The story I live to tell

It was one morning of a Thursday in 2001, when I woke up heading to school, and on my way there with other pupils, we were told that the ADF rebels who started their guerilla war in the area in 1996 had raided my village and the entire county of Bunyangabu. I was in primary seven and preparing to seat for my PLE, talk about it, I felt bad but was helpless and had nothing to do. 

We ran direct to school; hardly had we entered the classrooms than we heard thunderous pellets of the famous AK 47 gun, I was flabbergasted and couldn’t stand the loud alarms. Then were called to go for parade by the then Headmaster!

The headmaster was triggered pick as well, and he was quoted saying, “am worried of what am gonna do for all these pupils, where will I hide them”, later on he asked us who resided near the school and within the centre to go home, by the way it was a Thursday and more so a market day, there were however few people in the market, now citizens were scared that some of the people in the market were rebels, and for that matter didn’t we fear passing through the market and that was  the only way through home. 

We were saved by the government’s call it Mamba, and some UPDF soldiers you know what, when they came, we got a sigh of relief, with some hopes that incase of any hick up, they would come to our rescue. Haaah didn’t the ADF start cracking gunshots like as if heaven had fallen onto the earth, wish you were there, man and woman we ran, till no more, and thank God home was near, I got there immediately, but some of our colleagues who were heading to the route where the rebels were, remained at school. My school was one of the targeted areas to be blustered, thank God for the UPDF they won, man those guys were scary. 

Now on getting home, my parents were stranded as well, for our house was near the road and this was the main road, but we were just timid, we had the night there. What amused me was how my fellow Ugandans were running away from the Rwenzori mountains down slope not knowing that they were just falling into the den of loins, ready to eat anyone they came across to. I tell you those guys killed people, if you saw the videos of Kony in Northern Uganda, that’s what transpired in Bunyangabu – Kabarole district on that day.

So terrifying the day was! But nonetheless we managed to survive the brutal massacres, homes were left empty, they killed and abducted whoever they came across to, what pained me most on that day was burning of houses and pounding babies. They burnt over three churches and several houses, wherever they would meet a herd of cows or goats that would be a feast day, they would slaughter, roast and eat, now for them to slaughter they would first breakdown a house since most of the houses in the area are semi permanent such that they can get firewood. The men and women in this force were enraged, for sure I hear they are back, people’s lives have been tarnished and families broken down, whence shall we be one? And work together as children of God, any way where there is a will there is away, one day it shall come to pass. 

All is said and was done, they never survived the UPDF then and they will not today, they were chased up to one crater lake called Kaina, where most of them were killed, the attack never lasted for several days but the pain they left in our homes, are scars of tears that I will live to tell.

Authored by Kabatwairwe Olive.

A perplexed dream

When I was young, I used to think a lot of who I was, and where I was heading to, fortunately whenever my mother got me silent, she would ask me, why I would be quiet, I surely never replied her at any moment because I used to fear, would feel timid. 

One day she called me on and took me to the kitchen, we were there two and she was making soup, she repeatedly asked me, what I used to think about oftenly. Well i decided to open up, and told her, that I used to think of my future as a lawyer and that I wanted to see myself in court pleading for especially the innocent citizens of this nation. 

Mum was so amazed and thereafter she also narrated her tale to me, siath that, it was her dream too, used to dream of being a lawyer however her parents weren’t able to take her for law, they never had the money, though she managed to go for medicine and she became a nurse. But when I asked her, whether she would support me pursue my dream, mum was more than ready to do so. I love my mum, she started telling me to love history, geography, literature and English, and for sure from nursery to secondary my performance in English and SST were very excellent. I never knew that this was indeed building my foundation for the future and I never knew that it was originating from my mother’s perplexed dream that wanted to tread its way through me.

Did I pursue my dream?

When my beloved mother passed on, I fore felt that my dreams were tarnished, for sure I failed to pursue my dream plan of being a lawyer, I was in senior one, so zealous and hard working ready to read novels and books, learn more English and indeed I was ever smart, talk of the ever smart student at school, it was me. Dress code counts a lot in a profession.   

No turning point, I realized it after senior four when I was told to go for nursing, this made me sick the more, imagine from law to medicine just like my loved mom, I for sure reflected to it and thought back. I was open and told my Dad, that I was not ready for medicine, he was so parental and openly siath, no you will go for high school, this made me happy the more, come after the two years, I pass high school, and nobody could tell of the victory I had then. Later after receiving my results, I was told to go for a high education course – teacher, it was more perplex, and I truly looked infuriated. 

