Monday morning after a few pictures, we said goodbye and got on pikipikis with baked sweet potatoes and honey from Jeje, avocados and our chicken from Mama and Tata. We took a two hour bus ride to Kampala, the capital. When we arrived we walked around in the mass chaos of a capital city (very unlike Dodoma) to find the office building where David’s uncle was. We met him, left our stuff and walked in the rain to find a place for lunch. After, we walked all around Kampala looking for a bus stand to buy our return tickets with no luck, but we had a nice tour of the city along the way. That night we stayed at David’s uncle’s home.
Tuesday morning David’s brother Paul helped us find the bus stand. We first walked to the old taxi park which was complete chaos; hundreds of buses organized in a system unrecognizable by a passerby but eventually navigated our way out on a bus. We had a few problems with bus tickets, so it took longer than we expected. After buying tickets, we stopped for sodas and fresh juice and then walked to visit the Jesuit residence. There we met an American Jesuit, Fr. Jim and talked with him for a while. He showed us around and we told him about our work in Dodoma. We also later visited the JRS (Jesuit Refugee Services) office where one Jesuit heads. It was awesome seeing the work they do and their facilities. (I think I would be really happy working with refugees. Maybe in my next life.) When all this was said and done, we were really hungry so we walked to find a place to eat. We stumbled upon an Ethiopian restaurant and Sean and I were so tempted that we convinced David to try it. We said it would be our treat for his generosity of bringing us. The food was so good and it was great watching David try it for the first time.
The evening we visited David’s aunt, another woman who married a man who made really, really good business decisions. They lived in this neighborhood where every house was gated with a security system sign on the fence and satellite dishes in their yards, usually next to their garages. His aunt and uncle had a beautiful home and two boys, but the family was very humble and so welcoming. Sean and I had a very intelligent and thought-provoking conversation with his uncle. He asked questions about our vocation that not many have asked us while in Africa. I was really impressed. Thankfully his uncle gave us a ride back to where we were staying. It was dark now and the traffic in this city is intense. After dinner at the house, David, Sean, a few of David’s cousins and I went to another dance club. For a Tuesday night, it was really packed. We had a great time dancing outside. It even started raining at one point!
Wednesday was a fun day. Sean, David, and I took a two hour bus ride to the source of the River Nile. We had to take pikipikis to the actual source and I was finally brave enough to get my own (usually I shared with Sean). It was a fun ride through a pretty neighborhood along the Nile. When we got there, we sat around, drank sodas and ate fried popcorn kernels. We eventually jumped in and swam around a little in the Nile. The water was so clean and it was quiet because not many people were around. David was the first to go in, but he quickly exited because he got afraid of what might be in the water. He sat on the bank and protected out stuff from the monkeys that stalked our bags on the tree above his head. After swimming, we ate a samaki kubwa (big fish, it was actually talapia) caught from the Nile at a restaurant along the water. It was so so so delicious! We didn’t do much when we got home; we were so tired from all the activity. So we had our last meal with the family there, drank sodas bought by David and turned in early.
Our bus left at 6:00am the next day, and his uncle generously drove us to the stand (just a reminder, it is a treat to get a ride in a car because not many people can afford their own cars). One of the bus drivers sat next to me and we chatted a while. He was a nice man and was telling me some helpful tips about if our bus were to get stopped by robbers. Well that night our bus was stopped by a police stand, unable to pass so we spent a few hours there. The bus ride was extremely cold – I wore my sweatshirt and used that kitenge as a blanket the whole time. Our bus arrived at 8:30am in Dodoma on Friday morning, just in time for our 9am meeting at school.
I am sad the trip was so short. But I think we really made the most of the few short days we had there. We saw lots of things and met almost all of David’s family. He keeps insisting we go back, but I think Sean and I are insisting it even more. I’d love to keep a relationship with them. It did feel like going home a little, the way they welcomed us to there family so much. I was so blessed to have that trip with David and Sean, and to have David as a friend.
I probably won’t post another of these for a few days. On Wednesday April 20, Sean and I are traveling to Lushoto to meet the other volunteers for retreat. We’ll be there a few days and then we will spend Easter together in Moshi at the JV community there. I’m looking forward to seeing the gang again, and comparing experiences for the first time. It will be a much-needed retreat. So, until then!
