Before I go...

Okay, trying my hand at my first real post before I depart this Saturday. For those of you following my blog I thought it might be nice to give you a little background on Uganda. (If you have not been introduced to it, the BBC news online has great Africa coverage and is one of my preferred international news sources). In 2008, Uganda had a population of 31.9 million. The capital is Kampala and the official languages are English and Swahili, though not many people actually speak Swahili. There are over 30 indigenous languages in Uganda and Luganda is a more widely spoken local dialect (one that I'm going to try to learn some of). The major religions are Christianity and Islam. Life expectancies, according to the UN, are 51 for men and 52 for women. Uganda has been hit really hard by the HIV/AIDS epidemic - more about that and the health care system later. The GNI per capita in 2007 was $340 - that's less than a dollar a day that most people live on. The current president is Yoweri Museveni, who took power militarily in 1986, but was democratically re-elected in the first multi-party democratic elections held in the country in 2006. Overall he's been somewhat of a benign 'dictator', bringing much-needed stability to a country post-colonially frought with military coups and violent dictatorships. He has also been praised for reacting relatively rapidly to the emerging HIV epidemic. Yet most people agree it's time for him to step down and allow a true democracy to flourish.

The civil conflict in northern Uganda between the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, and the Ugandan government is one of the world's forgotten conflicts that has been going on for over 20 years, creating nearly 2 million internally-displaced people (IDP). The LRA's brutal tactics include killing, torture, sexual abuse, and forced abduction and conscription of children as soldiers; the government forces have perpetrated similarly heinous acts against civilians. Human Rights Watch has a great report entitled, 'Uprooted and Forgotten' for those who are interested in reading more about the plight of IDPs. On October 6, 2005, an arrest warrant was issued for Joseph Kony by the International Criminal Court, though he has not been caught. On Christmas Day in 2008, 400 people were massacred by the Ugandan rebels just over the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Don't worry, I'm not going there. I will, however, post a longer analysis of the history of the conflict sometime soon.

All of that said, every Ugandan I've met in preparation for this trip has been so warm, kind, friendly and generous. It is those interactions that make me confident I will have a wonderful time in the country.