Rugby Club and Ethiopian Restaurant

The last time I was in the same country as a terrorist attack was Tuesday, September 11, 2001. On Sunday, July 11, 2010 al Shabab attacked the local civilian population in Kampala, Uganda, a group of people watching the World Cup finals. It's a tragedy that al Shabab attacked outside of its own country (let's not even get into the tragedy happening within that country itself). You can read political analysis on NY Times or BBC, but here's my experience of the events:

I'd arrived in Uganda on Tuesday evening, spent a wonderful few days in Mbale and was just finishing a fabulous weekend in Gulu. We finished up our homemade lasagna (a treat!) and headed over to Boma Hotel to watch the game on the only big tv screen in Gulu. We had so much fun watching the game - it wasn't until the next morning that I had any idea what happened: Suicide bombers set off multiple explosions in highly-populated areas inside Kampala- inside the Rugby Club and Ethiopian Restaurant in Kampala (as well as couple other locations where fortunately the bombs did not detonate).

It felt so unfair to be attacked from a source outside the country - for something that the majority of people in Uganda had nothing to do with. Thankfully, everyone on my team was safe - but the number of close encounters is chilling. For my colleague Moses, his brother was at the Rugby Club and just decided to leave 15 minutes before the bomb went off. My friend Sophia, her brother-in-law was going to watch the game from the Ethiopian Restaurant but decided to skip it because they weren't serving pork that night.

People were very sober the following day- not panicked, and not even bothering to check in with all their friends until the list of deceased came out in a couple days. A couple of my colleagues hearkened back to the days of the LRA attacks, when they would hide at night for fear that they would be kidnapped. They remembered hearing the Black Mamba (a heavy metal gun, from what I understand) and said that in comparison AK-47s sound like popcorn. popcorn. Amazing resilience.

I drove through Kampala this past Friday (7/23) to get to the airport, and I found it very interesting to listen to the radio - all the DJs were talking about how nobody would be going to bars in Kampala that weekend. "The latest thing is house parties and office parties, if it's acceptable to party in your office," they said. My driver and I chuckled at this. Other changes that we saw - just in the brief 2 weeks following the attacks include: screenings at all bars - even in Gulu!! We got frisked and even my tiny handbag was searched. inconvenient? yes, but so important for the country to take seriously this risk. Uganda used to be this place that felt very free and open - now it feels a lot like any other country.

Now Somali refugees in Uganda face uncertainty, as well as the nations supporting AMISOM. Countries and people react and evolve based on their circumstances - terrorism is not a new phenomenon in Uganda, but certainly one which we all hoped was finished. The death toll continues to increase - last I heard it was 84 people who were killed. My heart goes out to the families and to the mourning country of Uganda. Already the world seems to have moved on- there are so many tragedies to read about in the news.

Maybe best to end this post with a quote from the hero Nelson Mandela- he says, "To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."