We've had some good ones and some bad ones. For the sake of having a good ending, I'll start with the bad one.
On Saturday, Brianna and Alyssa got really, really sick. We've seen a fair amount of vomiting in this group, so at first no one, including them, thought it was anything more than the usual contentious food. Eight hours later, things were looking different. It was 2 in the morning, and they were both throwing up water. They hadn't been able to keep any fluids down for hours, and whenever Brianna drank water she was running to the bathroom ten minutes later. I share a room with her, which is why I was awake at 2am suggesting pepto and cipro (a strong antibiotic), neither of which she was able to keep down. They were growing more and more dehydrated, with no sign of improvement, which is when Brianna decided that they needed to go to the hospital. Whenever anyone in our group goes to the hospital we're supposed to call someone from SIT to meet us there to assist with translation etc.. We've done that before, no big deal, but never at 2 in the morning. I took one for the team can called Apollo. I thought he sounded oddly awake considering the late hour, and I learned later that he had in fact not been asleep but had just gotten back from the bar. I'm glad I decided to call him then, because I would've felt bad about waking anyone up that late. Apollo's car was in the shop, so we still had to deal with the issue of how to get them to the hospital. I had the number for a cab driver, but, predictably, he didn't answer. There's very little nightlife in Kigali, so there are very few cabs operating so late at night. During the day they're just driving around town, so Michael and I got dressed, grabbed our umbrellas, and went out into the rain to see if we could find one. No luck. After about 20 minutes of walking I called Apollo back and asked if it would be possible for him to come pick them up. I have no idea how he found a cab that late, but soon enough I was standing outside our gate to wave him down. We got the girls into the cab and Apollo went with them to the hospital. They came back late the next morning after being given four IV bags each and multiple packets of oral rehydration solution, with order to drink two bottles of it everyday. Alyssa is mostly fine now, but Brianna is definitely still working on the rehydration part. Despite drinking multiple bottles of water and rehydration solution, she just came into the living room and proudly announced that she just peed for the first time in days. My worst fear was that they had a virus that would rapidly spread through the house, but apparently it was an intestinal infection, but we have no idea how they got it. It's odd, because they hadn't had anything to eat or drink that someone else in the house hadn't consumed. Anyway, they are going to be fine, and, needless to say, Sunday was a very lazy day.
Here's a considerably more amusing story. Last week, I was sitting in the dining room working on my research when I heard Alyssa shout,"Our kitchen is flooding! Our kitchen is flooding!"
It was raining cats and dogs, really big cats and dogs. We had to yell a little to be heard in the house. I ran into the kitchen, and there was water flooding in from under the back door. Luckily for us, a squeegee is a staple feature of every Rwandan house, and I knew where ours was. I grabbed it from the porch and proceeded to push all the water back out the door, and we shoved a towel under the door for good measure. We also discovered a few roof leaks that day, one of which is over my bed. Not anymore though, my bed is now at an awkward angle and we can't open the door as far we used to.
So, there are our adventures. More to come soon!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Goodbye Homestay, Hello ISP
I moved out of my homestay last Saturday. We all knew it had been coming, and frankly, I was looking forward to it. My last week there overlapped with our last week of classes, meaning it also overlapped with two final essays and my final research proposal, all due the Friday before I moved out. Work I can handle easily, but it's hard to do that in a not-quite family setting, where I have to be home for dinner. All of my siblings were home on school holidays, and while they were very respectful of the fact that I had to work I felt bad for not hanging out with them more my last week there. I think the hardest part was that Eddy was bored because he was home all day everyday, and he recently discovered computer games, so he was continuously asking if I was done working yet or when I was going to take a break so he could use my computer. All in all, I was ready to move out and live with a bunch of American college students who could relate to the amount of work I had to do, but leaving was still harder than I thought. First of all, it seems that no one told my oldest sister, Julie, the 23 year old, who is, honestly, my favorite, that I was leaving, so when I asked her Friday night if she would be around when I left the next morning she was surprised and very, very sad. I agreed to go to church with my family Saturday morning, because we still had to get the keys to the house from our landlord and I had no idea how long that would take. Turns out we had the keys by 10am and I was stuck sitting through one of the 4 annual communion services, which wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't make an already 4 hour long church service an hour longer, when I was already anxious to get going. By the time we got home I was ready to run for it, and the only thing that convinced me to stay for lunch was the logical understanding that there was no food in the new house. That turned out to be a very good decision, for reasons other than the free food. Two of my siblings' cousins had joined us for lunch: Sharon, who was about 15, and Shakira, who looked to be around 8. Turns out they are really funny people, and their jokes definitely lightened my mood. After lunch I wanted to take some pictures with my family before I left, and they turned what I had intended to be just a few snapshots into a fully fledged photo shoot, complete with laughter and silly poses. It was a great way to end my homestay, even though it's not quite over. My family woke me up this morning calling to ask if I would go to church with them. I managed to get out of that, but I'm probably going to go visit tomorrow afternoon. My host mom also said that she wants us to meet in town at some point so we can have family portraits taken that they can put up in their house!
