Eliza McCullen

The Pearl of Africa Reborn Eliza McCullen

Uganda, once ruled by the despotic Idi Amin, ravaged by Milton Obote, overthrown by Museveni in a bloody bush war, struggles for peace and security. Rebel groups like the Lord's Resistance Army still ravage the north while guerrilla groups spawned by the Rwandan genocide lurk in its jungles in the south. And then one day, Al Qaeda emerges, bombing the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It fails in its attempt to bomb the embassy in Kampala, but its clandestine cells continue to plot new acts of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Uganda's economy is growing at one of the fastest rates in Africa, and has become the darling of the international community. Aid is pouring into the country and with it, a plethora of government and non-government organizations from all around the world. Enter President Clinton, our first visiting president to come to Africa on an official visit.

It is into this chaotic environment that we were posted to Uganda as a foreign service family for the Agency for International Development. I landed a job at the international school that was bursting at the seams with new international students. As we struggled to raise enough money to build an urgently needed new campus, we were plagued by theft both within the school and from a ring of international forgers.



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