where to turn

Well, we’ve made it past the half way mark and we find it very difficult to believe that we have been in Padibe now for more than 2 weeks.

Sometimes we find that we start to lose perspective of the situation here but then we are punched in the face (not literally) with reality. The next story will explain.

On Wednesday we had the privilege of visiting the winning school of the Padibe East music competition; Padibe Boys Primary School. The music class was outside cleaning their outfits and preparing for the regional competition in Kitgum on Thursday and Friday. The children were all very excited and you could feel it in the atmosphere.

To get the day started we showed the P7 (ages 13-16) class some video from the competition.

The rest of our visit consisted of introducing ourselves and our project, answering any questions they might have, and also finding out about their experiences/life in the camp. We ended up learning more than we bargained for.

At the P7 level, children are able to write quite well in English, so we asked them to tell us about the good and the bad of camp life. They were all very open and honest.

The good usually consisted of two things; 1. Free Food from different organizations, 2. People being educated. However, many wrote that nothing was good about camp life. Not shocking.

The bad always consisted of a much longer list. Some of the issues were heavy work, poverty, poor sanitation, problems of food, money for school fees, child soldiers, early marriage, no house, abduction, and disease. One issue came up quite often though and I think it would be best to quote one of the children;

“Men are defiling* many girls. You will be sent by your parents to share the neighbour’s house and if any man knows where you sleep you will be defiled. Rape is happening especially when you are going to collect firewood, to the borehole and even when you are going to school they will wait for you on the way…” –Female, 14.

This may be difficult to hear, but this is reality. Out of the 36 children in the class, 26 had rape and defilement as the top issues in the camp. That’s 73%! Others also mentioned them but lower down on their lists.

This is an issue and it is happening often. We visited the health clinic yesterday and the clinical officer also stated that rape is a real issue in the camp. However, only 3 cases are reported in a month because many girls fear the consequences (or no consequences at all for the men). Many try to solve it domestically he said. Not only are they being raped, but the prevelance of HIV/AIDS is much higher in camps then it is towns. At this specific health clinic over 600 people are being treated but most do not come in for treatment or even know that they are infected.

So, basically, rape is ignored but it is there and many girls are victims.

To be honest, we had heard about the problem of rape and defilement in the camp but we did not realize the issue was happening so often. I felt completely helpless after reading their stories and I think Lara will agree with me when I say, it made the rest of the day more difficult. How do you tell a little girl to go get firewood, water, or go to school when she knows that she may be attacked? And how do you explain to a child that there is nothing you can do about it?

The list of issues for all IDPs keeps on growing and growing…they need to go home.

*Defilement is used as the term for statutory rape; just in case anyone was wondering.

After dinner last night, we decided to lighten the mood and visit the local saloon (otherwise known as the barber shop). It’s on the way to our toilet and we often pass by and just give a wave. It seems like the cool place to be and sometimes it’s pretty intimidating:). We found though that the boys were very welcoming and when Lara asked for a trim, they said no problem at all. Watch the video for the whole experience….tomorrow Lara is getting braids (stay tuned for future pictures)!

Well, that’s it for today. Sorry I couldn’t be a little more positive but we’re here to tell the truth and that’s what we’re going to do:).

~Andrea

Note: Hepatitis E is still on the rise with 134 new cases in Padibe from Monday to Thursday for this week. The clinical officer estimated another 30-40 cases would be discovered today.

Also, there was another ambush on the Lira/Kitgum road. No one has yet to report whether this is LRA or Boo-Kec. We’re waiting to hear more.

Internet…?

Hi all! If you are reading this, then there was finally some hours of internet in Kitgum town!! Talk about a good example of questions about the digital divide!!!

Here is a little clip of walking through the camp to the “market”. We are still amazed at how close the huts are, how people have been living like this for over 10 years, how 1 million people in northern Uganda are still living like this…

Gardening, “Drive-In” Movies and Hep-E, Oh My!

Hey everyone! The network in Kitgum town has been down and really spotty…but we’ll keep trying to upload- please be patient with the internet connection in this neck of the woods. (For instance, this one has taken 5 hours to post!!!!). Anyways, we had shot a lovely walk through video of the camp for you, but you’ll have to wait until the network improves.

It’s been a busy couple of days, we finally got our home routine down + have been able to move around more. I’l try to condense here, but it is somewhat frustrating and difficult to relate all that is going on, all that we feel, and give the people who share with us the space and depth that they deserve!