As wonderful and sweet as my host family is, I am much happier in the new house. It makes life so much simpler to be able to live with people my own age who live the same lifestyle I do and from whom I do not have to try to hide all of my weird American habits. There are 14 of us living in this house, so things are a little crazy. There are 6 bedrooms in the house, only three of which have two beds in them. In two of the other rooms we have king size beds, each of which has three people sleeping in it, and one has a double, which has two. I consider myself lucky to have my own bed. We are very much living the poor college student lifestyle here. That and we're only here for a month, so we're trying to avoid buying a lot of things we won't have very much time to use. Our kitchen consists of a sink, a shelf with a few dishes on it, the gas stove and the tank that fuels it. Picture a two-burner stove, only it sits on the floor instead of on top of the oven. There is no table our counter in there, so we sit on the floor while we cook. Fortunately, we do have a dining room with a nice table for the food preparation. Yes, I said food preparation. We are cooking actual meals in this house. We live about ten minutes from the large market that I wrote about a while ago, so we make trips there almost daily to buy fresh fruit and vegetables for dinner. My favorite meal so far has been the veggie stir fry. It's great having control over what I eat. I will never eat another green banana again. Aside from our sparse cooking facilities, we have two living rooms and four bathrooms, unfortunately still without hot water. This house may be awesome, but it's not that awesome. Living with my friends does not change the fact that cold showers still suck.
In case you were wondering, ISP stands for Independent Study Project, which is what I'm doing with myself nowadays when I'm not cooking on the kitchen floor. We all have one month to research and produce a 20-40 page paper on the topic of our choice. I have chosen Rwanda's Gacaca courts (for a brief explanation of the Gacaca courts, read my post on post-genocide justice). There has been a lot of debate about whether or not they provide a fair trial, and I am researching how different perspectives on justice and ideas of what constitutes a fair trial have fueled this debate. I've spent most of the past week looking at secondary sources online, and I also plan on conducting interviews with people in the government and people at organizations that have criticized Gacaca to discover how they define justice and fairness. A few weeks ago a man from the National Service of Gacaca Courts came and gave us a lecture on Gacaca, and I'm attempting to get in touch with him to get some leads on who to interview, but so far he's been really hard to find. People here do not answer emails as promptly as in America, and he doesn't seem to answer his phone either, so we'll see what happens there.
Anyway, this has been quite a long post, and I would like to begin cleaning the house now. As you can imagine, things get pretty gross with 14 college students living in one place. I promise another post soon on some house adventures!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Warthogs and monkeys and elephants, oh my!
We spent our last days in Uganda in a national park. We got there Saturday morning, and that afternoon we went out onto Lake Edward, and we saw so many animals! Hippos, crocodiles, water buffalo, and multiple kinds of birds. The next morning we got up way too early to go on a game drive, which turned out to be worth the 6am wakeup. Not only was the park beautiful, we saw warthogs, antelope, monkeys, baboons, and so many elephants! I got a lot of great pictures of elephants. No lions though. I was really hoping to see a lion, but oh well. There's still time right? Maybe I'll just walk out into the savannah with some cat food and see what happens. A steak would probably work better though.
Monday, April 16, 2012
A Sparknotes Version of Uganda's Conflict
Disclaimer: I only spent one week studying Uganda. I've spent more than 2 months in Rwanda and I'm still trying to figure out what's happening here, and Uganda is a much more complicated situation. That said, let me tell you what I know, because I'm sure you know little more about Uganda than I did going in.
While Rwanda only has 3 ethnic groups, the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa, Uganda has many. Like Rwanda, during colonialism Uganda was also subjected to a policy of divide-and-rule, though by the British and not the Belgians, which created a lot of the divisions that still cause problems today. Throughout all of Uganda's independent history, the president (which almost always gains power violently) has favored his own ethnic group and those of his supporters, developing his own home region while leaving others behind. The Acholi people are the primary occupants of Northern Uganda, which has been most affected by the conflict. Unfortunately for the Acholi, they fought for the previous president, President Okello, who was overthrown more than 20 years ago by the current president, Yoweri Museveni. There region has been neglected and impoverished, which is what led for Joseph Kony to start is rebellion. Kony is an Acholi, and not the first to raise a rebellion against Museveni, though he has undoubtedly become the most famous. Kony claims to be a prophet, saying that the Holy Spirit prompted him to begin is rebellion and advises him in its continuation. When he first began is rebellion almost two decades ago, Kony had the support of many Acholi, but he lost it when Museveni cracked down on the region. When his people stopped giving him supplies and even began to alert the army to his presense, he turned against them. He has since gained international notorietey, and the top spot on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court, for the way he has mutilated his own people. Women who raise the alarm of rebel presense have their lips cut off, men who attempt to fight have their arms cut off, and anyone who refuses to obey his commands have their ears cut off. He has also become infamous for his use of child soldiers; once he no longer had willing recruits, he took to raiding schools during the day and villages at night, kidnapping children and making them members of his army. This has created an interesting dynamic in post-conflict restoration in Northern Uganda, because the rebels who have caused so much hurt and elicited so much anger from the Acholi are also their own children, and they want them back.
