Gulu: Week 1

It’s been hard to find time to blog, so I’m afraid I’m falling behind. I’m currently enjoying a breeze blowing through my room at a hotel in Gulu. We arrived last Tuesday, after an unfortunate mechanical failure that claimed our rented vehicle about 2 hours outside of Kampala. We had to stay the night in a little old place called Miygera while we waited for the car to be fixed. It was actually quite comfortable and the whole community was really friendly. We spent the evening playing cards with a 14 year old we’d befriended.

It’s an understatement to say it’s great to be back in Gulu. Everyone is so friendly here compared to the hustle and bustle of Kampala. On Tuesday shortly after we arrived, the town experienced hours of torrential downpours (something I haven’t ever seen here) and we decided to stay close to the hotel. It cooled the temperature down quite a bit and stayed that way for the first 2 days we were here.

On Wednesday, we went early to the school in which we’re doing our study and did some preliminary planning with the teacher coordinating the details. The head teacher was away, so we met with his second-in-command, the Deputy and he gave us the go-ahead to begin our program. That afternoon, we spent hours preparing for the study. We’re focusing solely on the traumatic experiences related to their abductions and the time they spent in the bush with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and how art and/or art therapy can reduce that trauma.

For three days, including 6 straight hours on Saturday, Lily and I had our introductory meeting with the students. We had to ask point-blank questions, and it was really tough. I have read so much about the brutality of child soldiering, especially in northern Uganda at the hands of the LRA, but never before had I heard these accounts firsthand and seen the resulting trauma that it caused the survivors.

After that long string of days, we took a break yesterday and sat by the pool at Acholi Inn for 7 hours, baking in the beautiful Ugandan sun. I hadn’t ever gone to the pool in Gulu before, and it was quite a treat. I finished a whole Danielle Steel (hey, everyone needs their mindless reads, especially in circumstances like these) in one day. After leaving Acholi Inn, we enjoyed a refreshing steak sandwich at Kope Café and leisurely read some more.

This morning I was anxious to get the day started because this afternoon marked the beginning of the art education portion of our study. Lanie, Lily, and I are running that group’s activities for the next three weeks. We have so many exciting activities planned including photography, painting, printmaking, tie-dye, cartooning, Acholi folktale performance, breakdancing, and songwriting with some local musicians.

Before that, I stopped by the tailoring shop where I’ve had all of my African clothing made over the last two years and visited with Nancy and Filder. Filder has a 9-month-old little boy named Ronny, and I tried to run out of the shop with him. He’s a doll. They gave me a hard time that I haven’t learned more Luo in the last two years, and I think I’m going to take a notebook and my Luo-English dictionary over there a few times a week to sit in on some lessons. I hung out with artist Jeff Korondo some and paid my respects to Country Bakery, where I bought delicious banana bread.

At 3pm, we headed out to the school and began Day 1 of art lessons, and they all seemed pretty enthusiastic to get creative. We decorated nametags today and the students asked us questions about our lives in the U.S. and what America is really like. I think they were disappointed that we don’t cross paths with movie stars and Shaggy (reggae/hip-hop artist) on a regular basis. The girls decided on their way out that they like Lily the most because she’d be most useful…she knows how to dig and plant crops. They do have a point… Hah.

Tonight we enjoyed delicious Indian food on the roof of one of Gulu’s tallest buildings. All in all, it was a great end to a great day. And a great start to this summer here in Uganda.

PS- I have my own phone here. If you want to text or call or Skype/Rebtel me, just dial +256 783 300 103. I’d love to hear from you!

PPS- I bought two plants in town the other day. For those of you privileged enough to have had my plants left with you over the years, you’ll be pleased to know I’m keeping the tradition up in Uganda now. For the next two months I’ll be secretly (as in, they don’t know it’s what I’m doing) interviewing potential new plant parents that I can entrust these two beauties with once I’m gone. While here, I have the two plants out on my balcony (yes, BALCONY[!!]) now and they’re lovely.

Back in Uganda

All is excellent in Uganda. I arrived in Kampala on Friday night without a hitch. All of our baggage showed up on the turnstile and we had a car waiting outside to drive us to town.

As I type “we,” I realize that I haven’t introduced my travel companions for this summer. MHIRT at CBU has two Uganda programs every summer: one team goes to Gulu to look at aspects of mental health (which has evolved into an art therapy study) and another team goes to Mbarara to research the interaction between indigenous and modern medicine.

Gulu Team:
Lanie Smith
Tai, Art Therapist
Lily Harmon-Gross, Research Intern
Me, Lindsay McClain, Research Intern

Mbarara Team:
Julia Hanebrink
Tesfa
Kara Miller, Research Intern
Joy Nolte, Research Intern

Since I’m involved with the Gulu team, most of these blog entries will relate to the people at that site so I’ll tell you a little bit about each of them. Lanie traveled to Gulu last year with MHIRT as a research intern, and she is now co-leading the Gulu site. She’ll begin a master’s in art therapy with Pratt University this summer, so she’ll be leaving Lily and I in mid-June to return to the U.S Tai is an accredited art therapist from Northern Carolina who also participated in last year’s MHIRT site in Gulu. She’ll arrive in Uganda in early July. Lily just graduated from the University of Tennessee with a master’s in anthropology. Her thesis research involved a stint in Ethiopia interviewing Eritrean refugees about the refugee process and torture.

