Fort Patiko

Fort Patiko! This place is about 45 minutes outside of Gulu. Parker, you will like this, a little bit of history for you. This place used to be known for Arab slave trading in the 1800's. A man named Sir Samuel Baker from Europe came down and ran the Arab's out, shut down the slave trading business there in 1872. It was hard to think that this breath takingly beautiful place could have been used to house and trade slaves from Northern Uganda.

So we took a Saturday afternoon drive out to Fort Patiko in Mutatu's (vans that carry 15 people, even though they have been known to fit 30 Ugandans in one, no seat belts, cheetah patterned seat coverings, a not even enough room for your legs to fit with out your knees bulging into the seat in front of you). They told us to pack hiking shoes, thick pants, and long sleeve shirts. Knowing we would be hiking a little, I thought to myself what could we possibly be doing to need such attire, considering it is mostly warm here, and there are not many mountains, but a few hills. I did not think any hiking in Uganda could compare to hiking the Grand Canyon. We arrived to 20 long horned cattle grazing. As we drove into Fort Patiko, we saw large rock formations, kids playing soccer barefoot, a woman carrying large jury cans of water with a baby wrapped around her back while carrying a baby in front of her as well. The women here absolutely amaze me!

We had a tour guide show us around and explain the Fort's history. It was hard for me to pay attention, I just wanted to take in the beauty of the place and explore! There was a small mountain in the distance, and I had feeling we would be climbing that. After the tour, we started off on our hike. We had a Ugandan show us the way, and then there were also a few children that wanted to make the trek with us, but I thought to myself,they were not dressed for this. They had no shoes, no shirt, they couldn't possibly be hiking to the top with us. We started through some short grass and palm trees, then the grass started to get taller and taller until it was towering over us. The children were hanging with us. We started up the mountain and it was muddy steep, and hard to find the path, the children were leading us now. We got about half way up and we walked out onto a plateu that had tons of fun rocks to climb and take pictures. We then went to the top, we had to grab hold of a branch and scale a rock towards the top (reminded me of hiking the Superstitions, when you get to the top, if you've done it you know what I mean). The children were helping us find knoocks and crannies to grab onto and put our feet. When we finally got to the top, it was a "I'm really in Africa" feeling. It seemed as though you could see forever. The children sat with us, just listening, and watching every move we made. I couldn't help, but parallel these children to God's love for us. We sometimes doudt, we begin the walk with Him, we start trusting in Him little by little, by the end He is leading us step by step, protecting us from danger, guiding us in to an absolutely beautiful relationship with Him.

As we came down the mountain, we were all starving, we walked back to the Mutatu's and a few people had stayed back and barbequed a feast for us! We were supposed to have shishkabob's but we ended up having a new redition since the chicken we got had bones in it. It was delicious! We sat in the grass and ate dinner, talked to one another, and watched as the children played an intense game of futball. They would have to play around the cattle that would walk through their game every so often. Smaller children were crowded around the edges of the field, eager to watch and maybe even get in the game.

I left Fort Patiko feeling a whole new appreciation for Africa, Uganda, nature, God, children, food, competition, and relationships.