This morning we went to the Luweero
gospel church and had us some "church"! We all went except for
brad who went to the internet café to catch up on his blog and emails. So
us four girls (me, Susan, Shalan, and Madeleine) went with Jackson and Moses in
the best dresses we brought with us. Apparently this is a big deal for Shalan
who doesn't like to wear dresses and changed to her work clothes right after
church....but I digress.
Church was full of music, song and dancing with great joy. We didn't understand much even though there was English translation (that is English sort of with a heavy Ugandan accent that was hard to understand). The people here were so happy to be there and very present in their faith in God. The sermon lasted about an hour and I had difficulty keeping my eyes open. The women around us if they had small fuss babies who pop out a breast and feed them so the babies would fall asleep and no one batted an eye or noticed. The 3 mouzoungo women really stood out and the children just stared at us over mom's shoulder or stood in church aisle. We just smile....I wanted to wave but was afraid it would be rude to do that in church. I loved the singing and dancing and clapping hands. Tears stream down my face as it always has when I'm in church (since I was little). I felt joy and peace. So I knew I was having some church!
Yesterday, something funny happened that everyone in the house is still teasing me about. A flatbed truck with music and microphone and announcer drove by the house slowly. I just heard the dance music, put my sewing down (we were sitting on the front porch having our quilting lessons) and started to dance. Everyone, including neighbours were laughing and pointed at the mouzoungo dancing. The announcer pointed me out on his mike and I happily waved back. After he passed....I asked one of the girls why I was the only one dancing. Brenda replies "....um he was a community announcer announcing a dance later that night...it wasn't about dancing." I said....oh dear...silly mouzoungo....I thought they thought was dancing well. Silly Chris! We are still laughing about today. Brad says .... Yeah you just look for any opportunity to be silly Chris!
Didn’t get to talk to Dennis last night and I missed it. He was skiing at calabogie and staying at a friend's cottage for the night. I sent him a text message at 6:30am my time as it would be around 10:30pm your time. Sent Eric a text and he replies the Sens won their 4 straight game in overnight with Alfie scoring the winning goal. It was great to talk about something we all knew from home over breakfast. Breakfast by the way has changed from omelets and sausage and toast to hard boiled eggs, toast, bananas and still tea. No sausage and we suspect the eggs were hard boiled as the guesthouse probably didn't have the means to cook 5 omelets at the same time. Necessity being the mother of invention. Hope we can get some more toilet paper tonight or tomorrow. The guesthouse doesn't keep much staff on weekends so our rooms will be cleaned Monday.
Tomorrow we are thinking of going into Kampala. It depends on how the current strike and peaceful demonstrations are going. If the city remains quiet. Due to the strike the banks were closed part of last week and stores were closed too. If the banks are open we will go and take of much needed banking. Still haven't figured out when our side trip which is actually to Bwindi National Park to see gorillas if you want to google that.
We met with local Ugandan rotary club yesterday and their president seems to think he can expedite getting the shipping container up to Luweero maybe the weekend. He plans to have it bypass Kampala and just clear customs electronically by taking the right person out for lunch or a case of wine or beer. That is how it works here. It will save time and red tape and less opportunity for officials to open up the container and take what they want. Always a concern here.
So hopefully by the end of the coming week or early next we can start to unload the truck and set up the library. The rotary international sign was painted on the front of the house complex this afternoon. Took pictures. hoping if we go into Kampala tomorrow we can get to an internet cafe and maybe I can put some pics on Facebook if I have power working at the guesthouse to download pictures from my camera.
Anyway..... all is still well here. I felt quite comfortable walking around town by myself. Got to internet cafe here at the post office without any incident and only much greeting of children who just like like to call out hello mouzoungo....and touch my hand with the biggest smiles you can imagine. I have to remember to bring my camera with me.
So I am signing off on the blog for today and leave time for Facebook! Talk to you tomorrow! xoxo
Church was full of music, song and dancing with great joy. We didn't understand much even though there was English translation (that is English sort of with a heavy Ugandan accent that was hard to understand). The people here were so happy to be there and very present in their faith in God. The sermon lasted about an hour and I had difficulty keeping my eyes open. The women around us if they had small fuss babies who pop out a breast and feed them so the babies would fall asleep and no one batted an eye or noticed. The 3 mouzoungo women really stood out and the children just stared at us over mom's shoulder or stood in church aisle. We just smile....I wanted to wave but was afraid it would be rude to do that in church. I loved the singing and dancing and clapping hands. Tears stream down my face as it always has when I'm in church (since I was little). I felt joy and peace. So I knew I was having some church!
Yesterday, something funny happened that everyone in the house is still teasing me about. A flatbed truck with music and microphone and announcer drove by the house slowly. I just heard the dance music, put my sewing down (we were sitting on the front porch having our quilting lessons) and started to dance. Everyone, including neighbours were laughing and pointed at the mouzoungo dancing. The announcer pointed me out on his mike and I happily waved back. After he passed....I asked one of the girls why I was the only one dancing. Brenda replies "....um he was a community announcer announcing a dance later that night...it wasn't about dancing." I said....oh dear...silly mouzoungo....I thought they thought was dancing well. Silly Chris! We are still laughing about today. Brad says .... Yeah you just look for any opportunity to be silly Chris!
Didn’t get to talk to Dennis last night and I missed it. He was skiing at calabogie and staying at a friend's cottage for the night. I sent him a text message at 6:30am my time as it would be around 10:30pm your time. Sent Eric a text and he replies the Sens won their 4 straight game in overnight with Alfie scoring the winning goal. It was great to talk about something we all knew from home over breakfast. Breakfast by the way has changed from omelets and sausage and toast to hard boiled eggs, toast, bananas and still tea. No sausage and we suspect the eggs were hard boiled as the guesthouse probably didn't have the means to cook 5 omelets at the same time. Necessity being the mother of invention. Hope we can get some more toilet paper tonight or tomorrow. The guesthouse doesn't keep much staff on weekends so our rooms will be cleaned Monday.
Tomorrow we are thinking of going into Kampala. It depends on how the current strike and peaceful demonstrations are going. If the city remains quiet. Due to the strike the banks were closed part of last week and stores were closed too. If the banks are open we will go and take of much needed banking. Still haven't figured out when our side trip which is actually to Bwindi National Park to see gorillas if you want to google that.
We met with local Ugandan rotary club yesterday and their president seems to think he can expedite getting the shipping container up to Luweero maybe the weekend. He plans to have it bypass Kampala and just clear customs electronically by taking the right person out for lunch or a case of wine or beer. That is how it works here. It will save time and red tape and less opportunity for officials to open up the container and take what they want. Always a concern here.
So hopefully by the end of the coming week or early next we can start to unload the truck and set up the library. The rotary international sign was painted on the front of the house complex this afternoon. Took pictures. hoping if we go into Kampala tomorrow we can get to an internet cafe and maybe I can put some pics on Facebook if I have power working at the guesthouse to download pictures from my camera.
Anyway..... all is still well here. I felt quite comfortable walking around town by myself. Got to internet cafe here at the post office without any incident and only much greeting of children who just like like to call out hello mouzoungo....and touch my hand with the biggest smiles you can imagine. I have to remember to bring my camera with me.
So I am signing off on the blog for today and leave time for Facebook! Talk to you tomorrow! xoxo
2 comments:
Another great report Chris - thanks so much for keeping us all in the loop
Also thanks Dennis for all you are doing to keep us in Chris' loop
Love Gail
yes....that is my marvelous hubby who makes it possible for me to do everything I need and want to do! he is the wind beneath my wings....
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