At the height of Kony's rebellion, Museveni decided that the best way to weaken his opponent would be to rob him of the supplies and recruits he found in the villages. He responded by forcing all of the Acholi into camps, refusing to let them farm because the rebels might take the crops. This decimated the entire population, robbing them of their livelyhood and the space and resources to practice their culture. This did not stop Kony. In fact, concentrating all of the Acholi in the camps gave him a one-stop shop for all the recruits and supplies he could want. When we were in Uganda I often heard people voice the theory that Museveni did it deliberately to impoverish the Acholi. He has often seemed less than enthusiastic about ending the conflict, instead prefering to allow one of the groups who supports him the least to kill each other. In the 90s he even launched a major military offensive against the rebels days after Kony had promised to come out of the bush and end the war. He had asked for only 6 months to demobilize, and instead Museveni said that if he hadn't come out in 7 days he would attack. That was the closest the war has ever been to ending.
For most of his career as a rebel, Kony was supported by the government of Sudan. They disliked Museveni, who supported rebels in South Sudan, so they supported Kony for years before their relationship with Museveni improved. It is widely believed that they are still supplying Kony, though not nearly as much or as regularly as they used to. Combine that with a major government offensive and the help of the international community, and Kony and his rebels have gone on the run. It is believed that he is somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Central African Republic, and Museveni has sent troops into the bush to find him.
As long as Kony is still at large, the war is not over for Nothern Uganda. However, since he has left the country they have been able to begin rebuilding. By the time we went to Uganda, most people had left the camps and have begun to rebuild their lives. Northern Uganda is still a very impoverished region, and they now face the challenges of reintegrating thousands of former abductees and child soldiers, of accepting them back into the community as unwilling participants in the violence while still somehow addressing the harm they have done. They are still trying to figure out which is the best way.
As I said, that is the sparknotes version, and perhaps even not a good one. I think sparknotes would be more informative, but I have yet to master the art of including everything I saw and learned into one blog post. Feel free to ask me about this when I get home.
(Which, by the way, is in 34 days. When did that happen?)
While Rwanda only has 3 ethnic groups, the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa, Uganda has many. Like Rwanda, during colonialism Uganda was also subjected to a policy of divide-and-rule, though by the British and not the Belgians, which created a lot of the divisions that still cause problems today. Throughout all of Uganda's independent history, the president (which almost always gains power violently) has favored his own ethnic group and those of his supporters, developing his own home region while leaving others behind. The Acholi people are the primary occupants of Northern Uganda, which has been most affected by the conflict. Unfortunately for the Acholi, they fought for the previous president, President Okello, who was overthrown more than 20 years ago by the current president, Yoweri Museveni. There region has been neglected and impoverished, which is what led for Joseph Kony to start is rebellion. Kony is an Acholi, and not the first to raise a rebellion against Museveni, though he has undoubtedly become the most famous. Kony claims to be a prophet, saying that the Holy Spirit prompted him to begin is rebellion and advises him in its continuation. When he first began is rebellion almost two decades ago, Kony had the support of many Acholi, but he lost it when Museveni cracked down on the region. When his people stopped giving him supplies and even began to alert the army to his presense, he turned against them. He has since gained international notorietey, and the top spot on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court, for the way he has mutilated his own people. Women who raise the alarm of rebel presense have their lips cut off, men who attempt to fight have their arms cut off, and anyone who refuses to obey his commands have their ears cut off. He has also become infamous for his use of child soldiers; once he no longer had willing recruits, he took to raiding schools during the day and villages at night, kidnapping children and making them members of his army. This has created an interesting dynamic in post-conflict restoration in Northern Uganda, because the rebels who have caused so much hurt and elicited so much anger from the Acholi are also their own children, and they want them back.
At the height of Kony's rebellion, Museveni decided that the best way to weaken his opponent would be to rob him of the supplies and recruits he found in the villages. He responded by forcing all of the Acholi into camps, refusing to let them farm because the rebels might take the crops. This decimated the entire population, robbing them of their livelyhood and the space and resources to practice their culture. This did not stop Kony. In fact, concentrating all of the Acholi in the camps gave him a one-stop shop for all the recruits and supplies he could want. When we were in Uganda I often heard people voice the theory that Museveni did it deliberately to impoverish the Acholi. He has often seemed less than enthusiastic about ending the conflict, instead prefering to allow one of the groups who supports him the least to kill each other. In the 90s he even launched a major military offensive against the rebels days after Kony had promised to come out of the bush and end the war. He had asked for only 6 months to demobilize, and instead Museveni said that if he hadn't come out in 7 days he would attack. That was the closest the war has ever been to ending.
For most of his career as a rebel, Kony was supported by the government of Sudan. They disliked Museveni, who supported rebels in South Sudan, so they supported Kony for years before their relationship with Museveni improved. It is widely believed that they are still supplying Kony, though not nearly as much or as regularly as they used to. Combine that with a major government offensive and the help of the international community, and Kony and his rebels have gone on the run. It is believed that he is somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Central African Republic, and Museveni has sent troops into the bush to find him.
