#KONY2012

Greetings from Uganda!! I hope all is well with all of you. I am still enjoying my time in Uganda even though the time is running short here.

I am enjoying the health clinic a lot. Even though I am mostly doing work that no one else really wants to do and I almost feel not needed, the staff that I have come to know are great. I have had some really great conversations with them and that is what makes the experience very enjoyable. I have not interacted with the patients and I do not know if that would be possible at this time, but we will see.

My host family is still doing well. I am still enjoying my time with them and I am continually reminded of how blessed I am to call them my family. I am still have great conversations with my host dad and having great times with my little sister Jemi and my host mom.

This past weekend I traveled to Lira with my Practicum class. We really didn't know what we would be doing there until the Wednesday before we left. We found out that we would be visiting a couple of different ministries and seeing what that part of the country is like after the war.

It took us 6 hours to get there. We first went to Sankofa Cafe which was started by an American couple. We had pizza and milk shakes (or whatever we wanted to drink). It was all pretty good (mainly because I miss pizza and milk shakes a lot). We just chilled there and then we left to go to our hotel. The hotel is called Alpha Resort Hotel. The staff are very friendly and gave us all hugs when we got off the bus. The hotel had pretty nice beds, a flushing toilet, and an actual shower. It was such a treat. We went to bed a little bit after we arrived.

The next morning we visiting Otino-Waa which is an orphanage/school for school aged children (5-18 years old). Otino-Waa means "Our Children" in Luro which is the language they speak in that part of the country. It is such an amazing ministry!!!!!! It is run by an elderly American couple Bob and Carol. They told us all about the ministry and we got to see the place. They house the students, teach them, and teach them skills so that they can get jobs afterwards. They also have a bee keeping part that they are teaching the older kids how to do so that they can make and sell honey. I could go into more details, but I have more to say. So if you want to know more just ask. But just know that this ministry is doing really good things and just how everything works together is just awesome and glorifying to God.

The next place we went to was Helen's Shelter. This is run by a woman named Helen who was a police woman in Uganda for 30 years. She started this organization to help women who are abused by their husbands or family members, drug addicts, or women who have been rescued from trafficking. The organization lacks funding because they want to keep it a secret for the women who are there because they don't want the men finding them and hurting them again. But the women do make bags and necklaces to help with funding. I bought a bag and necklace and I love them very much. The organization gives counseling and other services as such, but for the most part the women are there for that and learn how to make the bags and necklaces. That is pretty much all the women do. It is a nice humble ministry and it is the only of it's kind in the area. If only it had more funding.

We also got to know more about the Sankofa Cafe and how that started. It is run by Brian and Susan who are graduates of Wheaton College. It was never their intention to run a cafe in Northern Uganda, but it's what the Lord has willed so they are doing. They provide simple cafe type stuff that is foreign to Uganda as well as Ugandan favorites. Their staff is primarily Ugandans which is nice. Yeah, it's just a simple cafe where a lot of people in the community use which is awesome.


And now I think it is time for me to share my thoughts on KONY 2012. And let me just tell you, it takes a whole different perspective when you actually go to the place where it happened.

First off, Uganda is in East Africa NOT Central Africa. I would think an organization that has been working in Uganda for the past 8 years would know that.

Northern Uganda has pretty much gone back to business as usual. The camps are gone for the most part. The only thing is people are not returning to their villages because they have nothing left there and have no money to rebuild. They are staying in the cities because of that and also because the education is better than in the villages. But other than that, things are developing.

I know most of you have probably heard this but still, KONY IS NOT IN UGANDA NOR IS HE A THREAT TO UGANDA. He is kind of floating around between Sudan, Central African Republic, or the Congo. Now, that does not mean that he can't come back to Uganda, but I think that if he ever did he would be stopped before he did much if anything.

The country of Uganda has been at peace since about 1986 and Northern Uganda has been at peace since about 2006. If the northern part of Uganda was unsafe they would not have let us travel there.

While all of this was going on back 20 years ago the rest of the country really did not care. The rest of the country just knew to not go to the north because it was really dangerous. But for the most part they did not care.

