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| Fairy Glen, Uig, Isle in the Skye, Scotland |
While waiting at the pre-departure gate for my flight from London's Heathrow airport to Entebbe, Uganda, I was transported to reality. I started seeing again some Africans after several days of watching tourists roam the streets of Edinburgh. How colorful the African ladies dress-up compared with the pastels that Europeans prefer to wear.
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| Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park |
I returned to Gulu with back-breaking pieces of luggage of canned and bottled sardines from Manila. For 20 years up to 2008, Northern Uganda was a no-man's land. Even Ugandan's feared traveling to the north, particularly the Acholi sub-region because of the presence of the Lord Resistance Army. Children were
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| IDP camp housing |
abducted and trained as LRA soldiers to go even against their
families. My colleague told me that during those times, the days were short and they had learned to eat once a day. At 4:00pm, people from the villages will start walking to town to find security. 
They slept on pavements, in school houses, hospitals, churches. It was estimated that some 15,000 to 40,000 children had walked to town to avoid being abducted and the episode was tagged as the Gulu Walk or Invisible Children. The world came to know of the situation when three foreigners visited the area and published what they saw.
In 1996, the government of Uganda put in place a policy of forced displacement of the Acholi - putting around one million people in camps for internally displaced to better secure them from the insurgents. It was said that 1,000 people were dying per week. Sanitation was poor, food was short, schooling was disrupted. International aid was flowing into the camps. In 
2009, the IDPs were closed following an experienced peace. The government encouraged people to go back to their villages and resume their normal lives. Children have to be given education. Health centers have to set-up. School houses and roads have to be built. Sanitation has to be improved. Clean water has to be accessible.
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| Vols from various organizations |
People need to have the capacity to rebuild their lives, and institutions have to be equipped to provide services to all sectors. International aid had shifted to rehabilitation, and international volunteers work with the locals to bring about sustainable development. In the UK, I see some charity organizations (such as Oxfam, Comic Relief, VSO) raise awareness to help.
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| We took the road less traveled |
Scotland (with her glens and lochs) and Uganda (with her lakes and wildlife) have majestic natural landscapes.
I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. (A Road Not Taken, Robert Frost)
They slept on pavements, in school houses, hospitals, churches. It was estimated that some 15,000 to 40,000 children had walked to town to avoid being abducted and the episode was tagged as the Gulu Walk or Invisible Children. The world came to know of the situation when three foreigners visited the area and published what they saw.
In 1996, the government of Uganda put in place a policy of forced displacement of the Acholi - putting around one million people in camps for internally displaced to better secure them from the insurgents. It was said that 1,000 people were dying per week. Sanitation was poor, food was short, schooling was disrupted. International aid was flowing into the camps. In 
2009, the IDPs were closed following an experienced peace. The government encouraged people to go back to their villages and resume their normal lives. Children have to be given education. Health centers have to set-up. School houses and roads have to be built. Sanitation has to be improved. Clean water has to be accessible.
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