Less than 24 hours until departure #2!

Welcome back! Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read about my travels.

Tomorrow I return to Uganda for four months to further research the peace negotiations and implement programs that involve the arts and trauma counseling. I will be working under the auspice of Knoxville Jazz for Justice’s Ugandan partner, the Northern Uganda Girls Education Network, a Ugandan NGO that seeks to strengthen education opportunities for the girl child in war-affected Northern Uganda. Friends Holly Dagnan and Ben Miller will be joining me, and Erin Bernstein will meet us in early March.


[Erin and I with friend Dick Kawooya at the 2nd Knoxville Jazz for Justice benefit November 2, 2007]












[Holly and Ben outside of the World Grotto at the KJfJ benefit where we raised over $5,000 for Northern Uganda.]










Here are my tentative plans for the coming months:

I will spend the first six weeks in Kampala, the country’s capital, where I hope to shadow a Member of Parliament. Former Member of Parliament and NUGEN Executive, Betty Udongo, is helping to make these connections for me. I hope to shadow a female MP from the North in order to obtain a better sense of government measures bring reconciliation to Northern Uganda. Through gaining a perspective of Parliament and the capital, I will obtain insight into the public policy aspects of the peace process. I believe that until national reconciliation occurs in Uganda, the country will only have waves of stability. I am curious at how the government is working to settle the years of marginalization done to the North.

After leaving Kampala, I will move to the Northern Ugandan hub of humanitarian assistance, Gulu, where I will conduct reconciliation programs on the ground. I hope to explore both music and the visual arts and their ability to express and lessen trauma. During my time in the North, I will be visiting neighboring districts, visiting internally displaced persons camps, and traveling to Juba, Sudan to observe the peace talks. I will work primarily with the child mothers in the internally displaced persons camps. I will be an official intern of NUGEN, traveling to schools in the North to collect information on the children there and how their sponsorship can be most effective. In addition, I will be taking lessons in the local language of Luo. During this time, I will continue be under the supervision of the Northern Uganda Girls Education Network.

I would like to thank my generous sponsors for making this trip a reality. Dr. Chris Craig, Director of the College Scholars Program, sponsored my airfare in awarding me the Nielsen Scholarship. The University of Tennessee's College of Arts and Sciences selected me for the Jackson International Studies Scholarship, also helping to defer the costs of this trip. In addition, I received the Harold Eller Scholarship from Golf House Tennessee.

Last but certainly not least, longtime friend Tree Woolard has donated all of the art supplies to be used on our upcoming "Dreams and Nightmares" art therapy project. (More to come on the specifics later). I now have a suitcase full of crayons, paints, glue, fabric, etc. and 15 journals ready to be decorated! Thank you Tree!

Please keep checking back for more updates! I hope to have my first picture post up by early next week.