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Published: January 30th 2007
Reverend Eddy and His Family
Top: Rev. Eddy, Harriet (wife), Sylvia (niece)
Bottom: Another Niece (whose name escapes me), Eric (son - 2.5yrs) Debra (daughter - 5yrs)Friday, January 5, 2007
I was nervous to spend the weekend w/one of the local pastors. Leaving the compound and staying in a local village was an important part of my experience here, but I had so many questions/fears: where would I sleep? what would I eat?; how would I bathe?; would I be protected w/a mosquito net while I slept?; how would I handle the toilet experience?; would I totally hate the rural life experience????? All I could do was pray for peace and that I would keep an open heart to all that I would experience in the coming days. Unfortunately, I woke up with a migraine on Friday, so I slept for a major part of the morning.
Friday evening we arrived at Rev. Eddy’s house and I met his family: wife - Harriett, daughter - Debra (5yrs), son - Eric (2.5yrs). Rev. Eddy also cares for one of his nieces, whose parents have passed away, and an orphan that Harriett found. Rev. Eddy and Harriett have two additional children , but because their home is already large w/4 children living with them, these two older children live with other relatives for
St. Luke's Church
This is Rev. Eddy's church in Seeta. the time being. After a few minutes of greeting and talking, Rev. Eddy, Harriett and I left for an evening fellowship. As Shannon drove us to the fellowship, I was ever grateful because it was dark and I had forgotten my torch (that’s what they call a flashlight here)…and the road was BAD!!!!
The fellowship was a nice time and everyone was very warm and welcoming. Being that I was the only “muzungu” in attendance, I was asked to give a greeting (it’s a good thing that on-the-spot public speaking does not stress me out!). After introductions and announcements were made there was an evening tea…and while I’m not sure of everything I ate (though I managed to escape the liver dish, as well as the bananas), I can say that Ugandan pineapple is the best pineapple I’ve ever had! (I’m sad that I can’t bring some back for my friends in the states, cause this stuff is WAY better than the pineapple imported from Hawaii!!!) After we finished eating, there was a message given from the one of the pastors, which seemed to encourage the members in attendance. The fellowship ended around 10pm and after everyone said their
Compassion International's Building
This building houses the office for Compassion International's Saturday Program. good-byes, we were given a ride back to the church where we acquired the church vehicle and we drove back to Rev. Eddy (thank God, cause I wasn’t looking forward to walking back and being devoured by mosquitoes).
Once back at Rev. Eddy’s house, dinner was served. “Didn’t we just eat at the fellowship???,” I thought to myself. But apparently, there is a difference between evening tea and supper…evening tea is just a snack after work usually served around 5 or 6pm, but supper is served around 10pm. I only ate more pineapple because I was full from the “tea”…I was hopeful that my not being hungry for more food would not insult Harriett!
After dinner was over Harriett asked if I wanted to bathe, but since I had taken a shower so late in the day (due to the migraine) I said no thank you, but I did need to use the toilet…so begins the toilet experience. I had heard about (and seen pictures of) the toilets that are used in the villages…they are basically holes in the ground made of cement. If you are male, this does not really change much for you, BUT as a
female, aiming for a hole in the ground, while squatting, is not an easy task - this is what I had been fearing!!! All I can say is thankfully I had toilet paper and wet wipes with me!!!! Oh and the small room does not have lighting, so Harriett lit a candle in the corner for me, so I could see! 😊
I’m not sure who, but someone had given up their bed for the weekend so that I could sleep on a mattress under a mosquito net. As I crawled into bed, I said a prayer of thanks that I made it though some of my first fears and came out ok!
Saturday, January 6, 2007
I woke up around 8am, which by Ugandan standards is late, but those of you who know me, this is still very early in my book - especially on a Saturday! I was greeted by Harriett, who offered me a warm bath. Now, let me explain how you bathe in Uganda…you are given a container with warm/hot water and a basin and are shown to the “bath-room”. Now it becomes like camping - you put water in the basin,
Compassion International Program (1 of 4)
I spoke to approximately 100 students who participate in a Compassion International Saturday Program. They were very curious about life in America... splash some on yourself, soap up, splash more on yourself to get the soap off, all the while trying not to get your clothes/flip-flops completely soaked in the process. All in all, it wasn’t so bad….