I will give it to Invisible Children that was a great video. It was very well done and it did make people care (seeing as how all those Action Kits sold out within 3 days of the video airing). I know some people complain about this contributing to the consumerism of America, but honestly I think they are using something bad for good. Many people have bought quite a lot of stuff to support IC and whatever it is they are doing, it is working.

People are complaining about the fact that very little of the budget of IC goes towards development. That is not their mission or vision. They are an advocacy organization, they mainly just want to make the world aware of what happened in northern Uganda. And they are fulfilling their mission in that sense. Other organizations are there to help with the children directly. I just kind of wish that IC would use some of their money to help those organizations who are actually helping the victims of the war. I think that would be a good use of their money.

I know that it does take money to make videos like that and to be frank I am okay with the fact that the vast majority of their money goes towards media because that is them using their talents to make people aware. If the video was crap no one would watch it. Also people are complaining about the simplicity of the video. If the video was complicated and gave all the facts about the war, Kony, and the LRA, it would be too much and probably no would watch it. Most people do not want to watch a video of just facts. It was up to the people who watched the video to look more in depth of situation. If they didn't then I am upset that they are supporting something that they have no idea about. I hope all of you who watched the video actually did some more research on the situation.

The video does briefly mention that the LRA is not in Uganda anymore and that they country is at peace, but I think they focused too much on what Uganda used to be about. They needed to do that so that people would know what did happen which is fine, but at the same time a lot of people have a poor view of what Uganda actually looks like.

The video failed to say that the Ugandan government did step up and take action against Kony and put in certain programs to help the victims of the war. The video made it seem like the government did nothing and that is not true.

The video was shown in Lira Town across from the Sankofa Cafe about a week and half ago. It did not get a good response. People were throwing rocks at it and such. It got the point where they had to turn the video off. I know the video is not meant for Ugandans, it is meant for the world. But IC should have known that there would be a lot of Ugandans who would watch it. For the most part they do not understand the phrase "Make him famous." Uganda is a very literal country. If you say something they will believe it at face value (which means I can never be sarcastic with Ugandans, which has been quite hard to be honest). So they do not understand why they would want to make Kony famous because of what he did. I know the video does say what it means to make him famous, but the Ugandans do not understand that. I would have hoped they would have used different terminology, but again the video is for the rest of the world not Uganda. This video also reopened wounds that are just now starting to heal. The people in Northern Uganda are just now trying to get past it and then Kony is shoved right back into their faces. They are quite upset about that. And I can understand that.

When I first saw on Facebook and Twitter STOP KONY or #KONY2012 I was a bit cynical about it. I was thinking this whole thing was contributing to America's slackivitism. It is easy to put up a status about stopping a warlord, but what are you doing with the homeless community in your area? It's easy to buy a shirt and say you care about something that is 8,000 miles away from you, but what are you doing to end the injustice in your city? I don't mean to say this to be judgmental because I am also guilty of doing this. But being here has made me realize how much I can do in my own city. I don't need to cross continents in order to do good in the world, I just need to go down the street.

And then I started liking what IC was doing because I thought that Kony did need to get arrested and I still believe that. I am alright with the US coming in and helping get him because they are providing the technology and resources to get him. I just have a problem with the US acting like the world police and thinking they need to enter every conflict in the world and try to instill peace. If this turns into a partnership with Uganda with the intent of the US leaving altogether, I am fine. If this is just another "let's throw money at it in hopes it goes away" that I have a problem with. But we will see.

And also, what happens after April 20th? Will America go back to things as usually and not care anymore? And what is going to happen with IC or what are they going to do once he is caught? I hope this is not just a fad that people contribute to and then completely forget about.

There was an article from the Government of Uganda with a response to the KONY 2012 video. They are appreciative of what IC has done, but they really do not like them and they are doing more harm than good. IC completely undermined the Ugandan people and the government and never gave them any credit where it was due. Granted, some of their facts were also misinformed, but they did provide some good things as well.

So why should we support an organization that is not really wanted in the country they are doing work in? I don't know how I feel about that. I don't even know how I should feel about that.

That is my two cents on KONY 2012. You may agree or disagree with me, but like I said before it takes a different perspective when you actually interact with the people and see the place where he was.