I spent first week of October in
Gulu, in northern Uganda. I was attending a partner organization's training, pretty much as a consultant on research methodology and conducting some preliminary field research for a new project. Interesting stuff, but a bit hard to appreciate when I'm stretched so thin.
Gulu is a bizarre place. Along with Kitgum, it was pretty much the epicenter of terror during the twenty-ish year insurgency by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. As such,
Gulu is pretty much overrun by NGO and UN presence. Though a peace accord has never been signed, the war in northern Uganda is pretty well accepted to have ended about five years ago. As the area is rapidly rebuilding and recovering, and people are returning from the IDP camps, the district capital has developed a feel of a bustling frontier town - things are still very rough and rugged, but business and society are booming.
The bothersome aspect of
Gulu to me is a lot of the NGO presence. There are apparently about 600 NGOs operating in
Gulu and Kitgum - I wish I had gotten a couple pictures of streets JAMMED with NGO signs and white NGO vehicles! The problems I see are two-fold:
1. Though commonly perceived to be all-good organizations, NGOs are, at the end of the day, corporate entities with staff and resources and interests. As such, they have an incentive to ensure that their bankroll does not dissipate. Some NGOs (trying pretty hard to be responsible and not point fingers right now...) continue to trade on a situation that no longer exists, namely the LRA and on-going evils like child-soldiering. Though they may use the funds they get in this manner to do good, I find it deeply problematic and unethical to gather those funds under false pretenses.
2. Dependency Theory eat your heart out. Though they're predominantly wonderful, warm people, many people in
Gulu - particularly young people of the generation who pretty much grew up in camps run by the UN and the like - have become completely accustomed to living on handouts. Rather than learning how to make their own ways in life, many people have instead become experts at subscribing to and portraying the stereotypes that bring in NGO funding, to their own ultimate detriment.
Right then, off the soap-box. How about some pictures?
The view from my hotel room, complete with a taste of local civil engineering
I found this skinny little building comically delightful
A chapati-wrapped banana from street vendors (chapati in the North are way fluffier and tastier than in Kampala!) and a cup of coffee at Cafe Larem - a bizarrely muzungu cafe in town
There's a bunch of construction going on in
Gulu, which is a great sign for what it says about the region's stability and economic viability... except that most of the construction is hotels. I imagine the main target for these hotels must be the still-inflated NGO staff population, but if the situation and economy is stable enough to foster this magnitude of construction, then it's also about the time the NGOs will start pulling out!
NGO bubble, anybody?
Ugandan food! (sigh...)
Beans.
Oily fried bitter greens.
Rice.
Potatoes.
(I can not WAIT for my week and a half in the land of flavor, starting Tuesday!)
From the balcony of my hotel, on the edge of town
Into town
On the way back to Kampala, we had to stop in a little town because a colleague hd had his license impounded for speeding on the way up. Pretty amusing situation that involved going to the police station, taking one cop to the home of the cop who'd impounded the license, then taking
that cop to some ambiguous household/store to pick up the license, dropping them all off and continuing on our way back to Kampala
Outside the police station