18 April 2011
Uganda pt. II
After Mass and lunch at Jeje’s home, we put on the boots that David’s Tata (father) brought over that morning to make the journey to David’s house. It rained the night before, so the boots were necessary because of the swamp and muddy water. There is a tiny path that goes to the next village where his parents stay and David remembers every step of the way. He showed us where he carried buckets to collect water from the stream and told us stories of walking along this path hundreds of times during his youth. When we arrived, David’s Tata and Mama greeted us with hugs, laughs, huge smiles, and gave us gifts. Tata gave Sean a traditional cassock worn by men in Uganda and Mama gave me a kitenge (material) that matched the dress she was wearing.
David’s house is beautifully quaint. The outside is nicely painted, and the first room is set up nicely with couches, a coffee table of sorts and many pictures on the concrete walls. The floor in this room was dirt but covered with a linal (how do you spell this?) flooring. The rest of the rooms in his house are dirt. This is how most houses are set up. The first room is set up nicely and comfortably for guests, but there is a curtain that separates this room from the rest of the house where there is very little. The kitchen is a little house outside not attached to the house.
Tata brought out Senators (a Ugandan beer) for us (he was really excited to share a brew with us) and sat us down to read a letter he wrote for us. David translated it. It was a beautiful welcome letter saying how we are welcome home, how he now has two bazungu children, and thanked David for being good enough for us to be his friend. That thanks kept getting me – the way they thank him for being a good person to have friends like us. I feel that is a thank we never think of giving.
Though we had lunch maybe an hour or two ago, Mama wanted to cook for us so she sent Tata to buy pork from town. As they cooked the pork, we sat outside by the tiny coal burning stove and ate sugar cane chopped down from their backyard. Sean and I helped Mama with things in the kitchen and like the others she was so amazed that I would sit right beside her on her mat and cut tomatoes. They are surprised that we don’t show off like other buzungu. They kept saying that maybe it was because we were young. Many of David’s brothers were there – they all look alike. We walked around their shamba – they have a big sty of pigs! One was enormous and was nursing about 7 piglets!
Later Tata and Mama decided they wanted to give us a chicken as a gift so I started chasing the thing and pretty soon it was a hot chase including the dog, Sean, the brothers, and a few neighbor children. David and his parents thought it was hysterical watching us run around like that. The dog finally cornered the cock and Sean scooped it up. I’ve never held a chicken, so he gave it to me for a while. It was a really beautiful rooster. I handed it to David’s younger brother and he took it a little bit away to slaughter it. I refused to watch the whole murder part, but I was a little curious after that. He chopped off the head pressing his foot on the body so it wouldn’t run. I held the head for a little, examining it then threw it to the dogs. Sean and David’s brother started plucking the feathers – I helped a little. Then he gutted the thing, pulling out the insides with his bare hands. It was so interesting. He showed me all the different parts and split open the gizzard to show where the food is stored. It as interesting to see the whole animal through the stages until it arrives on my plate. We ate it the next day – it was delicious!
After eating, Mama’s neighborhood women’s group was over so we went to greet them. These women meet to support each other by putting money together to buy big pots for celebrations or deaths, and things of that sorts. The name was translated to something like, “Teeth that bite together can chew,” or something a little more pretty than that. She called us her buzungu twins and gave us names that essentially mean ‘first born’ and ‘second born’. I really liked meeting them.
It was getting dark so we needed to walk back. Tata walked us a ways back – it is custom in Uganda to give a few steps to your guests as they are leaving to return the favor of the visit. On our way back, there was an ant hill and many “white ants” (ants with white wings, called nswa) coming out. Apparently this isn’t the season for them so it was a big surprise. Also, apparently these are food for Ugandans, so Tata squatted down and started gulfing them down, one by one, these live ants, pulling off the wings. David joined in and eventually Sean got the courage to try a few. I really wanted to join in on the fun, but Sean said one moved around in his mouth and throat a little before going down. That did it for me – I refused. But it was so funny watching. Tata pulled off a banana leaf and made an envelop and stuffed a bunch in it for us to eat tomorrow. I was the lucky one to carry it all the way back.
