Still in Lira

Hello good people who probably have electricity and hot water.  I am currently sitting on my bed at 11 AM bored out of my mind.  Yesterday I ended up going and seeing the villages where the huts will be built.  I saw the places that these children are currently living in, it is pretty bad.  So it is a good sign that huts are actually needed.  In order to get to this village it was a 90 Km motercycle ride on bumpy dirt roads.  I was also wearing a skirt and flip flops.  Needless to say it was a beautiful drive, but my butt still hurts. I then met with the engineer who gave me a projection that is wildly over budget.  The huts that he is suggesting are also very lavish and extravagant. They consist of 2 rooms and a sitting room, and it is rectngular.  Mind you, most huts everywhere here are circular and not anywhere close to that big.  So that was an interesting conversation.  I asked if we could cut out the sitting room and he said that would cut the cost in half; however they want a house that kids are proud to live in.  I do not agree, we could build ten houses for the cost of  5 without the sitting room.  But what do I know, I am just a white person in Africa trying to help an area that might not even want help.

So I was done yesterday around 3.  I went to the only resturant that I trust the food at, ordered a pizza, and went back to my room.  I skyped Josh for a bit and then ate the WHIOLE pizza and didnt get out of bed until this morning. At 6.  Because the people who work here knock on my door all the time.

Now I have nothing scheduled for today until 5 pm.  I am going to meet all of the children who are benificiaries for the huts.  Yay more awful stories about being abducted by the LRA. 

Until then I shall lay in bed and be bored. I finished another book, that makes 6 for this trip, and I would watch a movie but the power is out and I do not want my tablet to die. So the options are sleep or read some more.  I am going with sleep. I wish Lira had more to do in it.  It is very much a working town and I am pretty sure only I would choose to vacation here.

I also had the idea to go to a club last night just to check it out.... but as I was leaving the pizza place a HUGE truck full of South Sudanese soldiers, fully armed,  pulled into the other resturant down town.  The idea to leave later that night was squashed by the fear of being abducted and held hostage in Sudan, or just killed.  Yes mom I am using my brain. 

So hopefully this meeting today goes well.  I always like seeing kids. 

Love you all!

Huts For Peace

Hello everyone!

So I finally have a sense of what I am doing for Huts for Peace.  There was absolutely nothing set up when I got to Lira.  After talking to GLI it became obvious that they had no idea either.  I met with a woman named Jane yesterday who is the founder of a NGO called Children of Peace Uganda.  It focuses on taking former child soldiers and helping them reintegrate into the community, along with providing them with jobs and therapy.  The idea of Huts for Peace is building huts for children led households. However, there is no engineer, no budget, and no direction with the project.  The budget that they did come up with put each hut at 2,500 USD per hut; which is way too much. 

After talking to GLI my job will not be to build huts, but instead create a report that outlines every detail of the project.  So today I am going to meet with Jane to let her know Huts probably will not be built for awhile.  Then I am meeting with an engineer that I found who is willing to help for free.  I plan on getting the layout of the huts and the materials that are imperative.  Tomorrow I am going to meet with a few of the families that are benificiaries and see what the huts in their communities look like so we can ensure that anything that is being built matches the community. Then on thursday I am going out and pricing everything that is on the list of materials from the engineer.  So I will create a budget for the project, assess the need of the area, and see if this project is even needed here.

So this is nothing like what I though I would be doing, but that is okay.  Hopefully this will pay forward eventually and help someone!

Merchison

So it turns out that the people incharge of the project that I am supposed to be helping with have no idea what I am supposed to be doing either.  The woman that I am working with does not return to Lira until monday.... so what does that mean for me?  First of all I am mad that this NGO cannot get their stuff together, and if I had known it was going to be this unorganized I would have traveled somewhere else for my last 10 days here.  But since I am here and waiting till monday to see if I can get Huts for Peace started I decided to take a trip up to Merchison National Park.  It was totally worth the 4 hour drive.  On the drive to the hostel I stayed at we saw hippos, elephants, and antelope ( they all have different names but I cannot remember any of them).

