Peace Meeting at Moruangamion

So last week we got back from our little vacation up in Kidepo Valley National Park, at the Northernmost part of Karamoja, bordering Sudan. We had a great time there and were able to relax and see many amazing animals. On the drive in we even encountered a pair of lions breeding in the road! Then when we pulled up as they wandered off the road, the male was lying about 15 ft. away from my window! That was quite the start to our time there. We proceeded to see many giraffes and elephants throughout the weekend. I’m still waiting on the hippos, but I was quite satisfied by the zebras, water buffalo, water buck, hartebeests (goofy looking creatures!), warthogs, ostriches, and other animals that we saw! We also had a lot of time to spend relaxing and praying and things. We would sit on a rock or under a tree and read and pray during the day and go for game drives in the late afternoons. (We went for the trees after the first day when I got nice and crispy from sitting in the sun for six hours :-P) The view is absolutely amazing from Kidepo, though. There are mountains all around and the sunsets are awesome. It was the perfect place to relax for the week.
Val was also brave enough during our time there to let me drive a couple times. Now this is a very interesting experience considering just a few facts.
1. “wrong” side of the road
2. “wrong” side of the car
3. driving a diesel
4. driving a Land Rover pickup
5. driving with horns blocking your view
6. shifting (standard) with your left hand
7. blinkers on the opposite side of the steering wheel
8. encountering gorges in the middle of the road about every six inches
9. driving through the bush with unseen “footing”
10. turning the key backwards to start the vehicle
Luckily the pedals are in the same places!!
So we had many adventures during our time there… feel free to ask more when I’m home! :-P

