Documenting Uganda

Documentary Film Collective Website:
www.filmforchange.nl

Documentary Film:
www.tenminuteswithaformerchildsoldier.com

Experimental Documentary Film:
www.thisisnottheproblemoftheaudience.com

Short Film Series:
www.filmforchange.nl/pamela

Hey everyone,

It has been several weeks ago now since I last updated my blog, maybe already a month. So you can imagine that a number of things have happened since. The reason why it took so long is because I am kinda overloaded with projects and I didn’t have a lot of time to write the blog. But it is late at night now, I am not feeling sleepy and basically I am bored, so this is gonna be a long update to make up for the weeks that I didn’t send anything. First of all I think it is time that I give an update on all the different things that are occupying most of my time, in other words the projects that I am running.

1.      The main reason why I came to Northern Uganda this time was to write the biography about Nelson. Sofar we have many hours of interviews and I am positive that it is going to be a very interesting book. Nelson is very honest and open towards me. He tells me many details of his life as a child soldier and he also doesn’t portray himself any better than he was. We have a new system now in which he takes the voice recorder home with him and he records pieces of his story in solitude. This is a good system because now Nelson can take his time, he is not confronted by an interviewer and it saves me a lot of time as well. Usually after one week I listen to all the recordings and then we do an interview about all the remaining questions that I have. But it is interesting. I never dug so deep into somebody’s life before and certainly not a life as interesting as Nelson’s. The bad thing is that whenever Nelson tells his story, he sees everything what he is telling me playing as it is a movie and it is usually a trigger for horrible nightmares the following night. But this is unavoidable if we want to write the book and he also wants to have it written himself. He knows exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it for, so he is accepting the nightmares. I think another two weeks, and then I completely finished the research for the book. I will write it when I come back to the Netherlands. My personal deadline is that it should be finished by the end of September.

2.      Another major reason why I came to Northern Uganda was to record a documentary on child soldiering for secondary schools in the Netherlands as part of a project sponsored by Oxfam Novib. The documentary will be given to schools together with a booklet which contains much general information about child soldiering and some good assignments and questions for debate. The booklet is already finished, but the documentary has still to be recorded. So far I didn’t have much time to work on this project, but I will start with it this weekend and the recordings will take place around the 16^th of June. Yet, I have a clear idea on what I want to do. In the first chapter I want to explain a little bit about Uganda, the war in the North and the role that children played in this war, as they were the majority of combatants fighting for the LRA. In the first part will be short and I will give some time to former child soldiers to do their story. Now for the second part, that one will be more tricky to record. I want to make an interactive video, in which the viewer can decide how the movie will end. I want to take a anecdote of a former child soldier of a specific event that they went through in the bush. She will talk about this event in much detail, for example, the time she had to collect fire wood. Then after one or two minutes the movie stops and I will give the viewer the option of what he or she would do, if they were in the situation of the former child soldier. Would they collect the firewood or would they try to escape. Then the story continues in two ways. I want to repeat this several times, so that in the end, you get many different endings. I want to take parts that I have of existing stories to make the different stories, so that they will resemble true situations. The whole purpose this interactive part is to let people realize that gigantic decisions that are being made by child soldiers on a daily bases and the consequences that seemingly simple decisions can have. The purpose of the entire project, documentary and booklet, is to educate secondary school pupils about the fate of many of the age mates around the world and the gross and global human rights violations that are being committed against children.

3.      A third reason for why I came was because of the educational project that I am running with my foundation called the War Affected Children Fund (WACF). Currently, we have four orphans in schools. Three are in the first year of secondary school and one is in the last year of primary school. I wanted to record their stories for the donors and also to try to get more donors willing for to sponsor for this project. As you can see from the numbers, the project is still very small scale and I would like to extend it in the future. Some of the criticism that I received regarding this project is that it is a drop in the ocean and that it is hard to develop a whole country with a project like this. Honestly, I can’t deny this. It is indeed a drop in the ocean, but you can also look at this project in another way. In this project individuals in the western world can make a major improvement in the life of an otherwise complete chanceless child in a third world country. With an amount of 30 euro a month, you can give the meaning to a child’s life that thus far only knew misery. For example, Mary, one of the children that we are sponsoring. Her mother was abducted the rebel movement the LRA and raped continuously by a high commander. The commander impregnated her and nine months later Mary was born. She spend the first few years of her life in LRA captivity and around her she saw nothing but misery around her. After two years her mother escaped, taking Mary with her, and she came to live in an internal refugee camp. The mother was severely stigmatized because the community regarded her as a ‘former rebel’ and she had a very hard time to even get enough food for Mary and herself. Also Mary was severely stigmatized as she was regarded a rebel child and she was persistently bullied because of this. To be better able to care for Mary, her mother moved to the Northern capital Gulu where she engaged in unhealthy sexual relationships to be able to support Mary. It was her abusive husband that gave her HIV/AIDS and Mary’s mother died in 2007. Afterwards Mary had only her grandmother and grandfather to take care of her. The grandfather has Alzheimer and the grandmother is to old to take care of her. So she was completely alone and she had no hope in her life whatsoever. On the age of twelve she was contemplating suicide because she didn’t see a way forward in her life. But this has all changed now. Now, because of this sponsor program, she found new meaning in her life. She wants to become a nurse, she wants children and she wants to become somebody that can be meaningful to her surrounding community. I am sponsoring her together with a friend, so we are sharing the total costs and pay only 15 euro a month. I do this not to receive her gratitude, but just because it feels right. So if anybody is interested in sponsoring a child that without your help would have no access to any kind of education, contact me on the following email address: theWACF@gmail.com or my personal email address tbmhollander@gmail.com.

