The bush, the slave trade and getting dusty…

As I sit here in the shade of a giant tree at the Acholi Inn here in Gulu I wanted to jot down a few things. As I look across the courtyard there are 4 military men with large guns just hanging out near the pool. There is a current military presence due to the fact that President Museveni is in town for the week. Large guns in public are fairly common but it always causes surprise. Today we had the opportunity to venture out into the bush to see a historical slave trade fort that used to be operated by the Arabs. As we left our rendezvous point this AM. I saw that we had another vehicle to take us so we weren’t so crowded. That vehicle was a pickup. I was excited. I immediately asked in we could ride in the back for the hour drive out to the fort… they let us and it was awesome. Hot sun, plenty of dust but an awesome way to see the countryside outside of the constricts of the van. We waved at locals and took photos of the country. After arriving at Bakers Fort we learned about the place. Arabs used to come to this region to abduct Acholi (the tribe in northern Uganda) to sell as slaves. John Baker (a Brit) then later came to liberate the camp. Pretty stark to see the actual place where slaves were displayed, beheaded and such. To think that such inhumanity took place like that is chilling. After another dusty ride back in the truck we arrived back in Gulu. We then talked with Fredrick our driver who also is a business owner. He is 29 and has a great business. He works with NGO’s to drill wells all over northern Uganda and also builds school. Professional, and informative he was a great representative of Uganda, the north, and the Acholi people. He talked about his struggles to get capital being a small business owner which really gave perspective on appreciating our system of entrepreneurship in the U.S. A great day in Gulu.