well, I've been pretty bad about posting this past month, but i figure it is better to spend time enjoying my life then spending time writing about it, right? that said, my last two weeks in Arua were great -- i loved working with NRC despite the really intense areas of work and desperation I've been looking at. had the chance to make some new good friends at the last minute, and build stronger relationships with those who, by the end of my five months there, i could call old friends. in so much that i had not one, but three official going away events. a friday night at oasis, with all the proper NGOs in town being represented, a dinner party at Per-Olaf and Jelena's, and a proper farewell at 'The Indian'. It was great that Phil was present to meet all these folk and have a slight glimpse at where I've been living working this year...the next point to mention is that PHIL IS IN UGANDA! yay! it was a bittersweet departure from arua, but his presence and our travel plans certainly made it more palatable.
More details/photos/memories/feelings will have to come when i'm not at an internet cafe in mbarara.
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Again, at an internet cafe in Mbarara, after darting to reach a Western Union by 12:30 on a Saturday, I can write with a bit of ease. Bank calamity has been partially absolved. Not worth posting details - hakuna matata, right? I'm sure Phil is sick of me telling him things along this vain, but hey, "This is Africa" (please pardon my use of the worst quote ever). But hey! This IS Africa!! Tuesday we reached Murchison Falls, where we stayed at a lovely hotel (with bad bad bad operating procedures and horribly annoying missionaries that were singing far too frequently...) on the south bank of the Nile River. A few game drives yielded spottings of buffalo, uganda kob, birds a plenty, antelop, bush buck, etc. The highlight of the visit was the River Boat launch, where crocodiles smiled widely, and lounging Hippos burped frequently as we cruised up towards the base of the tremendous falls. Actually, that wasn't the highlight -- the visit to the top of the falls was! absolutely incredible. photos will have to explain further.
From Murchison we headed southwest, via Hoima, to Queen Elizabeth National Park - the park harbouring the greatest diversity in the country. We stayed at Jacana Lodge - a gorgeous gem with a fullboard price that nearly rivaled my salary for the past five months. Yesterday we started with a game drive at 6:30 AM - spotting multiple prides of lions, elephants, kob, etc - before chimp trekking at the Kyambura gorge, and then heading with a packed lunch to the Kazinga Channel for a river cruise and ending the day with a drive through the crater lake salt mining fields. All fantastic, with little much I can say -- you know how I do. Photos are a must. Until greater bandwidth exists, i'll keep you waiting!
Proceeding to Lake Bunyonyi now, Rwanda (GORILLAS!!!) on Monday, down to Kigali, and back to Kampala by Friday. A quick tour for Phil through K'la's hotspots before he leaves for Dubai on Sunday, and I head to Nairobi...
hope your trails are as fruitfull as mine! XOXO.
07 July 2007
02 July 2007
World Refugee Day, June 20 backlog
World Refugee Day was a hoot. I'm delighted to say that I'm finally being paid, AS A CONSULTANT(!), to make art with refugee kids, and it came completely by surprise! When work with CARE collapsed I found my networking skills to be in top form as I was quickly offered a short contract with Norwegian Refugee Council to help look at their current legal cases and see what issues were regularly emerging, in order to stream line their engagement.
As it would turn out a severe budget cut for this operating year meant looking at the caseload and trying to find ways of attracting more donor funding, i.e. figuring out what can really pull at the heartstrings of government wallets, i.e. child protection. Given my background, the upcoming World Refugee Day (really a day that is meant to bring to the attention of the west/global north the plight of the displaced, and NOT a celebration of refugees themselves...), and the appeal that child-focused projects have to donors, I was asked to coordinate NRC's activities for the seventh annual World Refugee Day. This involved my participation as the NRC representative to the UNHCR committee organizing the various aspects of the WRD events as well as the orchestration of the specific work of NRC for the big day.
This year UNHCR had no official theme for the day, nor did the country of Uganda, yet somehow both had unofficial themes, the former being 'Repatriation' (as refugees at individual settlements across West Nile are all in the process of voluntary repatriation to south Sudan), and the latter - which was later determined to be completly NOT even an unofficial theme, but an art exhibit in Kampala at the time - 'The World Through the Eyes of the Refugee Child'. These two themes - to me - shouted 'Let the kids talk about their feelings through pictures!' and not 'Lets have another long, dry speech that fulfills classic Ugandan protocol of special events.' Thankful NRC heard the same thing!
After mobilizing appropriate resources (tempera paints, white kitenge, bananas, school teachers, etc) an action plan was in place - one primary school class and one secondary school class would participate in a collaborative project that helped them look at their own feelings about returning to Sudan and also thinking about how to share this information (as individuals and as part of a group) with other people.
Serge, Tove, Jonas and I created a masterpiece of a banner the night before I headed to Imvepi settlement with a Landcruiser full of NRC legal and information officers, bottled water, art supplies, and recording equiptment. About three hours behind schedule we began the art classes - as a facilitator I guided the NRC counselors/officers as art teachers for the day to help the students ease into the idea of being communicative artists. We started with self portraits, looking at what you can tell someone else about yourself by putting your emotions onto paper, before dividing into groups, one covering the topic of home and the other, the topic of repatriation.
We wrapped up the session by working together to finish the banner/mural that was started the day before, to represent the students' ability to work together to create something of shared value, that demonstrates a collective voice of refugee children. At the same time some students gave short monologues about their feelings on returning home to Sudan, a place where some of the students had never actually been.
