Lobby Days Aftermath

Thousands of you joined us in Washington D.C. on Monday and Tuesday on behalf of the Lords Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. Encouraging speakers and enthusiastic supporters made this a memorable and significant event. Through all of your hard work we currently have 65 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 13 cosponsors in the Senate! We are extremely proud of your efforts and we ask that you please follow up with your representatives and senators whether it be a thank you card or a kind letter of encouragement. Remember…This is How it Begins!

Follow your representatives here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR02478:@@@P

Follow your senators here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SN01067:@@@P

Update on Acii Nancy: IC’s international VCSP beneficiary

I was lucky enough to interview Acii Nancy in the summer of 2008, in Gulu, just before she took off on the adventure of a lifetime: studying abroad in the U.S. Now one year later, I reconnected with Nancy using video chat on Skype to hear just how much life has changed for this extraordinary VCSP beneficiary.

“It’s been a zillion firsts: first hamburger at McDonald’s, first snowfall, first carved pumpkin, first visit to see Santa. But it has also been a ton of firsts for us. For example, we, as a family, had to learn all about black beauty products.”

Phil Kelly laughs to himself as he reflects on the initial months Nancy came to the U.S. to live with him, his wife and their three daughters in Boise, Idaho. Since last July, when she was offered a full-ride scholarship to Boise State University, Nancy has not just become a member of the Kelly family, but has acclimated to a completely new way of life.

During my video chat with Nancy, I immediately noticed a difference: her Americanized expressions and change in accent stood out the most. It was hard to believe she had ever grown up in northern Uganda with English as a second language. But as the conversation continued, I recognized that this assimilation was no easy process. The past year has been full of many changes and hardships, but it has also been full of great accomplishments.
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Biffy Clyro

Ben Johnston and James Johnston, two members of the Scottish rock trio Biffy Clyro, took a break from recording their new album to co-headline Rock Ness’s main stage on Sunday night, and also talked to stv.tv about how it felt to play their biggest gig to date. The two musicians showed their support for the children of northern Uganda by wearing the latest Invisible Children apparel.

You can check out the interview here: http://video.stv.tv/bc/entertainment-rocknessfestival-20090614-biffy-clyro/
And shop at the Invisible Children store here: http://store.invisiblechildren.com/

Support From Space

Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut, sends her support to Invisible Children and the Rescue event. She has received 24 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American universities in recognition of her continuing work – as a physician and scientist, internationally known speaker, business consultant, author and photographer.

Unicycling Across Canada for Invisible Children!!

Above:  Phil, right, with a friend he met by the side of the road

Phil is what Invisible Children is all about.  At 18, he’s motivated, globally-minded, confident, and committed to bringing about positive change.  Phil, though, is doing a fundraiser we’ve never heard of before here at Invisible Children:  He’s balancing his way to bringing in bucks.

In March, Phil set out to unicycle across Canada to raise money for Invisible Children.  Only the second person ever to unicycle across Canada (!!!), Phil is almost finished his epic 4,700 kilometer ride.  To keep family, friends, and followers up to speed on how things are going, he is maintaining a fascinating website that documents his adventures.  (I just read about what sort of carbon footprint a cross-Canada unicycle trip leaves.  And I learned that Phil has to complete 1,656,931 wheel rotations to make it across the country!)

With the summer season fast approaching, lots of human-powered travelers are setting out to slowly explore the world.  Some of them, guys like Phil, are traveling with more than their destinations in mind; hope for change is pushing them to push on.

Wishing you tailwinds, Phil!

For a hefty dose of inspiration, or if you feel like donating some cash to help Phil help students here, head to his website and snoop around.

Live Stream Hosted by Invisible Children Filmmakers

Something’s in the water at Invisible Children because amazing things are happening around the IC office. We don’t want you to be out of the loop so we’re bringing it to your monitor screen once again. Jason and Bobby will be teaming up with Conversant Life and Mogulus on Wednesday, June 10th at 10 AM Pacific Time, (1 PM Eastern Time) to give you the latest updates on the Rescue, and How it Ends–a historic lobbying event in Washington, D.C. on June 22nd and 23rd. They will also share their experiences on Oprah and Larry King Live. Make sure that you invite your friends and family to tune in at: http://www.conversantlife.com/howitends

Faces of IC Update: Sunday

Above: Sunday during a recent visit to IC’s offices in Gulu, Uganda

Sunday
St. Michael’s High School
17 years old

When he sat down across from me, I faced a shy boy with darting eyes. Within moments, though, Sunday came alive in a flurry of smiles and hand gestures. We spent 30 minutes talking about school, about the future, about life. At the start of our interview, I asked Sunday how things had been going, and, waxing poetic like someone twice his age, he replied without hesitation. “You know, in life everything has two sides, like a coin. The good also has the bad. For me, it is the same–two sides. But for now, most things are good.”

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A Rainy Season Treat

Above: Abraham, an IC Gulu guard, shows off his midday meal

Rains in Uganda bring nourishment to people in all of the usual ways–saturating crops, filling rain water collection tanks, swelling fish-populated lakes and rivers. But the rains also satiate folks here in another way, as well. By coaxing flying white ants from their buried, earthy slumber, rains signal the arrival of a Ugandan delicacy. In the late afternoon and evening during a heavy rain, the ants emerge from the ground to begin mating. The next morning, once the critters are scattered on the ground by the hundreds, people scramble to pick them up. Fried with a little salt and nothing else, the ants taste like a mix between burnt popcorn, chicken, and…wood.

One morning I walked out of my house to a familiar blanket of white ant wings on the porch. Perplexed as to why no one was collecting the wingless ants that were still scurrying about, I asked one of the house guards what was going on. He said that there are two types of white ants–edible ones that taste delicious, and inedible ones that can make you go deaf.

“You eat first, then you have problems with your ears,” he said, earmuffing the sides of his head with his hands.

This past week the ants came again. When I got to work, a small team of staff were holding half-filled buckets of ants and racing to collect as many as they could. At 2,000 shillings [$1 US] a kilo in the local market, the ants, for many here, are more than just lunch; they’re money for dinner, too.

Above: Shally, a Gulu transplant to IC’s Kampala office, collects all the ants she can find after a recent heavy rain