4.      The fourth project that I am running has just been implemented. Last week my parents came to visit me to see what I am doing here and before they came they told me that they wanted to do something meaningful in Northern Uganda and something which was in line with the organization that they are working for. Their organization is mainly working with diary farmers so the project had to be something with cows. Together with the War Affected Children Association, my partner organization and an organization I am partly working for, we came up with the idea to buy to oxen, one plough and some seeds for a community based organization (CBO) in Opit IDP camp so that they can generate an income. We worked the project out in detail and my parents started a fundraising campaign among their members. In total we got more then 3500 euro together and this enabled us to buy six oxen, three ploughs, almost 500 kilos of seeds, axes and machete’s for clearing land, and lots of other items. We set the project up for three regions in Northern Uganda and in every region two CBOs (consisting each out of 30 child mothers, formerly abducted and community members) would share the spoils of the project to generate an income. In total there are 180 direct beneficiaries and almost 1000 indirect beneficiaries. The CBOs managed to get a little more then nine hectares of land and they have enough seeds to cultivate every inch of it. With the ploughs and the oxen they are able to cultivate the land much more efficiently and they can stop producing for mere subsistence. We maybe found an organization ready to do the marketing for the groups and with the income that they generate with selling their crops, they can really invest in themselves and in their surrounding communities. The project last for one year, meaning that for one year we will pay for the medical costs of the animals and any other things which may arise. After one year the project should be completely self sustainable. We trained these groups last year in saving and investing. So under guidance of WACA they will invest the generated income in a smart way and earn more money in the future. With the extra income they can also send their children to school. We want to vastly extend this project in the future, so if anybody is interested in sponsoring this project, contact me on the same email addresses, theWACA@gmail.com or tbmhollander@gmail.com.     

5.      The last project I am working on is also in full cooperation with WACA. It is actually a WACA project but they want me to be the project manager. This project is the establishment of a War Memorial Centre to memorize the consequences of the 21 year insurgency in Northern Uganda. This project is the one closes to my hearth and if we succeed in getting funding for this project, I will go and live here for a long time. The memorial centre will be based in Gulu Municipality and it shall contain four different sections; a museum, an archive, a library/bookshop and a conference hall. The museum will educate its visitors about the insurgency and the effects it had on the local populations of Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan and it shall reach out to a wide public. The archive will contain the most elaborate documentation of testimonies ever to be undertaken so that the War and it dreadful consequences will never be forgotten. The library will contain the majority of books, articles and reports written on in the insurgency in both Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. And lastly, the conference hall shall be used for conferences, plays, peace concerts and other applications which will be inline with the general goals of the centre. The goals of this project are the following; (1) The memorial centre will be a monument for all those who have lost their lives or that of their loved-ones. (2) The memorial centre will give room for an elaborate documentation of testimonies and events, so that what has happened in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan will never be forgotten. (3) The memorial centre shall create a greater awareness about what happened during the twenty-one year insurgency by the LRA to all its visitors and through media attention. (4) The memorial centre will educate its visitors, be it students, pupils, researchers or the new generation of Northerners about the history of the war and the impact it had on the society. (5) The memorial centre shall be a tool for greater understanding and reconciliation so that both perpetrators and victims will have a better understanding of one another and will learn to life together again as a tight community. (6) The memorial centre will attract a tourist industry which will assist the further development of Northern regions. Currently, we are trying to establish a board of advisors with all the high profile people within Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. If this succeeds we will write the funding proposals and send them out. So fingers crossed.

6.      The last thing I am working on right now is trying to keep the dog of Lilly alive. Lilly is a Hungarian friend who has been here for long and she is now back to her country for a month, leaving me in charge of the dog. But the animal is really sick now and I am somehow doubting if it will be still alive when she comes back.

So, these are all the things that are keeping me busy. In the meantime of running these projects I went to Karamojong, and area in the north east of Uganda which is notorious for its violent tribe that engages in cattle rustling and where it is custom to rape your wife before marrying her. We (Lilly and Nicolas, an English friend) heard a lot of rumors about the Karamojong and we wanted to check if these rumors are true. Are people truly walking naked all the time, is it true that every single one of them is armed with a Kalashnikov, is it true that they rape their wives, is it true that they believe that in the beginning of time, god gave them all the cows in the world, so in effect, they are never stealing cows, but merely reclaiming them. To my big surprise many of these things actually turned out to be true. The religion is there, but Christianity is growing as well, so it is slowly dying out. We came just after a huge disarmament program of the government, but it was true that almost every single one of them was armed. We saw indeed many people who were butt naked, but only the ones under 20 years of age. We went to climb a mountain and within the mountains, quite far from the city, we found a typical Karamojong village. In the village we found only two people and one of them was an old lady. She indeed confirmed to whole raping story. So our little research was quite interesting. Lilly still has to photos, so unfortunately I cant include them. Actually, the most interesting part of this trip was the transport. We went with a bus to Maroto and from their we got a lift from a road construction team who were going close to Kotido, where we actually wanted to go. They told us that they could drop us off at the junction, and then we could get another transport to Kotido. But when we came to the junction we saw that it was in the middle of the desert, and there is nothing so unreliable in that part of Uganda as transport. Lilly and Nico wanted to get off to wait for the next transport, but after my whole dehydrating incident in Sudan, I wasn’t keen on getting off in the middle of the desert to wait for other transport which may come today, but could also come in more then a week. So instead, I persuaded the other to continue our way with the construction workers. The funny thing was that only the contractor know where we were going, and he was in another car. (we were sitting on the roof of one of those heavy sand trucks). So nobody knew where we were going and we drove for 5 hours without seeing a single soul or for that matter any other sign of civilization. Eventually we came to a village where they spoke Luo, so that was our first sign that we were maybe getting closer to Gulu again. From that village we got transport with a car to a very small town. Next morning we got transport with a cement truck for free, but it meant that Nico and I had to carry a lot of cement bags which are extremely heavy. Then they brought us to Abim, from where we got transport with an NGO to Pader. From there we found a charcoal truck that brought us to Kitgum where we slept for the night. Next morning we went back to Gulu with the morning buss. In short, was interesting.  

