THIS COUNTRY COULD HAVE BEEN EDEN

The experience of North and South embrace when 24 Ugandan and Norwegian youth 12 from each Country had a component called field placement. After 4 Months in Uganda the 24 were paired and sent out to different parts of Uganda some very remote to experience what development organizations do. We travelled in buses slowly but surely a pair disembarking when they reached their destination. Towards the East of Uganda the route that I took; Yngva who was alone because her partner was sick disembarked and we watched her serenely walking away to her lonely experience. But it wasnt so lonely because in the destinations were what REDD BARNA called Child Advocacy Project Officers (CAPOs) who were employed by Redd Barna in their field officers having been pioneer CA-NUs. So Yngva disembarked in Iganga a small town with lots of bicycles, then Vesla who for some reason I don't recall also didnt have a partner disembarked in Tororo a small picturesque town overlooked by a beautiful rock.

So the bus sped on towards Mbale the place where the best coffee in the world is grown (Arabica Coffee) leaving Vesla behind in the safe hands of two CAPOS.In Mbale two CA-NUs disembarked Michael Lomuria from the famous Karamojong warrior tribe of Uganda. With him was Kristina Aas Fure.

Mbale has the world famous Mount Elgon that sits astride Uganda and Kenya and is home in both Countries to the World Beating long distance runners

So with Michael and Kristina left behind we strode on. Me and Maria Olseng, Noah and Line and Anders and Elia towards the north. We soon reached Soroti where me and Maria disembarked finding our CAPO Christine waiting for us taking us to a nice restaurant for something to eat before helping us settle in after taking as through a fears and expectations session. So we waved Noah and Line, Anders and Elia goodbye who were going on to Michael Lomuria's Country Karamoja reknowned for its gun wielding nomadic no nonsense pastoralists who have refused to embrace modernity living in an interesting stone age like experience.

We were to return there again to do a particapatory rural appraisal a new learning approach then of putting community knowledge first. The power of community knowledge and development interventions inadequacy had been experienced in Karamoja where Redd Barna had spent 2million dollars to build schools. These schools became "White elephants" with the Karamojong children not going to them because the Karamojong being normadic keep moving with their families. This gave birth to a new approach Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) where teachers were part of the community traveling with them and when they stopped somewhere setting up a class and teaching

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