Ugandan Festivities

Friday was to be a big day in Mbale for thousands of men as their month long festival of circumcisions began. The festival’s opening ceremonies involved the Kabaka of the Lugisu tribe (their tribal leader), and the presidents of Uganda and Kenya. It was quite the even, and in general the baseline state of the city was drunkenness. Since all of us expats (those that I met working with HELP Int’l) were not sure what to expect, I went with the other directors on a scouting mission so to speak. We wanted to make sure things would be safe enough for the others to join us at the event. The gourds and jerry cans that were being carried by the parties taking their boys to become men were definitely not water, and you could smell the sorghum and banana beer the whole afternoon.

Baby dolls and monkey tails, traditional meets today.

Light bulbs and tinsel definitely did the trick for this guy!

These two had some really colorful beads as they entered the football field.

Even in sewing there are typos...

The ones with the bare legs/leg bells are the ones about to become men.

We decided to walk rather than to boda (or take motorcycles) to the event, and as it turns out, that was a good move. Not only were there so many people walking that it was hard for the bodas/cars to pass, but this also meant we got a chance to look at much of the costumes. Colorful describes most of the costuming of Africans if they get the choice. Rarely do black and white go with anything but a bright red or green or orange. This event was no exception. In a past life, the traditions might have only included the black and white Colobus monkey pelts, silver leg bells and the cowrie shell belts (and tails). Today however, the costumes were tricked out with tinsel, beads, light bulbs, necklaces of ties and hankies, and even cheap baby dolls. What the actual significance of all the extra stuff added to the relatively elegant headdresses was I do not know, but its effect was nothing shy of a bit tacky in comparison to the elegance and simplicity of the original hats. The costumes are of course best shown in pictures, so here are a few to help explain.

In its live state, the Colobus looks like this.

http://www.animalspedia.com/wallpaper/Eastern-Black-And-White-Colobus/

People say my braclets are a little chunky?

The dancing at the festivities was impeccable, and definitely worth the bag slashing that occurred (and was luckily caught without losses occurring. The sound of the bells was incredible! The force by which they were shaken strapped to the legs of the young men was immense and I was simply amazed with the choreography. The day began with opening remarks, but the dancing that had happened along the road turned into a competition in front of the Kabaka in front of our eyes in an area that would have been perfect for a football field. It was lined with people on every single side, and as VIPs we headed into the area with chairs (though they were of course all filled). There were couches lining the front row for members of Parliament and distinguished guests, and we stood along the back of the seated individuals. Just upon entering the VIP area, there was quite a scuffle beginning when some drunken individuals used their sticks on some of the police that were checking bags and attempting to maintain some resemblance of order. This worked with the help of a little tear gas, but we quickly moved deeper into the VIP section in order to avoid future scuffles. The guard for the house was there with us, and was so protective, that it was reassuring amongst the bit of chaos that ensued. Apparently there had been a free standing metal detector originally, but the single file line up was destroyed by a giant drum driving past that literally caused people to break into a free for all.

After the initial dancing was completed, we wandered out onto the field where some of the circumcisions were occurring, while we didn’t see any occur, we definitely saw the waddling thereafter. With the help of some sunscreen and an ice cream cone, we moseyed about for another couple of hours people watching- one of my favorite activities!

Then before people got too much more intoxicated or sun burnt we headed home for some relaxing and dinner. Sausages in particular, but the slightly twisted humor in it made them all the better. It was nice to relax a bit and have access to wireless without being inside of a café for a few hours at a time. The people we stayed with were incredibly welcoming, and extremely helpful in our search for people! It was a time for good-byes for many of the summer volunteers, so it was a bit of a strange time to have a new person staying at the house, but it was really wonderful to be welcomed in so smoothly. The HELP house had beads hanging all over and such beautiful ones at that! They definitely have some very talented ladies involved in the bead making process, and while they were more than buying them in the market, it was nice to know the money went straight to the women who had made them!

