The termites live in holes in the ground. The rain drives them out. People eat them. They are a delicacy.I have swept the dead termites out of the hut and the children have come and put them in tin cups to cook.
The head boy (the boy who is elected leadership among the students) gives us a tour through the school. I wish I remembered his name. He’s soft spoken and tall with a natural ease about him. Hope North’s long term goal is to be an international peace institute as well as a school for war affected children. The guest hut has a ground plan of the proposed site hanging on the wall.
Tour includes a bakery, fields for growing corn, beans, potatoes, other plants. The corn is so dry. There hasn’t been enough rain. The old watering hole. The new well – the well last year was infested with – I think it was typhus? Cholera? But they raised money and dug a new one and it looks like it’s working out. We toured the dormitories – named after Forest Whitaker – he donated considerably to Hope North after his time in Uganda filming Last King of Scotland, where he met Okello and Rwangyezi – who both worked on the film. The dormitories are big cement buildings with tight rows of bunk beds. They are across from the classrooms. The class rooms are cement buildings with worn chalkboards and a few wooden desks. This is a place with big dreams. It’s a difficult thing, I think, to make dreams into practice. The students and the teachers work hard. We ask where is the head girl? And the tour pauses while someone goes to find her.
Ndere troupe stops by on their way to perform at Lima and they eat heaping plates of eggs and posho and chicken and japati for breakfast. Hope North raises chickens and goats – but I think this chicken was bought from a nearby town for us to eat. Lauryn is in the classroom singing hymns with the choir. The children dig termites retreating back into the ground with a spoon.
It turns out the students have a big schedule so we all crowd into a small classroom and give our gratitude and acknowledgement of this encounter and head to Gulu. Christian, the man who has been working at Hope North as a Peace Corps representative, is gracious enough to join us.
Gulu town – someone made a joke that this is like NGO Vegas. Northern Uganda had a rough time for a long time with Alice Lakwena and then the LRA. It is a popular place to send aid. The aid is mostly concentrated in towns, especially Gulu. There is some frustration because there is no single entity coordinating the aid efforts so there can be redundancy, inefficiency and a lot of money going into easy to access areas with very little money reaching more remote communities. Gulu town has a lot of internet cafes. And the placards for international aid organizations do have a carnival density and slickness. International aid can promote authentically human goals and values and still be a business.
Day off. We have dinner at a local Ethiopian restaurant. We’re a little grumpy. Tired from long traveling, our expectations of “doing something” at Hope North unmet. A day of “doing nothing” in Gulu. We’ve come all this way and people are in the middle of their chaotic lives in their own schedules and their own thoughts and dreams and work. And we are left facing the question – what are you doing here? Why did you come?
Or, at least, I am feeling grumpy. I leave the restaurant and walk alone back to the hotel. On the street, three young girls in high teenage fashion stop me. Who are you? What are you doing in Gulu? Will you be my friend? Give me your email. It's dark in the street. She will write me and say her name is Lilian.
Gulu is happening without my deciding why I am in it. But still, why do I come? It's essential - this work of being human together, but it's not enough.
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