Daniel Dunn Photography

This month I had an amazing opportunity to spend 2 weeks serving in Northern Uganda (Gulu). My church, Rockharbor, partnered with Africa Renewal Ministries (ARM) and helped start a church in Gulu about 2 1/2 years ago. Now teams from Rockharbor serve there about every 3-6 months. The church, Gulu Bible Community Church (GBCC), is an amazing group of Christ followers who are continually serving their community. While we were in Gulu, our team of 12 joined the volunteers from GBCC and were able to visit 3 different villages, Gulu Hospital, the Prison, evangelize hut to hut, preach at the Sunday service, and a whole lot of other activities.

For those who may not know, Uganda has been ravaged by war for the last 20+ years and is Africas longest running war. The conflict in Uganda began in 1987 when a rebel army, known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), began fighting the Ugandan government. As the LRA lost soldiers to battle, they soon resorted to abducting children and training them as soldiers. Fearing abduction, many children fled their homes nightly. The children who ran from their homes walked miles to find shelter in hospitals, bus parks, virtually anywhere away from rebel camps. To learn more about this conflict and how to help the children of Uganda please visit Invisible Children.

During this conflict families were fortunate enough to find refuge in government sponsored displacement camps. Recently there has been peace and the families that found themselves in these displacement camps have slowly begun settling outside the camps to rebuild their villages. We had the privilege to serve in 3 of these villages while we were in Gulu. We provided wound care for the families, worked with our nurses and filled the prescriptions they wrote. We also had amazing opportunities to give our individual testimonies and sometimes even preach or worship with people as they waited to be seen.

There is so much more I could write, but this post is already long enough. I hope these pictures inspire you. Just know that you can get involved right where you are by simply sponsoring a child through ARM. Some of those on our team sponsor children and they were able to meet their sponsored child. It was so cool. If you enjoy these pictures please leave me a comment.

Below are a few, 70+, pictures that I took of the amazing people, country, and wildlife of Uganda. Again, this is a long post for your viewing pleasure.

Photog info:

Canon 20D

Jpeg Large

Shot Manual

50mm 1.4

70-200mm 2.8

All shots SOOC (straight out of camera)

Lake Victoria Sunrise. This feeds the Nile River. I can now officially say I have been to the beginning and the end of the Nile.

Sunrise Murchison Falls National Park

I love portraiture so I tried to capture each story individually. I felt such a connection when shooting someone. My favorite part of shooting was taking the picture and then showing the person the back of my camera which held their image. It was always met with laughter and smiles. So cool.

My favorite image of the 2000+ I shot from the trip. Something about the curiosity in their eyes. Number 1 of my top 10.

The men and some of the boys became very stoic when the camera was pointed at them.

Another one of my top 10 favorites.

Some of the children have never seen a white person before. If you know me, then you know how white I am. My whiteness is very frightening… even to Americans. This little one stood up, walked away, turned back and looked at me…then started crying. It was hilarious. All the women in the crowd were cracking up.

I made every effort to interact with the men in the villages. They generally stayed on the fray of the crowd and just seemed to wait. I saw these next three men waiting in the outskirts to be seen in the eye glass area.

This man had the most gentle smile and seemed very relaxed. But in his picture he portrays something a little more motivated and intense.

This little one waited in the wound care area. Since they have no antibiotic ointments or band aids, the smallest of cuts and scrapes generally turns into a very infected wound.

This is George. He asked me one question. “How can you help my poverty?”

The boy seated was treated for the wounds on his legs.

Here is the village elder at Tekulu village. He saw my camera, grabbed my hand and walked me over to his house. Then he stood there waiting for me to take his picture.

Boda Boda. Ugandan taxi’s.

Rymundo Okita. He spoke broken English, but our conversation was amazing. He let me pray for him after this photo was taken.

Womens ward at Gulu Hospital where we preached. This woman was very emaciated. She barely had the strength to lift her hand letting us know she wanted to accept Christ.

This woman was HIV posivite and sick. She also raised her hand to accept Christ.

I was struck by the deficiency in medical devices. Here there is only an IV. In the US we have all kinds of machines and monitors in our hospitals.

An example of wound care. Notice the wound not yet treated on his left ankle. This boys name is Kevin. His was the first major wound I saw. His entire right shin was an infected wound.

Here is Kevin all bandaged up. I can only imagine the bandages didn’t stay on long. Especially not having any shoes.

The line to be seen at Guru Guru village.

The bottom of Murchison Falls. We took a boat ride to the narrowest point of the river in this picture. Any closer and the current would have been to dangerous.

We stopped at the top of the falls on the way back to Kampala (Capital of Uganda).

N ow for some animal portraits.

Just thought this was a funny shot.

Boom. That just happened. I was maybe 15-20 feet from her.