Okay, I am in Gulu. This is where I will be for the next 10 weeks. That is something. I have moved into my “apartment.” That is also something. It is important to focus on the small victories of the day when you are in a small African town, because they sometimes don’t come very easily. I am in the internet cafe in Gulu, and I have 9 minutes and 56 seconds left on the world wide web. 55,54,53…
Things in Gulu are good. I got here via New York via Dubai via Ethiopia via Kampala. It is hot and dusty, but the people are bright and colorful and don’t look at me like I am too strange, but I can tell they are just being polite.

I spent the morning with the founder and director of Caritas Counseling Center, Sister Margaret Aceng and she spent over an hour telling me why she feels called to help the people that have been traumatized by the war in Northern Uganda between the government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army. Caritas provides support and counseling for ex-rebels, former child soldiers, parents of abducted children and also to women who were abducted and pressed into sexual servitude by the LRA.

The organziation was founded in 2004 and in a few weeks they will be holding a graduation for 126 newly trained peer counselors.
6 minutes and 11 seconds…

Okay, I am on the way to meet with the chairman of the Gulu Disabled Person’s Union, another local NGO that I will be working with in Uganda and we are going to try and put together a work plan for the next few weeks. since I need to leave about 5 minutes for the internet connection to upload this, I’ll have to end here. Thanks for your support, and I’ll write again soon!