We left for Lira early on Wednesday morning and made a quick stop at a rhino sanctuary where they started out with 6 white rhinos and now have about 30. Once they get to 50, they will release half into the wild. I learned that white rhinos are not actually white.. it was a miscommunication between someone who was Dutch telling someone who spoke English that the rhinos were wide [mouthed]. All rhinos are actually gray unless they are albino. We also saw some monkeys up close on the drive which was pretty neat. We arrived in Lira and went downtown where there was vendors and music on every street. We had dinner and went to bed, preparing for an emotional day on Thursday. As expected, Thursday turned out to be a very heavy day. We started off the morning by meeting with a woman who was formerly a child soldier but had escaped after a few years while they were transferring at night. It was obvious that she was seeing everything as she told her story and her eyes swelled with tears. She is writing an autobiography with original poems that I will share once it is published. Not only are the former child soldiers still dealing with the trauma that they experienced, but they also have to deal with the stigma associated to them because of it. We then went out on the bus to an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp, where hundreds of people were massacred and the people remaining lived to tell the tale. Afterwards, we went to an orphanage ran by nuns which housed babies up to 3 years of age. We then went to the Children of Peace organization, which is doing amazing work for the community. The organization works with former child soldiers and with children who were born in captivity. All of the staff members are trained counselors that help this population work through trauma. They provide housing for children who are on break for school and fun activities like music to keep the environment light. They also teach farming to citizens and have helped hundreds of people learn to successfully farm. We were lucky enough to have dinner with these amazing partners to learn more about the great work that they are doing. Overall, the day was emotionally taxing and I had a hard time talking about everything that I saw while we were processing what we experienced afterwards. I think that it will continue to resonate with me and I will feel it even deeper within the next few days. Today we stopped back in Kampala where we participated in a panel with professionals in the community. Tomorrow we are going to have a day of decompression and fun before traveling another 8 hours to our next destination!
Alexa's Travel Blog 