The Good, the Bad, and Fall Out Boy…

June 26th, Tuesday
Yes, you did read that correctly. No, I do not think that Fall Out Boy is ugly. You must read on to hear about Fall Out Boy.

The Good…

Community

Being in Gulu has been amazing. Besides it being half-way across the world, the culture is of course completely different. I have begun to get an idea of what community means here, and how it is built into their way of living. As you ride on a boda (motorcycle) (if you are my parents reading this, I am speaking hypothetical and I have not rode on a boda, and if you are not my parents, I have rode on one many times)… Anyway, if you ride through town, you pass by areas of plant overgrowth, and then every 15 yards or so, there is a small group of huts, all placed together, creating a sort of Acholi housing development. Well, not really, but it does create this really great little group of 5-10 huts. This gives instant community, as the children play together outside between the huts, parents are able to watch many children, and have them be watched by others in return. They hang their laundry up together, they probably share meals, and of course they share in one another’s lives. Meanwhile in America, we lock ourselves into our houses, communicate over the phone and computer, we put up fences to claim our land, and keep others out of our lives. Ok, so that was a little pessimistic, but many ideals which are highly regarded here become the things which are stepped upon in order to pull ourselves to the top of the ladder.

Children

While walking the streets of Gulu, any munu (pronounced moo noo- meaning white person) is an instant celebrity. There are a good number of white people living/visiting Gulu, but while out in town, or walking to school, chances are that you won’t really run into another one, or maybe you’ll see just one. Well, unless you’re at the internet place. There’s always munu’s there. So I was walking home from school (.5mil) and I have to pass another primary school. All of the kids were outside, all sitting around a few teachers who were probably doing an end of the day announcement or something. Next thing I knew, just like it would happen in America, one of the teachers said something to dismiss the kids, and Acholi children all grabbed their bags and started running away, ecstatic to be done for the day. As soon as they saw me, it was like an instant curiousity/excitement/nervousness. They want to know what this munu is, but they don’t know what to do/say. I started to talk to them in Lwo saying things like Hello, What’s up?, how are you?, etc. They love it, and started to laugh so hard. I just kept walking, and maybe 20 seconds later I realized that there was a group of 10-15 children behind me, following me. It just made me laugh outloud, which made them laugh. I feel like a rock star sometimes (but not like Fall Out Boy). Then one boy came up to me, stuck out his hand for me to shake it, and said “Apwoyo” (A-foy-yo -Hello) I shook his hand and said Apwoyo back. Instant laughter from all of the kids behind me. It seemed as though someone had dared him to “go and shake the munu’s hand” or either he played the brave one and told them that he would go do it. A few more kids then had the guts to come up and shake my hand, but it’s just so funny. Their laughs and smiles are so beautiful.

Aid

In Africa, Aid from the US comes in many different forms. There are organizations here in Gulu ALL over the place. Down every street is another office for another NGO or CBO(Community Based Organization- Invisible Children is actually a CBO not an NGO- they are working on NGO status). You can see aluminum cans that use to hold food in them, they have USA written on them and then have been cut flat and nailed up, covering the doors of people’s huts. People around town wear shirts and clothes which are most definitely from the states. And as you’ve just read, children and many other people are excited to meet Americans. There seems to be like seriously 20 different U.N. organizations (Unicef being the most well known in America), and many faith-based organizations. But with the good is the bad. Not everyone here likes Americans.

The Bad…

Aid

It’s easy to see the differences in how people react to Americans. Some are excited to meet you, and get to hear a little bit about you. Others just pass by without saying anything. They are not typically outright rude, but you can tell that they’ve seen the bad side of munu’s in Gulu. We have to be careful how we spend our money, so that we’re not driving up the prices, thus making it difficult to impossible for locals to buy food/other items. The ‘white hand-out’ is also a problem. We are not allowed to give out any money or anything while we are here. People in Africa totally assume that any white person has money, and so they try to find a way to get some of that money. If someone is given money from a munu, then the assumption is perpetuated that white people have money, and that they can just rely on our hand-outs and they don’t have to work to receive help. Thus, no matter how badly we want to give a child a little money when they ask, or help someone out in a similar manner, we just have to say no. It’s been weird, and difficult at times, and other times I can really understand the reasoning.

Colonialism

It was described to us as, “We have become half British, and remained half Acholi. We are two halves and a whole of nothing.” In a nutshell, that is approx. what colonialism has done for the acholi people. They have reaped many benefits of medicine, sanitation, importance of health care, and other similar things. But at the cost of losing some of their culture, having a culturally irrelevant educational curriculum/system forced upon their children, and only giving those with money the chance at a successful life. Arguably the worst is that a dream of having a safe, successful, loving, joyful, educated, and stable life has been shown to them only to then be ripped away, out of their reach. I’m not sure how I feel about that, I think I still need time to process that thought.

War

Really, do I need to say more? Ok so maybe a little. Many of the problems occurring today concerning the LRA and the rebel army derives from a longer history of the North and the South not getting along. It’s weird how people here do not discriminate on the basis of skin color rather it is where you are from, or your tribe. Although generally there is a dislike between people from Northern Uganda (like Gulu), and Southern (like Kampala) Uganda. This is of course a general statement and would be like saying that all Americans are racist. Just as that is not true, also many Ugandans are not tribalist- I just made that up. Anyway, even without the war, the North and South did not get along very well. For the past 20 years this inability to see eye to eye has just made things worse, thus perpetuating many of the war issues.

The Fall Out Boy…(what you’ve all been waiting for)

So in a few weeks Fall Out Boy is coming here to Gulu, and they will be filming a music video for their next single. And speaking of the good and the bad, many of the American's here are not sure that having them come will be a good thing. American's really have to be careful when interacting with locals here, and they may not bring many positive things. Such as there is a rumor that they want to film their music video in an IDP camp. THat would be awful! I cannot even imagine. It will be weird to have them here, and I'm interested to hear a lot of what the IC American staff here have to say. We'll see. I have no idea if I will get to see any them, or if I will even get to meet them. I am sure that they will meet with Invisible Children, and many of the people who work at the office here in Gulu. I wish that I had more info on Fall Out Boy for you all, but I don’t. So I guess if for no other reason, you should continue to visit my blog in order to find out if I’ve met Fall Out Boy. And since you’ll be reading my blog, you should then comment. I love it when people comment!

( a big THANKS to all who've commented. I love hearing from you! )