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.
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| The local livestock market |
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| Negotiating the sale of a cow |
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| A local leader |
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| Don's training class |
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| The local market |
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| Kids at the market |
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| Local chief |
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| Drawing sorghum to make alcohol |
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| the drugstore |
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| Entrance to a hut in a manyatto (village) |
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| One of the huts |
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| Children of the manyatta |
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| The center of town |
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| Main street in Kotido |
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