Posting 12: Uganda, Week 2

Don and I left Kotido and drove an hour on a bumpy, dirt road to Kaabong.  Don conducted another 2-day training session for the business community; I again worked with the staff on writing stories.We had our own hut on the NGO compound's grounds, but we shared an outhouse, a sink (filled with bugs) and a non-working shower (we resorted to using buckets) with everyone else.  The bugs were so bad one evening that we put our hoodies on to protect our hair.

While in Kaboong, we drove an additional hour north to the very end of the dirt road in Uganda to the border of South Sudan and met with the Ik tribe.  While living in the area for a long time, they had recently been re-discovered by anthropologists.  One evening, Don visited a kraal where approximately 3,000 cattle are kept together for security purposes.

See the pictures below of Kaabong, Uganda.

Members of the Ik Tribe

Ik women and their children

Ik hunters

Bobby chatting with members of the Ik tribe

The kraal

Kaabong town

Kaabong town

Selling shoes in Kaabong

Afternoon alcohol consumption

Kaabong town

Kaabong clothing store

Kaabong men

Post 11: Uganda, Week 1

We started our trip on Sunday, April 12, roaming around Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Early the following morning, we started our journey up to the Karamoja region.  It was supposed to take 10 hours by jeep, but due to unexpected delays, we had to spend the night in Lira.  We arrived in Kotido, our first destination, on Tuesday morning.

While in Kotido, Don prepared for and conducted a two-day training seminar to the local businessmen on preparing business plans.  The businesses ranged from veteranian drug distributors, sellers of certified seeds, cooperative financial institutions, general merchandise stores, and farmers. I taught staff how to write stories highlighting the accomplishments and successes of the program.  On Saturday, we traveled to the town of Abim, where we observed the formation of the local chamber of commerce.  Don made the closing remarks of the meeting.

Throughout the week, we travelled around the area to get a sense of the community and the living conditions.  The manyatta's below are small communities housing members of the same family, including the father, several wifes, daughters with their husbands, etc.  Layers of huts are surrounded by tighly woven wood fences, with extremely small entrances for defensive purposes--to keep out and/or defend against cattle rustlers.  The cattle live in the center of the manyatta, surrounded by the huts.

Below are some of the pictures of what we saw.

The local livestock market

Negotiating the sale of a cow

A local leader

Don's training class

The local market

Kids at the market

Local chief

Drawing sorghum to make alcohol

the drugstore

Entrance to a hut in a manyatto (village)

One of the huts

Children of the manyatta

The center of town

Main street in Kotido

Posting 10: Pictures from Lamu

In response to popular demand, below are a few pictures from our trip to Lamu, Kenya.

A dhow with it's own toilet

Don steering the boat

A view of the island from our boad

Post 9: Security

Many of you have reached out to us in the past few days upon hearing of the terrible massacre at the Garissa University.  We appreciate and thank you for your concern and want to assure you that we take every precaution to remain safe.  Every Monday morning, we receive an NGO security briefing alerting us to any recent crime in our area and violence or rumors of violence throughout Kenya and the neighboring countries. We take these briefings seriously.

For example, we wanted to experience the Kenyan beaches over the Easter holiday, as our office was closed for a few days.  We had heard that Lamu is beautiful, but we also had heard of security concerns along the coast.  We reached out to various people who have contacts with security officials to confirm that traveling to Lamu would be ok. They advised us that Lamu would be fine, but suggested we stay at a smaller, boutique hotel, instead of one of  the more popular ones, which we did.

Even though there were rumors of potential violence at colleges in Kenya, obviously (and unfortunately), that didn't prevent the tragedy that occurred. Can I promise that nothing else will happen while we're here--of course not.  Given the craziness of the world these days, no one anywhere can.  I wish I could say otherwise.  Just know that we are careful and together 95% of the day.

Upcoming events:  We're off to Karamoja, a region in northeastern Uganda for two weeks next Sunday to work on some development projects.  Don will be providing business and financial advice to small businesses and pastoralists in the region. I expect to write some success stories.

On April 30, we leave Nairobi, and after a one-day stopover in Istanbul to see friends, we return to DC for two weeks.  We are very excited to see everyone, including our three grandsons, two of whom we have not yet met.