I was recently made fun of because many of my friends here are turning out to be priests. For the record, I have more non-priest than priest-friends, but the story of how I met them all is good so I will share it.
“Fr. Venancio"
On Thursdays we go to Mass at a convent by Virika hospital (less than a 5 minute drive). There, we partake in a 30 minute mass before socializing outside for a while. After this, we share dinner with the sisters and Father Venancio. Fr. Venancio is a kind man. He has a knee problem and must walk with a cane. From him, I learned that all priests must complete a degree in philosophy before continuing their education (needless to say we had much to talk about). Dinner with the sisters has become the best meal that I have all week! We have a hearty meal followed by fruit and dessert (recently I had yellow cake with frosting and it was delicious and actually kind of moist!). I’m not sure what most nuns are like, but these are very quiet. They eat in near silence and many of them eat slowly, too, giving the impression that they are praying with each bite. The two times that I have gone, though, we have had good conversation and I look forward to returning.
Another interesting point about my time with the sisters and Fr. Venancio, is that, as my first Ugandan friend, Father gave me my empako. An empako is a “pet name,” a unique practice here among the Toro people. There are 13 emapkos that can be given and a few of them are only for men. Father named me Atwooki (ah-twOH-kee) and we had a naming ceremony in the convent’s kitchen while everyone was washing dishes. Atwooki means good, organized, straightforward and one other word that I cannot remember at the moment.
“Fr. Robert"
My first weekend in Fort Portal, we went to Mass at a nearby village. We went there to see a group of kids that pledges to be abstinent to fight HIV/AIDS. The group also does other things like performing song, dance, and drama and also learns skills like beekeeping. Since CRS funds them, we were sent as the representatives. Though it may sound like we were a pretty big deal that day, the true guest of honor was Fr. Robert. Recently their regular priest (who only visits the parish maybe once a month because there are too many churches and too little priests) died and this Mass happened to be his memorial.
Though I expected the Mass to be long I was not prepared to be there from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.! Mass itself only took the first several hours. I enjoyed the beautiful and lively music (much better than what I’m used to!) and the dress of the people there, but I can’t say that I wasn’t restless most of the time. After Mass was over, the kids performed some songs. Traditional music performances seem to involve a semi-circle of singers who sing a common chorus and when it comes time for verses, one singer will step into the middle of the semi-circle and sing and dance. I was completely thrilled by the experience, but was more than happy when it ended because I hadn’t eaten since early that morning (it must have been about 4:45 at that time.
After the performance, we shared traditional foods. I had the usual (described earlier, so if you’re confused then you haven’t done your reading!) but was able to try millet for the first time. Millet is a grain that is often grown during the dry season because it can grow and survive just on the water from dew. When it is ready to eat, it looks like a dark brown ball of dough. It doesn’t have a distinct (well, describable, really) flavor but is very good when combined with soup (the word for broth) or other sauces like g-nut sauce (groundnut, which is peanut). During the meal I sat next to Fr. Robert and Mary and I cannot remember anymore what we talked about, but this is how I made my second priest-friend.
Even Fr. Robert got in on the action!
“Fr. Tom and God”
Blessed were Mary and myself recently when we had two of Mary’s friends over to stay. Literally, we were blessed. The first guest was Fr. Tom and the second was his brother, Godfrey, who is currently in seminary and is called “God” for short (“the little God”). While God is in school and learning, Fr. Tom teaches and both were enjoying their time off (school breaks for the month of January here) by visiting western Uganda.
We decided to take a weekend trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park (south of FP).
The drive down took around two hours, but drives here always pass quickly for me because I’m so interested in the scenery that is flying by at 80-100 km/hr. It was a longer drive than it would have been because we took the “scenic route” so that we could look at some of the many crater lakes in the area. The legend is that an ancient king carved them out after he retired and left his son in control (or something along those lines) … others argue that they are the result of volcano activity, but who’s to say?!
At the end of the crater lake tour was a lodge (Ndali Lodge – which means eyes that look in other directions … as in the physical disorder, not as in having a “wandering eye”). Here, I saw many interesting things, but was very happy to meet my first canine friend.
