The first day in Karamoja

The reason for the Karamoja trip was to handle two projects. For the first project Thore needed to make a handover of the reintegration of street children to the community based organization in Karamoja. When you drive through Kampala inner city you come upon street children running up to the car begging for money. The project entailed reintegrating these street children back to where they belong. Around 780 families were relocated back to Karamoja by ADRA.  Furthermore they received aid in forms of training in health matters, adult literacy and agriculture. They also received goods in forms of goats and seed supplies to establish a cropping climate. This specific project had been running for three years and had now come to an end. However ADRA has several other projects running in Karamoja. After dealing with the handover of this project we would overnight in Moroto and the following day we would head to the remote areas of Karamojo in Napak district. There Thore would monitor the water dam project being built by ADRA. There is an extreme drought in Karamoja and they people have to walk up to 10 km to get water. The karamojans can at times go three days without water. In order to get the inhabitants into agriculture water is very much needed.
Karamoja is in the northern part of Uganda and contains of seven districts. Karamoja is a very fierce and dangerous area, due to the cattle war. One cow means more to them than 100 people as said by programs officer Benon. The karomojans live on drinking milk and blood from the cows. They do not kill the cows and eat its meat unless it is dying. Instead they make a cut in one of the veins of the cow and sap out just enough of blood from the cow to prevent it from dying and then drink the blood. They leave the cow for a few days to recover and do the same procedure, this is the daily food.

Cattle mean everything for the karamojans. In order to get married you need to give 50 cows to the family of the wife to be. Benon told me that once he saw a girl running and a boy following to attack her. The girl screamed for them to stop the car. They did so, and picked her up. She uttered the only words she knew in English which was Thank you, Moroto please. They took her to Moroto and a person there spoke English and explained that the boy who chased her was most likely a family member that might beat her to death since she had engaged in a relationship with another man. This meant that since she was unclean, the family would forego getting 50 cows, and this anger of theirs would most probably kill her.

However due to the extreme drought the cows are dying. The warriors from different tribes then kill each other in order to get cows. They get their weapons from south of Sudan and Kenya which are bordering Karamoja.  At times the karamojan warriors have also attacked and shot at ADRA cars. Therefore military escort is a necessity. On the other hand ADRA has a very good reputation amongst the Karamojans since they are trying to help the karamojans overcome famine and find solutions for water. There have not yet been any casualties in ADRA Uganda. Furthermore there are several military base camps regulating the area. The government wants to eliminate the guns from the warriors due to casualties amongst each other but is also said to be done due to the minerals in the area. There is a raising awareness that there are very worth wild minerals in Karamoja, like gold. And if this is exploited and guns are involved who knows what can break out. But this recognition is yet on the surface.

We entered into a town named Irire in Karamoja which was very dry and sandy. The homes of people were huts. There was no green to be seen than just dry grass and mountains. The handover meeting was held in a simple building. The heat and dust is extreme and hard to bear. Entering the building we took our seats and about 50 people were gathered. The doors were open to give a cool wind but with that came all the dust which kept on blowing straight on our faces and in our eyes. After seated a cultural dance was presented by the beneficiaries. They were wearing colorful clothing and singing songs in the local language of Karamoja. The meaning was later explained about being grateful for being taken off the streets and their gratitude for now getting food and supplies.

During the three years running of this project ADRA set aside 15000 shilling each month which was promised to be given to the beneficiaries at the end of the project. Therefore with the handover of the project so was an amount of 6 million shilling (around 2000 EUR). This money was given to the beneficiaries but requested to be spent wisely. This freedom came with some concerns of what they would spend it on. Community leaders and district officials were gathered to participate in the handover and to encourage the beneficiaries that if needed, to seek advice from them on how to invest the money on sustainable solutions for the community.

 Thore has told me he does not like holding public speeches, and especially in Uganda were so many courtesy phrases need to be exchanged before actually starting of the conversation itself. What exactly these phrases mean we are uncertain of but they do not end at a simple hi. Thore tried to say a few of these phrases in the local language, but failed at his first attempt since they did not understand. It was quite amusing, but he tried again and they responded. He explained that ADRA Uganda can not do the work alone, but that the community needs to work together in partnership. He requested that the implemented project remain sustainable even after ADRA leaves. He said to keep in mind to always think in terms of the future. Just a simple thing as when you have a male goat and a female do not kill and eat it before making sure they reproduce. I thought to myself this knowledge is so basic, but I have realized that what we perceive as common sense and logical others do not. We are blessed to constantly be educated in the most important as well as trivial matters because we are spoilt with time. We prepare for tomorrow persistently and have never really endured any of the emotions these people have gone through. Being so hungry you just seek for quick solutions and do not reflect on a tomorrow is not a mindset we have. Therefore we take this awareness as given, but at times it is not.

