Tuesday night Father Ben got a call from Father Michael saying his niece would be here to get me Wednesday morning to take me to the village. (Educate Uganda is an organization from Omaha. I met the lady behind it last year, so she asked me if I could go to one of the schools she helps fund to work with the kids on letter writing to their sponsors.) His niece got to the seminary about 10:30. I guess she was supposed to get there much earlier. We headed towards a bodaboda to take us into town. Father Ben came out of no where in his car telling Joan (Father Michael's niece) that she was not going to be taking me all the way to town on a bodaboda. He didn't want to call his grandparents (he has decided he is moving into my family as mom and dad's new grandson that is much loved) that something has happened to me.
So he drove us partway to town, then we got a taxi most of the rest of the way. We took a bodaboda to the taxi park and waited for a taxi to fill to take us to where we needed to go. A second niece, Liz, met us there. It took about an hour for the taxi to fill. The whole time we were sitting in the taxi, people were trying to sell us stuff. They were selling watches, pop, bread, candy, everything. One man said "Would you like to buy some biscuits?" I shook my head. Then he asked, "Would you like to have a son with me?" Oh my!
We were finally on our way. It took about 3 hours to get to there. One of Father's relatives met us at the taxi drop off and took us to the school. There were 70 kids on the list that were being sponsored. We wanted to get letters from all of them. We split them into groups to work with them little by little. Father's nieces were a great help because of my accent, may kids couldn't understand exactly what I was saying. We had them decorate the letters with colored pencil. The kids treated the pencils like gold. They were so excited to use them! We got a lot of cards written the first day, but we needed to go back the second day to finishing up with some that we did not get.
That night we went backt to Father's house. He has a very large family who stays in the same house, or one of the 3 that surround it. Because we were traveling, we missed lunch, so there was some yummy pork waiting for us with a fresh pineapple. I ate and was very happy :). After eating Joan, Liz, and another niece Rita took me on a walk to show me all around the plantation. They showed me the borehole, which is about a 5 to 10 minute walk away, the only place to get water near by. Then they showed me the tomatoes near the borehole. We walked back to the house then behind it to see the pig, cows, bananas, pawpaws, and all the land. It is such a pretty area. We picked some pawpaws and took them back to the house with us when it got dark. All of the kids sat outside and at the pawpaw, which wasn't completely ripe, so it was crunchy. We sat under the starts and talked. There are no mosquitos in that area, so it was a beautiful night. Then we went inside. I was first to take a shower, which I ended up needing a little help to figure out which jerrycans of water went where and so on. I got it all under control with the help of Liz. After my shower I learned there is only one kind of card game here. It is very similar to UNO, but it is played with a regular deck of cards. We played for a while, I lost every game, Father Michael won the majority. At about 9:30 we had dinner.
After dinner we sat around watching the news and chatting until about 10:30. Then it was bedtime. Because there are no mosquitos, there is no need for mosquito nets. It was wonderful to sleep without one. There were beds/mattresses/people sleeping everywhere in that house. It is such a loving big family. It was nice.
We got up the next morning to go to the school to finish the letters. Before breakfast I went outside to go to the latrine as well as brush my teeth. I saw little baby chicks, bokoko, and I wanted to play with them. They wouldn't come to me, even though I was calling to them :(.
After breakfast we went to the school, got the rest of the letters we needed, then after a bit headed back to the seminary. It was a great couple of days.
Today I am going to a wedding with two of the teachers. I do not know who the wedding is for, and we are only going to the reception... should be interesting.
Father Michael said to me at breakfast: "Have fun at the wedding! Don't party too much. Don't drink...the local brew...although it is really good...and completely safe because the alcohol kills all the germs...and it is really good..." Well thanks for that statement :)
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