Personal Timelines

I forgot to add last week that we went visit MEND. It is where the Invisible Children handbags and messenger bags are made by Acholi woman. It is in order to give these woman work and make sure that they are being treated properly. MEND takes care of these woman and is helping them to get their lives together. We got to meet all the woman who make the bags and take a pictures with the woman that made the bag that we purchased. It was very cool and I encourage you all to check out the mend link through the invisible children website.

Monday was probably the most uneventful day so far here in Gulu. I did not have class today, however, I decided that I would like to start filming more of this experience and making a video of our time here in Uganda. In the next two weeks I want to try and film all 17 of us in class, or working with the children, and all 5 of our partnering schools. I also am going to try to get footage of all the hangouts we go to and all the shops, stores and restaurants we frequent. It would be a nice way to remember this experience and fun to share with friends and family when we return.


Tuesday is my day off regularly, but I go in to school for our round table at 4. I did a lot of planning in the morning and continued to work on our research. Michelle from group 3 and I spent the day together and had a very fun day. We started our date at Café Larem, then went up smelly alley so she could check out our pad, then went to lunch at Kope Café. Kope Café is notorious for its extremely slow turn around time and I was pleasantly surprised when my steak sandwich only took 1 hour and ten minutes to come out (keep in mind, there was only 3 other people in the entire restaurant when we were there.) I have absolutely NO CLUE what takes them so long, and I have no desire to find out. We met Lisa from group 1 there (she stayed an extra week because she loves Gulu so much) and she got us pumped up for white water rafting and bungee jumping on the Nile (as if I wasn’t already.) She went down to Kampala this weekend with the group one girls and came back Monday. I am not looking forward to leaving, but I cannot wait to go to the Nile and raft and bungee, it will really help to leave knowing that we are going to Jinja and do all these fun things.

We then went shopping for gifts and of course for things for ourselves. Nobody should allow the two of us to go anywhere by ourselves because she spends money like I do; on ridiculous things that we do not need. Anyway, we got a couple of dresses and made for her, and I tried to pick up my shirt, but the lady I had to pay was not there, so it is still hanging there. If it fits anything like the shorts I had made I am in no rush to have it. After an hour or two of shopping up and down the market we decided to stop at the Florida hotel and grab a drink. There we were had our first experience of someone coming up to us and asking for money. I have been here for over a month and have not had that experience yet, so it was kind of strange to see. The man could barely talk so it was hard to communicate with him. We decided it was best to get up and go because he was just staring at us and it was pretty bizarre.



It was then time for me to go to my round table which I was not looking forward to too much, especially since Michelle was going swimming at the Acholi Inn. Swimming in the pool sounded much better than taking a 20 minute Boda Boda ride to school and sitting in a meeting for an hour and a half. The meeting went fine even though none of my teachers were there. I would get into the logistics of what we talked about at the meeting but I am sure that nobody cares and would be bored to tears reading about it.

We went to dinner at about 7:00 and then Michael and I stayed behind once everyone left. We got a few extra sodas (YES sodas) and had a nice long talk. When we got home Kate invited Michael and I to the top of KSP. We said we would go but only for 1 hour. We met Apolo there and enjoyed a beer on the roof. I am so glad we met Apolo and his brother Obie on this trip because they give us so much insiders view on life here in Gulu compared to life in Britain. They have so much lined up for them and come from such a great family that I am sure whatever they do they will be the best of the best. I know that Apolo in coming to the States in December and I can’t wait to meet up with him and show him around. I don’t think he will ever leave NYC.
Michael and I were almost true to our word and were only out for an hour and a half which is a very impressive feat when we are in Gulu AND when Apolo is with you. He is the Acholi version of me and won’t let anyone go home if there is still fun to be had.

Wednesday might have been the best day yet at school. Michael woke me up at 6:55 when he heard Lisa and Sharon talking to my teacher Dennis on the phone. For some reason he called them and told them he would be in school at 8 o clock. I told them that was good for him, we did not have class until 11:10, so I would be there by 10:30.

My guilt got the best of me and I managed to get out of bed, get some “breakfast” (a piece of cold chapatti) and I rolled into school around 9:30, still very early for class. I walk into the teachers room and guess what….. NO Dennis! I figured he must be somewhere around campus so I took out my laptop and showed some of the teachers some pictures from home and some pictures of our trip so far. They were loving it and could not believe the little amount of clothes that people were wearing at the beach. It was hilarious.

Time flew by and I had a great time showing them my life at home and my life outside of school here. At 11:00 there was still no sign of Dennis. Today is the day that Sharon and her teacher Christine were supposed to observe us in class. I called Dennis and got no answer. So I went to the classroom and told some of the boys that we would have the lesson on Friday because that is the next time we have class. They said “how about you do by your own.” Now it was an 80 minutes class and Dennis and I had planned for about 50 minutes of him teaching about the Unification of Italy and me using about 30 minutes to teach about timelines and eventually we would put together a timeline of the unification of Italy.

I could not say no to the boys so I got my bag from the teachers room, told Christine and Sharon to come to class, and went to the room having o idea what I was going to do for 80 minutes. I could hear a lot of noise coming from the class before I walked in the room, but when I was in sight they all were silent and I did not hear a sound. These “boys” are s5, which means they have one year left at Sir Samuel Baker before they can go to university. Some of these boys are as old as 20-21.
I started out by explaining what a timeline is and why they were so helpful. Not one student has ever heard of a timeline, which surprised me until I remembered that none of the teachers had ever heard of a timeline either.




I then showed them the example of my history of the United States timeline and briefly explained the significance of each major event. They were enthralled because they are so interested in America and have so many questions to ask about life there. After that I took out another timeline that I made, a timeline about my personal life. I went through the timeline year by year explaining what significant events happened in my life. They loved learning about me and all eyes were on me the entire time.

Then I gave each student a sheet of paper and asked them to do a timeline of their own personal lives. I was hesitant to do this because I know that many of them have had very difficult lives and I did not want to bring up any emotions that would get them sad or depressed.

Some of the kids did the basic timeline of “started school” “started football” “entered Sir Samuel Baker school”, but some of the other students got very personal and I was amazed at how much they opened up. I have showed them to many of my roommates here, and they are all as amazed as I am. I will share one students timeline with you:

1988 – I was born In a war ravaged area in Northern Uganda. Gulu, Uganda
1989 – My mother died when I was not even 1 year.
1994 – My father died and I was left a total orphan.
1996 – I was taken to camp for protection from the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Kony.
1998 – I joined school primary one.
2004 – I did primary learning examination to join Secondary School.
2005 – I joined senior one.
2008 – I sat UCE.
2009 – I joined Sir Samuel Baker.

It was crazy to see the pattern in most of these kids. They had terrible lives, and the only thing positive they have to say is about their education. It was very eye-opening and I am so happy that these boys (men) opened up so much to me.
I actually have most of the lesson on film because I gave my camera to Sharon. With the inconsistency of classes around here I wanted to make sure that I got a good lesson on film before I left.



I am finally caught up with blogging. This was yesterday (Wednesday) and I am typing this on Thursday. We have a week and a half left in Gulu before we head to Jinja and then go our own ways. Matt, Catharine, Annie and Big John are hanging out in Africa for a while, each doing their own things; traveling, hiking, teaching. Kevin, Bill and I are off to Amsterdam next Monday, while the rest of the crew will be in New York and eventually home in less than two weeks.

Will update again soon,
-Ryan