Taylor Wegner's blog

Grace Awor is working on a Mercy Corps project to connect her isolated village to other communities by building a new road. Photo: Taylor Wegner/Mercy Corps

They say if you want something done you must do it yourself — and that is exactly what one woman in the village of Lamoi, Uganda is doing. She is Grace Awor, a 45-year-old mother of seven, farmer and most recently a road builder.

Lamoi is situated in the northeastern tip of northern Uganda's Pader District, an area that was severely affected by years of civil war. It’s a small, isolated community — the nearest neighboring village is ten kilometers away through thick bush. But Grace Awor is working to change that.

She is one of the many villagers participating in a Mercy Corps-sponsored cash-for-work program that's focused on giving the Acholi people — Grace's ethnic group — a hand up, not a hand out. Grace leads one of the 22 groups in Lamoi working on a seven-kilometer section of road that will help connect them to other communities in the region.

Grace admits “the work is very hectic”, and that “ditch digging is hard for mothers” like her, but the need to feed and clothe her children drives her through the hard work.

“I’ve paid for my children’s school fees and uniforms with the money from working,” she beams, “as well as food for my family”. But Grace is also focused on the long term impact the road will have on Lamoi.

“It links the community to the only hospital in the district as well as the market in Kalongo,” she tells me.

As we shake hands when I get up to leave, Grace Awor turns to gaze down the unfinished stretch of road that winds its way into town. I can’t help but imagine that she is thinking about the many days of work ahead, and smiling at the sight of hope in the distance.

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This morning at 5 am I rolled over in bed and grumpily wondered why I had woken up. My bad mood was washed away as I realized what had roused me from sleep. A low distant rumble, the soft sound of a slight drizzle on the tin roof of the guest house in Pader — it was raining!

Lately, many parts of northern Uganda have been experiencing a drought. The rains were late, by as much as a month from what I had been told. The people were really starting to worry. The ground was so dry that many could not till the soil with their oxen-pulled plows. Crops that had been planted were withering and many were far smaller than they would be during a year with normal rain. Some farmers even doubted the possibility of rain anytime soon, thus hindering the second growing season. Rumors of people succumbing to hunger even filtered in from some parts of the region.

Food insecurity here as of late is something that has weighed heavily on my mind. My worries were melted away this morning, slowly at first, and then they were washed away almost all together. The skies opened up and the slight drizzle turned into a thunderous downpour.

The rain stopped almost two hours later. Though it was time for me to get up, the lack of sleep did not bother me much. The smell of the rain and the hope it gives this area refreshed me.

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