Yesterday, we ventured out to “the gardens”, that is, the space beyond the camp that is green and lush, filled with people’s growing foodstuffs and even some people who have recently returned home and recently rebuilt their homesteads on their traditional land.

This is Kathy Adibu, age 46.

We came upon her on her traditional lands about 4km south of Padibe, attending to a ritual for a child who had a breech birth. We enquired why she has not yet left the camp to rebuild her homestead. We also asked about access to water from her traditional place, but that was not so much of a problem as the bore hole was only about 1 km away (not a problem here apparently!!). We found out that the real problem was that there were no men to build her roofs, and also that the grass to cover the huts would only be ready in December or so…I know, it sounds strange to me too that if you could possibly leave the camps, a little thing like a roof or grass would not stand in your way. But, you do need a roof on your home, and you need willing men and grass to build the roofs; and apparently both are in short supply. She said the worst thing about living in the camp is the lack of privacy, the overcrowding and related diseases and, before there was enough security to reach the gardens, the hunger. I asked her about whether she thinks that peace is here to stay- and she blew me away. She said that as long as there are people still living in the camps, there is no peace, regardless of the “political” situation. It really hit home and completely crystallized why I was here, and what Andrea and I are trying to call attention to.

We went on our way quite pensive in the breezy morning, re-committed and refreshingly inspired. We then walked another 1.5 kms or so and visited a group of elderly women (+ a couple of men) who had started their own community group that pools their time and labour once a week for different work. Check out Andrea below helping them weed g-nuts: can you guess which one she is?

They hope that through donations and their work they could build a type of security for themselves and their community. You don’t get any more grass-roots than that! Talk about helping thyself…and I really admire their ingenuity and daring! These are some of the amazing women on the way back to camp.

When we reached the camp, our pseudo-reverie was shattered. We saw government trucks blaring loud music. People had come out of the camp onto the main road and we stood there with them too. The music turned into a type of public service announcement, and as it turns out, it was about Hepatitis E, Cholera, Meningitis, Typhoid and the importance of cleanliness in the camp. We learned that they were going to show a health film outside of the clinic at 7pm and that the next day should be spent cleaning up the camp.

We went to the “outdoor screening”- it was packed with thousands of people. I am pretty short (around 5’2″), so I asked the tall young man beside me to take this photo.

He was wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater, so I figured it was the right way to go! (I am actually a die-hard Montreal Canadians fan, but hockey of any sign is hard to come by here…sorry! Go HABS go!).

In any case, it was a completely bizarre experience to be standing with thousands of others watching health videos about potentially deadly diseases. Even more bizarre was the fact that Andrea and I were probably two of the only sufficiently “privileged” people there who were actually vaccinated against the described diseases (Hep E excluded)…and most of the diseases do not exist in Canada. O.k., I can go on here a lot, but I’ll get to my rant soon.

Contrary to the update of my last blog, Hep E is not on the decline. New figures for northern Uganda are up to 4824 reported cases. There have been 381 reported cases in Padibe and 72 deaths.

O.k., I guess it’s time for a rant. We were woken up at 6am by the same loudspeakers urging people to clean up the camp…I have to tell you- the people in the camp are some of the cleanest people I have ever met. They bathe every day, brush their teeth, wash all their dishes after every meal, wash their clothes…everything one can do! What is the problem is the crowded conditions, lack of proper sanitation facilities and lack of proper medical care.  How can disease be contained when the only place for trash are open pits at the edge of camp- where dogs and unwatched children roam and complicate containment further? How can disease be contained when 25 000 people are squeezed into the space where normally 2000 would live? No, I don’t think solutions lie in simply cleaning up the camp…solutions lie in getting a final peace accord, in getting people returned to their traditional lands and lifestyle; in making the camps, and rampant disease, a sad and difficult memory of the past.

I’ll repeat again what Kathy Adibu said: “…peace will only be here when people are no longer living in the camps”.

Peace out,
Lara

Day 8

The days are beginning to go by so fast now. If we’re not fetching water, cooking, or cleaning, we’re off visiting neighbours and learning more and more about life as an IDP.

We thought today would be a good time to show you some our daily sightings.

As mentioned earlier, I thought I would give you a glance at our cockroach infested toilet. Isn’t it lovely?

It usually looks this way only at night, but yesterday I was so thrilled to find them greeting me in the morning. I decided to pass. A man walked by and asked ‘are you fearing the cockroaches?’ I proudly answered ‘yes!’ I admit it whole-heartedly. In the evening we cleaned up and this morning it was fresh as a daisy…or close to it☺.

The beans take forever to cook over the fire and preparing a whole meal takes approximately two hours.