On hearing that, I knew that my dream was tarnished, would I ever pursue it, I kept on suffering this fury alone, and fighting professional battles individually, this asks both of us not to let go of things we value most but always struggle to deal with them, whatever case it may be, I kept trying and forcing life, though I never told my dad and now that my only mom who knew about it, had passed on, I was for sure between the develo and the deep sea.

I kept on thinking how to convince my dad and one day I asked him, whether he could support me do a diploma in law atleast at one of the universities in my home area, he asked me to pick application papers, the university gave me public administration, and I was fade up again. I for sure could not understand myself as to why with my good performance I underwent all these trials, after all this, dad asked me to apply in other two universities, now there I even never asked for law, I decided to go social science, I was given the courses I asked for and took one of them for undergraduate degree. 

I feel no regrets, I did a course that has made me who I am, I never knew that I would find myself doing advocacy work which I would rather have done as a lawyer, I am advocating for women and children’s’ rights, something I wanted to do for the innocent citizens one may call them vulnerable, I prefer calling them innocent citizens. I feel pretty conformable though not a learned fellow, the issue was doing advocacy work.

For some one reading this legend, you may find yourself doing things against your dream, never mind sometime T, you will find yourself pursuing it, and at one moment, you will do it. I still have hope that I will one day see my dream come true. I will do law and will be a lawyer. 

I lost it then, failed to achieve it then, but can’t lose hope, will keep it at heart, being a lawyer is part of me, it takes a heart, zeal and passion.

Olive Kabatwairwe Legends

THE BEAUTY OF NATURE

Setting off for Murchison Falls National park was somehow between the develo and the deep sea for me. Having been admitted in a clinic the previous night, I was feeling under the weather indeed I felt down in the dumps that I was going to miss the trip. Life is full of wonders, on the early morning of Saturday 23^rd June 2012 i saw myself somehow strong and could therefore join my colleagues for the long awaited trip.

HOW DID WE REACH THERE

The journey from Gulu to the Park took us over two hour’s just due to the portholes, and the narrowness of the road, you know moving through Badege, to Custom boarder via Kochi-Goma road, then to Anaka-Anaka headquarters-Anaka Hospital-and we joined from the new tarmac road (work in progress),  from there we joined Karuma-Pakwach at Anaka-Purongo sub/county and finally branched off to the main entrance of the great Murchison falls National Park which covers 3840km/sq. Nevertheless we were there by 10:00 am, though we had some delays at the main gate for we had to make payments and get a conservation agent who was acquitted with park language name it, oh my God I could not wait to go deep and see the wonderful and amazing scenery in the National Park located in Nwoya District. The beautiful wild life, mammal and bird species, the very gentle land scape, the wonderful pasture and vegetation,  the very good weather and most interesting the  breezes of the most gentle flowing waters of the one and only shared Lake of East Africa Victoria flowing and the Falls. 

WHAT DID WE SEE THERE

I was so much amazed and blessed to have reached there by myself any way I was tired of the hear says, at long last the Social Transformation training  in Gulu at Acholi Inn was a stepping stone to the park, you know I could not afford to miss glancing at the buffalos, elephants as the biggest animal in the park, monkeys with their styles, the very huge Hippopotamus in the Albert delta, Baboons,  the most respected bird in the pearl of Africa—the Crested crane, bush birds, antelopes with their shinning skin, My Totem the Uganda Kob, Warthog, Giraffe and its tallness, the Oribi (small antelopes), lizards, Eagles-Vultures, Reedbuck, Ground horn bull, Egyptian plover, Spur winged plover, white Egret, Red Bishop, Paradise whyder, for my first time I saw dry rivers you know I only used to hear my school teachers and pals discuss about them in geography and Social studies, the oil wells down the park, in fact two of them oh!! Uganda is indeed endowed with minerals but are we benefitting from the blessings God gave us? God knows. We could not also miss seeing the Pakuba air strip in the park, on our way back from the Albert delta where we saw a hippo pod.(group of Hippos)

MOST PAINFULL

In fact I realized that most participants were not at ease after the Conservation Agent announced that we were likely to miss seeing Butcher man ‘LION the king of the jungle’ for he had gone deep into the bush to look for a meal, and that they would not see the Murchison falls, though they had a glance at the White Nile on their way to Para Lodge for Lunch. 

