Village Life

As we left Gulu and travelled further North to Kitgum and beyond to the far north near Kidepo life got more and more rural.

I use the word rural as poorer seems unfair. Many of the family units and settlements we passed are living a subsistence life that cannot be measured in modern economic terms.

Traditional round houses dominate the sides of the dirt road, many built with traditional wattle and daub walls and all with thatched roofs.  Some would have a brick built structure among them, many didn't.

Between Gulu and Kitgum the style of thatch was typically a single layer, however as soon as we passed Kitgum a multilayer style took over. It's funny how even the most basic of dwelling had regional differences.

There are no housing estates here, no blocks of flats, or modern mixed developments.

Maize is everywhere if there is space to grow it you see it, right up to the side of a road, up a hill, between buildings.

After we passed Orom (this felt like a wild west border town, the last stop before oblivion) sunflower growing started to dominate, field after field of sunflowers all smiling at us. It was unclear if this was for seeds or oil or both.

One enterprising group were raising Turkeys, literally ready for Christmas, to sell for a good price come December.

Here you grow or produce what you need and sell the rest at the side of the road, or walk it into the next town to get what you can for it.

It felt like we saw every African stereotype ever presented to the west: Ladies (and children) carrying goods on their heads, children pumping water from a bore hole, people of all ages washing cloths in the river, child walking long distances to school, I even saw a boy using a stick to balance a rolling tyre along what passes for a pavement.

On our return journey from Kidepo to Kitgum we saw one vehicle that wasn't us or a truck. Here you walk, cycle or ride a motorbike (Boda Boda), obviously without a helmet. If you do have a vehicle you have a massive advantage and an enormous opportunity for money making where others do not.

So yes, these people are poor, but it is not clear they know any different, or want it. Life if clearly hard. There is no such thing a leisure time or discretionary spending, it didn't even feel like the days of the week had much meaning. Every now and then you saw a glimpse of modernity - solar panels on a thatched roof, presumably to charge a phone in a round house.

But despite all this the children would hear us coming and come running out of the villages and fields to shout and wave at the side of the road (some far closer than is comfortable for the speed of the vehicles) with beaming smiles on their faces.

 So yes, by every measure these people are poor, yet somehow rich in something I cannot yet grasp.

Stay rooted - 🇺🇬 Dave