Christ School festivities
To celebrate the visit of Kevin Bartkovich, the founder and first headmaster of Christ School, the school held a day of festivities. The alumni (the “old boys” and “old girls,” or OBs and OGs) organized the days activities, which included three-legged races, frisbee, various egg and water games, a football match, speeches, traditional dances, music, skits, and finally a dinner for all the current students, OBs, OGs, the board, and other guests. Olvie and I were worried we had missed the 2 o’clock football match altogether, as we lost track of time did not arrive until 4:30; however, the game had literally just begun. We should have guessed as much. It was a match between the “current boys” and the OBs. The cheering after a goal was phenomenal. Fans beat drums, chanted, laughed, and danced around or even on the field. The match ended in a tie: 1 to 1.
To celebrate the visit of Kevin Bartkovich, the founder and first headmaster of Christ School, the school held a day of festivities. The alumni (the “old boys” and “old girls,” or OBs and OGs) organized the days activities, which included three-legged races, frisbee, various egg and water games, a football match, speeches, traditional dances, music, skits, and finally a dinner for all the current students, OBs, OGs, the board, and other guests. Olvie and I were worried we had missed the 2 o’clock football match altogether, as we lost track of time did not arrive until 4:30; however, the game had literally just begun. We should have guessed as much. It was a match between the “current boys” and the OBs. The cheering after a goal was phenomenal. Fans beat drums, chanted, laughed, and danced around or even on the field. The match ended in a tie: 1 to 1.
The original schedule had said dinner would be at 6:00, but as the game was just finishing at that time and there were many other events on the schedule before dinner, it was quite delayed. After many speeches, thank you’s, traditional dances performed by the current girls and joined by the OBs and OGs, and a skit or two, we were served dinner at 9:00. It was a long evening, but so wonderful to see the appreciation of the alumni for their school and how they are using their education to serve the community in various ways.
Hand of Hope
A few days ago, Olvie and I went out on a small community outreach to deliver some donations with Bundibugyo Hand of Hope (BUHAHO), a Christian humanitarian/ human rights organization established by alumni from Christ School Bundibugyo. Sunday Godfrey and Odembus had arranged the agenda for the afternoon with all the appropriate people ahead of time.
We met with Agnes, a 15 year old deaf-mute girl who was taken advantage of and is expecting a baby in a few months. We took her some gifts, listened to her story, and tried to encourage her and let her know that she is a valuable, special human being. We prayed with her before we left: I prayed in English, Sunday translated into Lubwisi, Mussa and this other man worked together to interpret into sign language for Agnes. Meanwhile, a crowd of several dozen had gathered to witness this girl, treated by many as an outcast, receive visitors and gifts and have someone who could actually communicate with her.
We met with Agnes, a 15 year old deaf-mute girl who was taken advantage of and is expecting a baby in a few months. We took her some gifts, listened to her story, and tried to encourage her and let her know that she is a valuable, special human being. We prayed with her before we left: I prayed in English, Sunday translated into Lubwisi, Mussa and this other man worked together to interpret into sign language for Agnes. Meanwhile, a crowd of several dozen had gathered to witness this girl, treated by many as an outcast, receive visitors and gifts and have someone who could actually communicate with her.
We then met up with the LC I chairman of that village and he led us to a primary school where we distributed some more donations. Although Uganda has Universal Primary Education (UPE), this isn’t actually a reality for many families and villages. Families often cannot afford the school fees, uniforms, food for their children to eat at school, and school supplies. In this particular village, there was no primary school, so a retired teacher started one in a community shelter (used for various community meetings and such). There are four grade levels, about 150 children, and only two teachers meeting under this shelter with borrowed church benches, no desks, and a few chalkboards (two donated and two dilapidated makeshift ones). The children sang us some adorable little songs in perfect unison, and they, along with the teachers and director, were really excited to get the little gifts.
Next, we visited a family of 10 orphans under the care of their hard-working grandmother. Three of them were sick when we got there. We gave them and other kids who gathered some of the toys and clothes. We presented an old man with a suit jacket, and, oh my, was he proud. We handed the rest of the donations out to two mothers, the children around, and another old man. It was so sweet to see all of their smiles and to see the previously naked or barely-clothed children in clean clothes.