Along the way, the stream were we had passed was now missing the plank of wood that served as our bridge. There was a poor mama on the other side with a bucket of something on her head that was trapped as well. Our only option was to walk right through the knee deep water. At this time it was very dark and we were in the middle of a Ugandan jungle so it was a little scary stepping blindly into water. Thankfully we had those great boots from Tata so it was no problem. We did get water in them, though. The mama had a harder time – she had only slippers (flip-flops) on. She was not happy. But we just kept saying “what an adventure!” It was an awesome experience walking through the jungle with no light, just as David did for years.
At Jeje’s they had dinner ready for us, so we ate the fourth big meal of the day. We proudly displayed our new gifts and Jeje was so happy. She now gave us the gifts she had made us – palm mats she made herself. They are beautiful, bright colors she dyed herself and weaved in a beautiful pattern. That was the nicest dinner because she talked non-stop about how good we were, how God really blessing us, and how good it is that we are all friends. She kept wanting to know when she was going to meet our parents (hint hint, Mom and Dad!). I remember her saying, “even if you have enough money to fill this house, if you don’t have friends you don’t have anything.”
They way they treated us was really humbling. I mean, who am I to deserve such treatment? I’m a nobody, really. I was really sad to go. I would have loved to stay at least a whole week (or month!).
Wow… sorry if this is dragging on. But this may have been one of the best things I have done so far while in Africa. I’ll finish tomorrow.
David’s house is beautifully quaint. The outside is nicely painted, and the first room is set up nicely with couches, a coffee table of sorts and many pictures on the concrete walls. The floor in this room was dirt but covered with a linal (how do you spell this?) flooring. The rest of the rooms in his house are dirt. This is how most houses are set up. The first room is set up nicely and comfortably for guests, but there is a curtain that separates this room from the rest of the house where there is very little. The kitchen is a little house outside not attached to the house.
Tata brought out Senators (a Ugandan beer) for us (he was really excited to share a brew with us) and sat us down to read a letter he wrote for us. David translated it. It was a beautiful welcome letter saying how we are welcome home, how he now has two bazungu children, and thanked David for being good enough for us to be his friend. That thanks kept getting me – the way they thank him for being a good person to have friends like us. I feel that is a thank we never think of giving.
Though we had lunch maybe an hour or two ago, Mama wanted to cook for us so she sent Tata to buy pork from town. As they cooked the pork, we sat outside by the tiny coal burning stove and ate sugar cane chopped down from their backyard. Sean and I helped Mama with things in the kitchen and like the others she was so amazed that I would sit right beside her on her mat and cut tomatoes. They are surprised that we don’t show off like other buzungu. They kept saying that maybe it was because we were young. Many of David’s brothers were there – they all look alike. We walked around their shamba – they have a big sty of pigs! One was enormous and was nursing about 7 piglets!
Later Tata and Mama decided they wanted to give us a chicken as a gift so I started chasing the thing and pretty soon it was a hot chase including the dog, Sean, the brothers, and a few neighbor children. David and his parents thought it was hysterical watching us run around like that. The dog finally cornered the cock and Sean scooped it up. I’ve never held a chicken, so he gave it to me for a while. It was a really beautiful rooster. I handed it to David’s younger brother and he took it a little bit away to slaughter it. I refused to watch the whole murder part, but I was a little curious after that. He chopped off the head pressing his foot on the body so it wouldn’t run. I held the head for a little, examining it then threw it to the dogs. Sean and David’s brother started plucking the feathers – I helped a little. Then he gutted the thing, pulling out the insides with his bare hands. It was so interesting. He showed me all the different parts and split open the gizzard to show where the food is stored. It as interesting to see the whole animal through the stages until it arrives on my plate. We ate it the next day – it was delicious!
After eating, Mama’s neighborhood women’s group was over so we went to greet them. These women meet to support each other by putting money together to buy big pots for celebrations or deaths, and things of that sorts. The name was translated to something like, “Teeth that bite together can chew,” or something a little more pretty than that. She called us her buzungu twins and gave us names that essentially mean ‘first born’ and ‘second born’. I really liked meeting them.