As long as Kony is still at large, the war is not over for Nothern Uganda. However, since he has left the country they have been able to begin rebuilding. By the time we went to Uganda, most people had left the camps and have begun to rebuild their lives. Northern Uganda is still a very impoverished region, and they now face the challenges of reintegrating thousands of former abductees and child soldiers, of accepting them back into the community as unwilling participants in the violence while still somehow addressing the harm they have done. They are still trying to figure out which is the best way.
As I said, that is the sparknotes version, and perhaps even not a good one. I think sparknotes would be more informative, but I have yet to master the art of including everything I saw and learned into one blog post. Feel free to ask me about this when I get home.
(Which, by the way, is in 34 days. When did that happen?)
Monday, April 9, 2012
Uganda Pt.5: Laundry
As I'm sure you are aware, there are no washing machines in Rwanda or Uganda. At my homestay, our houseboy does my laundry for me. We did not have a houseboy in Gulu. I also did not have any clean shirts when we got to Gulu. I'm sure you can see where this is going. I've gotten pretty good at cleaning my underwear, but I wasn't entirely certain how to go about washing my considerably larger t-shirts and skirts. However, my complete lack of a shirt and looked or smelled anything that might be mistaken for clean made it necessary that I make it up as I go along. Fortunately, there was a wide plastic bucket for laundry-doing in our hotel room, so I filled it up with water and hunkered down on the balcony with my bucket, my large pile of laundry, and a bar of soap. I had just started, tentatively rubbing the soaped-up armpit of my tank top together, when one of the hotel maids came out on the balcony. She looked at me, my bucket, and my pile, and asked, “You are washing?” I responded that I was trying. She laughed, then walked over and took my shirt out of my hands and proceeded to scrub it, rinse it, and hang it on the balcony railing to dry, all in under 30 seconds. I know she is considerably better at doing laundry than I am, but I don't think she understood exactly how gross my clothes were. Then she reached for the skirt on top of my pile, asking, “This too?” When I said that it was all dirty, she smiled and tried to take all my laundry to do it for me, saying, “It is fine, it is fine,” but I insisted on keeping it. I told her that I wanted to learn, explaining that I could do it now that she had shown me. I don't think she had any faith in my ability to get my clothes clean, but that's ok, I didn't either at that point. Eventually she smiled and surrendered my laundry, and I was able, much, much more slowly, to make my white v-neck white again, though I noticed later that I'd missed some spots. I got better later, it's white now. I attempted to follow that woman's example, but it wasn't until later that my friend Justine pointed out to me that I was doing it wrong; doing laundry is not supposed to result in huge scrapes on your fingers. I had just been rubbing my clothes together between my fingers, but apparently you're supposed to rub with one hand against the palm or wrist of another, so it's less abrasive on the skin. Now I know. I'm just grateful that my host family didn't notice the scrapes on my fingers before they healed. That would have been rather embarrassing. Despite my initial mishaps, I really enjoy doing laundry. I find it very relaxing. I'm looking forward to doing it more in the future.
Uganda Pt.4: Acholi Dance
Gulu is located in Northern Uganda, a region mostly inhabited by the Acholi ethnic group. On Saturday we met with an Acholi chief, and he gave us a tour of Patiko, an Acholi historical site that was originally a base for Arab slave traders in Northern Uganda, until a British adventurer turned it into a base from which to protect the Acholi from the slave trade. Today it is simply ruins, the brown stones piled in half-walls marking what used to be storage sheds and chapels.
After that we went to the Acholi cultural center in Gulu, where we learned more about Acholi culture, including traditional Acholi dance. The first dance we learned was the traditional courtship dance, where the young men and women of the tribe dance together, each showing off their skills and ending with the women choosing their husbands. The men played drums made from calabashes while they dances. I was very grateful that I didn't have to focus on playing an instrument, because Acholi dancing is hard! There was a lot of hip shaking involved, and this weird forward-backward shimmy thing that I was never able to figure out. It didn't help that we weren't really taught this dance as much as we were simply thrown in and instructed as we went. A large crowd gathered to watch us, including many children who spent most of the dance pointing at us and laughing. I can't say I blame them, I'm sure we look absolutely ridiculous. After spending so long in another culture where I'm not always sure what things mean or what I'm supposed to do, I've accepted the fact that I'm going to make a fool out of myself quite often. I definitely did on Saturday, but it was so much fun that I am 100% ok with that.
Acholi Dance
Gulu is located in Northern Uganda, a region mostly inhabited by the Acholi ethnic group. On Saturday we met with an Acholi chief, and he gave us a tour of Patiko, an Acholi historical site that was originally a base for Arab slave traders in Northern Uganda, until a British adventurer turned it into a base from which to protect the Acholi from the slave trade. Today it is simply ruins, the brown stones piled in half-walls marking what used to be storage sheds and chapels.
