The road trip up to Gulu was interesting. We had 6 people, probably 15-20 bags/backpacks, 2 Ugandans, and the potholes. I am surprised that the bus actually made it to Gulu in one piece!! Some of the potholes were like 2 feet deep and 4 foot wide craters in the road. The roads here are also much much much more narrow than the roads at home. We would have to veer off the road into the ditch/side when there was on coming traffic!!
We got into Gulu around 9pm or so, unloaded into our hotel, and went to Sankofa for pizza. Not very Ugandan haha!
Sunday morning started bright and early with some sort of church service happening right outside our hotel. It started at around 7:30.
Orientation to Gainline and the next few weeks happened at the Gainline offices. We have a jammed packed time here in Gulu and Uganda!!! I am so excited.
My first Ugandan meal consisted of sweet potatoes (not anything like Canadian sweet potatoes) and malakwan, which is this yummy peanutty sauce with some greens mixed in. Absolutely delicious!!!
Caitlin, Sof and I toured around Gulu for the rest of the afternoon. We explored the market and some of the small shops around town. It was cool to see some people making flip flops out of old and used tires. Talk about recycling and reusing!
Mom, there is a name for the way I eat my eggs!! Rolexes (rolled eggs)!! It's an omelette with peppers, onions and whatever other veggies wrapped in a chipatta. Super delicious!!! It's like street meat here, there are stands everywhere!!!
The people here are very nice to us muzungos (white people). Very nice culture and very honest.
Monday we took a boda trip to Baker's Fort. It was about an hour on a boda driving through the Ugandan countryside. Super dusty. We had a tour guide for Baker's Fort, but he was quite drunk and I didn't really get a good summary of who Baker actually was. The fort was originally inhabited/controlled/established by the Arabs in the 1800's as part of the slave trade. They would separate the men and the women and the weak from the strong, and the ugly from the beautiful. They would execute the ugly, weak, old Africans via an axe, a gun, or by pushing them off of the rock formation. Not really sure how Mr Baker came or what his deal was though. We were able to have our "lion king" moment as there was a rock that looked like a smaller version of pride rock. Wicked!!!
I got to work with the Negri College High School boys rugby team after the adventure in Baker's Fort!!! They just won a sevens tournament this past weekend and are hungry for another win at the tournament in Gulu this coming Saturday. They have been coming out in the mornings and training on their own which is totally awesome!!! We had a fun practice of just touch. I played and joined in their touch game.
It was a little weird, but an amazing experience to be such a minority in a group. I was the only female on the pitch, as it is an all boys school, and I was the only white/non-African person there as well. I have never really been in such a minority before. All of the boys were wonderful and there was not one moment I felt unsafe or anything (don't worry mom! Haha)
The boys were a little apprehensive with me on the field, but once we started playing I was just another rugby player. Obviously they touched me more gently then their teammates which they half-tackled and pushed, but that was the only difference. Rugby is cool like that. There is definitely like a brotherhood. Doesn't matter if you're black or white, rugby is for everyone. Great feeling. 
Today we went to prison. Guess they didn't much like us muzungos touring around. KIDDING. We did not get arrested. Hahahahahaha. Alfred is a former rugby player for the Gulu Elephants, he's a huge supporter of Gainline and he is a referee. He was arrested and thrown into jail for a crime he did not commit. He is completely innocent. Here in Uganda the police can be bought. So I could pay a police officer to arrest my neighbour for no legitimate reason. Anywhoooo, we brought a couple of rugby balls and went off to jail. We taught about 50 inmates the basics of rugby and played some touch sevens with them.
I was super scared and nervous at first going into the prison. I read the board there. There was about 300 convicted prisoners, and 600 awaiting trial and a few others that I couldn't figure out why they were there. Then I realized that most of these men are innocent, and have become completely demoralized through their jail time. They just want something to do and have fun while they hope and wait for a better outcome. They are all super nice and super respectful as well.
It was sloppy, but by the end some of the inmates were really starting to get rugby. We left two of the balls there so Alfred could continue teaching. I think hopefully we will be going back at some point later this week. We will get to see how much they have improved because I'm sure they will be playing rugby a lot over the next few days!!!
Currently I am sitting at Cafe Larem. It's a coffee shop that sells amazing coffee (says everyone else as I am not a coffee drinker) and awesome passion fruit juice!!! 
Tonight I'll be heading back to Negri for another practice. If practice ends early enough, I will be going to train with the Gulu Elephants! So much rugby and I love it!!!
It'll be hard to leave this community behind that's for sure!!
-Steph
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