Goodbye Gulu

July 25th 08

In just a few hours we will pack up all of our stuff and all 21 of us will cram into a mini bus, and ride down to Murchenson Falls, then to Safari, then to Kampala, then to rafting in Jinja, and then back to Entebbe Airport. I can’t believe that the trip is ending (again).

It’s different leaving Gulu this time. Last time I just kept thinking that I would never come to Uganda again, and even though that may be true now, it is still very bizarre to say goodbye for the second time.
Today we said goodbye to Pabo, and all of our friends there. The teachers and students at Pabo Secondary School were real sad to see us go. It was amazing to experience how much we all meant to them. One of the other teachers at the school (who did not have an American partner teacher) spoke during our teacher goodbye party just kept saying all of these great things about us, and how the friendships we offered would stay with them. I couldn’t believe that this teacher was saying these things about us, and I didn’t even know his name!
There were a few teachers who we grew closer to and even visited them at their homes. Although I hold their friendships to mean something very special to me, I have a feeling that no matter what, having an American teach at their school will always mean more to them than it does to me.
One of our partner teachers put it in very good perspective when he said that often the students at Pabo SS think that what they are learning is not important or the content is irrelevant to what the world considers essential knowledge. When we came and joined in their classes and taught them the same things we teach to American students the Pabo SS students regained confidence in the Ugandan Education System (although I would say it’s extremely flawed…but I won’t go into that now).

I can’t remember if I have blogged much about my partner teacher earlier, and because I can’t remember, you can just read it again. Odongo Vasco Bath is Physics and Fine Arts teacher at Pabo SS. He was originally just given the Acholi name of Odong, but then another child in his family was given the same name also, so he changed his to Odongo, b/c he was tired of being confused with his brother. I find that pretty hilarious. He currently lives about 2 hours by bike from Pabo SS, so he only travels home on the weekends. It is very common for the teachers of Pabo SS to live outside of Pabo town center (aka- the IDP Camp). Very many of them actually live in Gulu. So Vasco stays in a room in Pabo during the week, and goes home on the weekend. He currently has one wife. I say this because he use to have two, but apparently he didn’t pay for her dowry. This caused issues with her family, and the second wife’s brother came and stole her and her son back one night. I’m not sure how she felt about that, but I can’t imagine wanting to be second to another woman. I then asked him how many children he had, and he responded that he had 6 children.
I thought it would be good to write down his children’s names, so I pulled out my note pad and started writing. I soon realized that he didn’t know their names. I couldn’t believe it! Danielle and I were sitting with him when all of this occurred and we explained to him that it was not ok to not know the names of your kids. He then said he knew their names, but he just couldn’t recall them right then.
The next day at school he showed up with a list of his kids names. I thought it was good that he remembered until he confided that his sister-in-law lives in Pabo, so he asked her to list his kids names and ages. At that point the truth came out that he really had 7 kids. So absurd. I then told him about one of my high school friends who had 9 siblings, and I stood there and named all 10 of them. But with the difficulty of communication I wasn’t so sure he completely understood what I was saying.

Very soon we will be leaving Gulu, and it feels pretty surreal again. I do love this place, but I’m not sure yet if I want to come back for a third year. I have a lot of reflecting to do. As for the rest of July and August, I’m just excited to actually have a vacation. This year I am going to do a different Safari, and some of us that came last year are not doing a land safari, but instead we are going to take a boat safari. Don’t worry, I will watch out for the Hippos, and crocs. We are going to go up the Nile a little bit, so that eventually we will be at the bottom of Merchenson Falls. I’m excited for the boat ride.
Then we’ll go down and whitewater raft again, which I can’t wait for! I’m not sure if I want to bungee jump again because it was pretty insanely scary.

I have a few hours left before I leave Gulu, so I am going to go meet Komakech for one last time. Hope you are all well. Love ya.