The women here cook 3 meals a day and spend a lot of their time cooking, but also take care of the household chores. Again, we’re just trying to be good Acholi women and they are definitely willing to teach us.

This last picture is where we sleep…and eat and live☺.

This is our hut right before settling for bed. We sleep on papyrus mats and are protected by mosquito nets. Most people in the camp do have nets, but I think the majority just do not use them. I understand though, sometimes I get quite tangled at night and want to rip it off, but then I remember my first night in Gulu getting eaten alive without a net and I keep myself covered. During the day we clear the floor for more room to move around, although children usually fill the space.

Actually no matter what time of day it is, many children are around. It always crosses my mind why so many children are not in school during the day? From talking to people in the camp I’ve found that most want to be in school but cannot afford it. In Uganda, primary education is offered to all for free. However, after primary education, secondary school is not free. Therefore, the majority cannot afford a higher education. There is such a want to go to school but just no way. Two days ago we met Moses.

Moses is 19 and has been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Both his parents have passed and he is therefore unable to continue his education. With no income in the camp, he is unable to support himself and no one is around to help. With only averaging below $100 Canadian dollars a year, it is hard to think that so many will miss out on an education. Moses is just one story but there are thousands with similar situations. Moses’ friend Richard is actually in school right now and is being sponsored by an Italian NGO, AVSI, for the first year. After that first year though, he is on his own. He enjoys the course so much but yet he has no income for the following two years. Richard will have to stop going to school. Moses and Richard are two people that represent so many.

I want to apologize for the delay in posting. Yesterday the internet was down all day in Kitgum town, so after much frustration, Ojibu gave up trying.

And now we’re off to roam through the camp. We’re meeting more and more people each day☺.

I hope all is well in Canada.

~Andrea

Some background info…

Hello all! Ojibu brought us some of your comments when he last uploaded in Kitgum and it is so great to hear from you and know that you are following this story. Keep them coming!

We realized that you do not know much about Padibe IDP camp, so in brief, here is some info: It is approximately 40 km south of the Sudan border and was once simply a trading post on the way to Sudan. With the war intensifying in 1996-1997, surrounding residents were forced to settle around the trading post for some semblance of security from the LRA. Instead of living in traditional homesteads, Acholi families were squeezed together with huts one right next to the other.

Some people returned to their homesteads in 1999, only to return once again to the camp in 2002 when fighting once again intensified. The population then swelled to some 40 000 people!!! Overcrowding, lack of basic necessities (water, food) due to an inability to leave the camp because of insecurity created dire health consequences. In 2005, the Ugandan health ministry estimated that some 1000 people per week were dying in the Northern camps due to the conditions. With a ceasefire in 2006, and an ability to leave the camp once again for access to food, the situation has greatly improved. Some people have returned home and the population is now at 25 000. However, with no peace treaty signed, and little assurance of continued security, much effort is needed to assure a proper and safe return.  I fear that this lull and return might mirror that which once happened in 1999. This is where you come in, please sign the petition linked in the blog so that camp life can finally cease to be a reality.

Even now, camp life is very difficult. Lack of privacy is disconcerting, and at times, for us anyways, pretty funny! Every morning, I saunter out of our hut, sleep in my eyes to brush my teeth + I am greeted by about 20 “Apwoyo Chos!” (Good Mornings!). Everything is public here and although it is amusing in our situation, I can only imagine the impact on traditional and family values.

Here is Andrea on her way to bathing. In addition to a children’s escort, she received a goat escort as well! Our bathing area is the black tarp structure in the left hand corner of the picture frame, located out in the open, amidst the huts. The ground is a hole filled with rocks (so the water can seep down) and there is a little shelf in the corner for our basin (pictured in Andrea’s hands- red!).

Our time here is very busy…between trying to learn to be good Acholi women, trying to survive and visiting everyone who wants to speak to us…our days are full!!

Yesterday, Grace visited us in the morning. She still lives in the camp because “a bad person” burned all the grass at her homestead, so she cannot return and build her huts. (We are trying to find out more about this…)We also met 3 older widows who cannot return because they do not have men to build the huts for them…and building huts is men’s work! Or Daniel, who has not left the camp because his homeland is far away and lacks a bore hole for water…

It is these stories that I am really interested in, and the quicker we are at learning survival basics, the more in depth stories we can relate about the problems in the camp and the problems with return. (we’re trying- it’s hard work!-survival is really taken for granted at home!!!)

