Humanize the Earth!

Gulu, Uganda open space conference notes

February 27, 2007 at 8:00 am | In open space, travel |

I haven’t quite decided how to organize my notes from the conference in Gulu. I’m thinking maybe general notes in this post with links to the notes about each day, backdated for their respective date. We’ll see how it goes. :-)

• 120+ people, 95% African (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia)
• About 20% of the people did not speak English well enough to feel comfortable participating in English
• three days (typical open space conference I go to has people arriving the night before, then 2.5 days and leaving that final day, so 3 nights - this one everyone arrived to the conference in time for lunch and we opened the space and had one session that first day, then did two full days and a half day+, spent a fourth night and left the place the following morning)
• breakfast/lunch and water were provided by the organizers
• The venue was outdoors, with the main circle taking place in an open (no walls) thatched-roof structure. Breakouts were under old UNICEF tents or in the shade of other thatched-roof structures, or in a brick building that usually serves as a night commuter dorm.
• Gulu is in Acholiland, which is currently under a ceasefire (expires this week) while peace talks are trying to settle 21 years of war.
• The circle itself was a bit chaotic, with people filling the center sitting on the floor on grass woven mats. There was usually a 2nd row of some kind as well, just outside the thatch-structure, under shade of a neighboring tent or building.
• Very interesting flocking effect I hadn’t really seen before. Each time-slot had 10+ sessions posted on the agenda but typically had between three and five sessions actually take place. The bigger sessions kept getting bigger and not only physically crowded out where other sessions were to happen, but were such a big “draw” that even conveners of other sessions didn’t try to go to their own session.
• Sessions were documented on flip-chart paper which was then posted inside the internet cafe space where all could go read. I never actually saw these, kept forgetting. I was told these were posted online by participants (Day 1) (very incomplete partial session notes).
• My day-specific notes:
  • Day 1 + hospital experience
  • Day 2
  • Day 3
  • Day 4

Overall impressions:

• The decision to have “Acholli-day,” where only the people of that tribe set the agenda went remarkably smoothly, with no complaints. People were totally fine with focusing locally (in Gulu) when giving no other options. This led immediately into the “gift” process which was surprisingly (to me) non-contentious and with very high energy.
• There was a lot of talk throughout the week about the responsibility of governments or others not present. There were also pleas for outside help, but these invariably led to people talking about what “we” can do. Very interesting cross-pollination among Africans from different places/circumstances.
• Logistics: The organizing team did an amazing job of coordinating transportation and lodging in this fairly remote place. Their very hard work greatly simplified the lives of attendees. I’m not sure the event could’ve happened at all if those details had been left to attendees. At the very least, days would’ve been lost dealing with these details.