In the movie Blood Diamond, there is a famous line—“TIA” that means This Is Africa. TIA explains everything here in Gulu, Uganda. When I was in Nairobi and Karen, Kenya, I was not able to understand TIA. Kenya seems a congested big city where people are not interested in others. However, I find myself completely being an alien as well as a celebrity in Uganda.
When I came back from Madagascar to Nairobi to transit to Entebee, Uganda, Moses was waiting for me. Moses was a beneficiary of St. Kizito scholarship program and he accompanied me to Gulu. When we took a mini bus to Kampala the capital of Uganda, we stepped into an african soil—primitive, rough and colorful. The black people are walking on the red soil, wearing amazingly colorful garments. My face looks whiter which attracts people’s attention. Kampala is so crowded that the city looks like a huge parking lot where thousand taxis and buses are packed.
As we got to a bus station, it did not look like a station, rather it seemed a hundred buses’ parking lot. Surprisingly, the bus managed to get out of the parking lot and our journey to Gulu began. The bus frequently stopped for many reasons—someone had to go for a pee and the bus driver needed a drink, etc. The road was bumpy and yet not too bad because it was paved last year, so the driver raced like F1 and I had to hold the seat tight. A five-hour ordeal was over when we got out of the bus in Gulu.
Gulu is a big city, but it was torn by the twenty-year civil war between the Ugandan government and the revolutionary group called Lord’s Resistence Army (LRA). The government had not protected the civilians and LRA savaged the villages for a long time. Especially, the most vulnerable children were abducted by LRA to be forced to become soldiers and traumatized physically, psychollgically and emotionally. The famous film Invisible Children is all about the children suffering from the conflict and LRA.
St. Kizito Counseling Center in Gulu is a facility to provide counseling and education for the suffering children in the area. Fr. Donald Dunson from the diocese of Cleveland has founded St. Kizito Foundation in 2009 to help out the most vulnerable. I am with St. Kizito for a month to befriend the children and to make a promotional media for the foundation. However, I am staying at St. Monica Tailoring Center next St. Kizito. Sr. Rosemary started St. Monica thirty years ago to help out girls
affected by the war and poverty. St. Monica is a boarding school where girls are able to learn tailoring, secretaring and catering without paying. Because of her heroic works for the vulnerable, she received the 2007 CNN Hero’s Award.
Here in Uganda, there is no McDonals. Electricity is out almost everyday. Hot water is precious. Motorbike called “Boda Boda” takes people every where by paying fifty cents. It is an untouched land and many nonprofit organizations work hard to alleviate poverty and high child-death rates caused by disease and malnutrition.
This is Africa where I am. This is Africa where I find myself vulnerable with those suffering from the terrible evil such as violence, injustice and illness. This is Africa where I am called to find hope in the midst of suffering.
(On July 11, during the World Cup final, three bombs exploded in crowded clubs in Kampala. So far, seventy four people died and many casualties took place. One of St. Kizito staffs was in the club and injured as well. This is Africa where suffering is a part of daily life. Nevertheless, it seems to be able to overwhelm the spirit of Africa.)
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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
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