Monday Morning, May 28, Memorial Day?

I'm in The Coffee Hut on my last day in Gulu. We leave at 7:00 am tomorrow for Kampala on the dreaded Post Bus. At least I know what to expect this time. We'll be staying in a pretty fancy hotel in Kampala so that will be a welcome change. We haven't had water in our room for the last two days and last night we were given a key to another room with running water. It felt great to feel clean again. The power was out in all of Gulu for about two or three days as well but I think it might have come back today. It is sporadic at any rate, even when it is "on" so generators are pretty important in the town. Apparently the power company is owned by Musevini and it outsources some of its power to Kenya. Northern Uganda gets the short end of the stick as a result. You have to pay for electricity no matter how much it goes out and you have to have a generator if you are going to maintain a business. Since Musevini has a hand in the oil company as well, he gets richer no matter what. Sweet deal for him... Saturday night we had dinner at the nicest hotel in Gulu, The Boma, with Dr. David. I guess Barbara Bush, one of the Bush twins, stayed there in March to participate in a Starkey Hearing Foundation event. Dr. David is an amazing guy. We learned quite a bit about him that night. He is director of surgery at Gulu Referral Hospital and is also working on a Ph.D. in epidemiology as well. He talked about his childhood as well as his decision to become a doctor. He was abducted by the LRA as an adolescent for about two weeks and then released for reasons he still doesn't completely understand. He studied at night, hiding in the rafters because there could be no lights left on at night. He did so well at school that he had a full scholarship to university where, he realized after being there for two weeks, he was in the premed rather than engineering track. So that is how he first contemplated medicine. It wasn't by choice! He went through medical school without having a sense of vocation but that changed when he returned to Northern Uganda and witnessed the suffering of the people. That did it for him. Now he knew why he wanted to be a physician. He came alive as he talked about making a contribution to the people here and particularly when he talked about Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, director of St. Monica's school which is a facility for long-term care and vocational training for escaped war prisoners. That is also how the cultural and academic exchange takes place. St. Monica's provides a place and context for visiting professors and Dr. David is enormously pleased with how well it has gone in its initial stage. The invitation to spend time in Gulu came up again. We'll see... We bought pork yesterday (Sunday) morning to bring to Laroo. Before that I visited the main Catholic church in Gulu and couldn't even get inside. It was absolutely filled with lots of people standing outside. The music was beautiful and the entire congregation sang in beautiful harmony. Huh? I learned from Daisy that this 7:30 am mass was one of four that are celebrated on Sunday and they are all filled. Go figure. The celebrant was a munu like me. I don't know if there were other whites inside the church. Our day in Laroo was spend visiting, preparing, and just hanging out with Daisy, Samuel, Janet, Eunice and little Daisy (Miriam) next door. There was also another meeting regarding the proposal to facilitate rural pregnant women and children being tested and then perhaps enrolling in the government's PCMCT program. A draft budget had been prepared and it was a very good discussion that included Wao, the potential project coordinator, Frances and Martin, the PAs, Clare, an RN, and Alfred, an accountant. We will see where this goes. We will return to Laroo one last time today to bring some chocolate for the children and some basic food items for Daisy. It's hard to believe our time is coming to an end in Gulu. I will miss it and its residents very much.