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| this frontier town is putting it's dark past behind them and re-building |
Good morning from Kitgum, northern Uganda, about 100kms from the South Sudan border.
A heavy rain storm knocked out all the power in town last night, but a hotel generator ensured cold beer, pizza, and that ever-present spaghetti bolognese, as well as good company - a small and motley collection of Ugandans, Canadians, Americans and one Japanese, all trying in one way or another to enable a better future for Ugandans in an area brutally decimated by Joseph Kony and his LRA not so long ago. 400,000 people perished in unspeakable ways around here.
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| ever-present signs of conflict |
The rains, (cherished by all as they mark the end of the dry season) have washed away the red dust that settles on everything (and every one) and the morning is crisp and fresh.
Chickens and ducks drink from newly formed ponds and two young children play with a toy car made from an old plastic bottle, a couple of sticks and 4 pop bottle caps - can you picture it?
People head off to work and school as small shops open
their doors to the day's business.
We're here to visit our friend Sam from Memphis, who runs a chicken farm operation that provides an egg each morning to many hundreds of school children as a way to get protein into their diets.
The school owns land nearby to set up the farm and there is excess. We are hoping to start a co-op of war widows, who's children attend the school where the breakfast provided is their only meal each day. The women could farm that land using the TSSH model. Rent for the land could be paid through a percentage of the crops raised.
Fingers crossed.
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| land awaits development |
And then, all too soon, we're back on the road, heading to Barlonyo to visit the cooperative there that received goats over a year ago.
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