Following a week of new staff orientation and transition time in Moroto/Kangole, this past weekend we held a peace meeting in one of the Pion villages. This village has been one of the biggest sources of raids in the area. Deaths have occurred and animals stolen between the Pion and Bokora subtribes, many of which have been traced back to this one village. We planned to meet with the villagers on Saturday. Saturday morning we left early to gather up our “troops”. This included some pastors and a reverend from the Bokora side, our little friend James from Kangole and our Muslim friend, Mohammad, who has been a huge help in the peace process – leading the peace choir in Nabwal and being our official animal slaughter-er at gatherings. We made the drive through Nabwal, picking many members from there (I squeezed in the back of the truck with about 15 other people – dodging thorn bushes by being pushed into some guy’s lap every time they came near) and continued on through to the ‘enemy’ side – the Pion subtribe. Our Nabwal members included both Pion and Bokora people… they have come together in peace to mend relationships and stop the killing and stealing. Many people from Nabwal left early that morning to make the 20-30 km walk to the place where we were meeting, as we would not have enough room for everyone in the Land Rover.
We arrived at Moruangamio (good luck with that one! ;-P) and saw a group of men sitting under the trees there. They were having an akiriket… a traditional meeting with the elders and the young warriors. There is usually a reason to have these meetings – they didn’t say exactly what prompted it but sometimes it can be to plan a raid or for cleansing after a raid or if someone has killed a person. The young warriors were blessed by the elders and the meeting was coming to an end when we arrived. Some of our men went in to talk to the elders at that point – women are not allowed near the meeting, so we waited in the vehicle. There was some confusion about when we were having our meeting, so they were expecting us on Sunday instead. Since everyone was already gathered they told us we could meet once they were done, but additional people would be coming the next day to meet with us and we decided to wait so that we could have a bigger crowd. In a normal situation this would have been a problem – we hadn’t packed anything to stay overnight – no toothbrush, no clothes, no shampoo… it was a stretch for some of us :-P But we knew what we had to do and as the time went on we saw how God was working in this situation. Because of the ekiriket, all the important elders and opinion leaders were in the area. We had brought elders from Nabwal… some of whom had family on the Pion side and others who didn’t. But because we couldn’t exactly return home and come back the next day, everyone was going to have to find a place to stay for the night. Karamojong culture is very welcoming… people think of them as fierce warriors, but they have such soft hearts as well. The Pion elders stood up after a small discussion where the decision was made that we would meet the next day and they went over to our Nabwal guys and introduced themselves. They then proceeded to pair up and host their “enemies” for the night! It was amazing… we were able to give them some money for food and they all were able to have a good night of getting to know each other. Val and I and some other staff members went to the one guest house that was about a half hour away. The rest of the day, the word was spread throughout the villages that there would be a meeting the next day and by that time more than 500 people showed up! Sunday morning, Val and I grabbed a branch from a “toothbrush tree” so we could feel a little more human – wearing the same clothes as the day before and feeling the dusty sweaty grime covering my hair and body. The toothbrush tree was quite the experience… I tried it once before, but last time it wasn’t dry season. During dry season, the “toothpaste” qualities are even more concentrated and they don’t exactly taste like mint. It was difficult to endure the extreme bitterness that got my teeth clean, but worth it in the end (I think). Basically you chew on the branch for a while to make it “bristley” and then brush your teeth with it. So that morning we had a couple mandazis and African tea and then proceeded on back to Moruangamio.
The meeting ended up going so well! We started with a short prayer service complete with much singing and dancing and me being dragged into the middle of the circle by some tall guy so I could jump with him in front of everyone. As we sat in the shade of some trees, the scent of freshly slaughtered bull coming up the hill, some political leaders, tribal elders and pastors held a discussion about the current situation. There was no accusation going on, it was fully understood that there were still raids and there was no need to go into the specifics. Instead, they talked about the need for peace and how to recognize conflict before it goes too far and what to do to prevent it. Pretty soon after the start, one of the Pion elders suggested the idea of forming a joint krawl for the cows. At night, after grazing for the day, the animals are all taken to a protected location to try to prevent raids. By bringing together Pion and Bokora animals, there would be a greatly reduced reason to raid - The animals would be identified easily and they would just end up back on the other side. It was really neat that they came up with this because Dr. Val and CLIDE have had this idea for a long time and were waiting for the people to be ready for it. It was amazing that they came up with it on their own! So they discussed organizing that… we will be able to provide some veterinary care for the animals as they settle in and we are going to help with identification by doing ear-tags and branding and ID cards to better keep track of the animals and even discourage raiding. Peace choirs from Nabwal as well as two Pion villages formed intermissions in between speeches by singing about how much they love each other and how amazing peace is, etc. Another reason it was so cool to wait until Sunday – because the Nabwal choir had been practicing all night, some of the young Pion girls joined in and sang with them! As the meeting closed after about six hours or so, it was time to eat the two roasted bulls! Everyone gathered into groups and it was distributed without any conflict. Our little boy, James, and I guarded the sodas and water (which were for the “big” people – political leaders and such) as everyone ate. Somehow none of the CLIDE staff even tasted any meat but we enjoyed watching everyone bonding. Poor James, though… we had already unintentionally kidnapped him for the night and then we didn’t feed him allll day. And he probably expected to be living the good life hanging with the mzungus all weekend! Luckily he did get a soda, but that was it until about 7pm. After fighting the mob and taking some pictures of the cool tribal singing and dancing, we headed out, crowded in back with all my clossse friends of the day before.
It was maybe 5:00 or so – we were going to get back late enough even before the challenges arose. After about an hour, we were in the middle of the bush to Nabwal when smoke starts filling the vehicle. Land Rover batteries are located under the passenger seat and we have two of them there. Because of the roads and constant bumping the wires had been rubbing together and chose that time to touch each other and create a fire. Val yelled to evacuate the vehicle and sacrificed her fingers as she opened the cover and managed to get the wires apart. Luckily, diesel engines don’t explode like others, so it wasn’t quite as risky. It took a while but after disconnecting one of the batteries and moving some wires around, we got the vehicle going again and proceeded on our way. Only one more mishap on the way home – and this one we were used to! After dropping people off at Nabwal we were driving the road back to the Bokora side and got a flat tire. It was now pitch black, but luckily we had a good amount of passengers still and between our driver, Lowok, and some other people, it didn’t take so long to change the tire. At that point it was about 8:00 maybe and I was feeling very bad for little James. I discovered a pretty decrepit granola bar in my bag and gave it to him. I’ve hardly seen his face light up so much… I think he was hungry! We made it back to Kangole at around 10:30… thinking we must be done for the day. Because it was so late, we couldn’t send James back home and he stayed with a staff member for the night.
Then as we were driving home, a small group of people on the side of the road flagged us down. They had a really sick kid and had to get him to the hospital. We couldn’t exactly refuse that request so we quickly dropped some things at the hut and grabbed a granola bar and proceeded to the nearest hospital about a half hour away. The kid was really sick… they had said he had malaria but that’s pretty much how they’ll describe anything here :-P As we were driving the boy (about 2 years old) starts coughing and half-breathing. You could hear the pneumonia from about a mile away. We got him to the hospital as fast as we could with the roads in the condition they were in and rushed him inside. There were no doctors around and just a few nurses. They eventually… after about a half hour and poking every limb (literally) about 3 times… got a catheter in. They gave him valium to stop the seizures he was having from lack of oxygen and gave some fluids but weren’t allowed to give any antibiotics to treat the pneumonia because the doctor wouldn’t come – he was tired. It was quite frustrating to watch knowing you and the doctor that’s with you could help the boy when the hospital can do nothing. We left after a little while… his seizures had stopped from the valium, but he wasn’t at all breathing well. He’ll probably have some mental retardation at least from waiting until the morning for treatment. We haven’t had any updates but we’re praying he made it through and the doctors were able to help in the morning! While we were there another baby who was basically a skeleton came in. The grandmother was the one taking care of him and she wasn’t feeding him at all. There’s even a program at the hospital to nourish starving children but she wouldn’t bring him there. So pray for that boy too – that maybe he can find a home with someone who is able to take care of him. So… it was another adventurous and long day! We got home around 12:30 and had become un-tired by all the adrenaline. We stayed up and had some tea and meat that some elders had given us to take home then went to bed.




Another thing to let you all know… we’re doing a program with the Nabwal and Nakayot (peace village) people… they want to start incorporating some animals into their villages again now that they’re becoming stable enough. Most of the children are protein-deficient and could really use some meat so it’s a very good step for them. We’re going to do a “Turkey Blessings for Karamoja” project. We’re trying to supply the village with as many turkeys as we can and hoping to raise money for 500 turkeys by Christmas! There are about 12,000 people in Nabwal at this point and 3,000 in Nakayot so the more the merrier! They will cost $10 per turkey and if you would like to donate a turkey or two (or more!) then you can do so on the CVM site. Go to www.cvmusa.org/africavet and then on the left side under “related links” there is a place that says “Revolving Animal Loans”. Click on the option that says “turkeys” and the amount you would like to give and you will end up feeding some very needy peace villagers. Thank you for your help ahead of time!! (The option for turkeys should be up soon but if it’s not when you try feel free to pick “chickens” and we’ll assume it means turkeys until we get the site updated)