Sasha was arriving in Mbale on Monday, and so I was glad to be able to show her the ropes on town, and have a place picked out for her to meet up with her interviewee for the facilitator position. Then, then I was able to meet some of her friends, and Kenneth, a man that facilitated one of the microgrants for our Uganda work. He was definitely an interesting person who knew the good places to duck into for some good chicken broth dinner (with matooke and rice of course). We were to meet up with him again in the morning for a visit to the nursery school he had helped to build with our microgrant. After dinner on Saturday though, we went out for a drink with Hannah, an acquaintance of Sasha’s and it was nice to talk development, living abroad, relationships abroad and just so many other things. It was a typical little outdoor bar, and yet we did manage to avoid a person or two trying to hop into our conversation. It is interesting how nice it is to speak English with locals, and yet interesting compared to being in Rwanda, where language can limit the length of a conversation. It may also explain the much larger number of proposals that occur in Uganda compared to Rwanda- seems that no ring is fair game either place though!

On Sunday, we took a half hour boda ride out to a community near Mbale that Kenneth was born and raised in. He had received the grant for his community through our partnership with Educate! – an NGO working to promote entrepreneurial activities among secondary school students. The nursery school was well on its way! There was a pair of latrines and a 2 room school building. While crudely made, it was beautiful nonetheless to see that it had a chalk board and some benches. At first the number of benches was a bit alarming, but since it was Sunday, it turns out the benches had been taken next door to the “church” building. 

There were few children around until we went to leave, and then there actually popped up a few students who were there for Sunday school. It seems that the building is also being used as a community meeting location during rainy season and much more. The structure has brought the community together on many levels, but it seems to be doing a lot of good- even if it is not generating income for the community. Ideally, it will lead to better educated children and parents having more time to devote to their other works.

Home hasn't changed a bit!

After introducing Sasha to a local celebrity and housing guru, I hopped onto the bus heading back to Kampala. I would only be there a night, but I knew that alone was enough to make mom super nervous with the Ebola outbreaks. I wouldn’t have done it any other way (the 30+ hour bus rides through Kenya and Tanzania included), and was so excited to be visiting my Buganda family again. I sat next to a very sweet moozay (muze) or older man on the bus that was just chatty enough to be interesting, but not to the point where I wasn’t able to get some reading and a quick nap in. He had classic brown eyes with a blue ring around them, that is truly fascinating to look at and he was headed into Kampala to visit family. When I told him of my Buganda family in Kansanga he got a good chuckle, and wished them all well. Since I was able to make the 2 o’clock bus, I made it ‘home’ just in time for dinner! Originally, Thomas and mom were the only two people home, but we were joined by Anna and Emma for dinner of matooke, gnuts, and rice- with roasted gnuts to snack on beforehand, too! The visit was nice and Emma and I stayed-up chatting for a while until I read myself to sleep and she did some work.

Sheraton Kampala Fountains

Monday, my first task of the day was to get a bus ticket. Easier said than done apparently, and after tromping around to find Kampala Coaches booking office (and having the woman tell me there were no evening busses) I decided that I’d better go with the Jaguar bus, which I knew would have a ticket for me. So after trekking across the city, and buying my ticket, I had 3000 shillings left in my wallet and needed to get at trek back across town for some wireless. Luckily for me, a boda driver took pity and took me for 3000USH all the way to Garden City Shopping Center in the middle of a mid-morning traffic jam. There I was able to use an atm, buy some airtime, and grab some breakfast and wooden bird I had eyed the last 4 times I had been there.

After that, I did some more tromping around to the Sheraton to see if the antique store was open (it wasn’t) and to see if the fair trade store was even there still (it was) . It was nice to not be under a time crunch, and while it was a warm day for sure, the fact that I was able to leave my duffle bag at the house gave me a lot more freedom of movement. It wasn’t until 4 that I headed back home and chatted with the families new house girl until it was time to meet Grace (one of the Homestay brothers not living at home) and his lovely wife for dinner. The night before, I had found out they are expecting a baby in December! It was very exciting news to hear, and then over lunch they had a new development in that it is a little boy! Apparently, there is only one 3D scanner in all of Uganda, and they went to have the baby checked-out over lunch that morning. It was exciting to see how happy they were- so fearless and happy together, and I hope that they are able to stay that way for a long time to come! On the other hand, it seemed mama was feeling a bit old since grandkids were on the way! The dinner place that we met up at was right near where Grace (the brother) worked, and his wife met us a few minutes after we arrived. Conversation was lovely of course and hearing about their busy lives was also just wonderful! They convinced me to grab a muffin for the trip back to Kampala, and by Tuesday morning I was certainly glad they had done so- travelling can weigh you down fast, and cupcakes/muffins are a lot better (cakier) in Uganda!