Our non-hike to Ngite Falls
After our wonderful hike to Nyahuka Falls, we decided to try out the hike to the other waterfall, Ngite. It ended up being Vincent, Grace, Olvie, and myself. We took off on bodas toward the trail input. Halfway there, the boda Vincent and I were on got a flat. While the tire was being repaired, Olvie and Grace went on ahead to the base of the trail in order to send the boda back to pick us up. The tire was repaired at the same time as the other boda got back, so we just continued on with the first boda. A few hundred meters from our destination, the tire went flat again. We just walked the rest of the way. When we tried to go on the trail to Ngite, the son of the chairman and some other men started bothering us and telling us we needed to sign a book and pay money. The actual chairman was out of town. It was really frustrating, as the mission owns the land surrounding the falls and as our friends have never had to pay to hike there before. The man kept making things up and just wanted to make some easy money off us.
We decided we’d rather not contribute to corrupt dealings and set that precedent of paying to hike on land the mission owns. We took pictures with Ngite in the background, walked back to the nearest town, took bodas back home, and ate jackfruit together.
Tour de Bundibugyo
A few evenings ago, Anna, Jess, Olvie, and myself went on a bike ride through town and up towards army barracks (small huts) near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was another fun ride, and slightly less crazy than our last one-- no crashes or wheels almost coming off. It was still just as bumpy, though. By now I am used to everyone staring at us wherever we go and no matter how mundane what we are doing turns out to be. We have all grown accustomed to little children stopping what they are doing and screaming, “Majungu, majungu! How are you? I’m fine!” But, on particular bike ride, I felt as though I were in Le Tour de Bundibugyo. As we pedaled past, children ran out to the side of the road and cheered us on enthusiastically, adults thanked us, and everyone watched. It was quite amusing. From the turn-around point of our ride, we could see the town down below, the DRC on one side, and the majestic Rwenzori Mountains looming across the valley.
On our ride back home, we passed dozens of women returning from the taps with their jerry cans full of water and hanging from their heads, presumably for the evening washing and cooking. As I was intently watching the ground in my efforts to avoid some of the ruts and large rocks, it became very apparent to me just how trash-ridden the ground, and especially the roads, really are. Trash is a part of the town landscape. It is embedded in the dirt roads, and so much a part of them that soon it starts to just all blur together.
Cooking lessons with Topi (& Bihwa)
One afternoon, Olvie and I got to cook with one of our neighbors, Topista, or Topi, for short. We began the dinner preparations at 2. It involved a lot of pounding of various nuts and seeds and cassava leaves. Most of the sauces contained onions, garlic, tomato, salt, and oil, but the base varied. We made one with kolico, similar to pumpkin seeds, one with gnuts, and one with another type of seed/ nut (biyoli ?) from some plant with which I am unfamiliar. We also made a type of black beans and sombe from the cassava leaves. These sauces were to serve over the rice, fried cassava (like hard fries) and fried matoke. It was such a fun learning experience, and we really enjoyed getting to spend time with Topi and her husband, Bihwa, a kind man and a proponent of men treating their wives as equals and sharing responsibilities around the home and in the garden.
We enjoyed the food with Anna, Jess, and Amy, and made delicious bananas foster for dessert (as we had plenty of mushy busukali bananas that needed eating!)
To the Congo!
For the last day of our field surveys, we were out in Busoru, near Batogo. After we finished our work for the morning, Jess (who came with us that day to see how the interviews were conducted) suggested we go up to the DRC border by Batogo. We parked and walked down to the river, with scores of kids in our wake. As there was no official border patrol on this portion of the border, Jess, Olvie, and I wade through the river to the other side and stood in the DRC! We even talked to a Congolese man in French during our couple of minutes there. That makes number two on my list of African countries that I have entered unofficially (the first being Lesotho-- a friend and I hiked in from South Africa).
Various
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| crowd of curious kids that gathered to trail along behind us |
The other day, Olvie and I stopped to get some food on the side of the street on our way home for lunch. I got a “rolex”-- a thin omelette with cabbage, onions, and tomato, rolled up in a chapati. One of the other popular dishes at those types of roadside stands is the “commander”-- chapatis cut into small pieces and served with beans on top. Olvie wanted to get some machomo, seasoned meat cooked on a stick, and asked Vincent what type of meat it was. He replied, “It is beef… from a goat.”
It’s so interesting watching people balance their mipongas (machetes) on top of their heads as they walk down the road or off to the fields.
In Lubwisi, orange and pink are just called red (mutuku). Blue is included in green (kisiika kibisi, which means “fresh banana leaf.”) Purple doesn’t exist-- just have to point to something that is that color. Usually only people are referred to as brown (munjilakaki), not things. The word for yellow (kinjaali) means “curry powder.” Grey can be classified as black (njilaguli) or white (njeelu).
