Despite the early start I arrived at the college at 3.30. After a quick lunch and change I managed an hour and a half with the accountant there to go through the reconciliation at the end of December, the calculation of tax etc. on extra pay and expenditure on the grant to date in the final period.
Tuesday was a second early start, 6.30 this time, as I stayed at the college overnight and was travelling to the meeting with their attendees. The NULP meetings are always interesting and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the land issues that are so important for the ultimate beneficiaries of the programme. The platform is becoming very popular with nearly 100 attendees this time from all over the Northern areas of Uganda.
Oil has been discovered in a band of land in the west of Uganda, through the West Nile region and along the side of Lake Albert. While anticipating a welcome rise in wealth in the country, the challenge is to ensure all benefit from the discovery and the people living in the region are not worse off as a result. We debated the issues around resettlement or compensation payments for those directly affected. Who owns the land, do they have title to prove ownership, what about the long term occupier who has no proof of ownership? If compensation is paid will it be used to resettle the family or enable the head of the household (usually male) to buy a boda boda or take another wife? While there are no easy answers it is good that the issues are being aired, especially as the meeting included representatives of local and national government and an oil company.
A very interesting session focussed on the confusion caused by a disconnect between laws, the national land policy and cultural norms where a child is born outside of marriage. With no clear consensus it is often the pregnant girl who is having to find a way to care for the baby when in the past, once the father was known, the 2 families would agree on a support package.
With a long debate over the wording of a voluntary code of conduct, the closing comments by a local politician and the group photo, it was 6.45 before the day concluded. I had heard of a wonderful fabric market in Arua from a previous volunteer based there so we were keen to go but by the time we arrived it was after 7 and sadly it had closed.
Wednesday was yet another pre dawn awaking for breakfast at 7 and departure at 7.30.
Sunrise from my hotel balcony!
It was a slightly more leisurely drive back to Kampala with time to stop at a market by the roadside to buy grinding stones to take back and simsim and water for the journey.
The large flat stones have a smaller round stone with smooth edge to go on top. These are used to grind simsim or ground nuts (peanuts) into powder to make into posho or sauces. The grinding is done by hand and it sounds like very hard work!
I arrived back at the flat a little after 6.30 to find Ann and David back from their adventures in the South West. They had enjoyed their trip to the gorillas and to Lake Mburo and had lots of lovely photos.
Thursday was their last day in Uganda so I arranged to leave work at lunchtime, this necessitated another early start in order to complete what had to be done! We had a quick lunch in the flat then drove down to the botanical gardens in Entebbe for a look around. We were lucky to see a large family of the black and white colobus monkeys in the trees. We finished the day with a pizza on the beach before dropping them off for their flight at Entebbe Airport.
It has been lovely to have the company of friends from Poppleton for nearly 3 weeks and we've really enjoyed showing them around Uganda and also having a holiday ourselves.
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