Lalogi and Hamburgers

Lalogi IDP Camp

This experience has afforded us many opportunities to visit places that have been the source of much suffering and pain, and to talk to people that have seen a lot of hardship in their lives. In Rwanda, we saw genocide sites where up to 50,000 people were killed. We talked to survivors who watched their friends, parents, girlfriends, sisters, neighbors, and children beaten to death in front of them. And amazingly, sixteen years after the genocide, these people and communities have made huge strides towards reconciliation and rebuilding. Victims and perpetrators live side by side in what appears, at least on the outside, to be cohesive and functioning communities. As a visiting Muzungu, I was hardly ever asked by a Rwandan citizen to help them solve their problems for them. They were confident in their own abilities to make the best of their situation.

The other day we visited the Lalogi Internally Displaced Persons Camp. During the LRA War, almost 95% of Northern Ugandans were moved to IDP camps under the auspices of protecting them from the Rebels. The camps themselves were overcrowded which served to create a large number of sanitary problems: lack of access to water, inability to farm sustainably, and outbreaks of disease (HIV/ AIDS rates were at twice the national average in the camps). Social problems arose as well out of the change in environment that served to disrupt the traditional culture. The inability of men to provide for their families led to increased alcoholism. The inability to find a place to teach traditional methods of hunting and farming, among many other tasks, caused even more distress for the men. Women stepped in to complete the tasks that men used to perform and this led to increased gender based-violence, as the men were uncomfortable with the women performing their traditional roles. On top of all of this, Aid organizations were providing all of the food to the camp because no one was able to feed him or herself.

Out of all the frustration and uncertainty in the camps, coupled with the Aid organizations provisions of food and water, the people in the camps became dependent on outside aid. For twenty years many people were unable to provide for themselves and either were not taught or simply forgot how to be self-sufficient.

Today, of the thousands of people that occupied the camp, only a mere three hundred or so remain. The rest have returned to their original homes to figure out land disputes and the start their lives over again. Those who remain fear conflict when they return or simply don’t know how to provide for themselves.

The food aid to the camp was cut off in June of this year. The inhabitants of the camp were furious. Why? Because they felt they were not given enough warning by the powers that be. I asked if the Aid organizations had instituted any programs to teach the camp residents how to farm and support themselves before they left them on their own. They said yes, but their access to land in the camp was still limited.

After a few questions back and forth we came towards the end of our conversation. But before we left, the man who gave us a brief tour around the camp asked us what we had brought for them. He looked at all of us, and with in authoritative equally expectant manner basically told us that we were now expected to give them something. I mustered up a quick “we can be ambassadors for you to people in the U.S.” but that obviously did not satisfy him. We all left feeling, it sounds petty, but angry. Angry at him for telling us we needed to give them something, angry at the LRA for forcing them into such a situation as the camp, and angry at the aid organizations who created the culture of dependency here.

We are here to study the situation in Rwanda and Uganda. The stated goal of this trip has no service related aspect and at no point during any of our visits do we create the impression that we are an aid organization/ mission group/ volunteer group. But because of past experience and expectations built up over years and years of relying out outsiders, largely Westerners, whenever this man, and others in the same situation, sees a Muzungu they automatically think that they will get something from them. It is a crippling reliance. For twenty years they have relied on outside support, and it has stunted their work ethic and ability to support themselves in the absence of aid organizations.

It goes to show what is so wrong with the way aid is distributed in the world today. In so many instances large amounts of money are funneled in to projects that simply give goods to people. If a project like that continues for a long enough period of time, with out any attempts by them or the providers to change the situation they are in, then the recipients grow entirely dependent on outside aid. As the adage goes “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

As we left Robbie mentioned that “Everyone thinks about themselves more often than the rest of the world combined” and that “nobody cares more about your wellbeing than you do.” As cynical as they both sound, its true. The people we encountered at the camp are caught up in the mindset that everyone else in the world knows about them and is scrambling to help them. Unfortunately for them, that’s just not the case.

Ugandan Hamburger
So I love Ugandan food. The beef, chicken, rice, beans, malaquang (don’t ask), dodo, (see previous parenthetical remark), and potatoes. BUT I can’t say that I don’t miss American food. So the other day I went to Zoe’s Foodland, a semi-fast-food restaurant in Gulu. They have hamburgers. So, in an attempt to satisfy my American food craving I ordered the hamburger. The burger came and it looked delicious, complete with a sesame seeded bun, a valiant attempt at ketchup, and a side of fries. I took a huge bite, but what I tasted was certainly not hamburger, but not altogether unpleasant. After a few exploratory bites, I finally settled on it, it tasted almost exactly like a taco. I have also been missing Mexican food, so the little taste switch up was not totally unappreciated, in fact, I went back today because I was craving some Mexican food. But I now have a mission when I return back to the states… finding a legitimate hamburger.

-Muzungu about to leave Gulu for Kampala... and who is really missing hamburgers.