Gulu

This weekend we took a 3 day trip to Gulu in Northern Uganda.  We left Thursday night and returned Saturday evening.  It was an 8 hour bus ride with many bumps and much dust along the way.  We stayed at guest houses attached to churches and ate some amazing food!  On our way we crossed over the Nile River and even got to see some Baboons on the side of the road. 

 

On our time at Gulu we visited 3 organizations: Gwed-g, the recreation project, and Amani.  I don’t know how much you know about the history of northern Uganda, I didn’t know much, but about 20 years ago a civil war broke out.  During this time many children were abducted by the LRA, lord’s resistance army, and taken from their families.  These children were then brainwashed and sent back in to their villages to kill family members or neighbors.  The age range of children taken was mostly 8-14.  Some children were freed, some escaped, and some killed.  This all ended in 2006.  I didn’t really know much of this other than in the last 2 years there was a huge push for Kony awareness in the States and I’ve heard a lot about invisible children. 

 

The recreation project and Amani were organizations targeted towards the victims of this war.  The recreation project does recreational based therapy mainly for the children born in to captivity and has now expanded towards youth groups, schools, juvenile delinquents, and organizations.  This site was started by a man from the US who was originally sent over here to do psycho therapy back in 2008.  The organization works a lot with one day interventions with hope of longer week long therapy sessions after they get more funding and a steady income.  Considering one of my favortie things to do at camp is rope courses with my girls, i really liked the mission and vision here.  In fact a lot of the courses were the same, whale watcher and spiders web. :) While at the site we got to hear about what he does, try out some of the rope courses, and even do the zipline. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other organization was Amani.  The women of Amani make purses, bags, and other crafts as a source of income.  We heard the testimonies of 4 women while being there.  These women were all abducted between the age of 10 and 12, were forced into marriage with the soldiers of the LRA, and then forced to have children.  Some even had gun shots wounds from being shot at when trying to escape.  Luckily all of these women survived by escaping or being freed after it ended.  A lot of families were weary of taking their children back due to the fact they thought their children were demoned possessed.  It was really hard to hear these stories but really eye opening.  It is one thing to hear about the injustice on the news, but then to hear it from the victim themselves, it’s a whole another level.  Also, the fact that these women have so much power and hope in God after being through so much is crazy to wrap my mind around. 

 

 

It was a great opportunity to travel this past weekend and see these different organizations and hear these different stories, but now I am just trying to wrap my mind around everything and really soak it all in.  But I thank God for allowing us to hear these stories and for giving strength to the women to tell their stories, because I am sure it is not easy and it truly is a gift to be able to listen to them.