My other big trip here in Uganda has been to Murchison Falls, a vast waterfall on the Nile several hours downriver of my current home in Bujagali, with a game reserve and rhino sanctuary nearby. I travelled up with a friend, joining another six people at Red Chilli Backpackers in Kampala for the six hour drive north-west. I’m getting more used to journeys here now: the long, dusty roads, the massive billboards advertising beer and cooking oil, the enormous speed bumps at every trading centre, the hands of bananas, meat on a stick, bottles of water and cassava chips thrust through [View Full Entry]

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Hello all I have been doing great here. Gulu Town is really cool. I have been here a month now and it is like my home away from home now. My colleagues and I have been doing some great things. So far we have traveled to three different Parishes doing assessments and public health education. We have been working with the local leaders here and their young leaders that were newly selected for our coming. The young leaders have been our translators and community mobilizers. We have a great partnership and look forward to seeing more of the Gulu District. I [View Full Entry]

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I have to tell you about the church service we attended on Sunday. There are hundreds of churches in the area, and EVERYBODY goes to church often for the whole day. We chose to go to Wototo Church as some of our new friends went there. I couldnt believe it, as we walked up the path I could hear very loud worship, and I recognised the songs - They were singing Hillsong songs, which some of you may know, were written and recorded by Sydney people with the Hillsong church. They absolutely worship with abandon and joy, and it was nice [View Full Entry]

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Hello to all our friends and family I am in the middle of a break of staff training, and had a quick loan of the computer at Samiritans Purse. The training on parenting is going well, and the participants are such joyful learners. I just wanted to let you know that we are getting your messages, have recieved yours thanks Dad. Abbey you are a naughty girl, and Sam thanks for the beautiful verse. Happy Mothers Day to you Mums out there, and I will try and borrow the computer again tomorrow. Liz, they are in the middle of the creative [View Full Entry]

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The two main hostels in Kampala are essentially the only people running budget safaris to Murchison Falls National Park, though at roughly $300 for a 3 day/2 night trip it's hardly bargain basement. Red Chilli's is about 20% cheaper plus they offer an upgrade to banda rather than tent accommodation, but I figure my chances of ending up with a bunch of drunken teenagers are significantly higher with them than with Backpackers' so I plump for Backpackers'. It also helps that I'm already staying at Backpackers', and their safari has the bonus of including chimp trekking. The rest of my group [View Full Entry]

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Hi there everybody, havent read your messages yet as the internet in Gulu is very unreliable, so we have not been able to get a connection until now. We are enjoying our accommodation at the Acholi Inn, basic accommodation and food, but a gorgeous beer garden and the most polite, though slow working, staff! On Monday we visited an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp with Carl Gaede and his team. Carl and his family have moved to Gulu from the US to run the Empower program, which was developed by Dr Robi Sonderegger in Buderim. It is quite astounding to see [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone Just a brief note to let you know that we arrived in J'Berg late last night after a great flight. We have not ventured out to the city, however, have got a mini Las Vegas at our hotel, and went out for a seafood feast last night (Australia time was 4am) so we were dragging ourselves around abit. Hard to tell what J'Berg is like, but seems a little behind the times, blokes in cowboy boots, and all restaurants allow smoking. We got checked prior to going into restaurant, for fire-arms as recent shooting in the attached casino. No, [View Full Entry]

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In October 2008 I had an opportunity to visit Uganda, primarily as part of an Engineering Ministries International team to learn about construction management in East Africa. My previous blog is an account of the work of this team. Before returning to the States, I joined two others for a three day safari of Murchison Falls NP. Wednesday, 15 October 2008, three of the EMI team, John J., John W, and me (my first name is also John, but to avoid further confusion I went by my middle name Robert, or Bob) went on safari. After breakfast at the guest house [View Full Entry]

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There I am with the ridiculous blog titles again. Somebody has to put an end to this. It doesn’t even give you a good idea of what I’m about to talk about other than it potentially involving animals. I had the opportunity to travel upcountry to Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP, for short) this past weekend. MFNP is the largest national park in Uganda, but I don’t know if it receives the most visitors each year or not. Certainly it is up there though. We left Friday morning around 7 to go and pick up Valerie’s uncle who was coming with [View Full Entry]

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For the past 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted civilians, including children and used themto increase the size and strength of the LRA ranks, and the girls used as sex slaves, and often as wives to the officers. As a result, the Ugandan government has moved the majority of the Acholi population into IDP camps. The Acholi people come from Northern Uganda, and specifically from the distircts of Kitgam, Pader, Lira and Gulu and now there are more than 1.5 million people living in the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps. Thousands of people are living in each [View Full Entry]

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