After that we went to the Acholi cultural center in Gulu, where we learned more about Acholi culture, including traditional Acholi dance. The first dance we learned was the traditional courtship dance, where the young men and women of the tribe dance together, each showing off their skills and ending with the women choosing their husbands. The men played drums made from calabashes while they dances. I was very grateful that I didn't have to focus on playing an instrument, because Acholi dancing is hard! There was a lot of hip shaking involved, and this weird forward-backward shimmy thing that I was never able to figure out. It didn't help that we weren't really taught this dance as much as we were simply thrown in and instructed as we went. A large crowd gathered to watch us, including many children who spent most of the dance pointing at us and laughing. I can't say I blame them, I'm sure we look absolutely ridiculous. After spending so long in another culture where I'm not always sure what things mean or what I'm supposed to do, I've accepted the fact that I'm going to make a fool out of myself quite often. I definitely did on Saturday, but it was so much fun that I am 100% ok with that.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Uganda Pt.3: Best Road Trip Ever
We only spent one night in Kampala. The next morning we headed off to Gulu, where we would spend most of our time in Uganda. On the way there we crossed the Equator, and we got to stop and walk around for a little bit before heading on into the Northern Hemisphere. For some reason there was a camel tied to a tree at the Equator, and we got to pet it. You know how camels have a reputation for being kind of cranky? Well, it's true. It snapped at a few hands and tried to eat two people's hair. Fortunately no one got spit on. Despite the unnerving level of risk, I still got to pet a camel. It was great.
We drove on for a little while before coming to the next big event of the trip: crossing the Nile. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures because the Ugandan military has a base in the area, but it was big and beautiful and fantastic, and I can certainly understand how it has been the heart of so many civilizations for so many centuries.
I wish we could've gotten out and spent more time admiring the river, but militaries typically don't like to let foreigners wander around at what they consider to be strategic points. However, it was only a few minutes before I received a consolation prize: MONKIES!! I had been wanting to see a monkey since arriving in Africa but hadn't managed to spot one yet, and there were a bunch just sitting by the side of the road, including a baby. My friend Alex said it looked like a fuzzy peanut.
So that day was a day of firsts. I crossed the Equator, petted my first camel, crossed the Nile, and saw my first monkey.
Best road trip ever.
Uganda Pt.2: Kampala
We left Mbarara Wednesday morning and spent all day driving to the capital, Kampala. The Ugandan countryside is beautiful, and the farther north we got the more different it looked from Rwanda. Rwanda is almost all hills and is very green, will almost all the land occupied by either trees or farms. Uganda, on the other hand, is much more flat, with large expanse of grassland peppered with trees, cacti, and giant anthills leading up to a background of rolling hills. I love those hills. Unlike the hills in Rwanda, there is very little growing on them except for grass, so you can see all the folds and rolls of they way they are shaped, as if a wave had just risen up from under the earth and created them.
By the time we got to Kampala it was too dark to see much of it, but I could tell it was a crazy city. It was much dirtier and more crowded than Kigali, which is exceptionally ordered for an African capital. Kigali has also outlawed street vendors, but there were stalls lining the sidewalks in Kampala selling everything from clothes to food to dishes and jerrycans. And the traffic was insane. As much as I say I would never drive in Kigali, I would certainly drive there sooner than I would in Kampala. Our bus actually got into a small wreck with another, smaller bus on the way to our hotel. It was the other driver's fault, but he got out of his bus and starting yelling at our driver, wanting him to pay for the damage to his bus. Too bad for him that everyone from the other bus thought it was his fault too, so they all got out and started yelling at him to shut up. In a matter of minutes a crowd had assembled and everyone was shouting. Someone had called the police, but they hadn't arrived yet. After a few minutes, Selena, one of our staff members who is from Uganda, got out of the bus and joined the fray. She looked alarmingly small in the middle of all the shouting men, but I don't think she was out there for five minutes before she had the matter settled. The other bus driver was going to pay for the damage. Getting back on the bus, she looked at all of our alarmed faces, and, laughing, declared, “This is Uganda!”
Uganda Pt.1: Nakivaale
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a long one. Our two weeks in Uganda were jam packed. We learned a lot, saw a lot of interesting things and places, and spent A LOT of time on the bus, but, for the sake of your sanity and mine, all of those stories will be spread across multiple blog posts, most of which will hopefully go up today or tomorrow.
And now, to begin.