Last week my parents were here and I took a week of, but actually this week was more exhausting then any of the weeks before that. We drove for more than 3000 kilometres on really bad roads, but did a lot of interesting stuff. We went to see the gorilla’s in the south of Uganda, we saw the strongest waterfall in the world, did some game drives and then drove all the way north to implement the agricultural project. Was really interesting. I think they had the best time of their lives, only to come back with the sad news that a nephew of mine was not doing well and I heard yesterday that he died. So my sincerest condolences to all my family members at my fathers side.

I think I will leave it at this for this time. This update is already on five pages, and way to long. Sorry for making you read so much.

Ok, let me give you a quick and very short update. About the pictures, they are for the Oxfam project. Lauren (South African Lady who works for the project as well) needed them for a show to be held I think on the seventh of may. If you are interested to see this project, she will show three of the movies we made, somewhere in Amsterdam, contact her on lauren@smartcase.co.za. The lady you see on the pictures is Pamela, she is a formerly abducted and the main star of the three movies.

About me, I am extremely busy right now doing several projects. I hope I can do all the projects before I leave, if not, I might have to extend my stay, but let's see about that. The projects are doing all the research for the book, making a documentary for secondary schools, an agricultural project for formerly abducted (we are going to buy some ox's and plows for formerly abducted and childmothers and get some plots of land so that they can generate an income, the schooling project and a very large project which has to remain a secret until we secure the funding. At the same time I having a fight with a local bank to get some money back (more then a thousand euro, 120 euro which I send myself, and 1075 euro which another dutch lady send to waca) which they apparently lost. They are really the most unprofessional bank that I ever encountered in my life.

Next weekend I am going to Karamojong to record another documentary about cattle raiding, but more about that in my next update.

So I am doing fine. Extremely busy, but I like it that way. I will give you more info on a next update when I have more time.

Cheers and warm greetings from a very warm Uganda.

Hey everyone,

Blog Sudan 20

It has been a while ago since I updated the blog and a lot has happened here since. Before I start telling about my adventures in Sudan, let me first update you on the political situation here. As many of you have probably heard, Joseph Kony (leader of the LRA) has refused to sign the peace treaty. I heard on the radio that Museveni doesn't want to give up the peaceful negotiations and that he wants to give Kony a second chance, but it is clear to everybody (at least to all the expats, some locals still have a desperate hope that Kony will sign once the ICC withdraws the indictments) that Kony is not going to sign anything. Above all, it is still the big question if Museveni himself actually wants peace, as many people in power in Uganda gain a lot of money from this war. So, both sides were in peace negotiations, but the big question was if either of the sides actually wanted peace. For Kony it is clear that he doesn't want peace, for the government it is very unclear. They do look sincere.

About Kony, in the jungle he is the king. He has a harem of more than 30 wives and he has absolute power over his subordinates. If he would agree to sign the treaty, disarm and come back to Northern Uganda, he will be the most hated man of the country and it would probably not take long for the locals to kill him in the most brutal fashion imaginable. So he has no reason whatsoever to come out of the bush. So what does this mean for Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan? This is still the big question. When I went to Sudan we passed a gigantic army convoy, and it was clear that they weren't going on a holiday. When I reached Sudan we saw the same convoy passing us again, going into the direction were the LRA is supposed to be. So it is clear that the government is preparing for war again which could start any moment now. In the meantime, nobody knows what Kony has been doing for the last two years of peace negotiations and what the strength of his forces are. What is clear, is that Kony has tried to reorganize, retrain and look for new alliances in Chad and Central African Republic, where he is supposed to be residing now.

The good thing for Northern Uganda is that Southern Sudan, or New Sudan as they call it there, is under the rule of the SPLM, the former rebel movement that was in war with the government of Northern Sudan, and they were one of the principle enemies of the LRA. So the LRA has little chance of establishing bases in Southern Sudan again, without getting into a fullscale war with the SPLA (military wing of the SPLM). But they have bases in the Congo and Central African Republic and they are able to stage attacks from there onto Northern Uganda  For now it is still very unclear what will happen, but my guess is that we will find out in the weeks to come. Also, the peace in Sudan is still very fragile. The North and the South have signed a peace agreement in 2006, giving the South partial self rule. In 2011 there is supposed to be a referendum in Southern Sudan in which they can vote for independence, but it is unclear the they will actually reach this time without getting in a new war. For the moment there are many border disputes, both sides want all the places that have oil, and the conditions of the peace agreement are not implemented by the north. The question is how long the South will take this before picking up their arms. If they do, the North will again start supporting the LRA, which will mean that the whole region will be destabilized.

Thus, the bad thing is that war could start again any day from now, and that is really the last thing that the people of Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan need, having lived under war for more than twenty years, they really yearn for peace.

So, so much for the political update. When things become more clear, I will send another update. In case of any questions, email me at tbmhollander@gmail.com. So let me give you a more personal update. First of all, I shifted from my hotel in Gulu, to a house somewhere on the outskirts of Gulu. This is a place where all kind of NGO people and researchers live and it's really nice. It is a hell of a lot cheaper, and it has free internet, a lady that does the laundry and some people around to have fun with. Before I went to Sudan we were with more than ten people, but many left and now we are with five. Next week there are again two people leaving, but hopefully some new people will come to live with us. The girl that runs this place, called Lilly, is really cool. She is my age, has been in Africa for 3 years, in Uganda for 1 year and has some crazy stories to tell about all kind of adventures in Congo, Liberia, Ivory Coast, etc. Basically the bad places in Africa.