ABOUT THE PARK

The National park which covers an area of 3840km/sq is shared by districts of Nwoya, Buliisa, Masindi, Nebbi, and Oyam in the East. It has 76 mammal species and 450 bird species.

History

The area was first inhabited by human beings in the early 1898-1914, when there was a serious outbreak of sleeping sickness, killing many people. Therefore the survivors ran away for refuge rendering the land vacant. However important to note was that when people migrated to these other places for settlement they increased population for both human beings and animals, therefore the animals ran to the bare land and enjoyed for over 40 years without man’s disturbance. In 1950 - 1951, local and government leaders consulted the people whether they would like to re-settle in their original ancestral land the response was no. So the area was further improved and gazzated as a national park. The area has been an outstanding tourist attraction mainly due to the great population of wildlife, species diversity, unique attraction, the beautiful scenery, land site and the eco-system diversity.

As told to writer by the Conservation Agent UWA…Mr. Wako Innocent.

 WATCH OUT

Do not make mistakes when you enter a national park, there are park rules

·        Enter at your own risk

·        Do not enter with pets, cats

·        Speed limit is 40km/hr

·        No littering

·        Do not enter with fire arms hand them over to authority

·        No poaching

In a nut shell my journey to the park was all interesting as I managed to see several creatures I had longed to see, enjoyed at my leisure time, had fun with pals and mates any way have no way to express the joy I had, despite having missed seeing the king of the jungle (lion).

BY KABATWAIRWE OLIVE…kabaolive@gmail.com…..

MY JOURNEY TO GULU

On a bright Sunday morning when one is expected to be enjoying the “Mazongoto” (bed in English), Olive was preparing for Church, for blessings for the best in the forth coming training for Transformation in Gulu. Church was all well, at Christ the King Catholic Church in Kampala. Where I met the CEW-IT National Coordinator with the Family and we drove to the CEW-IT offices at spear house-Jinja road where preparations for the two weeks long awaited Gender mainstreaming training in Gulu was to be held. Well preparations went on as anticipated, everyone was just excited, print outs were made of the necessary documents, we picked up other vital materials and set off to the Baganda bus park where the CEW-IT/CU team was to board a bus to Gulu, the training was aimed at equipping Oxfam Novib partners with the relevelant skills on mainstreaming gender in their organizations and partners as well as the communities they work with.

OH…my God you created so amazing was it when the bus started and we saw our selves heading to the land of the true Africans. I couldn’t wait to reach there but just had to bear some paramount of patience. The worst moment was the very poor roads as we had just left the park, the port holes, and then the road after Karuma falls which is too narrow oh! my God I couldn’t withstand the ups and downs. Okay as I said …yes I know we’ll move and reach there…though was worried that I would not make it there in time despite the very many stop over’s on the way that we would miss some mile stones in the training. 

It was such an interesting journey..what listen I tell you, as we approached Karuma falls, alms of praises to the living God from some passengers were raised…I know you should be asking yourself the why but never mind to them It was a discovery ..to cross the great river Nile, they used to hear and read on maps, I wondered and was then just between the develo and the deep sea. My heart was tickled pink at what I heard.

The heavy pouring at the Karuma falls, the wonderful stones in the water, the beautiful scenery with the very natural Karuma forest…trees short the friends deep down their hearts and they all stood hanging until we crossed the bridge. Though indeed felt like telling the driver to make a stop over such that they could first enjoy the falls at full length but time was not our best ally.

so we moved on guess what lots of question were answered in people’s hearts, like why is the land too flat that could have been the baseline of tne Lord’s Resistance Army, now the type of farming in the land was also typical African, come to the housing style …so wonderful and original..i tell you, even if the MUZUNGU brought the new arctitecture,,in Gulu Acholi land you will never find a homes sated without A MANYATA..this indicates true Africans.

Wow oh my God I always thought that being in the North meant different a style of living but I was so much amused by the very normal and common dress code of the people there, there is no big difference since we are all Ugandans and we share the same blood, therefore the dress code though typical African does not vary from the other Ugandans. and what of the booh, malakwang and atapa food stuffs, all very nice and tasty, just like we enjoy firinda and kalo back in Tooro. Talk of milk, its there, infact plenty of cows in Acholi, there is matooke for a muganda and G.nuts, so all are welcome. the story continues.....

Authored by Kabatwairwe Olive