Ugh, I'm sick

Lest you think this is glamorous… I think I got the flu. The night watchman said he thinks it’s the “collusion of the water,” but I think it’s the flu. Not that the flu is fun anyways, but it makes the constant smell of trash in the streets (there’s obviously no garbage pick-up), the smell of burning plastic (they burn most of the trash), and the lack of electricity to run a fan for 2 days that much worse. On top of that, I have taste aversion to half of the new foods I’ve tried now – hopefully that won’t last.

I’m not sure how often I’ll have this much time so I better take advantage of it…

Gulu is great – I really like it here, even if it isn’t as remote as I’d prefer. The drive to Gulu from Kampala was long and fairly rough but nice. It started a few hours late because the van was overheating and we had to find a part. On the drive we (the driver and I) crossed the Nile River – which starts from Lake Victoria, saw some baboons and monkeys, and picked up some fruit from vendors along the way.

Chris in Uganda

[Chris] My travel to Uganda is for a research project testing the feasibility of a parenting intervention for traumatized and under-resourced communities. If you don’t know, I’m working on my Ph.D. in Couples and Family Therapy (same area as my M.A.) at the UofM and my primary research interest is systemic interventions for communities affected by mass, interpersonal traumatic events. If you aren’t familiar with northern Uganda you can find lots of info online (especially with the recent increased attention to Joseph Kony). I also highly recommend the documentary War Dance, which tells the story of three children affected by the LRA. The children in the documentary are Acholi – the same people with whom we will be working.