So, I think it is time to tell about my adventures in Southern Sudan. I went to Sudan last Saturday together with Nelson and a girl called Joyce and I stayed there for six days. I went with Nelson, to visit the places in his story and with Joyce, a girl that I met here in Gulu who is Sudanese, to visit her family. The difficulty of this trip was that there were different agenda's that people did not know about. Joyce was convinced we only went to see her family, which we did and which was one of the reasons we went, but she never knew that the other reason was to go to the places in Nelson's story. Nelson wanted to keep his identity as a former LRA rebel a total secret, because if people would have found out, we might have been in big trouble, up to the extend that Nelson might have been killed and I with him. So I only spoke with Nelson about his past when I was sure we were alone. When we entered Sudan, Joyce managed to get us through customs for free, with the story that I was her sponsorer and that we took her to Southern Sudan to bury her father, who just died a couple of days earlier (of course, this was a bogus story, but it helped us getting into Sudan without having to pay for the Visa). By the way, Joyce is a really strong and stubborn lady who doesn't take no for an answer. She is the kind of lady that you don't mess around with and she will negotiate with people as long as it takes to get things done. So that was cool. I like that in a lady, especially here in Uganda and Sudan, where women are supposed to be humble and respectful of men and act like subordinates to men. (sometimes, not by all men, women are seen more as a property than as human beings, and many adapt to that role, and take everything from there husbands, even the occasional beating. The price of a women can be established by the number of cows that people would give as a dowry (wedding gift); if she is really beautiful, she will cost more cows, but after paying the dowry of some cows, she is basically the husbands property).

Thus we entered Sudan and stayed for the night in a place called Nimole, just on the border. The next day we had to go to Magwi, which is the place where Joyce lives, and quite a distance from Nimole, To save on costs, (Sudan is extremely expensive, for transport you pay more than you do in Europe), Nelson and I went on a motorbike while Joyce waited for an open truck to take her. This trip was quite an adventure. We started on the moterbike which was really uncomfortable, but luckily after several kilometres a car stopped us. The man driving was heading for Juba and he decided to give us a lift up to the junction (the place were the road branches) to Magwi, which was almost an hour drive. From there we got the same motorbike again who took us on the worst road that I have seen in Africa thus far. The motorbike took us for 15 minutes, after which it got a flat tire and it had to go back. So we told the motor driver to fix the tire and come back for us, in the meantime, Nelson and I decided that we could walk, thinking that the place that we were going to was not all that far. So we continued walking in the middle of nowhere (I have never been so far in the middle of nowhere as this place, there were no people there for more than 20 miles, there were houses, but they were all burned down so people didn't live there anymore, they fled the war, there was only a very bad road, which we continued to follow. So, we were walking, we didn't know the place, we had no clue where we were going (luckily Nelson did remember the name of the place where we were going, I forgot) or how far it was, we were not sure if the motorbike would come back at all to pick us up (we had already paid the money) and worst of all, we didn't carry any water. For two long hours we walked under the burning sun and only now I know what thirst feels like. For the last hour my mind was on only one thing, water. It had rained a lot in that region and that were many puddles with brown and very dirty water and I was seriously contemplating to drink that water and running the risk of all kind of diseases, but I decided to only drink that as a very last resort. At a certain point I saw a mango tree in the bush with a lot of juicy mango's on it just very close to us, but the problem was, in Sourthern Sudan you don't stray from the main path, because especially the sides of the roads are full of landmines. But at this time I was so extremely thirsty that I was actually willing to take the risk and go for those mango's. While I was discussing with Nelson a way to get to those mango trees and minimizing the risk of stepping on a landmine, we heard a truck coming. We saw the truck and behind it was a Pajero (kind of Toyota). The truck passed us without taking us because it was overcrowded, but we managed to stop the Pajero and it took us to the next village, which was really far. There was no way on earth that I could have reached that place without water, Nelson probably could, but for me that was impossible. When we reached that village the driver of the Pajero realised how extremely thirsty we were, and he gave us some water, which was the best I ever tasted (although it was warm). From that place we managed to convince the driver of the open truck to take us to the next settlement, (we still had no idea on how far we had to go) and we didn't grow very popular by entering the truck. The truck was already overcrowded (there were at least 20 people on the truck and it was not a big truck) so everybody had to squeeze to let us on. People were of course very suprised to see a white man in the middle of nowhere, getting on a truck with them. (whenever people here see white people, they see money, so they cannot understand why I don't own a pajero myself) The truck took us on a really bad road up to the next settlement, and just before reaching there (which was again very, very far.......and to think that Nelson and I wanted to walk all the way to Magwi, even with enough water, it would have taken us more than two days) the motorbike caught up with us. The truck took us further to the next settlement and there it wanted 60 Sudanese pounds from us (which is almost 50 euro) We told him that was ridiculous and offert him 10.000 Ugandan shilling (equivalent to 5 Euro) instead. He wouldn't want to take the five euro so in the end we got on the motorbike without paying at all. From there we went straight to Magwi, which again, was very far. Five minutes after we reached Magwi, Joyce caught up with us. She came with a truck and after we left her behind in Nimole, she had waited for 2 hours to get transport, so we really delayed on our trip. So, afterwards we went to her place where Nelson and I had our own hut, Joyce cooked us some really nice food, we had a warm beer (there is no electricity in Magwi, meaning that there is no cold beer), played a game of poker and we went to bed.

