My Pabo Experience

So the alarm goes off at 7:30am, today is the day we travel to Pabo. We get ready, and Kevin comes a knocking at the door, over an hour early to inform us we need to get ready because two buses that go to Pabo and further have left, so only one remains. We walk to where we need to pick up the bus and we wait, and wait, and wait. Kevin and Megan have already left; they needed to make some stops along the way to get the certificate for our land. The bus finally arrives and then it finally leaves. Just getting on the bus was an adventure, which should have been the first sign that Pabo would be a day to remember. There we bags and bags of cabbage in the aisle of the bus so we had to climb over them to get to some seats, crazy looking munus climbing over cabbage I bet that was a sight. The ride itself was not at all comfortable; it was so bumpy, I had to make myself not throw up.

But we finally get to Pabo, it only took us an hour or so once we were on the road rather than the 2.5 hours Kevin thought. So here I am in the biggest IDP camp in Uganda walking to meet our two kids that live there. We thought we would go check out the school first and then go to the kid’s huts. As we are walking along I step in this huge pile of mud, this is a regular occurrence it seems I can never stay out of mud. So after Kevin helps me wash my foot and shoe we can actually go to the school…it was lunchtime, so it was like walking into a lion’s den. We were followed by a swarm of children, well over 100, perhaps close to 200. There were times we could barely walk the kids were grabbing our hands and just wanting to touch us. We talked with Wilfred and Beatrice’s head teachers about how they were doing in school, and we got fairly general answers but we didn’t really expect much more. Diana and I decided we wanted to spend the night in Pabo. Kevin didn’t think we should stay in a hut because it might not be safe if a priest did not escort us, and there were no priests present that day. However, we were able to make arrangements with the parish to sleep over night there once we were doing spending time with our kids. We walk through a maze of huts and arrive; I finally got to meet Beatrice and Wilfred, as well as the rest of their family. A bit of a back-story, they have two younger brothers one named Daniel who fell into the stove when he was younger and was burned very badly and has scars all over his body from the incident. Their mother is HIV positive so life can be tough for them sometimes, in addition to the already difficult life in an IDP camp. So we chatted with their mother for a while till it was time for Laura, Kevin, and Megan to head out. School was not over yet so Diana and I decided to go observe the classes and then come back to the hut with the kids when school was over.

After saying farewell to our friends we were escorted to the P.5 class that Beatrice is in. I was pleasantly surprised by what I say: A class size of around 80 (not too bad), an active teacher, in class participation, and in class feedback. We then were taken to another building where Wilfred was in his P.4 class. It was towards the end of the day so they were done with lessons, but the teacher managed to make us feel quite uncomfortable. He was talking to the students about how much Americans love them, and what sort of things they need because of the 21-year war. He introduced who he thought was our kid, but was the wrong boy completely, we tried to correct him but he just thought he had got the name wrong. Overall the experience at the school was very good, though at times very overwhelming and awkward. After school we followed Beatrice and Wilfred back to their hut to spend time with them for the evening. Both Wilfred and Beatrice struggle in English and well I am still working on my Luo so we were not able to talk much but it was nice to be able to at least be with them. After arriving at the hut we were served dinner, so much food it took everything I had to eat it, but it was tasty.

After dinner we went outside to sit with everyone and Diana and I started doing math problems in the dirt with our kids. Next thing you know as we are working a large group of forty or so forms around us. So we are working with the kids, and I felt kind of bad because you can hear people counting and answering the problems out loud. It was an interesting experience but I loved it.

So we wanted to walk around the camp to see just what it was like, so we start walking. We stop at a store and a man comes out and explains they don’t understand what we are saying so he translates for us and they realize what we want to do and take us for a walk. It was the most impoverished yet beautiful place I have ever seen. I couldn’t cry even though I wanted to, I couldn’t because everyone else was laughing. The huts were so close I could lie between them and touch both. Look out to the distance just a ways and you see mountains, lush green trees, and the most gorgeous sunset ever. This was the first time that I was really exposed to the stereotypical Africa that you see on late night commercials from feed the children. In Gulu I had seen children with potbellies and flies on their faces but not every time I turned around. This is what I saw in Pabo, and it was heartbreaking yet at the same time reassuring. What I mean by this is that the conditions were awful but the people were still smiling and laughing, they have not lost hope and faith that tomorrow will be better so neither can I.

We arrive back at the hut and we are just sitting outside it, with about 40-50 pairs of eyes just starring at us. We were not supposed to leave till 8 for the parish but Diana and I thought that it might be best if we leave early. Word was traveling around the camp that we were there and more and more people were coming around and we didn’t want to cause too much of a commotion/hassle for the family with all the people around their hut.

After spending an interesting and fun night at the Parish it was sadly time for us to leave Pabo. Peter walked us to the area that we could get a ride back to Gulu and we found ourselves in a slight predicament, taxi or the back of the pick up truck? We thought that maybe we should go on the taxi, but then we found out it was going to be a long time till it left, and well TIA (this is Africa) so a long time could very well be 5 hours. So we hop on the back of this pick up truck and it was so much fun. The scenery was beautiful, the ride wasn’t too bad, wind was in my hair and I could not stop laughing and smiling.

Overall my time in Pabo was amazing, life changing and a beautiful experience. I plan on going back a few more times before I leave to get to know and experience more with the people who live in some of the worst conditions you can imagine.