Febuary in Patongo

I’ve just learnt something about jack fruit – one of my staff rubbed oil on his hands before tackling the fruit and now I know why - it has sticky rubbery resin that gets on your hands and doesn’t wash off. If you don’t know what a jack fruit is, there will be pictures on the web. I first saw them in Vietnam – they produce fruits up to the size of a basket ball which hang directly off the trunk of the tree. They are just in season. I am looking forward to the mango season in May when for about 2 weeks there is a super abundance of mangos. The other fruits we enjoy are pineapple, water melon, bananas and passionfruit but they all have to be brought from Lira about 90 minutes drive from here.

The main focus of work is securing funding for the next stage of our water sanitation programme, about 80% of our financing. The current project expires at the end of March so we are in the process of writing a new proposal for funding by the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. We had some of their technical specialists with us 2 weeks ago and got good feedback from them and some indication of what they would be prepared to fund next.

It’s more than 18 months since the last LRA atrocity and northern Uganda is in transition from an emergency to development. People are gradually moving from large refugee camps to re-settlement sites and back to ancestral lands. But it is a slow process – 59% of the population are in refugee camps, 37% in resettlement sites and just 4% on ancestral lands. The fear of the LRA is still very real because ancestral lands means a few huts in a family cluster and then may be 200m to the next hut. So they are very vulnerable to attack and such a diffuse population is hard to protect. This weekend there is some army activity aimed at LRA remnants about 30 minutes drive from here. The impact of the LRA is still very much around us, not just in displaced people but in people’s experiences. The staff member who put oil on his hands before handling the jack fruit told me his mother was killed in an LRA raid. Two weeks ago, we took 2 children to a hospital in Gulu, 3 hours west of here: one child has substantial brain damage when she was beaten by the LRA as a 4 year old, the other was shot through the upper arm in 2004: the bone remains broken and the elbow is shattered. Our guard at the office has a deformed hand from when an LRA soldier pushed it into a fire.


This is the memorial in Opota, a village perhaps 15 minutes from here. There are the names of 27 civilians killed in a single LRA raid on 22 October 2002; there are three names in red, these were cut up and cooked in a pot by the side of the road. I was in the village last month – they said some people were locked in their huts which were then set on fire while others were roasted on a fire. No wonder it is such a traumatised society. These people used to live with their cattle around them: these were stolen in the late 1980 either by the Karamajong or rebel factions, then they were forced into camps (Patongo was the largest at 100,000) where they built huts a few metres apart from each other. For some, a whole generation has known only camp life and has not learnt the traditional subsistence agriculture way of life. And because there is no employment here, that is all there is to go back to. What employment there is, is mostly government or NGOs. There are some small businesses, carpenters, bicycle repairs but there are very few private sector employers.

I was in Gulu 2 weeks ago – is it the largest city in NE Uganda, economically dominated by NGOs, many of whom have their main base in the north there. It has power and some tarmac to is more developed than anything around here. But it is still not exactly a modern town.

Business was slow that day

Urban huts, rather old, concrete shared latrine blocks

between houses, an open sewer, the man in the foreground does his weldong business where he sits

Part of a market on a main street

I went with the US OFDA visitors to some our projects in new settlement sites and bush villages. Here are some photos from Namabili. The small round hut is a latrine, the water point is protected with posts to prevent livestock contaminating it, the woman is cooking some sorghum which will make an alcoholic drink.

I go to the only English/Luo speaking Pentecostal church in Patongo. We meet in a long hut with mud brick walls and a grass roof. I preached there 3 weeks ago and then was asked to speak at a training conference of leaders in 2 weeks time. I have the Saturday afternoon session and then will speak again in Sunday morning. So some preparation is required !

Time is going quickly – I’ll be back in Kampala for a week’s break in 3 weeks time after completing my first 8 week rotation. I’ve no plans yet on what to do and I don’t feel in need of a break yet, I’d be quite happy to stay here a few more weeks. The timing is not great either because we need to be progressing the OFDA project proposal: the current project funding expires three weeks after our return to Patongo.

Our drivers did a training course in the middle of January – here they are proudly holding their certificates.

And Anna and Kathleen messing around at the house.