The next day we went around Magwi, which is a really beautiful village (they called it a town, it is actually the district headquater, and I think the district is almost the size of Belgium). It is located inbetween some very beautiful mountains (see the picture of the women with the big jerry can on her head with the mountain behind, that is Magwi) and to my suprise, it is very green en fertile. I expected it to be almost desert like. That same day we went to Palataka. Initially, I was supposed to drive the motorbike (I convinced the owner of the motorbike that I could drive a motorcycle) because again, this was the cheaper option because in this way we didnt have to pay for the driver, and we could go on only one bike, since one bike can carry three people. So I took a long test run and I actually learned how to drive a motorbike on some really bad roads. It is like riding a bicycle, really easy. But when I came back from my test drive we saw that the fuel was leaking, so we couldn't take the bike. Nobody else wanted to rent their bikes without driving themselves, so we went with two professional drivers. In retrospect, I am reeaallly happy that I didn't drive the motorbike. People told me that the road to Palataka is bad, but I could never have suspected it was THAT bad. I can drive a motorbike now on a OK road, but this road resembled more one of these gliding things that you see at swimming pools (glijbaan) than an actual road. The ground was this red clay, and since it rained the whole day, it was extremely slippery. I was on one bike with Joyce and Nelson was on another bike. Nelson actually fell down twice, while he was driving with a professional driver, so there was no way that I could have actually driven on that road. Luckily, our driver did not fall. After almost two hours we reached Palataka, where there used to be an LRA camp. Nelson was stationed there when he came to Southern Sudan with the LRA. It was actually very clear that there used to be war in the area surrounding Palataka, as the place is full with burned out vehicles, tanks that are blown up, artillery equipment that is broken down, bullet shells everywhere on the ground, mortars lying around and landmines placed everywhere. Palataka used to be a missionary station, build in 1944 and it was actually the only place in Sudan where I saw decent buildings. But those buildings were half destroyed by the war. It was unfortunate that I couldn't do an interview with nelson on that location (there was no way we could do that without revealing his identity as a former rebel), so instead I found a village elder who explained to me what had happened here and I did manage to film the whole place. After spending little more than an hour in Palaka, we went back to Magwi. The same bad road, but we managed. At night a game of poker, warm beer, some nice food, and back to bad.

Next day we wanted to go to Pajok, where Nelson staged a big attack, but going there was to expensive. They charged us more then 70 Euro per person to go there, so we decided to stay in Magwi, and actually decided to go back the following day, since everything was to expensive. We spend the day walking around in Magwi, at night some warm beers, good food, poker and back to bed. In the evening Joyce got into contact with some people from the UNHCR (which seems to be the only working organization around Sudan, somehow there are very few NGOs in Sudan, while Uganda is overcrowded by NGOs, and Sudan has suffered the same, if not more, by the war with the LRA), and they were going to repatriate 600 refugees to Pajok the next day. These refugees had lived in Uganda for the past 15 to 20 years and after this long time they finally went back to there hometowns. We managed to get a lift from the UNHCR and they took us to Pajok for free. This whole ordeal was quite interesting. We went with a convoy of about 15 trucks on the worst road imaginable (it was the same road to Palataka, but after passing Palataka we still had a long way to go). It took us a really long time to reach, because the trucks constantly got stuck, and then we had to pull them out again. Somewhere on the road there was a very large three over the road (see the picture), and we stopped for more than an hour to get the three out of the way. All in all, it took us more then 6 hours to reached Pajok. Once there the unloading of the refugees and all their belongings took place. Really interesting to see and to bad that these things never reach to news. Whenever refugees are fleeing a conflict zone you can always see them on the BBC, but when they come back after 20 years of suffering in refugee camps, nobody cares. This was a clear sign of the good work that the UN is doing in Africa. I filmed Pajok with Nelson, but again we couldnt do an interview. This was the place where Nelson went in with about 80 LRA warriors, all newly trained, and they had to defeat a camp of 200 SPLA veterans. All the LRA warriors were instructed to cut off the balls of their enemies to prove that they were victorious. Out of the 80 people, only 30 made it back in one piece. Nelson cut what he needed to cut, and after a 3 day walk they came back to Palataka where the main camp was. A few months later Palataka came under a serious attack and the LRA was chased away from there. (Ok, this is a really long story, I think you can read more about this when I finish my book and when it gets published)

The next day to UN gave us a lift again to Nimole, but before reaching Nimole we had to go out of the vehicle, because they are not allowed to take on hitchhikers and the big boss was coming in their direction. So we waited for more than an hour, in the meantime we were harrased by drunk soldiers who wanted my passport (which I never gave) and finally we got a truck to took us to Nimole and from there we took a bus that brought us back to Gulu. Where we had some good food, and afterwards I went to bed early.

Yesterday was also interesting. I was called by Klaas (a Dutch friend who is residing here as well) that they needed someone who could operate a camera for a wedding, so I went to the ceremony to cover the wedding and afterwards there was the wedding party. The family I was with is the most powerful Acholi family and probably also the most  or at least one of the most powerful family in the whole of Uganda. There were ambassadors (the Ugandan ambassador to Russia), big bankers, the head of the police for entire northern Uganda, an very high figure in the secret service, etc, etc. At the party they fed me some good European food and afterwards they were getting me completely drunk on Waragi, a local gin. I think I did a lot of good networking yesterday and now I am a friend to one of the most important families in Uganda, which can always come in handy.

I think this should be more than enough for the moment. I can tell much more, but this message is already way to long. Later today I will put some pictures, so that you can see the places and the burned out vehicles yourself.

Have a very nice weekend.