It was getting dark so we needed to walk back. Tata walked us a ways back – it is custom in Uganda to give a few steps to your guests as they are leaving to return the favor of the visit. On our way back, there was an ant hill and many “white ants” (ants with white wings, called nswa) coming out. Apparently this isn’t the season for them so it was a big surprise. Also, apparently these are food for Ugandans, so Tata squatted down and started gulfing them down, one by one, these live ants, pulling off the wings. David joined in and eventually Sean got the courage to try a few. I really wanted to join in on the fun, but Sean said one moved around in his mouth and throat a little before going down. That did it for me – I refused. But it was so funny watching. Tata pulled off a banana leaf and made an envelop and stuffed a bunch in it for us to eat tomorrow. I was the lucky one to carry it all the way back.
Along the way, the stream were we had passed was now missing the plank of wood that served as our bridge. There was a poor mama on the other side with a bucket of something on her head that was trapped as well. Our only option was to walk right through the knee deep water. At this time it was very dark and we were in the middle of a Ugandan jungle so it was a little scary stepping blindly into water. Thankfully we had those great boots from Tata so it was no problem. We did get water in them, though. The mama had a harder time – she had only slippers (flip-flops) on. She was not happy. But we just kept saying “what an adventure!” It was an awesome experience walking through the jungle with no light, just as David did for years.
At Jeje’s they had dinner ready for us, so we ate the fourth big meal of the day. We proudly displayed our new gifts and Jeje was so happy. She now gave us the gifts she had made us – palm mats she made herself. They are beautiful, bright colors she dyed herself and weaved in a beautiful pattern. That was the nicest dinner because she talked non-stop about how good we were, how God really blessing us, and how good it is that we are all friends. She kept wanting to know when she was going to meet our parents (hint hint, Mom and Dad!). I remember her saying, “even if you have enough money to fill this house, if you don’t have friends you don’t have anything.”
They way they treated us was really humbling. I mean, who am I to deserve such treatment? I’m a nobody, really. I was really sad to go. I would have loved to stay at least a whole week (or month!).
Wow… sorry if this is dragging on. But this may have been one of the best things I have done so far while in Africa. I’ll finish tomorrow.
A Week In Uganda
Olyo tya!
I’ve been to Uganda and back. The trip was incredible – journey was too long and the stay was too short but it was definitely worth the effort. David, Sean and I went to school on Thursday morning to proctor our last midterm exam and went to the bus stand that afternoon. Sean and I were under the impression that we’d take a bus all through the night and arrive in Uganda early, early morning. We traveled from about 1pm to 11pm when our bus pulled into a bus terminal for the night. The truth: it’s really not very safe to travel at night in Tanzania because sometimes robbers (armed) put up roadblocks in the middle of nowhere and the bus has no option but to stop. It is really expensive to carry guns, so bus drivers don’t have them. The Tanzanian police have now restricted night time driving and put up their own roadblocks for cars and buses who attempt to go on, which is a good thing because our bus may have tried to continue. I didn’t particularly want to extend our trip for a six hour layover, but I guess that’s better than the alternative. Sean, David and I got out of the bus, found some dinner and enjoyed the outdoor scene there for a while. Eventually we went back to the bus and tried to sleep in the same spot we’d been sitting for the past 10 hours. My “rear end” was not happy, but I was able to sleep a little. We left around 5:30 am the next morning. David bought some fried grasshoppers from a lady out his window along the way, a delicacy in Uganda. I ate two –after a quick chew and swallow, I realized it just tasted fried. But I can’t say I’ll ever eat them again.
We arrived in Masaka, the city near David’s village, around 7pm Friday evening. David wanted us to stay with his aunt there for the night and go to a dance club that he used to frequent when he lived there. His aunt has a really beautiful home in town, a three-story place with lots of rooms. Though David came from very little money, this aunt married a man who made some very wise business decisions. We had our first Ugandan meal there – the housegirl (not an uncommon thing for families to have) cooked us up matoke (cooked green bananas), a delicious peanut sauce, ugali that takes much better than the kind we eat in Tanzania (after boiling it, they cook it again over fire wrapped in banana leaves), and some greens. It was de-li-cious! I can’t wait to try cooking it back in Dodoma. After showering, eating, and having a “Bell” at a local bar, we headed to a little club called Ambience to “shake our bodies” (David’s words). Though at first I could hardly keep my eyes open from our long journey a few hours before, it was a fun night. I had my first pikipiki (motorbike) ride that night – I loved it!