On a totally wonderful and hopeful note, we attended a graduation party yesterday afternoon. Two girls had graduated from University in Kampala and a large part of the community showed up to pay them respect and to celebrate with them. I kept thinking how amazing it was that these girls were able to push through in a time of war and poverty and hunger, and achieve a higher education. I give them a ton of credit and wish them so well!!

o.k., we are off to visit some old friends who have left the camp. By the way, we met a man from MSF the other day and he confirmed that the Hepatitis E outbreak was abating- yay!

Speak to you soon, Lara

Settling In

Yesterday was our first day to go and fetch water, but when we started to take our two jerry cans to the tap our neighbours told us there was no water today. What?! We were caught a little off guard as we figured that water would come everyday at both 8am and 10am…or so we were told. We were mistaken. We wandered back to our hut trying to figure out what to do. As the water from the day before was already used up for drinking and food. While starting to worry a little, our neighbour Alma brought us one of her jerry cans full of water. That is how it works here, if your neighbour needs something you help, you share. So we had one full can for the day. Hmmm, what to use it for? We decided to boil more drinking water and save enough to make some food. Bathing and washing our clothes would have to wait. We prepared the fire and set the kettle on it to start boiling drinking water. All of a sudden women started running by our door with their jerry cans. The taps had started to run. We also got our cans, ran to the taps and stood in line to get water. (See video for our daily walk to the water taps)

This will be part our morning ritual everyday. We must, and everyone must, get water from the taps to survive. Oxfam has provided the water taps and there are staff to release the water once a day. The water does not last long though and this is why everyone was running. If they did not get the water at that time, then they would have to wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow is too late, especially if you have a family at home. Each can is only 20 litres and we have been averaging a can and a half per day. Whereas a family of four would most likely need 3 cans. I asked someone what would happen if the taps were not there? He told me that the women would then have to walk to the bore holes outside of the camp and there would not be enough to provide for the whole camp. Many would be go thirsty.

In addition to water, our giranis (neighbours) have brought us so many different things to welcome us. In the last 24 hours we have received a jerry can full of water, a bundle of otigo (I would compare this to spinach at home), two mangoes, a few onions, a bundle of firewood, covers for our pots and this morning Alma brought us some ocra. We are slowly learning what we need to do to be good Acholi women, but it may take some time 🙂 Everyone around us has also helped us with starting our fires and chopping firewood. We give our neighbours quite the show when we try to chop firewood…we haven’t quite got the hang of it yet, but at least we can entertain people while learning.

Some more friends have also greeted us in the night. While visiting the toilet two night ago, we opened the door and there we about 30 cockroaches…I screamed and jumped out of the stall. I was not prepared for that. Lara and I had no other choice but to enter with them surrounding us. Although it might be gross for us, everyone else just keeps telling us ‘don’t worry, they will not bite you’. I would rather not have them around at all to be honest. We have dealt with it though, but each trip usually ends with me running out of the stall jumping up. Crazy munus…:)

~Andrea

Girani means neighbour

Hey all! First night in the camp last night…despite tossing all night to become..ahum..accustomed to sleeping on bamboo mats, the night went really well. The hut had been sprayed earlier in the day with DDT, so there was nary a mosquito in sight! The gunshots we heard at around 11pm were only from a hollywood sound track from the video cafe across the street! Lively local music did mostly drown it out + we were serenaded to sleep in our new home!

The morning started with the task of boiling water- but we didn’t yet get enough firewood…not to worry…2 of our girani (neighbours) promptly saw our situation and brought us some firewood!! When they were satisfied that we could indeed handle a fire on our own(!), they left us to tend to their own. This is Alma Aceng, one of our girani that has helped us.

We have been told that helping neighbours is naturally the Acholi way (the major tribe here in the north), and that actually, if it not for the Hepatitis E outbreak, we would not even want for food on our visit…o.k., so Hepatitis E-yikes…what’s that? We were warned by all the politicians and priests about Hepatitis E before we were given permission to live in the camp. It is a disease with no known cure that is caused by poor sanitary conditions, like those found in the camp. Although it can be fatal, it is easily preventable by eating food that is carefully prepared and still hot (like when we make it ourselves), by always washing your hands before eating and by taking care with drinking water (we are boiling ours!). So, don’t worry- we are all well briefed and are taking care. On a different beat, this does show how overcrowded camp conditions continue to threaten basic good health. Although the Padibe camp population is down to 25 000 from about 40 000 as many have started to return home, the overcrowded and unhygienic conditions are still a very serious problem.

o.k., we will have more stories soon…as soon as we master basic fire/boiling/cooking skills + can leave the hut long enough to visit around the camp! But not to worry, we are getting our fair share of visitors/girani/helpers who are looking forward to sharing with you too!

