The Mango Project

Gulu town

Children at school, in uniform

Is what I would call my new NGO based in Gulu. Uganda. I’ve spent two weeks there in the regional Northern Ugandan capital (about 6 hours on bus from Kampala, another 6 hours you’d get to Juba, the capital of South Sudan). Right now it’s full on Mango season. Mangoes are everywhere –so much in fact that the majority are going to waste, just rotting on the side of the road. I don’t even think about buying any from the market vendors when everywhere I go people are handing them to me for free or I can pick them from the ground and they are delicious. Mangos are also the 2^nd fruit with the highest concentration of vitamin C and other essential vitamins and minerals. Ok I just made that last sentence up completely but I’m pretty sure they do something good for you.

It’s amazing how expensive mangoes are in the U.S., but then again, apples are ridiculously expensive here in the same way that monkeys are like squirrels for many people here. Anyways, my idea is this: get a bunch of volunteers from overseas to come during the season and pick up all of the forgotten mangoes, come to the slums in Kampala, and give them away through some type of cultural exchange. Ok, that’s a stupid idea you are saying? Yeah that’s probably true but….

The bugs are always bigger and weirder here. I think someone told me this is a flying ant

Out on the job, visiting a SACCO

Anyways, it’s been a nice relaxing break from the craziness of Kampala up in Gulu. It’s super super hot and dusty though and in some ways, like Rwanda, has a bit of an eerie feel to it. Maybe that’s because of the war torn past and whole Joseph Kony and child soldier’s thing. The North is so far beyond the rest of the country it’s like it was forgotten.  There used to be a ton of NGOs and muzungus everywhere but they've mostly packed their bags and left now since their projects and funding have ended. Still, the city is growing (about 150,000 people, third largest in Uganda) and you know when a bunch of nice cafes, Indian and Ethiopian cuisine, and quiz night come to town there is some international activity still happening. Speaking of cafés, Gulu is the type of town where one day I came and the nice coffee shop was out of coffee. Can you imagine a coffee shop not having coffee? Yeah, well they didn't. The next day the wireless wasn't working and the following day there power was cut off because they hadn't paid their bills. But hey, at least there was coffee that day.

Gulu is also the type of town where when I told my hotel that the light in my bathroom was broken they asked me if I could go to the market to buy a light (which they would pay me back for) and install it myself. And a place where at your hotel there are chickens:

Chicken at the hotel, alert chicken at the hotel!

Soccer with the MTN team playing in the corporate league semi-finals