Theo

Hey Peoples,

This will be a short update. I am back in Kenya for already a couple of days. This morning my sister took her plane back to the Netherlands. Me, I will still stay a few days in Kenya, maybe until friday and then I will go back to Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. So from here on, I am on my own.

The last few days were really nice. On wednesday we went to Lake Nakuru national park. Saw a lot of animals, many rhino's, monkeys, buffalo's, all kind of antilophes, etc. The next day we went to Masai Mara, but that was a bit of a disappointment. The last time I was there, there were literally millions of animals. But this time they were all in Tanzania. The migration towards Kenya still has to start. We did see some lions, elephants, giraffes and other animals, but we sometimes drove around for more then an hour without seeing anything. It was supposed to be a three day trip, but we decided to skip a day and went back to Nairobi. The most exciting thing of this trip was actually on the way to masai Mara. We were driving from Nakuru towards Naivasha, when we suddenly saw an airplane coming towards us, flying really, really low. While it was approaching us we figured out that it was trying to land on the highway. It probably had some mechanical problems. The problem was the the highway is a very bussy road. The plane flew straight over us and just missed us by less then 5 metres. We couldn't see what happened next because the plane flew past a hill outside our view, and in Masai Mara are no newspapers. Later I asked people in Nairobi what happened, but it hadn't appeared on the news. So no idea how this story ended.

Yesterday we went to hellgate national park. This area was truly beautiful. Next time I will try to post some photo's. Hellsgate is a place with beautiful gorges and cliffs, created by a volcanic eruptions. The first part we did on a bicycle (which drove my sis to pure exhaustion), the second part we walked with a guide. Especially the second part was magical. This is probably to most beautiful piece of nature I have ever seen, and my sis concurred. Among others, movies like tombraider, the Sean Connery gorilla movie (forgot the name) have been recorded here. Even before the guide told us this Yvonn said that she had the feeling that she was walking in an Indiana Jones movie. Was also the first time I walked on quick sand (not very deep quick sand, so it was safe), very strange experience. We walked for a while through the gorge, and afterwards we climbed it, and we came to the most beautiful view point I ever saw. On our bicycle ride back we passed giraffes, cape buffalo's and loads of antilophes. Really nice. I am definately going back there when I come back to Kenya. Oh, almost forgot, one funny detail. When we were driving to Hellsgate national park, we were in a really fucked up mini bus. Several times the driver stopped, did something with the front wheel, and then we continued. When we saw the sign of hellsgate park I told my sister that I was really happy that I didn't have to drive any further with this piece of shit. So the bus pulled aside to let us out, and exactly on that moment the front ass broke and the entire tire collapsed from underneath the vehicle. Luckily, we reached our destination, the rest of the passengers still had a long way to go. When we came back from the park, the mini bus was still there.

Thats all from me for now. I wish everybody the best.

Cheers,

Again a long time ago since we last updated our blog. Sorry for that, we have been too busy.  Many things have changed since the last time I updated it. The most significant change is that our entire crew is now here, meaning Lauren and Florian and we have started and almost finished filming!!! The other change is that Michelle and I are not researchers anymore, but rather filmmakers, a cool change. Apart from making being a film maker I am also working hard on the Norman story for the biography. (And Michelle says I  can’t multi-task, look at me multi tasking!!).

But lets start from the beginning. The day I last updated the blog was the day that Michelle went to pick up Florian and the both of them went to Sippi Falls for a romantic weekend, leaving me all alone in Gulu. (Boehoe) Kidding, I had a great time those three days, started very long and extensive interviews with Norman of four hours a day. On saturday I really needed to take a break and took the WACA guys (Geoffrey, Victor, Norman and Lucky Lucy) to Karuma Falls, a waterfall in the Nile, where we took a swim in a very short distance from some hippos. (see the pictures) I though that that might have not been one of the best ideas, but the fisherman who were standing there said it was fine, and they probably know better. We had a very long walk that day and actually that was the first time I went out to see some nice nature in the past 2 and a half month. It was also another nice ‘bonding’ experience with the WACA guys and with my research subject Mr. Norman. Next day I went to Kampala.

In the meanwhile Michelle and Florian had a really nice trip in Sippi. This is a mountainous area in the east of Uganda, nearing the Kenyan border. They stayed in a very nice, but expensive lodge, with nice food, wine, etc, being all romantic and stuff. Check out the pics. 

While in backpackers I got some stomach issues again (happens to all of us once in a while, I think this is inevitable here in Africa). Last two weeks we all had our days that we felt like shit, ending this morning with me having a terrible hangover. On monday I met up with Florian and Michelle in backpackers. Next day we went to pick up our last whity, Lauren, and now the group is complete. We spend the whole of Tuesday and wednesday discussing the concept of the movie.

For Florian and Lauren it has been a very intense experience. In the first few days Michelle and I were rushing them through everything, giving them no time to reflect or properly see things. So after two days we took it a little bit easier. One thing that stood out for example was the time we went to pick up Grace who lives in a sort of slummy area. We parked the car (we rented a very nice four wheel drive car) in a very strange spot in the middle of a very dark area where we waited for Grace to come, which took a while. In the meantime hundreds of people were passing us and everybody was staring in the car, people are not used to white people in fancy cars in the middle of that area. So, naturally, especially for Lauren, coming from South Africa where car raids are daily news, but also for Florian this was quite a scary experience. Michelle and I never saw that this could have that impact on them. This is just one example, there were many more. So after two days we had a discussion and decided to take things a little bit slower.

So the first days in Kampala were marked by a lot of difficult discussions, but also a lot of fun. We found out that there were many conflicting ideas, so these discussions were not always very easy. But we also had a lot of fun.