Uganda is much colder than I had expected. I had goose bumps on top of goose bumps that night. Who knew! It felt like a fall night when you should have worn a heavier jacket and closed-toe shoes.
The next morning David, Sean, David’s cousin Maria and I walked into town, got a taxi into the direction of David’s village, Chagunda. The taxi cars there are used more like buses because the driver squeezed a fourth and fifth person into our backseat. We took another pikipiki through the village to get to his Jeje’s (grandmother’s) house. The view was beautiful – everything is so green there and there are so many hills! Uganda is rightfully nicknamed the “Pearl of Africa” because it truly has beautiful weather and beautiful fertile land. We surprised Jeje – she was expecting us on Monday, but it was a wonderful first meeting. We sat together for maybe 10 minutes, then she brought tea and disappeared for the rest of the night. We realized she went to prepare rooms for us to stay and food for us to eat. David showed us photo albums of his family and we saw pictures of him when he was in high school.
Saturday we shared our whole afternoon with Jeje, Maria, Innocent (Jeje’s housegirl – she’s 19), and Ivan (Innocent’s boy – he’s 1). Innocent stays with Jeje because she it is getting too hard for her to keep up her shamba (Kiswahili for large garden/farm). After breakfast matoke, they showed us around the shamba – Jeje has many banana, coffee, and orange trees, groundnuts (peanuts), strange little orange eggplants and many other things. We went searching for monkeys because apparently there are many in the fields there, but we had no luck. Sean helped Innocent chop down a banana tree – I guess you chop it to get the bananas. We helped them prepare lunch, pealing bananas, chopping things, and stirring things on their outdoor wood fire stove (which is essentially three rocks to mount the pot and a small fire underneath) in the back of their house. Jeje and the others just thought this was the funniest thing to see us “bazungu” (the Ugandan way of saying wazungu) working in the kitchen.
They have all sorts of fruits growing around their house too, so we ate guavas, jackfruit, and had freshly squeezed orange juice. The oranges there are green on the outside and a little orange on the inside and are a little sour. Jackfruit is this strange fruit about a foot long with a spiky outside; it takes like bubblegum. I couldn’t eat too much because it was so sweet it was making my stomach upset!
Later in the day, Sean, David and I took a walk to a nearby house where another of David’s Jejes live. She was this tiny old lady, hunched over from age, with an incredibly sweet smile. We sat on a palm mat and she kneeled before us and we had an beautiful conversation (David as translator). She was shocked to see us in her village. She kept saying “bambi” (said, baum-bie), which is an expression something like “wow” in a genuine awed way. She kept thanking David for being a good person so that we would want to be his friend, and then thanked us for being good people to want to visit David’s home. She kept saying things like this over and over; I could just feel how much it meant for us to be sitting there with her. It was an incredible feeling. After a while, she walked us to a spot behind her home where David’s family cemetery lies. Grandmothers, grandfathers, young children who didn’t make it, and David’s sister who just passed this past year all lie there. It was interesting to hear about each one. The cemetery had an area for the Catholics and a little off was were the Muslims were laid. Sometimes family members change religion when they marry. But there they all were, lying peacefully on land this family has probably owned for many, many years.
We went back and had dinner with Jeje, Innocent, Maria, and Ivan. Jeje pulled out one of her best dresses – she looked lovely. We ate by candlelight because they don’t have electricity that far out. I really enjoyed sharing that time with them. Jeje’s house is beautiful because her daughter (the aunt where we stayed the night before) and son-in-law built her a new house next to her old one. It has tiled floors and many rooms, but like most homes there is only enough furniture that is necessary. That night I slept in on a mattress on the floor in my own room. But being so far away from any city (and neighbors!) the night was a restful and peaceful quiet.
Sunday morning we went to Mass at Jeje’s church, a simple building down the road. Jeje’s legs ache her so she was unable to come with us, but she sent with David an envelop so we would have an offering to give. The building was immaculately simple with concrete floor and concrete walls and a tiny altar. It could fit no more than 50 people. We arrived and many Jejes were sitting on the floor, and others sat on the tiny benches used as pews. They all looked wide-eyed at us as we entered, but their eyes and faces softened when Sean and I greeted them with big smiles and silent waves. A few came to greet us, saying how odd but wonderful there were buzungu in their church. We waited a little for the priest to arrive – he has to come from town. It was an extraordinary experience. At the end, we greeted the priest and other men and they asked us to introduce ourselves to the group. That was a little difficult considering we don’t know Ugandan, but they appreciated our failed attempts.