We left Kigali Monday morning and drove all day, crossing the border around noon and reaching our hotel in Mbarara (wondering how to pronounce that? Yeah, me too) just in time for dinner. On Tuesday we visited the Nakivaale refugee settlement, where we met with a group of Rwandan refugees. Even though the violence ended more than 15 years ago, there is still a significant population of Rwandan refugees in Nakivaale and other refugee camps in the region. Many of them are genocide perpetrators who fled after the RPF ended the genocide, some fearing that they would be punished for their crimes and others fearing that the new, Tutsi-dominated government would take revenge on the Hutus after the genocide. Others left because they feared that the families of those they had killed would take revenge on them. However, not all Rwandan refugees are genocide perpetrators. There are many Tutsi who simply never returned to the country, but perhaps the largest percentage of the Rwandan refugees is made up of people who have left more recently for political reasons, which I will discuss at another time. While we didn't get to hear the stories of everyone we spoke to, the group of Rwandans we met with in Nakivaale seemed to be made up of all of the above, and after months of hearing the official government narrative about how everything is great now, it was refreshing, challenging, and enlightening to hear the refugee's side of the story. However, it was important while listening to them not to forget that they, just like the government, had political motivations behind what they said, and that not everything they would say would be true. And they certainly made some extreme claims: revenge killings and massacres of Hutu by the RPF, government persecution of Hutu, etc. After visiting them I wrestled with how much of what they said was true and how much was false, and, if they were false, were the refugees lying or were they just misinformed? It's hard to get accurate information about live in a country you haven't seen in years and have little contact with, but a refugee cannot retain refugee status if they admit that the country they don't want to go back to is peaceful now. However, whether their fears are actual or perceived, one thing was very clear: this people are terrified of returning to Rwanda. They are convinced that they will not be safe if they go back, to the extent that they have chosen the hard life of eking out survival in a refugee camp rather than risk returning to their homes. But they are being forced to return. The UN has determined that Rwanda today is safe, and that there is no more need for these people to live as refugees. In June 2013, the Cessation Clause will take effect, leaving the refugees with three options: return to Rwanda, apply for citizenship in Uganda (or whatever country is hosting them), or apply for refugee status on an individual basis. It is unlikely that more than a handful of people will be able to take advantage of the second or third options; the RPF was founded by a group of Rwandan refugees in Uganda in 1990, and since then they have invaded Rwanda, defeated the previous government in a civil war, and taken over the country. To them, a large refugee population is a serious political risk, and they are pushing hard to have all refugees repatriate. Even though they will not be forced to leave Nakivaale until next year, pressure is already being put on the refugees to return to Rwanda. Where once all refugees were allowed a plot of land to supplement their rations from the UN Food Program, Rwandan refugees have had their land taken away in order to pressure them to return. Instead they have chosen to survive on their meager rations. They told us also that whenever they go to camp officials with a problem, a need for medicine or some other supplies, they are told simply that their country is safe now, and if they were to return to Rwanda they would have those things. So far most of the refugees have resisted and refuse to go back, but eventually they will be forced to leave the camp. Whether or not their fears will be realized when they return remains to be seen.
And now, to begin.
We left Kigali Monday morning and drove all day, crossing the border around noon and reaching our hotel in Mbarara (wondering how to pronounce that? Yeah, me too) just in time for dinner. On Tuesday we visited the Nakivaale refugee settlement, where we met with a group of Rwandan refugees. Even though the violence ended more than 15 years ago, there is still a significant population of Rwandan refugees in Nakivaale and other refugee camps in the region. Many of them are genocide perpetrators who fled after the RPF ended the genocide, some fearing that they would be punished for their crimes and others fearing that the new, Tutsi-dominated government would take revenge on the Hutus after the genocide. Others left because they feared that the families of those they had killed would take revenge on them. However, not all Rwandan refugees are genocide perpetrators. There are many Tutsi who simply never returned to the country, but perhaps the largest percentage of the Rwandan refugees is made up of people who have left more recently for political reasons, which I will discuss at another time. While we didn't get to hear the stories of everyone we spoke to, the group of Rwandans we met with in Nakivaale seemed to be made up of all of the above, and after months of hearing the official government narrative about how everything is great now, it was refreshing, challenging, and enlightening to hear the refugee's side of the story. However, it was important while listening to them not to forget that they, just like the government, had political motivations behind what they said, and that not everything they would say would be true. And they certainly made some extreme claims: revenge killings and massacres of Hutu by the RPF, government persecution of Hutu, etc. After visiting them I wrestled with how much of what they said was true and how much was false, and, if they were false, were the refugees lying or were they just misinformed? It's hard to get accurate information about live in a country you haven't seen in years and have little contact with, but a refugee cannot retain refugee status if they admit that the country they don't want to go back to is peaceful now. However, whether their fears are actual or perceived, one thing was very clear: this people are terrified of returning to Rwanda. They are convinced that they will not be safe if they go back, to the extent that they have chosen the hard life of eking out survival in a refugee camp rather than risk returning to their homes. But they are being forced to return. The UN has determined that Rwanda today is safe, and that there is no more need for these people to live as refugees. In June 2013, the Cessation Clause will take effect, leaving the refugees with three options: return to Rwanda, apply for citizenship in Uganda (or whatever country is hosting them), or apply for refugee status on an individual basis. It is unlikely that more than a handful of people will be able to take advantage of the second or third options; the RPF was founded by a group of Rwandan refugees in Uganda in 1990, and since then they have invaded Rwanda, defeated the previous government in a civil war, and taken over the country. To them, a large refugee population is a serious political risk, and they are pushing hard to have all refugees repatriate. Even though they will not be forced to leave Nakivaale until next year, pressure is already being put on the refugees to return to Rwanda. Where once all refugees were allowed a plot of land to supplement their rations from the UN Food Program, Rwandan refugees have had their land taken away in order to pressure them to return. Instead they have chosen to survive on their meager rations. They told us also that whenever they go to camp officials with a problem, a need for medicine or some other supplies, they are told simply that their country is safe now, and if they were to return to Rwanda they would have those things. So far most of the refugees have resisted and refuse to go back, but eventually they will be forced to leave the camp. Whether or not their fears will be realized when they return remains to be seen.
