In Gulu, Uganda

Hi to all!

I have safely arrived to Northern Uganda with my classmates from the University of Notre Dame International Peace Studies program. We have a house on the outskirts of downtown Gulu- the second largest city in Uganda after the capital, Kampala. The city is quickly growing since the conflict has calmed down and many NGOs have sprung up to help people with their rebuilding efforts.

I will be starting work tomorrow at the Human Rights Focus (HURIFO)- a local organization that works with human rights, everything from training paralegals to documenting abuses. I will write more when I have a better idea about what my role will be in their work. I will also be developing a research question to explore while here for the next 6 months.

We have quite a nice house, though when we arrived it was empty of an furnishings and the electricity was not hooked up. After a week we are pretty well equiped, and are just waiting on closets in our rooms to really be able to settle in. We have spent the week doing orientation- learning the local language (Acholi), learning about the conflict and the role of NGOs, discussing local ethics related to our research... we took a field trip yesterday up north a bit to a former site of slave trading. It was really interesting to get out into the country side- I hope to be able to post photos soon.

We managed to get wireless in our home- but its not cheap! and its not unlimited, it costs more to download and upload attachments... so we are all hoping to upload photos once we are at work.

I feel as though I am already learning a great deal, and am looking forward to starting my work with HURIFO.

Karin