On thursday, after interviewing Stella on film, which we are not going to use, since our concept changed, we drove to Gulu. Damn that took us a long time. With a big bus and a very crazy bus driver it takes you only four hours. But we forgot that a small car has small tires and the potholes are very many. I never realised that this road was so bad. We left Kampala at five, and reached Gulu at half past one in the night, so we missed the other Lauren (classmate) birthday. Driving here is very cool though. We have had several times that we were almost thinking of turning round because the roads are very bad. But our four by four can handle more than we expect.  

In Gulu our many discussions continued, but instead of quarrelling we decided to stick our brilliant heads together to come up with a new concept which combined all our differences and still satisfied all of us. Now we have one and a half brilliant concepts. One is a very honest movie about one girl, called Pamela, combining all our different interest, and making a movie that is very contrasting. This one is already executed. The other one is still in the process of being made. It is already a great concept, but it needs some fine tuning to make it stronger. So tonight we will have a long discussion about it, which will continue tomorrow. By Friday we should start filming it.

Apart from our heavy discussions we also have a lot of fun together. Last saturday we celebrated Michelles birthday. We had to plan to go the Murchison Falls, but unfortunately all hostels were booked. So instead we first went to the swimming pool to bake in the sun, and afterwards we went to Karuma Falls, with our gifts to Michelle, a bottle of wine and a bottle of Baileys. This was very nice, as you can see from the pictures. Apart from this we had many laughs under the pleasure of a Nile or Tusker (the local beer) and cigarettes on our doorstep and in the fancy places in town. Yesterday Michelle and I did our last interview for our thesis, tomorrow we go to some IDP camps, and the days afterwards are for filming. Then on the 31^st me and Lauren will go back (unless we have to extend our tickets for the film) and Michelle and Florian might extend their tickets for another 10 days. 

It is a long time ago since we have last updated our blog. Much has happened since. First of all the rainy season has begun, it actually begun the night we last updated our blog. Most of the time it’s dry, but when it rains, it really rains. But that’s fine, it cools things down a bit. The temperature is about 30 degrees in average, not 38, like it was when we first got here. We could tell you more about the weather, but we don’t want to bore you to death.

Our research is going really well. So far we (Michelle and Theo) have interviewed 8 girls who have been child soldiers in the LRA, and with some of them we did follow up interviews. We will do life history interviews with 10 girls in total. 

The stories they tell us are all horrific. Most of them were abducted when they were very young, all one of them have undergone military training and almost all of them have been forcefully married to a commander and raped many, many times. To quote one girl: “I never liked what he did to me. Never, not even once. He was older than my father and very big. The things he did to me were really painful and I had some real problems. And I was still very young (10 years old).”

A girl that we interviewed the day before yesterday told us how she had seen her father being beaten to death by the LRA and her mother being cut into little pieces on the night of her abduction. And then she went on and told us how she herself was almost beaten to death with a panga (knife). Her story was really painful. She told us how she was raped and beaten up. But she also had a story that showed remarkable strength. She told us how she was the sole provider of her two children and her younger brother and sister when she came back from the bush, and how she started her own business from scratch.

You can tell on their faces that it is really painful for them to tell us their stories, but we tryto handle this in a very sensitive way. We always give them the opportunity to stop the interview at any time, or to change the subject. Sometimes when the body language really shows that they are suffering, we tell them that we are willing to stop the interview, but apparently they want to tell their stories to us, or they adhere too much to their culture in which it seems that it is considered rude to say no. The hardest part of asking all these questions is that we know that in their minds, they will see everything that they are talking about in a very vivid way. It is like a movie that is playing in front of them. Usually the girls have something in their hands, a scarf for example, which they totally tear apart while they are telling their stories.

Yet, there are also many questions that we ask them that make them glow with pride. Most of them like to talk about their escape. We asked one woman if the LRA made her a stronger person. We formulated the question in the following way: ‘since you survived that hell, do you feel that you can basically handle anything that you will ever come across in the rest of your life?’ She confirmed this idea and said she felt like a real hero, and she glowed with pride while she said this. It is great to see the pride on their faces while they are telling these ‘positive’ stories.

So with the stories of complete horror, come stories of extreme strength. Sometimes it is very hard to listen to these stories, but at the same time it is also very inspiring. It makes you start to wonder why we call certain problems a problem (I don’t have money to go to the bar tonight). But I guess you have to see it in the context of where we are living. 

We will continue the research for another two weeks, and then we should have all the data that we need to write our theses. After this Theo will do a three day very heavy and very in-depth life history interview with Norman for the biography that he wants to write and Michelle is going to Kampala to pick up her boyfriend who is also our cameraman for the documentary.

We might soon have some very good news regarding the documentary. Oxfam hasn’t given us their final word, but the women analysing our project has approved it, giving us 2000 Euro more then we asked for (making it 20.000 in total). It is now in the hands of her superiors to approve this project. If they do (fingers crossed), we are going to record the documentary in the way we want to. Two or three days after Florian (Michelles boyfriend) arrives, Lauren will come to direct the movie. Then we have slightly more than a week to do all the recordings, but we can extend it if we need to. The good thing is that we don’t need to spend this week building trust, we have already done this. After this we want to travel for a week to see the genocide memorial sites in Rwanda, do some wild water rafting on the White Nile, and climb some volcanos in Rwanda, Uganda or Congo. Then we will go back to the Netherlands…except for Florian and Michelle that will continue their travels through the beautiful continent of Africa (ok…hopefully! Depending on if Michelle can move her ticket!) 

So far we have many ideas to give our film a very interesting focus. The focus will be about these women who have survived the LRA and who are now picking up their lives again with a strength that is hard to imagine. But the exact film plan is still to be made. We will give our ideas to Lauren and Florian, who will work out a story and the way we are going to record it. But what is sure is that we strife to make a story that is not representing a negative story about negative experiences, but a story about unimaginable strength being born out of negative experiences.