Going away party
Amy planned a going away party for Olvie and me and asked us who we wanted to invite. There were around 20 people there. It was such a great group-- the team and a wonderful, diverse group of our friends that we have grown close to during our time in Nyahuka. Asita and her children cooked the dinner for us: rice, beans, gonja (similar to plantains), chicken sauce, and sombe with cabbage.
After dinner we played Man-gun-gorilla (like a group stand-up version of rock paper scissors). They loved that game. It was so much fun. We then sang some worship songs in Lubwisi, English, and Swahili. We all enjoyed dancing to our guests’ lovely percussion ensemble-- drums, shakers, & tambourines. To our surprise, Anna had put together a video of pictures from our summer as a going away present for Olvie and me. It was so special and is something I will treasure for years to come.
The night ended with some sweet speeches and prayers over us and then a few special, homemade gifts (slingshots and banana fiber soccer balls).
Final day in Nyahuka
Our last day in Nyahuka involved many goodbyes, packing (after our clothes were finally dry!), dozens of people stopping by, giving some things away, receiving some more sweet gifts and notes, returning borrowed items, and working on our powerpoint and paper summarizing the information gathered from our key informant field interviews. We presented to the team that afternoon, had our final book club, and enjoyed one last team pizza night (+ s’mores) with our newly arrived visitors: Anna’s brother and sister and former Bundibugyo team members, Nathan and Sarah, now married.
Namukiye nkyanbisi chui chui
The next morning, namukiye nkyanbisi chui chui-- “I woke up in the early morning, when the birds were chirping.” We loaded the taxi driver David’s vehicle, tied up loose ends, said our good byes to the team, and headed to Kampala. Our friend Grace needed a ride, and we were excited to have her accompany us. I tried my best to sleep a bit, but the first several hours of the trip are bumpy beyond belief, which was not helping my upset stomach. We stopped for African tea (tea masala and Ugandan tea in hot milk) in Fort Portal, and then trekked on to Kampala, enjoying the smoother road. Soon, we passed about a dozen baboons on the side of the road and even in the road, right beside our vehicle. We stopped to watch them and had to roll up our windows so they wouldn’t hop in. A couple of them stood up beside the car.
A bit later, we stopped for some side-of-the-road food-- muchomo (meat on a stick), grilled gonja, and freshly sliced pineapple (less than $0.25 for a whole one!) After a total of 9 or 9 1/2 hours, we reached our destination: Emmaus lodge in Kampala. After showering, we had a lovely dinner, though not very Italian, at the nearby Italian restaurant, Caffé Roma. Despite the crazy wedding celebrations taking place at Emmaus, we had no trouble conking out.
Hitting the town
Here’s a list of our day’s activities in Kampala, spent with our friend, Grace, and her sister, Hope:
-church service at Calvary Chapel
-shopping at nearby craft market
-Garden City Mall
-lunch @ food court (a waiter form each restaurant comes up to your table with their menu as soon as you sit down and waits for you to order; you can pick and choose from as many as you want, and they bring your food to your table)
-shopping @ Banana Boat craft store
-hit up the supermarket for a few things
-shopping at craft market beside the National Theatre
-henna tattoo at nearby salon
-ate fried grasshoppers from Nakasero market
-dessert at Le Château in Le Petit Village
-granola w/ bananas back at hotel
-checked emails and worked on this blog entry in the lobby, trying not to be too distracted by the English-dubbed telenovela, Ciudado con el Angel, and the thickly-accented Northern Irish girls sitting on a nearby couch and chattering incessantly. (I can only understand them if I concentrate a bit.)
-checked emails and worked on this blog entry in the lobby, trying not to be too distracted by the English-dubbed telenovela, Ciudado con el Angel, and the thickly-accented Northern Irish girls sitting on a nearby couch and chattering incessantly. (I can only understand them if I concentrate a bit.)
Well, it’s past my bedtime. Waking up around 5:30 tomorrow, even before mukalokalo (daybreak, while it’s still a bit dark). (Interesting that Vincent taught us all these words and phrases related to the early morning and waking up for our last language lesson-- maybe he suspected there were many early mornings ahead for us…)
We’ll head to Entebbe airport, about 45 min away, and board the plane for London (hopefully after some good coffee). We only have an hour layover in London (going to be cutting it close!), then arrive in Philly around 8 pm. After a couple of days of debriefing at the WHM Sending Center, I will head home to Greenville and arrive around 1:30 in the morning Thursday. (Frustratingly, my flights/ drive to G’vill from Philly will be longer than either my flight from Entebbe to London or London to Philly. Oh well.)
Please pray for a safe, not-too-tiring journey! And once again, thanks for reading.