I remember one of the first things Jeje asked us was if we were Catholic. When we said yes, she literally jumped a little for joy. She was always wearing her rosary around her neck (almost all Catholics in Uganda and Tanzania wear them that way). She asked where mine was! She is extremely devoted. We could hear her saying aloud her night prayers before she went to bed. And many of the things she told us were how she has been blessed so much all her life just because she trusts in God. Actually, at one point she found out a letter from one of the grandchildren she took in and helped support her education. The end of the letter wished Jeje many blessings and good things, and she attributed our coming to this blessing from God. I learned a lot that weekend. Funny how grandmothers always have such wise things to say.
This is getting long… I’ll continue tomorrow.
I’ve been to Uganda and back. The trip was incredible – journey was too long and the stay was too short but it was definitely worth the effort. David, Sean and I went to school on Thursday morning to proctor our last midterm exam and went to the bus stand that afternoon. Sean and I were under the impression that we’d take a bus all through the night and arrive in Uganda early, early morning. We traveled from about 1pm to 11pm when our bus pulled into a bus terminal for the night. The truth: it’s really not very safe to travel at night in Tanzania because sometimes robbers (armed) put up roadblocks in the middle of nowhere and the bus has no option but to stop. It is really expensive to carry guns, so bus drivers don’t have them. The Tanzanian police have now restricted night time driving and put up their own roadblocks for cars and buses who attempt to go on, which is a good thing because our bus may have tried to continue. I didn’t particularly want to extend our trip for a six hour layover, but I guess that’s better than the alternative. Sean, David and I got out of the bus, found some dinner and enjoyed the outdoor scene there for a while. Eventually we went back to the bus and tried to sleep in the same spot we’d been sitting for the past 10 hours. My “rear end” was not happy, but I was able to sleep a little. We left around 5:30 am the next morning. David bought some fried grasshoppers from a lady out his window along the way, a delicacy in Uganda. I ate two –after a quick chew and swallow, I realized it just tasted fried. But I can’t say I’ll ever eat them again.
We arrived in Masaka, the city near David’s village, around 7pm Friday evening. David wanted us to stay with his aunt there for the night and go to a dance club that he used to frequent when he lived there. His aunt has a really beautiful home in town, a three-story place with lots of rooms. Though David came from very little money, this aunt married a man who made some very wise business decisions. We had our first Ugandan meal there – the housegirl (not an uncommon thing for families to have) cooked us up matoke (cooked green bananas), a delicious peanut sauce, ugali that takes much better than the kind we eat in Tanzania (after boiling it, they cook it again over fire wrapped in banana leaves), and some greens. It was de-li-cious! I can’t wait to try cooking it back in Dodoma. After showering, eating, and having a “Bell” at a local bar, we headed to a little club called Ambience to “shake our bodies” (David’s words). Though at first I could hardly keep my eyes open from our long journey a few hours before, it was a fun night. I had my first pikipiki (motorbike) ride that night – I loved it!
Uganda is much colder than I had expected. I had goose bumps on top of goose bumps that night. Who knew! It felt like a fall night when you should have worn a heavier jacket and closed-toe shoes.
The next morning David, Sean, David’s cousin Maria and I walked into town, got a taxi into the direction of David’s village, Chagunda. The taxi cars there are used more like buses because the driver squeezed a fourth and fifth person into our backseat. We took another pikipiki through the village to get to his Jeje’s (grandmother’s) house. The view was beautiful – everything is so green there and there are so many hills! Uganda is rightfully nicknamed the “Pearl of Africa” because it truly has beautiful weather and beautiful fertile land. We surprised Jeje – she was expecting us on Monday, but it was a wonderful first meeting. We sat together for maybe 10 minutes, then she brought tea and disappeared for the rest of the night. We realized she went to prepare rooms for us to stay and food for us to eat. David showed us photo albums of his family and we saw pictures of him when he was in high school.