Uganda Pt.1: Nakivaale
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a long one. Our two weeks in Uganda were jam packed. We learned a lot, saw a lot of interesting things and places, and spent A LOT of time on the bus, but, for the sake of your sanity and mine, all of those stories will be spread across multiple blog posts, most of which will hopefully go up today or tomorrow.
And now, to begin.
We left Kigali Monday morning and drove all day, crossing the border around noon and reaching our hotel in Mbarara (wondering how to pronounce that? Yeah, me too) just in time for dinner. On Tuesday we visited the Nakivaale refugee settlement, where we met with a group of Rwandan refugees. Even though the violence ended more than 15 years ago, there is still a significant population of Rwandan refugees in Nakivaale and other refugee camps in the region. Many of them are genocide perpetrators who fled after the RPF ended the genocide, some fearing that they would be punished for their crimes and others fearing that the new, Tutsi-dominated government would take revenge on the Hutus after the genocide. Others left because they feared that the families of those they had killed would take revenge on them. However, not all Rwandan refugees are genocide perpetrators. There are many Tutsi who simply never returned to the country, but perhaps the largest percentage of the Rwandan refugees is made up of people who have left more recently for political reasons, which I will discuss at another time. While we didn't get to hear the stories of everyone we spoke to, the group of Rwandans we met with in Nakivaale seemed to be made up of all of the above, and after months of hearing the official government narrative about how everything is great now, it was refreshing, challenging, and enlightening to hear the refugee's side of the story. However, it was important while listening to them not to forget that they, just like the government, had political motivations behind what they said, and that not everything they would say would be true. And they certainly made some extreme claims: revenge killings and massacres of Hutu by the RPF, government persecution of Hutu, etc. After visiting them I wrestled with how much of what they said was true and how much was false, and, if they were false, were the refugees lying or were they just misinformed? It's hard to get accurate information about live in a country you haven't seen in years and have little contact with, but a refugee cannot retain refugee status if they admit that the country they don't want to go back to is peaceful now. However, whether their fears are actual or perceived, one thing was very clear: this people are terrified of returning to Rwanda. They are convinced that they will not be safe if they go back, to the extent that they have chosen the hard life of eking out survival in a refugee camp rather than risk returning to their homes. But they are being forced to return. The UN has determined that Rwanda today is safe, and that there is no more need for these people to live as refugees. In June 2013, the Cessation Clause will take effect, leaving the refugees with three options: return to Rwanda, apply for citizenship in Uganda (or whatever country is hosting them), or apply for refugee status on an individual basis. It is unlikely that more than a handful of people will be able to take advantage of the second or third options; the RPF was founded by a group of Rwandan refugees in Uganda in 1990, and since then they have invaded Rwanda, defeated the previous government in a civil war, and taken over the country. To them, a large refugee population is a serious political risk, and they are pushing hard to have all refugees repatriate. Even though they will not be forced to leave Nakivaale until next year, pressure is already being put on the refugees to return to Rwanda. Where once all refugees were allowed a plot of land to supplement their rations from the UN Food Program, Rwandan refugees have had their land taken away in order to pressure them to return. Instead they have chosen to survive on their meager rations. They told us also that whenever they go to camp officials with a problem, a need for medicine or some other supplies, they are told simply that their country is safe now, and if they were to return to Rwanda they would have those things. So far most of the refugees have resisted and refuse to go back, but eventually they will be forced to leave the camp. Whether or not their fears will be realized when they return remains to be seen.
And now, to begin.
We left Kigali Monday morning and drove all day, crossing the border around noon and reaching our hotel in Mbarara (wondering how to pronounce that? Yeah, me too) just in time for dinner. On Tuesday we visited the Nakivaale refugee settlement, where we met with a group of Rwandan refugees. Even though the violence ended more than 15 years ago, there is still a significant population of Rwandan refugees in Nakivaale and other refugee camps in the region. Many of them are genocide perpetrators who fled after the RPF ended the genocide, some fearing that they would be punished for their crimes and others fearing that the new, Tutsi-dominated government would take revenge on the Hutus after the genocide. Others left because they feared that the families of those they had killed would take revenge on them. However, not all Rwandan refugees are genocide perpetrators. There are many Tutsi who simply never returned to the country, but perhaps the largest percentage of the Rwandan refugees is made up of people who have left more recently for political reasons, which I will discuss at another time. While we didn't get to hear the stories of everyone we spoke to, the group of Rwandans we met with in Nakivaale seemed to be made up of all of the above, and after months of hearing the official government narrative about how everything is great now, it was refreshing, challenging, and enlightening to hear the refugee's side of the story. However, it was important while listening to them not to forget that they, just like the government, had political motivations behind what they said, and that not everything they would say would be true. And they certainly made some extreme claims: revenge killings and massacres of Hutu by the RPF, government persecution of Hutu, etc. After visiting them I wrestled with how much of what they said was true and how much was false, and, if they were false, were the refugees lying or were they just misinformed? It's hard to get accurate information about live in a country you haven't seen in years and have little contact with, but a refugee cannot retain refugee status if they admit that the country they don't want to go back to is peaceful now. However, whether their fears are actual or perceived, one thing was very clear: this people are terrified of returning to Rwanda. They are convinced that they will not be safe if they go back, to the extent that they have chosen the hard life of eking out survival in a refugee camp rather than risk returning to their homes. But they are being forced to return. The UN has determined that Rwanda today is safe, and that there is no more need for these people to live as refugees. In June 2013, the Cessation Clause will take effect, leaving the refugees with three options: return to Rwanda, apply for citizenship in Uganda (or whatever country is hosting them), or apply for refugee status on an individual basis. It is unlikely that more than a handful of people will be able to take advantage of the second or third options; the RPF was founded by a group of Rwandan refugees in Uganda in 1990, and since then they have invaded Rwanda, defeated the previous government in a civil war, and taken over the country. To them, a large refugee population is a serious political risk, and they are pushing hard to have all refugees repatriate. Even though they will not be forced to leave Nakivaale until next year, pressure is already being put on the refugees to return to Rwanda. Where once all refugees were allowed a plot of land to supplement their rations from the UN Food Program, Rwandan refugees have had their land taken away in order to pressure them to return. Instead they have chosen to survive on their meager rations. They told us also that whenever they go to camp officials with a problem, a need for medicine or some other supplies, they are told simply that their country is safe now, and if they were to return to Rwanda they would have those things. So far most of the refugees have resisted and refuse to go back, but eventually they will be forced to leave the camp. Whether or not their fears will be realized when they return remains to be seen.