…And also to see the beautiful view!
Halfway through the driving, in Kasese, we stopped for lunch at a hotel. I can’t remember which one I had, but the amount of soda that is consumed here on a daily basis is absolutely astounding! It seems like everyone drinks at least one per day. Though I’m not usually a regular soda drinker, I’ve assimilated into the culture in this regard. What most surprises me is my newfound love for orange soda (Fanta Orange). I’ve always liked orange soda, but ever since I arrived here, I just can’t get enough of it!
Back on the road, we drove only a short distance before I experienced a life-changing event, and, really, a milestone in my world-traveling life: I crossed into the southern hemisphere for the first time! The equator runs through Uganda and along the road, on either side, are two enormous markers. To me, they look as though they are trying to contain an invisible tube that circles the Earth.
Traveling further into the southern half of the world, we entered the park. It would still be light for several hours, so we did a game drive. The first animals that I saw were kob … lots and lots of kob!
But these cute little antelop-ie things were not the only animal around. Other common sightings were:
Warthog:
And some others like water buffalo, birds, and even two elephants that were far in the distance.
We stayed the night at the Abby Rest House, which was not much to talk about but served its purpose well. Actually, I guess there was one thing to talk about because I had about 20-30 bites on my right leg that were red with a white ring around them. I was convinced that I had gotten bitten by the tsetse fly and was going to catch African Sleeping Sickness and die in 3 weeks. Well, that wasn’t the case (the case was probably just ants from the game drive) and I was perfectly fine … just a little too worked up for my own good!
Early in the morning we left for Chambura Gorge to go on a chimpanzee walk. We arrived and parked next to a huge tour bus. The bus was full of about 20 mzungus (white people). I should take this time to note an important difference in Ugandan culture from what many of you and myself are used to. Here, descriptive words generally carry no positive or negative connotations. For example, if you were to refer to someone who was fat, you would call them “the fat one,” someone short would be “the short one,” and someone who is lame would be called “the lame one.” Also, being called old is a compliment because the old are wise. Some words, though, do carry a charge. For example, being fat is not only an okay way to describe someone, but it is a compliment because it means that you are not sick. It’s been hard to get used to being called a mzungu because I’m used to it being rude to refer to someone by their skin color. I handle it pretty well though … except when I’m very hungry or tired.
Anyway, here is the gorge:
Here is our guide who was everything a person could hope for in a chimpanzee-gorge-guide: enthusiastic (well, kind of), knowledgeable, and came complete with a gun.
We saw the chimps right away.
They were quite exciting, but I was also interested in the gorge itself. The trees were amazing! I was one of the few people interested in them, though.
After the walk we drove around the park an stopped at a lodge to use the restroom. Here’s the best photo of an elephant so far:
After that, we tried our luck by the water. Since it’s now the dry season, most of them stay close to water. Most of what we saw were water buffalo through binoculars. I was a bit disappointed, but then the most amazing thing happened! I saw a hippo! AND it was the closest we were to an animal the entire trip! Apparently the hippo wasn’t as excited as we were because it got up into the shallow water, turned away from us and did a huge number two! I’m not sure if any of you have ever witnessed this, but it uses its tail in a similar way to a windshield wiper to fling it everywhere! It was disgusting! …But very memorable! Here is a more appropriate photo:
But I probably should put this one here, instead, because most of our attempts at getting a photo of us with the hippo failed because they (there were two) only surfaced for moments at a time.
This concludes the Great Queen Elizabethan Adventure, as we had to return to Fort so that Fr. Tom could get to the town where he had to say Mass early the next morning. One last interesting thing from this trip that I learned about Ugandans is that they have a different way of describing family. A man that came up to us asked if I was Mary’s daughter. We both thought he meant what he said and Mary asked him if she looked that old. As we found out, what he was really asking was if we were related. Here different words can be used for certain people that we would not use. For example, a younger female relative can be called your daughter even if she is not literally your daughter. Similarly, an older male relative can be called father or uncle. I’m so interested in difference like this one but I must admit that it is getting increasingly difficult to keep track of them all as my time here passes!
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