Saturday we shared our whole afternoon with Jeje, Maria, Innocent (Jeje’s housegirl – she’s 19), and Ivan (Innocent’s boy – he’s 1). Innocent stays with Jeje because she it is getting too hard for her to keep up her shamba (Kiswahili for large garden/farm). After breakfast matoke, they showed us around the shamba – Jeje has many banana, coffee, and orange trees, groundnuts (peanuts), strange little orange eggplants and many other things. We went searching for monkeys because apparently there are many in the fields there, but we had no luck. Sean helped Innocent chop down a banana tree – I guess you chop it to get the bananas. We helped them prepare lunch, pealing bananas, chopping things, and stirring things on their outdoor wood fire stove (which is essentially three rocks to mount the pot and a small fire underneath) in the back of their house. Jeje and the others just thought this was the funniest thing to see us “bazungu” (the Ugandan way of saying wazungu) working in the kitchen.
They have all sorts of fruits growing around their house too, so we ate guavas, jackfruit, and had freshly squeezed orange juice. The oranges there are green on the outside and a little orange on the inside and are a little sour. Jackfruit is this strange fruit about a foot long with a spiky outside; it takes like bubblegum. I couldn’t eat too much because it was so sweet it was making my stomach upset!
Later in the day, Sean, David and I took a walk to a nearby house where another of David’s Jejes live. She was this tiny old lady, hunched over from age, with an incredibly sweet smile. We sat on a palm mat and she kneeled before us and we had an beautiful conversation (David as translator). She was shocked to see us in her village. She kept saying “bambi” (said, baum-bie), which is an expression something like “wow” in a genuine awed way. She kept thanking David for being a good person so that we would want to be his friend, and then thanked us for being good people to want to visit David’s home. She kept saying things like this over and over; I could just feel how much it meant for us to be sitting there with her. It was an incredible feeling. After a while, she walked us to a spot behind her home where David’s family cemetery lies. Grandmothers, grandfathers, young children who didn’t make it, and David’s sister who just passed this past year all lie there. It was interesting to hear about each one. The cemetery had an area for the Catholics and a little off was were the Muslims were laid. Sometimes family members change religion when they marry. But there they all were, lying peacefully on land this family has probably owned for many, many years.
We went back and had dinner with Jeje, Innocent, Maria, and Ivan. Jeje pulled out one of her best dresses – she looked lovely. We ate by candlelight because they don’t have electricity that far out. I really enjoyed sharing that time with them. Jeje’s house is beautiful because her daughter (the aunt where we stayed the night before) and son-in-law built her a new house next to her old one. It has tiled floors and many rooms, but like most homes there is only enough furniture that is necessary. That night I slept in on a mattress on the floor in my own room. But being so far away from any city (and neighbors!) the night was a restful and peaceful quiet.
Sunday morning we went to Mass at Jeje’s church, a simple building down the road. Jeje’s legs ache her so she was unable to come with us, but she sent with David an envelop so we would have an offering to give. The building was immaculately simple with concrete floor and concrete walls and a tiny altar. It could fit no more than 50 people. We arrived and many Jejes were sitting on the floor, and others sat on the tiny benches used as pews. They all looked wide-eyed at us as we entered, but their eyes and faces softened when Sean and I greeted them with big smiles and silent waves. A few came to greet us, saying how odd but wonderful there were buzungu in their church. We waited a little for the priest to arrive – he has to come from town. It was an extraordinary experience. At the end, we greeted the priest and other men and they asked us to introduce ourselves to the group. That was a little difficult considering we don’t know Ugandan, but they appreciated our failed attempts.
I remember one of the first things Jeje asked us was if we were Catholic. When we said yes, she literally jumped a little for joy. She was always wearing her rosary around her neck (almost all Catholics in Uganda and Tanzania wear them that way). She asked where mine was! She is extremely devoted. We could hear her saying aloud her night prayers before she went to bed. And many of the things she told us were how she has been blessed so much all her life just because she trusts in God. Actually, at one point she found out a letter from one of the grandchildren she took in and helped support her education. The end of the letter wished Jeje many blessings and good things, and she attributed our coming to this blessing from God. I learned a lot that weekend. Funny how grandmothers always have such wise things to say.
This is getting long… I’ll continue tomorrow.
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