The State of Things in N. Uganda

For one month now I've been living and working in Gulu, capital of a district which for the previous twenty years was the pitch of a brutal civil war, an insurgency of resourceful, relentless bush fighters who kidnapped and raped wherever they could reach, and a government counter-insurgency that was at times equally brutal in suppressing rebellion. Here in Gulu, the battlefield was everywhere outside city center, which housed government army barracks. The diocesan office, from which I write to you now, was once a rebel headquarters. Every road I pass on today was at some point a rebel supply route or ambush. Nothing outside the very core of the city was safe from pillage or abduction.

Today, the LRA are in Congo and Southern Sudan, and peace talks with the government of Uganda and the ICC are stalled in Stage Three of a five part process. Ninety percent of the people are still in IDP camps, fearful of the returning home to isolation and lacking basic services (schools, medical, etc.)

Gulu town today has the look of a bustling regional center in a developing country, and it is. What is often harder to see are the scars of conflict and social upheaval. In fact, life in Gulu town, according to many residents, refused to bend to the realities of war. Even night life continued in the roughest of times, as people resigned themselves to the fact that death was a constant and unavoidable presence (like taxes). (Also I'll comment more on the night life when I've had a little more of it.)

I don't fully understand yet the state people are in, or have a sense of what they've been through. For many, I think there is only to live on and rebuild; that's the only reality now. I think their masks are strong, and built on pride and self-reliance. Maybe it's that a terrible reality has come crashing down, and we live now in jubilee, in the real presence of God's grace.

The next four months I spend here will be spent on three things: 1) gathering trainers and their funding for a Youth Entrepreneurship Workshop, 2) a diocesan youth festival scheduled for December focused on healing, 3) reconnecting churches to their nearest Anglican schools, and training their youth leaders. Right now, most of my time has been spent (somewhat unproductively) in the office, building contacts and relationships, and forming a vision for what the diocesan youth program can be, though, again, I'm only in the office for now.

Your support: your prayers, e-mails, Skype calls, care packages, words of conversations with others about life here; all these things encourage me when life seems lonely and the work seems elusive. Talk to you soon.