(p.s. On your Canada Day, it was “collect White Ant day” here! White ants are a delicacy that are only found twice a year, and while walking home last night, we came across many groups delightedly collecting the treat!!!)

Speak to you soon,

Lara

On the road to Padibe.

Phew! Arrived at Entebbe airport early Friday morning and had a nice long drive (6 hours on some of the worst roads I’ve seen in the world…although Cambodia in 2002 comes pretty close!) up to Gulu. We stayed in Gulu for the weekend, buying some basic supplies and making plans for July in Padibe IDP Camp. We head over there tomorrow through Kitgum! Padibe is less than 1 hour south of the Sudanese border. (Check it out on Google Earth- Padibe, Kitgum, Uganda).

 

Here are some decisions we have made about our time in Padibe:

FOOD + DRINK:We will eat 2 meals a day, will a total intake of 1200 calories. This is the amount defined by the World Food Programme (WFP) of a person’s minimum caloric intake.  It breaks down to 1.5 cups of rice + 1.5 cups of beans for 2 meals a day. Plus, a banana or sweet potato when they can be secured!

-We will fetch our own water and boil it sufficiently to sterilize it for our sensitive western systems.

SUPPLIES:We will bring 3 changes of clothes, soap (yup, the local blue kind!), ground mats to sleep on, pots, jerry cans, matches, bowls, basins for washing, a big spoon and a knife. Our luxuries include sunscreen, insect repellant, malaria pills, mosquito nets, toothpaste and toothbrushes and some toilet paper (just enough to ease into whatever the system is there…we’ll keep you posted!)

TECHNOLOGY: We will keep our equipment at the Church on the outskirts of camp where we can hopefully charge (they have a generator at night) and keep our blogs rolling. There is no electricity in the camp, and certainly no internet, so we will load our blog entries onto a USB key and get someone to run it into Kitgum (around 1 hour away) and upload our entries from an internet place there.

I think that’s all the set-up for now…it seems like things are organized, of course, as soon as we arrive, I’m sure that things will change. It seems like it is really difficult to prepare for a situation like this…but, geez, it’s not like we are being forced into the camp by the government’s armed forces, or fled to the camp after our family was murdered. And, it’s not like we will be spending years of our life there either. It is one month and a choice for us, and we have a heck of a lot more resources than anyone else living there.

We are both really excited to finally be on our way-it’s been a long time coming… So little news of what is going on in the camps reach us (and we make a point of staying informed!). So ready or not, here we go…

Speak to you all soon,

Lara

Andrea in transit…first blog entry.

Good morning!…or should I say good afternoon? We have arrived in London and while sleeping on an airport bench into the early afternoon, I’m still on Canadian time and it’s early. So I’ll keep this short and for those of you that know me, that’s a challenge. However, I have realized already and this may be hard for some of you to believe, Lara is chattier than me:).

Let me start out by also introducing myself; my name is Andrea McKinlay and for the next month Lara and I will be venturing into Padibe IDP Camp together.

In 2005, I first heard about the situation in northern Uganda. However, the conflict had been taking place for almost 20 years at this time. I was curious then, as i am now, as to why I had not heard anything before? It seemed shocking that no one in my circle of friends had been informed. We watched the news and yet, not once did I recall hearing anything about northern Uganda. GuluWalk changed that.

It was at this time that I not only found out about the many ‘night commuters’ (children walking to urban areas to escape abduction), but I also found out about the numerous atrocities that were taking place throughout Acholiland and within the IDP camps. And as I dug deeper, I found out that this was not only taking place in northern Uganda, it was taking place worldwide. I was shocked again.

Over the next 3 years, I have continued to be shocked by the stories of IDPs. During on of my initial visits to an IDP camp in northern Uganda, I witnessed a fire break out. In seconds, there were many homes up in flames and the screams of people rang throughout the camp. At that moment I realized that the situation was worse than I could ever imagine.

While sitting outside Terminal 21 at Heathrow airport, the anticipation of entering the camp is buidling up. It seems like just a short time ago I was walking in Toronto, and now I am awaiting my flight to Entebbe. Before leaving home, my friends had so many question and I tried to answer them as best I could. But to be honest, I think I have more questions at this point. I will just have to wait and see what’s ahead.

I look forward to sharing our stories with you but most of all I look forward to sharing the stories of the many people in Padibe IDP Camp.

~Andrea