I arrived at like 3 in the afternoon and grabbed a burger at the hostel.  There is also a beautiful man from South Africa that works there, who moved to Uganda when he was 14 and has lived there for 13 years.  So that made the stay fun!  I went on a safari evening drive and saw EVERYTHING!  We saw Hyenas, Giraffes, Elephants, Water Buffalo, all the grass eaters... and A PACK OF LIONS!  They are very rare to see in Uganda... and I saw 8 of them.  7 female and one male.  It was amazing.  I went back to my South African husband and the hostel, had an amazinng dinner... I actually have no idea what it was, but it tasted good.  So late that night, at like 9, they realized that they did not have enough rooms for me there.  So i had to catch a ride to a hostel down the street, I thought I was winning big time because the reception area was a really nice lodge.  However.... the rooms were pretty terrible.  My bed sheets had a HUGE yellow stain on them, the water smelled like metal, and the mosquito net literally laid on my face all night.  It was really exciting...not.  I also managed to break the bathroom door handle, so that was really embaressing.

The next morning I took a river boat tour down the nile .  I kid you not when I say I saw well over 300 hippos, and they are adorable.  They make this weird grunting noise, and if you make it back to them they talk to you!  However cute they are, they are still massive and terrifying.  We also saw quite a few crocodiles... and let me tell you...I will not be swimming in the Nile anytime soon. These Crocs get up to 5 meters long and they are very scary looking and swim very fast.  They had to kill a croc 2 weeks ago because it was hunting people.  Sooooo yeah , no swimming in the nile for me.  Then we headed to Merchison falls on the boat.  It is the most powerful waterfall in the world because of the amount of water it spews out in such a small area.  This is also where Hemingway crashed his plane... twice.  He survived both.

The boat tour was really fun, but here is when my story starts to get interesting, and not for the better. So I call GLI ( the NGO im with)and ask how I am getting back to Lira.  They have no clue ( just like they have no clue about the huts) and so I have to drive ALL the way back to Kampala ( the capital) and then catch a public transport bus back up to Lira.  So I spent 6 hours on a bus yesterday, and will probably spend another 6 on a bus tomorrow.  I am kind of pissed to say the least.  And I bet that come monday Huts for Peace will still not start.  If I spoke the language I would be more helpful, but I do not, so I need GLI''s assistance in this.  And they are curently NOT pulling through.

So I woke up this morning around 9 and walked everywhere to try and find Wifi, because the guest house I am in does not have it.  And I FINALLY found a nice looking bar/resturant that says FREE WIFI really large on their sign.  So after 2 miles of walking I finally sit down and order a coffe. I pulled out my tablet to write this wonderful blog and the wifi does not connect.  They lady tells me there is no wifi here, despite what the sign says.  So I am writing this off line and drinking some coffee.  On the plus side this is one of the better cups of coffee that I have had; it has some ginger in it, which I have learned I like alot.

So my quest for a purpose here continues, also my quest for Wifi.  I am about to buy a wireless router on their network and just have that with me so I have Wifi everywhere.  I feel so boogie doing that, however, if I am going to be sitting around for the next week or so I at least want to be able to watch netflix. Actually if something does not change with GLI by tuesday I am going to go back to Merchison, stay in their resort hotel, and tan for a week by the pool and the hippos.  It has been decided.  I hope everyone is doing well!!  I still love Uganda, just peeved at the moment!

I will attach as many pictures as possible but alot of them are on my phone, and I have no idea how to put the on my tablet from my phone :)
Love you guys!

Updates

So there is still no update on Huts for Peace.  I went down to Kampala for a day.  I hung out with Martina, who actually works for GLI, and it was super fun.  I spent the morning trying to find internet... and did not.  So there will be two blogs posted today.

After my adventure to find Wifi Martina and I took Bodas downtown Kampala an had lunch.  It was heavenly.  I had some sort of chicken sandwich and a passion fruit drink that was freshly squeezed. Then we went to the big mall downtown to try and find a router.  I bought a router but the SIM card would not work.... it still is not.  It is supposed to work by tomorrow but I am not getting my hopes up.  Then we went to this store that can download any movie you want onto your tablet or laptop.  I got 14 movies and the whole new season of Orange is the New Black for $18.  So that was exciting. 

It was really cool seeing a side of Kampala that is very normal.  The mall was just like any mall in the US.  The phone store was just as annoying as a phone store anywhere else.  It was pretty cool.  Martina is also awesome. 

Yesterday I caught a public transpo bus to go back to Lira.  We left at 8 AM and arrived at around 2 PM.  I went to the MTN store in Lira and they told me to wait until monday for my router.  I was planning to meet the Huts for Peace lady last night to figure out what we are doing, but she canceled.  So we are meeting sometime monday.... which means I have another full day of doing nothing. 

Today I woke up aound 7 and watched the whole season of Orange is the New Black.  Then I did some laundry and now I am eating dinner.  My life is incredibly exciting.

Survey Days

So the surveys are done!  We ended up completing over 100 surveys.  The stories did not get easier, but they got easier to hear. I have heard so many incredible stories of perserverence and the ability to make the best out of an awful situation.  

We made our way from Gulu, to Kitgum, and now I am in Lira.  I thought that Gulu was tiny but compared to Kitgum it was nothing.  Kitgum was where there was a lot of LRA violence, one of the worst massacres happened there.  We went into 3 different villages and went around talking to people, like we did in Gulu; however, most everyone in Kitgum had been abducted by the LRA for anywhere from 1 day to 5 years.  I loved walking around the villages and just talking to the people.  They are like neighborhoods except instead of houses there are huts!  The people were very nice once you started talking to them. 

Kitgum was also the first hot shower that I had in a week... but the shower was subpar.  It was a hole in the ground in the bathroom with a faucet and a bucket! So that was super exciting, trying to wash my hair in that.  Also, all of the beds here are made for very short people.  My feet hang off the end of everything, and if there is a footboard i am awkwardly hanging my feet over the top of the footboard.  It makes for very comfortable sleeping.  We only stayed in Kitgum for 2 nights.

Two days ago we made our way to Lira, this is where I will be for the remainder of the trip.  We did not have the privilage of just walking around villages here to get interviews, instead our translators set up meetings at schools.  It was not as much fun, but I heard the more horrific stories from the students that we talked to here.  One of the boys I talked to yesterday is 20 years old now and was abducted when he was 12.  He worked directly with Joseph Kony and was the one who smuggled Kony's 3 wives across the S. Sudan border into Uganda in 2004.  He told me, " Kony is the hand of God, so everything that he does is essentially God".  So I asked him if God was the one commiting all of these murders and torturing all of these people, and he said that yes the people deserrve it.  He also told me that he was one of the nicer soldiers that killed his victims quickly so that they did not suffer, and that made him good.  He said he enjoyed his time with the LRA, up until he was shot in the knee and waited 3 months to get medical help; he is now limp. 

It is incredibly fascinating to me the inherent evil that surrounds the LRA.  The things that this group does is by far one of the most horrific if you are comparing it to other terrorist group and rebel groups.  And when i say more horrific it is the way that they kill people, the things that they make people do, and their torture methods.  I have no explination as to why this group is more violent than others.  But it is incredibly obvious that it still effects peoplel to this day.  Even though the LRA is out of Uganda there is now a HUGE group of children and adults that have retured after being abducted and are not being reintegrated into the community.  People still call them rebels and treat them terribly.  If something is not done it would not be surprising if another rebel group formed that was comprised of this group of displaced people. 

As for the LRA they are low in numbers now (about 300) but are still creating huge problems in S. Sudan, Cenral African Republic, and Congo.  They have such a reputation for terror that people scatter when they hear that they are near.  So the problem persists, even though they are so small.

So lets talk about something happier! Kiristin and John left this morning, leaving me in Lira ALL ALONE ( it is okay mom... I am safe ).  The wifi at the hotel that I am staying at is only in the lobby, so i decided last night that I would go and buy a wireless router so that i could use my phone in my room and when I am out and about.  So i went into town and went to an MTN store, which is the mobile network here.  I was told that i needed to go to the regional store which was a couple km away so i hopped on a Boda (the motercycles)and went there.  Only to be told in very broken English that they do not have them here... I do not think the lady understood me to be honest. So that was a fail.  Now I am in a coffee shop I found (with actual coffee, thank the lord)and I am attempting to download the Dark Knight Rises onto my tablet so I can watch it in my room later.  However.... I have been sitting here for an hour and it is only 4 percent loaded. So that is exciting.  I am eating dinner with some GLI people that are here at the hotel tonight and then going out with my friend Claire to the club Angles tonight.  Apparently it is the hopping place to be at! 

I hope everyone is doing well!!

Gulu Day One

So just a disclaimer, there is some rough stuff in this one because interviews started today. 
We drove into Gulu yesterday, it is a small town in northern Uganda.  It is where alot of the rebel violence occured and where many of the IDP camps were located.  This is also the town that the commuter children fled to every night at the height of LRA violence. So there is a really weird feel to this town.  Everyone is nice, but people seem haunted. Which is more than understandable ; the things this town and its people have gone through are unimaginable.  There was a bit of political violence here last week and so the whole town is on edge.  The government turns the power off at night so the town is pitch black, trying to divert people from staying out late.  So the town seems very eerie at night, very deserted.  The town itself is  very normal but the vibe is much different.

We started our interviews today and went to a village where a huge IDP camp used to be.  I ended up conducting 5 interviews today, our team did a total of 22.  We have 3 university students with us and had 3 tanslators.  We split up into 3 different groups and all went our own way in the village. I interviewed one man and three women.  Two of the women were former rebels.  The first woman was abducted from her village when she was 15 and was part of the LRA for 6 months.  She was incharge of watching the kids on the compound, and was also forced to be a 'wife' of a commander.  She was pregnant within the first month.  She ended up escaping with 6 other children when their compound got raided by the ugandan military. 

The other woman I interviewed was abducted on her way home from school when she was 11. She was in the middle of her 5th grade year at school and was never able to finish.  One of our questions in the interview is if religion played a large role in their life while they were part of the LRA.  This woman told me that they were banned from praying until they earned it and were inducted into the LRA.  This included being tortured and sexually abused by the other soldiers.  She endured that for a year.  She was then trained to become a soldier, at age 12, and was used for village raids.  She said, "I killed people, many people, babies too".  After a year of being a soldier she was in a fire fight with the Ugandan Military and things went south very quickly.  She got shot in the ankle ( she was not sure if it was by a member of the LRA or the Ugandan Military).  When the fire fight was over her commander told her that she was dead weight and buried her alive.  She waited until she felt out of breath and clawed her way out of the shallow grave.  They had buried her in a bannana grove so she slept there for 2 nights, scared that the LRA was in the general vicinity still.  When she finally left she went to a neighboring village and told an old woman that she was lost from and IDP camp becuase if she had said she was a former rebel  the community would have killed her.  They took her to the hospital to tend to the gunshot wound that she still has scars from on her ankle (it went clean through) and then returned her to her family.  Most former soldiers go to a rehabilitation center to cope with what happened to them, her family would not allow her to.  They would not recognize that she was ever even a part of the LRA. 

Dr.Riley interviewd a little boy that was born into the LRA and did not escape until he was 15, he is 19 now.  Another woman escaped in 2011 with all three of her children ( all born while she was a wife to a commander).  These stories are absolutely incredible and heart breaking.  I am in a really weird emotional place of complete awe at these people and a sense of horror.  Which is completely selfish of me, it is unfair for me to take these peoples stories and make them emotionally taxing for myself.  Everyone told me their story so hap hazardly, like it was completely normal for them to encounter such terrible things.

So that was day one of interviews! Tomorrow should be interesting!  The picture is of the kids that were following me around at the village today.

Uganda!

Hey guys!  Sorry I have not had Wifi the last couple of days.  I successfully made it back from Congo and will be in Uganda for the remainder of the trip.  We spent 3 nights in Kabale at a resort called Entusi.  It was incredibly beautiful and it sits directly on Lake Benyoni.  Those were our down days before research really kicked off.  I did alot of reading by the lake, hiking in and around the villages, canoed, and other relaxing non useful things.  It was very enjoyable.

Yesterday we had an 8 hour bus ride from Kabal to Kampala the capital of Uganda.  It is a HUGE city.  I love the vibe here.  We had dinner at a Mediterrainan resturant and met the man who supplies tea for Tevana and Celestial Seasonings (I think).  His plantation is in Rwanda.  So that was pretty neat.  We are staying in a guest house here in Kampala, and I am on day 5 without a hot shower, so that is exciting!

Today we went into town and met a woman who has built a business around producing and selling peanut butter and honey. Then we went and  saw the slums of Kampala and visited the free hospital.  It was all rather interesting.  Then we went to Makerere University, the campus is beautiful, and had lunch there.  It took us 2 hours to get back to the guest house we are staying in, about 5 miles away from the University.  So that was fun.  We are Boad Boading to dinner tonight ( hpping on the back of a moter cycle) so that should be fun!!

I still love it here, even though it is super hot.  We head up north to Gulu tomorrow and really start our research there.  We are meeting our research team tonight!!

DRC Day 3

Hello!
So I was not even going to write a post today but Kristin reminded me that we actually did alot of cool stuff today so I will stop being lazy.

Today started with a trip to a refugee camp about 20 kilos out of downtown Goma.  DRC does not have any officially documented refugee camps, and the government claims that they are free of refugees; that is incredibly nice of them.  This camp is home to about 10,000 refugees.  It is not a very large area but is densly packed.  The people came from other parts of DRC and have refused to return to their villages. In the camp they recieve food and some form of shelt, if they were to go home they would probably have neither.  UNICEF and a couple other organizations keeps the camp running.  I do not have any pictures because I felt extremely uncomfortable taking pictures, I was really a bit uncomfortable about being there at all.  It felt like a massive intrusion into these peoples suffering.  However I am glad I got to experience the camp.  It is incredibly eye opening and sad.  A great way to start the day!!  DRC is so much different than anything in the US and alot of the time it is really hard to wrap your head around the poverty level and just what day to day life is like.

Next we visited N.I.C.E. ( New Institute of Computer Engineering) run by some local young adults.  It is a class that teaches programming to local youth.  They are fully self funded and have a nice little building in downtown Goma. It was incredibly refreshing to see something that was set up by the locals and was running smoothly to help the community.  I have some pictures of the computers attached and John took a picture with the founders.

Right nextdoor was the Childrens Parliment... and after a long 2 hour chat with a worker there I concluded that it is Goma's version of Child Protective Services. It was a neat organization that is doing good for the community as well.

Finally we went and visited a rehibilitation center for former child soldiers.  We planned on going yesterday but we needed to get permission from UNICEFto do so.  So we went today.  We talked to the director when we arrived.  He gave us the background of the kids and explained the rehibilitation process.  It is a three step process first is assess their mentality, then education, and then work on the spiritual side of things.  The whole reintegration process takes about 3 months.  They have helped 9,000 child soldiers since 2005. They currently have 82 kids in the compound and 30 workers.  The kids are from ages 12 to 18 but most looked really young.  It is another humbling moment where you remember how blessed we are to live where we do and not have to orry about things like that.  I did not take pictures of the kids.

Then Kristin and I went to the pool for a bit while John did some work, and we are now having dinner with a UN official that we met 2 days ago.  So an eventful day!

I also have some random pictures on Goma on here.

DRC Day 2

First off... this super nice hotel that we are staying at had hard boiled eggs and I was way too excited.  I may have had 4.  Anyways, onto the more important things. Today we were supposed to go and talk to some former child soldiers that were in a rehabilitation facility based in Goma.  We were hoping that we would be able to conduct a few interviews.   When we showed up it ended up being an administrative building, and we are currently waiting on UNICEF's approval to go to the actual rehabilitation center tomorrow.

After that we went to a port on Lake Kivu to catch a boat to an island in Virunga National Park.  We arrived at 11 am to the port.... and did not get picked up by the boat until 1:45, so that was fun.  Then when the boat did show up... It was tiny.  Like tiny to the point of only fitting 3 passangers and one driver.  There are 6 people in our group. So Kristin, John and I got into the boat and braced ourselves for an extremely interesting boat ride.  So because you do not know, Lake Kivu is huge... I mean HUGE, and is known for how windy it is... so the waves on the lake are also huge.  This little boat barely made it across the lake, but I have not laughed that hard in a long time. No worries mom... I obviously made it back safely! 

The park itself, at least the little part we saw was absolutely beautiful, minus the spiders that were the size of my hand!  I will attach pictures.  The lunch was delicious and worth the life threatening boat ride. We made it back to the dock and then the hotel.  I am currently drinking a beer and chilling with my ex-professors.  Life is good.

Side note: the food. IS SO GOOD.  Starchy. BUT SO GOOD. The normal meal has potatoes, beef or chicken, some veggie mix, bread, cassava, more potatoes, and fruit. Curry is included in everything, and I thought I did not like it, but I do... al ot. I had tilapia  for lunch today, but it did not come from Lake Kivu; it came from Lake Victoria.  Apparently there are major methane deposites all in Lake Kivu, probably has to do with the multipule volcanoes here, so there are almost no fish in the lake.  Anyway, the fish was good.  This post has gotten kind of long so shout out to everyone who has read this far and did not just look at the picture!

Also... for some reason my spell check is NOT working, and all of you know I am terrible at spelling, so I apologize for terrible spelling.

Love you guys, mostly my mom... but everyone!

Edited by Kristin.  So if anything is wrong, blame her. :)

DRC

Hey everyone!
Sorry I have not posted in a couple days (Lindsey Lewis), but I have been incredibly busy and tired.  We crossed the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) yesterday, and it has been incredible.  We are staying in the city of Goma which is at the base of a active volcano. Their last eruption was not too long ago ( i do not know the exact dates) but there is pumus stone everywhere and lots of ash.  We got to visit a school for abandonded children, the UN and their peacekeeping mission here, and talk to a couple of journalists.

Though it is not as nice of a city as Kigali was Goma has exceeded expectations so far!  Kristin and John are not sick of me yet... so that is a plus.  The food here is still incredibly delicious and starchy, so I will probably gain 10 pounds. 

We are staying on Lake Kivu that borders both Rwanda and DRC.  It is asolutely beautiful.  I am trying to convince Kristin to let me swim in it!

Love you all!

The Research Itself

Hey guys!! So this week has been incredibly eventful, as most of you know.  The postings on facebook are enough to make everyone go insane.  I did in fact graduate on thursday and I even got to shake and salute the President!  It was incredibly exciting.  The best part of the whole experience was the time I got to spend with my family and friends this week.  I really just want to give them a really big shoutout. Without them, nothing that I do is possible.  So if you guys are reading this blog, thank you so much.  My success is dependent on the support and love that I receive from everyone!

Okay enough of being sappy.  I am currently on the plane just beginning my trip to Africa.  The plane rides today consist of a stop at JFK in New York, onto Amsterdam for a 55 minute layover, and then the final strech into Kigali, Rwanda. My traveling companions are Major Kristin Pearson and Dr. John Riley.  Kristin was my academic advisor at school and traveled with me to Africa last summer! She is a mentor and a friend and taught me in two of my classes at school, Politics of Sub Saharan Africa, and Politics of Southern Africa.

Dr. Riley is an African specialist in the Political Science department at the Academy.  He was my teacher for a core political science class and War Crimes and Genocide class.  He is the only political science teacher that has ever given me a C in a Political Science course, this is one thing I will never let him live down. He is also a great friend and mentor. 

They are going on this great adventure with me, and will most likely be in many of my pictures, I know Dr. Riley is really excited about this. 

So the main goal of our research in Africa this summer is to survey people to find out why they leave terrorist groups.  We are focusing on people in the northern Uganda region and the terrorist organization that we are studying is the Lords Resistance Army (LRA).  Many of you might recognize the name of this group, but I will give you some brief history.  Their leader's name is Joseph Kony and he created this rebellion because he believed that the Ugandan government needed to be run in congruence with the ten commandments; furthermore,  he thought the Acholi people of Northern Uganda deserved more rights. In the 90's his following of people was in the 3,000's and was focused on extreme violence and displaced many people in Northern Uganda.  They are very well known for taking children from their homes and forcing them to become child soldiers.  They are still active, but have been forced out of Uganda and have lost most of their people.  They are now located more in South Sudan, and they only have about 300 people who still follow Kony.  If you want more information or history on the group there is TONS of stuff on "The Google".

So you are probably now thinking, " well of course people would want to leave this group, it sounds like it would be terrible... so why would you want to research it?", apparently MINERVA is very interested in it and has given us money to travel all the way across the world to find out why!  In order to do this we (mostly Dr. Riley with some minimal input from Kristin and me) have created a survey that we will administer to people.  According to Dr. Riley we will have to bribe the first couple of people to take the survey, but people like telling their story and so apparently it will attract people. I hope he is right because that 2nd Lieutenant pay has not kicked in yet! We are hoping to conduct about 20 surveys a day.  They are all on tablets (which I am in charge of) and will be backed up to the cloud whenever we have WIFI. 

So that is the gist of the first three weeks of the trip!  For the last two weeks I will be working with Global Living Institute (GLI), who is also traveling with us the first three weeks (pics and small bios will come later).  I am building huts for people whos famly has been majorly effected by the LRA.  The program is called Huts for Peace. One of my friends from school will be joining me for some of that time. So that is a very basic summary of the trip!  Like I said before, I will update this as much as possible, I am using it as my own journal as well. 

Talk to everyone when I am in Rwanda!!