Erin’s first week went well, although we did not give her much time to rest and threw her into the busy life of a Parliament intern. Monday was my birthday, so we treated ourselves to a night of Thai food and Fat Boyz. The staff of Fat Boyz serenaded me with a rendition of “Happy Birvday.”
On Friday, Holly, Erin, and I traveled with Cathy Piwang of ChildReach Africa (CRA) to Busia district. CRA was formalizing the programs that Cathy has been offering to community for the last 3 years, and it was a big event with media and a guest of honor.
The main speaker was Justice Ogalo, the chief justice for the entire country. He is a very powerful and principled man, and we had a remarkable experience traveling with him. He is related to Cathy and one of her good friends, so we were able to ride with him in his car for the 4-hour journey to Busia. He has quite the sense of humor, and Holly and I had a good time laughing with him. Also, I had an opportunity to talk to him about the International Criminal Court (ICC) and rebel leader Joseph Kony. If the ICC drops the charges and Kony is tried in Uganda, it will be Ogoola that decides which judge will handle the trial and how restorative rather than punitive justice will be emphasized.
The main event took place on Saturday on the grounds of a primary school in southern Busia district. There, Cathy was honoring 25 families who have been adopted by families in the United States. Saturday was a special day of gift-giving where the US sponsors were able to purchase gifts for their Busia relatives. Gifts given include cows, goats, pigs, chickens, mosquito nets, bicycles, furniture, mattresses, and a home. It was such a happy environment, as everyone was celebrating their fortune.
There was a traditional dance group that blew me away. All the women dancing had to have been older than 40. And they danced like they were still in their teens! Several times during the presentations they came out to entertain the crowd, and it was common for Justice and Cathy to join in the dancing.
After all of the transferable gifts were given, we moved to see the site on which the house is being built. The women benefiting is well above 65 years old, although I need to ask Cathy for her exact age. And she was so joyous. She danced and sang and thanked God and everyone there. I took a short video of her excitement that I can share once I return to the US.
That night, Holly, Erin, and I received a very special honor. We were given Samir (the tribe in that region) names by the Justice and Cathy’s elderly father. My name is now Taaka, meaning born in the planting season. Erin is now Nabwire, born in the night, and Holly is Nafula, born during the rains. For the rest of the trip, everyone called us by our Samir names.
While in Majindi, Busia, we stayed in a guesthouse with a beautiful view of Lake Victoria and Kenya. Busia district is in eastern Uganda, with Kenya bordering on the east and Lake Victoria bordering to the south. On Saturday morning we woke up to the most spectacular view. Although the guesthouse did not have running water or electricity most of the time, the surrounding environment made up for it. We arrived after 11PM on Friday night, so it was dark and we could not see anything. Waking up on Saturday morning was stunning because we saw the fishermen out on the lake and the sandy beach a short distance from our room.
On Sunday, we even got to go out on the lake. We had a great team of journalists covering the event, and they stayed with us at the guest house. After breakfast on Sunday, they called over a fishing boat headed across the lake to Kenya and asked them for a short ride. Before I knew it, we were climbing into this rickety wooden canoe and paddling to a nearby island. We tried to stay in all the way to Kenya, but he said it takes 2 hours to reach there and we did not have that much time.
Instead, we rode about 30 minutes away (by car) from Majindi to a village called Budimo. It is in the middle of nowhere, down several country roads. There, Cathy wanted to visit a church that she supports. Many of the beneficiaries of ChildReach Africa come from Budimo village. We arrived just as church was letting out, but many members stayed to sing us songs and allow us to introduce ourselves. After church, we rode a short distance to a very sacred place in Uganda. In the late 1880’s an Anglican bishop was martyred as he tried to bring Christianity to Uganda. Bishop Hannington as he is named was the first Bishop of East Equatorial Africa. After he was massacred by the Bugandan king along with 50 of his indigenous supporters, a few who managed to escape exhumed his remains and carried them the long journey across Uganda and Kenya to the coast, so that they could be properly buried in England. Before crossing to Kenya, his body passed through Budimo and for several days, he was placed into a tree to prevent the hyenas from reaching him. Today, that tree still stands and we were able to visit it and see where the Archbishop of Canterbury placed a remembrance stone in his 1998 visit to Uganda.
After visiting this site, the local congregation eagerly led us to do something quite exciting… illegally cross the border to Kenya! It sounds much more dangerous than it actually was. In this area there are no border patrol, and the same tribe of the Samir people live on both sides. It is quite common for the people to move freely back and forth. We drove a short distance before ditching the car. From there we walked along a dirt path for 15 minutes to a river which divides the two countries. A canoe was waiting and took of the 5 metres across until we landed on the other side. And we were in Kenya. We walked and took photos, but there wasn’t enough time to do any shopping in the village. If I ever return to Busia, I will be planning an entire day to explore the bordertown in Kenya.
(crossing into Kenya)
(in Kenya with Cathy)The excitement doesn’t stop there! We returned to Budimo and had a drink at Cathy’s friend Grace Nageri’s house. It is still under construction but had a breathtaking view of the countryside and the mountains in Kenya. After finishing our drinks, we headed back to the car to leave for Kampala. Grace motioned for her maid Taaka to go over to the small baby goat tied in the grass near the car. After a few minutes of oooing and ahhing over the thing (on the part of Erin, Holly, and I) we realized that GRACE WAS GIVING US THIS GOATLET!
Oh my, were we so excited. We had been talking of getting a goat since we first arrived in Uganda, but we decided to wait until Gulu for logistical purposes and then give it to a family there before leaving for the US. But Cathy must have overhead our plans and had Grace give us one of her very special goats as a gift.
She is precious, and we are already very attached to her. Poor thing rode all the way from Busia in the back of a pick-up truck with a chicken. She’s now tied up in our backyard in Kisaasi until we leave for Gulu next week. Grace named her Adongo which means twin in Samir. She was still drinking milk from the mother, so we had to buy a bottle and cow’s milk to try to supplement. Last night and this morning she was very stubborn in taking the bottle, but I researching online today and goats are typically weaned by the time they are 3 months old. Her birthday is December 4th, so she is now 4 months old and can move over to grass.
So far we have been calling her Classy Weetabix Stinky and Pretty, but since she will not respond to any of them, it doesn’t really matter if she has 10 names. We’re very excited and you can look forward to very many goat pictures in the future.
PS- Doing laundry takes all day here. It blows my mind how women with big families get anything else done...
