Luwero

Luwero is (kind of) famous because Museveni did most of his fighting there, while he was leading the National Resistance Movement against Amin (then Obote).

Many families in the area suffered for this. Fathers, husbands, and sons joined the ‘rebel’ army against Obote, and many died. In some cases men were just lost – not even buried. A neighbour to Dez’s parents lost her husband while he was fighting and her two sons were taken from her by the Obote military for being involved with the rebel group.

The legacy of this fighting, is a town where there are many single parent families, orphans, and many NGOs trying to help those that remained, cope.

The town itself is small, just a few gravel and dirt roads off the main Kampala-Gulu ‘highway,’ but very colourful. Like most Ugandan towns buildings are the site of advertisements so those near the market are yellow (for MTN), and blue (UTL) and greens (Hima cement).

Just a short boda-boda ride outside of town is Dez’s parent’s house. We sat outside, relaxing on the grass in their large front yard. I was once again amazed at how quiet the ‘villages’ are compared to the city. All you can hear are bugs, birds and the occasional grunt from the pigs rooting around the banana plantation in the backyard.

Unfortunately the peacefulness of the day was shattered by the small monsoon that blew through for a few hours. The rain was blowing horizontal, the banana and matoke plans were bending in the wind and it was really cold. I learned to play the board game that I see Ugandan’s everywhere playing and beat Dez – which was the important part, and possibly the highlight to my day. Thankfully, the rain stopped, but then we had to take a muddy boda ride back to reality.