Group painting:
New friends:
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
A few more photos ...
Wednesdays actitivities were enjoyable but never ending. With a total of about 15 speeches, I have to say the NRC presentation took the cake (maybe after the Ding Ding dancers from Madi-Okolo...).
The day started with a football match, first between refugee youth teams, and then between refugee adults and a team composed of different UNHCR implementing partners (including NRC, DED, RTP). The partners lost (someone argued for political reasons, but i must comment that DAMN those Sudanese are serious about football).
Implementing partners football team:
Football:
Watching the Match:
Acholi dancers from Madi Okolo:
I've been so fortunate to have had the opportunities with NRC; it was a real surpise blessing/life making lemondade/silver lining of the CARE work falling through. Reading through case files, helping look for child-protection issues, field work, etc, has offered a (albeit slight) solid look at refugee work in the field...quite interesting to say the least!
As it would turn out a severe budget cut for this operating year meant looking at the caseload and trying to find ways of attracting more donor funding, i.e. figuring out what can really pull at the heartstrings of government wallets, i.e. child protection. Given my background, the upcoming World Refugee Day (really a day that is meant to bring to the attention of the west/global north the plight of the displaced, and NOT a celebration of refugees themselves...), and the appeal that child-focused projects have to donors, I was asked to coordinate NRC's activities for the seventh annual World Refugee Day. This involved my participation as the NRC representative to the UNHCR committee organizing the various aspects of the WRD events as well as the orchestration of the specific work of NRC for the big day.
This year UNHCR had no official theme for the day, nor did the country of Uganda, yet somehow both had unofficial themes, the former being 'Repatriation' (as refugees at individual settlements across West Nile are all in the process of voluntary repatriation to south Sudan), and the latter - which was later determined to be completly NOT even an unofficial theme, but an art exhibit in Kampala at the time - 'The World Through the Eyes of the Refugee Child'. These two themes - to me - shouted 'Let the kids talk about their feelings through pictures!' and not 'Lets have another long, dry speech that fulfills classic Ugandan protocol of special events.' Thankful NRC heard the same thing!
After mobilizing appropriate resources (tempera paints, white kitenge, bananas, school teachers, etc) an action plan was in place - one primary school class and one secondary school class would participate in a collaborative project that helped them look at their own feelings about returning to Sudan and also thinking about how to share this information (as individuals and as part of a group) with other people.
Serge, Tove, Jonas and I created a masterpiece of a banner the night before I headed to Imvepi settlement with a Landcruiser full of NRC legal and information officers, bottled water, art supplies, and recording equiptment. About three hours behind schedule we began the art classes - as a facilitator I guided the NRC counselors/officers as art teachers for the day to help the students ease into the idea of being communicative artists. We started with self portraits, looking at what you can tell someone else about yourself by putting your emotions onto paper, before dividing into groups, one covering the topic of home and the other, the topic of repatriation.
Hard at Work:
Day of drawing:
Some of the results were expected; women with Jerrycans, mango trees, flags, school houses. Others were startling: landminds detonating, UNHCR convoys catching on fire, people murdering with pangas, empty fields that used to have villages and have been left in ruins. The students began so quitely but poured so much extreme emotion into their creations --
We wrapped up the session by working together to finish the banner/mural that was started the day before, to represent the students' ability to work together to create something of shared value, that demonstrates a collective voice of refugee children. At the same time some students gave short monologues about their feelings on returning home to Sudan, a place where some of the students had never actually been.
Group painting:
New friends:
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
A few more photos ...
Old Sudanese Scarification:
New Sudan license plate:
Parking Lot:
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
New Sudan license plate:
Parking Lot:
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
Wednesdays actitivities were enjoyable but never ending. With a total of about 15 speeches, I have to say the NRC presentation took the cake (maybe after the Ding Ding dancers from Madi-Okolo...).
The day started with a football match, first between refugee youth teams, and then between refugee adults and a team composed of different UNHCR implementing partners (including NRC, DED, RTP). The partners lost (someone argued for political reasons, but i must comment that DAMN those Sudanese are serious about football).
Implementing partners football team:
Football:
Watching the Match:
Some prayers, welcome songs, and introductions later the first dramatic presentation was great, despite that I couldn't really follow what the Congolese drama group was really talking about....
Congolese Drama:
Audience:
Audience:
Around three o'clock the youth from the NRC project began their presenation -- six individuals described their picture, what they felt about the theme, and what the image meant to them. The other students from the group carried the poster of images and showcased the work to the broad audience, before parading the group banner.
Images on Display
Students presenting on WRD:
Drawing of repatriation //Kennedy smiling brothers greeting each other
Full banner with kids:
Overall I think the activity was really rewarding, both helping the students' think more thoroughly about what they can do to tell the world how they feel, and in terms of helping them accept that it is ok to have a wide range of feelings and responses to the different experiences they must face. Plus, it was fun.
As I said, the only perfermance that may have outshown us were these cultural dances from visitors from Madi-Okolo. Check it out for yourself:
Ding ding dancers
Acholi dancers from Madi Okolo:
I've been so fortunate to have had the opportunities with NRC; it was a real surpise blessing/life making lemondade/silver lining of the CARE work falling through. Reading through case files, helping look for child-protection issues, field work, etc, has offered a (albeit slight) solid look at refugee work in the field...quite interesting to say the least!
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