On Saturday, Lanie, Lily, and I bought all of the art supplies for the first half of the study which will run until mid-June. We met with Vincent, my artist friend who teaches art a Naggalama and has traveled with me to Gulu before, and he gave us feedback on our outline and on where to buy supplies.

On Sunday, we all went to the Bahai temple and the man who hosts visitors inside the temple remembered me and was very gracious with answering questions and letting us look around. That night we went to Ndere Center and watched a montage of Ugandan traditional dances.

Today, Lily and I are waiting on Lanie to pick up our research permits, and then the three of us are heading up to Gulu. Never before have I left for Gulu so quickly after arriving in Uganda, and I’m happy to be getting settled there so soon.

More to come soon on the layout of our study in Gulu.

Uganda: Take Four

"You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way again."

-Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

Tomorrow I leave for Uganda. I'll spend the summer in Gulu assisting in a study to measure the efficacy of art therapy with formerly-abducted kids. The project is funded by MHIRT, the Minority Health International Research Training, and run by faculty from Christian Brothers University (CBU) out of Memphis, Tennessee.

Join me over the next 2 1/2 months as I return to my second home in Uganda for the fourth time and explore more deeply the power of creativity in peacebuilding and healing. There are sure to be some familiar faces in these blog posts, but also plenty of new friends.

For more information about me or what I've done in Uganda in the past, e-mail me at mcclain.lindsay@gmail.com or visit the Jazz for Justice Project at http://www.knoxjazzforjustice.org/.

[Note: This summer's research isn't affiliated with the University of Tennessee or the Jazz for Justice Project. The art therapy study I'm participating in is a project of MHIRT (http://www.cbu.edu/mhirt/), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and CBU.]

JfJ Launches New Website Design

Thanks to the wonderful UT Law student Eric Seifert, the Jazz for Justice Project has revamped its website. We're now offering regularly updated content, northern Uganda news feeds, a photo gallery, and much more.

Click HERE to check it out!

Jeff Korondo featured on Enough Project website

JfJ partner musician Jeff Korondo is featured on the Enough Project’s website. His song, “Okwera Nono,” which means “you are rejecting me for nothing,” discusses the stigma placed on former abductees returning from LRA captivity. It can be found playing in the background on Enough’s slideshow titled, “SURVIVORS: Snapshots of a 22-Year War.”

The Enough Project created this special in-depth page on the Lord’s Resistance Army in conjunction with a Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit episode which is to air on March 31, 2009 at 10/9c. The episode features an LRA backstory, and the writers were advised on the script by Enough co-founder John Prendergast.

Click HERE to visit the Enough Project LRA special page and listen to Jeff Korondo’s “Okwera Nono.”

Click HERE for more information on the Law and Order: SVU episode to air March 31st.

Welcome 2009!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Just writing a quick update to let you know that everyone is still doing well and enjoying our time here in Uganda. We spent last week in Gulu celebrating Christmas. The people at HEALS youth centre were very kind and allowed us to rent out beds in their spare rooms. While in Gulu, we met with Archbishop Odama and Bishop Ochola, Chairman Norbert Mao, childmothers in Iriaga, and women and children at Alokolum IDP. We also attended a Christmas night concert at Pearl Afrique Hotel where Jeff Korondo and Jahria Okwera performed. I think I can speak on behalf of the whole group that we were very sad to leave Gulu so soon after arriving.

Last night we wished in the new year in downtown Kampala at the Sheraton Hotel gardens. Several Buganda musicians performed. After, we met friends at a place called Rogue on Kampala Road. Today we're resting and visiting the Bahai temple.

Tomorrow morning at leave on a 6AM bus for Kigali, Rwanda where we'll spend our last weekend in East Africa. Jeff Korondo and Vincent Ssebunya will be joining us. On Saturday we're visiting two churches which are now genocide memorials (Ntarama, Nyamata) and the Kigali genocide memorial downtown Kigali.

I can't believe it's nearly time to come home. Our flight leaves on Monday evening, and most of us will arrive in Nashville or Knoxville on Tuesday afternoon. This trip has been far too short and as much as we miss our friends and family, this time in Uganda has been wonderful and we're sad to leave.

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement while we're here. Happy New Year!

Dance Lessons

On Monday we met with Pincer and learned about their initiatives in Uganda. I collected materials to bring back to the Center for Civil Engagement, so students from UT can come to Uganda and intern with Pincer. I think Erin and I will make a folder and present it to the Baker Center.

Yesterday we met Alex and Philip of Break Dance Uganda and then went to National Theater for Contemporary African dance lessons. I wish someone had taken pictures during the lesson! We warmed up, learned how to jazz walk, then learned some African styles. In the end, we were doing all of these trust exercises. Our teachers were 7 professional dancers. One of them, Samuel, wants us to find out how to get him on the tv show So You Think You Can Dance.

Plans have potentially changed slightly and we may go to Jinja on Saturday for a traditional marriage ceremony with Winnie's family. If we do that, we will travel to Gulu on Sunday. I'm itching to get to Gulu, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to go to the introduction ceremony.

Dustyn and Cody have arrived safely in Uganda, and we're waiting on the 4 others to fly in tonight. We're about to be a small army of muzungus.

I haven't been taking many pictures, but I'm in the process of trying to upload a few to facebook. Once they are on there, I will get them to my blog. It may be a few days, but I'll try to have something soon!