I’m a little late posting this due to lack of computer availability and a good internet connection this week. This is for the week of June 6th-14th.
1. Good to be back- After traveling throughout much of Uganda on Safari, it was great to be back in Bigodi and in my normal routine last week. I will miss my little African village when I head back to the states in late July!
2. Attending an introduction- Last week I got to attend the introduction of our neighbor’s cousin. An introduction here is sort of like an engagement party, it’s where the bride’s family accepts the bride price or dowry from the husband to be and the two families are officially introduced. The actual marriage will occur at a church ceremony a month or so later. In this case as with many marriages here the couple had actually lived together for the last seven years and had two children together! The official wedding and introduction are often put off for many years due to the expense of these celebrations.
There were well over two hundred in attendance at this introduction. It was a very formal affair with the men in suits and the women in their best traditional dresses.
3. Losing one of the oldest members of the village-Last week the oldest woman in Bigodi passed away. While everyone knew she had three generations of grandchildren no one knew exactly when she was born. Tinka did know what king she was born under so he was able to look that up on the internet and at least narrow it down to a decade. The decision of the village elders was that she was 113!!! She even cooked for Tinka’s Grandfathers wedding so many years ago!
4. Month long birthday celebration- I’ve always loved birthdays and while this year’s birthday was a little anti climatic, I’ve continued to get packages and cards for the last five weeks! This week two birthday packages arrived, one from my sister and one from my old high school friends. My sister obviously knows me well because not only did she include books, balls for the kids (she is a PE teacher after all), but there was also chocolate for me!! The package from my friends was gigantic and must have cost a fortune to send. They included lots of books, assorted magazines including Bass fishing, volleyballs for the kids (netball is very popular here), and lots of snacks for me! I am very blessed to have such a supportive group of friends and family.
5. Twelve secondary teachers and me- Last weekend, I trained 12 teachers for the local Secondary school. I hadn’t worked with them yet so it was a joy to get to know them. Since they teach at the secondary level they were all fluent in English, which made the training at lot easier on me. We had a great time learning conservation activities that they could incorporate into their teaching. There were two surprising things for me: one was that while the schools mission is “We conserve to develop” they were actually doing very little in the way of conservation education. The second was none of the teachers at the school had ever been on a tour of the Bigodi Wetland which is less than a mile from the school! None of the teachers had any idea of how many birds’ species live in the swamp or could name the different types of primates. We took a guided tour of the wetland and by the end of the weekend; all knew that there are 200 different types of birds and eight species of monkeys living in the wetland!
6. 26 pounds gone- One of the great side effects of living and working in Uganda has been losing weight by sampling eating natural foods and walking a lot. So far I have lost 26 pounds!!!
7. I’ve heard about chickens coming home to roost but this is nuts- I had two incidents involving chickens last week. While napping, I felt something jump up on my bed at first I thought it was Leon but no it was a chicken. Tinka thought maybe she was looking for a place to lay her eggs! Later in the week, I was getting my “juice bucket” from outside as it was drying upside down; when I picked it up I heard a loud squeak and there was a small chicken. Evidently, she had been missing and trapped under my bucket for two days as I was out of town!
No comments:
Post a Comment