Uganda, Pt. 1: Nakivaale
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a long one. Our two weeks in Uganda were jam packed. We learned a lot, saw a lot of interesting things and places, and spent A LOT of time on the bus, but, for the sake of your sanity and mine, all of those stories will be spread across multiple blog posts, most of which will hopefully go up today or tomorrow.
And now, to begin.
We left Kigali Monday morning and drove all day, crossing the border around noon and reaching our hotel in Mbarara (wondering how to pronounce that? Yeah, me too) just in time for dinner. On Tuesday we visited the Nakivaale refugee settlement, where we met with a group of Rwandan refugees. Even though the violence ended more than 15 years ago, there is still a significant population of Rwandan refugees in Nakivaale and other refugee camps in the region. Many of them are genocide perpetrators who fled after the RPF ended the genocide, some fearing that they would be punished for their crimes and others fearing that the new, Tutsi-dominated government would take revenge on the Hutus after the genocide. Others left because they feared that the families of those they had killed would take revenge on them. However, not all Rwandan refugees are genocide perpetrators. There are many Tutsi who simply never returned to the country, but perhaps the largest percentage of the Rwandan refugees is made up of people who have left more recently for political reasons, which I will discuss at another time. While we didn't get to hear the stories of everyone we spoke to, the group of Rwandans we met with in Nakivaale seemed to be made up of all of the above, and after months of hearing the official government narrative about how everything is great now, it was refreshing, challenging, and enlightening to hear the refugee's side of the story. However, it was important while listening to them not to forget that they, just like the government, had political motivations behind what they said, and that not everything they would say would be true. And they certainly made some extreme claims: revenge killings and massacres of Hutu by the RPF, government persecution of Hutu, etc. After visiting them I wrestled with how much of what they said was true and how much was false, and, if they were false, were the refugees lying or were they just misinformed? It's hard to get accurate information about live in a country you haven't seen in years and have little contact with, but a refugee cannot retain refugee status if they admit that the country they don't want to go back to is peaceful now. However, whether their fears are actual or perceived, one thing was very clear: this people are terrified of returning to Rwanda. They are convinced that they will not be safe if they go back, to the extent that they have chosen the hard life of eking out survival in a refugee camp rather than risk returning to their homes. But they are being forced to return. The UN has determined that Rwanda today is safe, and that there is no more need for these people to live as refugees. In June 2013, the Cessation Clause will take effect, leaving the refugees with three options: return to Rwanda, apply for citizenship in Uganda (or whatever country is hosting them), or apply for refugee status on an individual basis. It is unlikely that more than a handful of people will be able to take advantage of the second or third options; the RPF was founded by a group of Rwandan refugees in Uganda in 1990, and since then they have invaded Rwanda, defeated the previous government in a civil war, and taken over the country. To them, a large refugee population is a serious political risk, and they are pushing hard to have all refugees repatriate. Even though they will not be forced to leave Nakivaale until next year, pressure is already being put on the refugees to return to Rwanda. Where once all refugees were allowed a plot of land to supplement their rations from the UN Food Program, Rwandan refugees have had their land taken away in order to pressure them to return. Instead they have chosen to survive on their meager rations. They told us also that whenever they go to camp officials with a problem, a need for medicine or some other supplies, they are told simply that their country is safe now, and if they were to return to Rwanda they would have those things. So far most of the refugees have resisted and refuse to go back, but eventually they will be forced to leave the camp. Whether or not their fears will be realized when they return remains to be seen.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
I Have Returned!
I am back in Kigali and back on the grid! We got back late last night, and this afternoon I bought more airtime for my modem and phone, so I finally feel reintegrated into the world again. Uganda was great, and I'll be writing a nice long post all about it some time later this week. Tonight, sleep.
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