This was pretty much what we had to say, for now. No funny stories this time about us crashing on a boda boda. We did go to Kampala for a few days were we met some friends of Rens, our classmate, but we were not in a bus accident or anything. We think our karma is getting better. One bit of news that I thought is kind of amusing; Michelle has new malaria pills that make her very sensitive to the sun, not a good thing in the middle of Africa very near to the equator. Another thing that I find amusing is the fact that Michelle gets bitten by tons of mosquito's every night, while she is spraying herself with anti musquito repellant and she uses a mosquito net, I do neither of these things and I never get bitten. The mosquitos don't like me. Apart from this, there is not much news. Were both still alive and kicking.

Oh! Wait! We have been trying to pick a fight with each other for over two weeks now because we live together 24-7, sharing the same room and we realised that we hadn’t even had an argument once. So far we did not succeed, but we will keep on trying!

It is a long time ago since we have last updated our blog. Much has happened since. First of all the rainy season has begun, it actually begun the night we last updated our blog. Most of the time it’s dry, but when it rains, it really rains. But that’s fine, it cools things down a bit. The temperature is about 30 degrees in average, not 38, like it was when we first got here. We could tell you more about the weather, but we don’t want to bore you to death.

Our research is going really well. So far we (Michelle and Theo) have interviewed 8 girls who have been child soldiers in the LRA, and with some of them we did follow up interviews. We will do life history interviews with 9 girls in total. 

The stories they tell us are all horrific. Most of them were abducted when they were very young, all one of them have undergone military training and almost all of them have been forcefully married to a commander and raped many, many times. To quote one girl: “I never liked what he did to me. Never, not even once. He was older than my father and very big. The things he did to me were really painful and I had some real problems. And I was still very young (10 years old).”

A girl that we interviewed the day before yesterday told us how she had seen her father being beaten to death by the LRA and her mother being cut into little pieces on the night of her abduction. And then she went on and told us how she herself was almost beaten to death with a panga (knife). Her story was really painful. She told us how she was raped and beaten up. But she also had a story that showed remarkable strength. She told us how she was the sole provider of her two children and her younger brother and sister when she came back from the bush, and how she started her own business from scratch.

You can tell on their faces that it is really painful for them to tell us their stories, but we tryto handle this in a very sensitive way. We always give them the opportunity to stop the interview at any time, or to change the subject. Sometimes when the body language really shows that they are suffering, we tell them that we are willing to stop the interview, but apparently they want to tell their stories to us, or they adhere too much to their culture in which it seems that it is considered rude to say no. The hardest part of asking all these questions is that we know that in their minds, they will see everything that they are talking about in a very vivid way. It is like a movie that is playing in front of them. Usually the girls have something in their hands, a scarf for example, which they totally tear apart while they are telling their stories.

Yet, there are also many questions that we ask them that make them glow with pride. Most of them like to talk about their escape. We asked one woman if the LRA made her a stronger person. We formulated the question in the following way: ‘since you survived that hell, do you feel that you can basically handle anything that you will ever come across in the rest of your life?’ She confirmed this idea and said she felt like a real hero, and she glowed with pride while she said this. It is great to see the pride on their faces while they are telling these ‘positive’ stories.

So with the stories of complete horror, come stories of extreme strength. Sometimes it is very hard to listen to these stories, but at the same time it is also very inspiring. It makes you start to wonder why we call certain problems a problem (I don’t have money to go to the bar tonight). But I guess you have to see it in the context of where we are living. 

We will continue the research for another two weeks, and then we should have all the data that we need to write our theses. After this Theo will do a three day very heavy and very in-depth life history interview with Norman for the biography that he wants to write and Michelle is going to Kampala to pick up her boyfriend who is also our cameraman for the documentary.

We might soon have some very good news regarding the documentary. Oxfam hasn’t given us their final word, but the women analysing our project has approved it, giving us 2000 Euro more then we asked for (making it 20.000 in total). It is now in the hands of her superiors to approve this project. If they do (fingers crossed), we are going to record the documentary in the way we want to. Two or three days after Florian (Michelles boyfriend) arrives, Lauren will come to direct the movie. Then we have slightly more than a week to do all the recordings, but we can extend it if we need to. The good thing is that we don’t need to spend this week building trust, we have already done this. After this we want to travel for a week to see the genocide memorial sites in Rwanda, do some wild water rafting on the White Nile, and climb some volcanos in Rwanda, Uganda or Congo. Then we will go back to the Netherlands…except for Florian and Michelle that will continue their travels through the beautiful continent of Africa (ok…hopefully! Depending on if Michelle can move her ticket!) 

So far we have many ideas to give our film a very interesting focus. The focus will be about these women who have survived the LRA and who are now picking up their lives again with a strength that is hard to imagine. But the exact film plan is still to be made. We will give our ideas to Lauren and Florian, who will work out a story and the way we are going to record it. But what is sure is that we strife to make a story that is not representing a negative story about negative experiences, but a story about unimaginable strength being born out of negative experiences.

This was pretty much what we had to say, for now. No funny stories this time about us crashing on a boda boda. We did go to Kampala for a few days were we met some friends of Rens, our classmate, but we were not in a bus accident or anything. We think our karma is getting better. One bit of news that I thought is kind of amusing; Michelle has new malaria pills that make her very sensitive to the sun, not a good thing in the middle of Africa very near to the equator. Apart from this, there is not much news. Were both still alive and kicking.

Oh! Wait! We have been trying to pick a fight with each other for over two weeks now because we live together 24-7, sharing the same room and we realised that we hadn’t even had an argument once. So far we did not succeed, but we w