ADRA has given the community, goats, cassava, mango, sunflower seeds, corn and etc goods. Since the Karamojans have only been cattle people placing such an (over)emphasis on cows as mentioned above they do not know much about other practices.  Therefore the most basic knowledge is of use.

The district officer of the Karamoja area then welcomed all of us gathered there and started singing a song in the native language to the community. The meaning of the songs was the elements of life that brought upon 30 years of famine in Karamoja and the inability to think for themselves. He thanked ADRA for all the help that has been granted and the help that is being done in other areas of Karamoja. Then he spoke to the community asking them, “are you able to stand for yourself?” He continued speaking the local language to the community asking them not only to receive the money but to spend it wisely. He continued saying that the evolvement needs to continue. He said it is like the stages of evolution. Man at first lived out in the nature, but then discovered the fire and moved to the cave, and thereafter they built huts, and with time were able to build cement buildings as the one we were seated in, and then some people like the Americans he said requested more land and came up with the solution of sky scrapers. Then he looked at us and asked jokingly, “which stage do you think the karamojans are in? Most of them are still at the hut stage”. 

After ending the meeting we headed off to Moroto. Moroto city is a bigger and a little bit more civilized area one could say. The people were dressed in full clothing and were looking clean. There were a few shops, and a few hotels. The hotel we were assigned to stay in was considered to have a better condition. However our hotel room was in very bad shape and covered in the inevitable dust. In the evening we decided to have some tea on the patio.  It took about an hour for the tea to arrive, and it smelt like the drainage pipes, but after placing the tea bag in the water we disregarded that fact. We sat under the pitch black sky filled with stars, and I felt the light breeze against my skin which was a nice change to the heat we had endured during the day. It is funny, the more simplistic you have it in life the more you appreciate the little details that you otherwise so often overlook.

Thore and the rest of us engaged in a conversation about the people in Africa and their faith. Everyone in Uganda believes in a higher power. God’s name is exposed all over. The shops are named Gods salon or Gods supermarket or Gods grace coffee house and on the back of each taxi it is written “through God all is possible”. Faith is a part of everyday life here however at home (Europe) if you believe in a higher power you are considered by some to be nuts. There is a need for God in Africa which there is not in the west since we often believe we have everything so we do not need God. However there is a spiritual emptiness in the west which all the wealth and riches can not fill. It addresses the soul which yearns for a meaning in life. There is now an increase worldwide for a search for spirituality. Before arriving to Uganda I needed to do a lot of studies about this and I realized that only in a few countries does atheism prevail. Are then the majority of people nuts? Thore continued explaining that if you look to a person who is dying or whose loved one is sick, most of them will call out for God. This is because in every person there is an inbuilt question that there might be something more to life than what we can see.  
I asked him if the Adventist religion which ADRA follows is ever indirectly imposed on people in need. He said that faith is something personal and one can not impose or change another person’s faith unless it comes from their own choice. We act in accordance with Gods compassion. God loves all mankind regardless of their belief, so even though we believe ourselves we do not impose it on anyone, nor are we selective on whom we help. Forcing to follow God through fear is the absolute wrong way to go about it. No one wants to or can be truly loved by fear, and God does not wish for this either.  I myself believe that the key to both sides of the coin is to respect and understand each other’s disposition in life. Most of my closest friends do not have faith, and they think that believers can display a sense of superiority, just as those who don’t believe can display an extremely judgmental attitude towards believers. Neither of this is preferable.

I had during the day seen several NGO cars in Moroto, belonging to UNICEF, the UN, World food programme etc. Thore said that tomorrow I would see that when we get outside of Moroto and drive to the deep areas of Karamoja I would see no other NGO cars in those areas, since no one operates there than ADRA due to the extremity. However those vast village areas are the ones that need the most help. The soldiers would escort us and function as scare crows in case some warrior would attempt to attack the cars. We had finished the tea and it was late. We had a long day ahead of us. We said good night and I left for my dirty room, with an anticipation of not knowing what to expect tomorrow.