Breakfast was served and then Rev. Eddy returned to take me to the church because on Saturday mornings there is a Compassion International program that takes place. I was introduced to the office staff and learned a little bit about the program. In addition to a couple warm meals, educational support, and spiritual guidance, they are given “life skills” which will hopefully provide them with better future opportunities.
All of the children gathered and after some singing, I was invited to come and speak with approximately 100 students, ranging in ages from about 7 - 18. Since I didn’t have much warning that I would be speaking, I gave a brief introduction of myself and then gave the children an opportunity to ask me questions. Ugandan children are very curious about life in America, so the questions ranged from “who is the strongest man?” to “is there a high crime rate in America?” Of particular interest was my age, marital status and
if I had children…some things don’t change, regardless of which continent you are on! LOL When the question/answer session was up, it was time for their afternoon meal, which consisted of sweet bread, bananas and something that looked like runny cream-of-wheat (thought I’m not sure what it’s called). Rev. Eddy and I were asked to join some of the teachers and in lieu of the runny cream-of-wheat, we were given warm milk instead. Once we finished what I later learned was a “snack,” we left and headed to “Seeta Parents' School” where Rev. Eddy spent last year as the Chaplin. (A “Parents'” school is equivalent to a private school, since parents pay the fees for students to attend.)
(Let me interject here that the Ugandan school system is VERY different from they way schools are run in the US. And after several conversations, I don’t think I can adequately summarize how the school system works in just a few sentences, so I’ll try to blog about that later.)
While school has not begun for all students yet, there is a group of students (called Primary-7’s or P-7’s; similar to 8th grade) who start school a month early in
order to prepare for their national exam. (A student’s score on this national exam determines which type of secondary school a child will attend, which ultimately affects a child’s entire future.) Knowing that I am pretty ignorant at this point about how the school system works in Uganda, Rev. Eddy gives me a chance to speak with the teachers of the P-7’s. This was a very informative time for me…what I can say is that Uganda is one of the more literate African countries and works hard to educate the children of this country, at least up to grade P-7.
After speaking with the teachers, I was given a chance to speak to two P-7 classes. I decided that since the question/answer session went so well with the Compassion kids, I would try that again. Not wanting to totally interrupt their instruction time (after all, I am a teacher!), I gave each class a 5-question limit; this meant they had to listen and plan their questions carefully. Interestingly enough, I encountered many of the same questions I heard earlier in they day…another common inquiry was regarding the weather in America.
After we left the P-7’s, we went back
to Rev. Eddy’s house for lunch. (Are you beginning to feel like food is always being served? I did…I felt like every time I turned around it was time for another meal…who knew!) Lunch was NOT my favorite thing, for it included something called “dry fish”. I did take one small bite of it, but that was all I could stand, for that one bite almost made me gag! ? So, I ate some sweet potato, yam, Irish potato (can you say carb-fest?), and of course some pineapple…thankfully after those few bites I was full, so I offered the rest of my food to another visitor who happened to just walk in as we started eating. When people are constantly offering you food, it’s easy to be “full” when something you don’t like is offered to you…LOL
After lunch Rev. Eddy took me for a walk around town. He was supposed to meet with a group of Confirmation students, but their meeting was over before he even got there…this made our walk around town less rushed. He took me to a store run by “Mama Juliet,” who is the wife of the school’s founder. (The founder died last year.)
Yumm...
What I thought was lunch turned out to be an early afternoon snack...and I managed to avoid the banana! Mama Juliet was very warm and kind…she offered me a soda and we talked for a little while. During the course of our conversation she inquired about my favorite things that I’ve eaten, to which I replied “…I LOVE the pineapple here!!!” When our time for Rev. Eddy and I to leave, Mama Juliet sent us with pineapple and bread…YUMMM!!!
As we walked around Seeta, we walked through the market area. I forget that in villages the market includes an open-air meat market. Meat just hangs from hooks and people come to purchase their meat…I was pretty grossed out by it, to be totally honest, but meat is not my favorite thing! I’m not sure of everything that I saw there, but EVERYTHING “meat” is sold there…including the insides of animals! Oh it’s not hygienic and flies are everywhere!! Down a short alley was the rest of the market, where all the produce is sold. This looked far more interesting to me, but we didn’t stop or shop, we just passed through.
As we continued walking, