{"id":5553,"date":"2018-04-18T14:48:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T12:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/?p=5553"},"modified":"2018-04-18T15:48:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T13:48:41","slug":"kopango-from-gulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/2018\/04\/18\/kopango-from-gulu\/","title":{"rendered":"Kop Ango! from Gulu"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have arrived and settled in Uganda, the Pearl of Africa! And what a welcome. I do not believe that I have ever met as kind, open, and welcoming a people before. Everyone is very eager to chat and help if needed.<\/p>\n

After a long but comfortable journey with Qatar Airways (Copenhagen \u2013 Doha \u2013 Entebbe), my host, Paul (the brother of my classmate and friend, Peter) picked me up at the airport. I spent the first 3 days in his home in Seeta village outside of Kampala, being welcomed by his loving family and housemates. The connection to the family and community is very important and I felt honored to be welcomed and addressed as Auntie or Sister.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, I met my contact, Mr. Godfrey Canwat (the Executive Director of\u00a0Hope and Peace for Humanity<\/a>), and my two Swedish roomies, Hedvig and Shima, at the bus station in Kampala and we set out for the 6 hours bus journey. Our house in Gulu is very central. It is just a two-minute walk from the office of Hope and Peace for Humanity and less than 5 minutes from Gulu Main Market. At the market, you can get everything! The fresh, gigantic, and tasty avocados are my favorite. And they come at a price of less than 2 SEK. In the house, we also live with the French volunteer, Aude, and (at times) Mary, who is the daughter of the landlady.<\/p>\n

Gulu is often described as the \u201cCapital of the North.\u201d The district of Gulu was among those most affected by the war (1986-2010). A conflict that has complex roots and continues to impact the population. Sunday, the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0of April, was the Good Deeds Day \u2013 a day to do good for and with the communities. As Sunday is a day of rest in Uganda, Hope and Peace for Humanity and their partners invited us to celebrate it, Monday the 16th<\/sup>. We went to Atyang village where we did different good deeds with community members including cleaning the public toilets, planting trees, slashing (cutting the grass using traditional slashers\/knives), giving kits with mosquito nets to expecting mothers and much more.\u00a0The Good Deeds Day<\/a>\u00a0is a day where individuals do something good, large or small, \u201cto improve the lives of others and positively change the world.\u201d While this is a global annual tradition, I aspire to, and encourage others to, try and do good deeds every day.<\/p>\n

For now, I am enjoying the hospitality of the locals in Gulu, getting used to the \u201cUgandan\u201d time, enjoying the local cuisine (Matooke, Posho, Kalo, and Cassava), and waiting impatiently for the mango season. We have our very own tree in the garden! On a last note, and to much amusement for the Ugandans, I managed to get sunburned on Monday. Lesson learned – my sensitive skin is now protected even in the cloudy, rainy weather.<\/p>\n

I am looking forward to the next two months in a place where I already begin to feel at home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The amazing organization that is helping me out. Read more about their projects on www.hphuganda.org.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
My outdoor toilet and an avocado tree in Seeta village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
My study place in Paul\u00b4s garden (Seeta village).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The local bus from Kampala to Gulu where local and Christian music is played on the screen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Some of my lovely roommates. From the left: Shima, Mary, and Hedvig.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The fruit and vegetable section at Gulu Main Market.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Planting trees at the community health center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Doing some manual labor to support the local community in Atyang village.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The team of the day, including Hope and Peace for Humanity\u00b4s employees, volunteers, and partners as well as community members.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
A perfect breakfast setting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have arrived and settled in Uganda, the Pearl of Africa! And what a welcome. I do not believe that I have ever met as kind, open, and welcoming a people before. Everyone is very eager to chat and help if needed. After a long but comfortable journey with Qatar Airways (Copenhagen \u2013 Doha \u2013 … <\/p>\n

Forts\u00e4tt l\u00e4sa \u201dKop Ango! from Gulu\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[599,385,598,460,142,600],"class_list":["post-5553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ks-gps","tag-good-deeds-day","tag-gulu","tag-hope","tag-human-rights","tag-uganda","tag-welcome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5553"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5575,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions\/5575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.mah.se\/mfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}