Wine and Cheese

Last night was the final meeting of the class before we head off to Africa. For some of us, the next time we will reconnect will be in Kampala. Hugo Kamya, our professor, graciously hosted us at his home for Wine and Cheese. In addition to the students on this year's trip, he also invited the professionals going on the trip, students from past years and family of those of us going this year. It was a really fabulous party and great way to chat with friends and family.

There is a lot of buzz in the air. Certainly there is anxiety about getting our to-do lists done. But there is also a great sense of excitement and anticipation of what is to come. I had a great time talking with some previous students who were sharing some of their favorite moments from the trip. A few were discussing the trip to Gulu, which is a district in the north of Uganda. One woman was saying that the trip to Gulu was a really powerful experience because she was able to meet with former girl child soldiers and learn about what NGO's and the government are doing to help resettle these people into communities. Hugo was explaining that there is some intense pressure on the governmnet from the international community to "do something" about the Internally Displaced People's camps but that this pressure is just forcing the government to kick people out of the IDP camps when they have no other place to be. On our trip, we will be spending a few days in the northern district and some of us will be staying in the camp for the night for a more hands-on experience with the living conditions there.

Another woman was saying that she studied religion and spirituality while she was in Uganda with her class. This was exciting for me because that is part of my topic of interest. She said it was amazing to meet the Archbishop of the Catholic Church for Uganda, as well as local healers from traditional religions. The Archbishop is currently in the US (Waltham, or Little Kampala as they say...) but we will get to have audience with him once we arrive in Kampala. I'm very excited to hear his point of view on a number of issues and to do some advocacy for issues that I think are important.

We also recently had a fundraiser for the Makula Fund at Liir Bar. I'm hoping to have some pictures of both events to put up over the next week. And I'll also post about some of the things that people were able to collect for donations, including the amount of cash donated for the Makula Fund.

-Nate B.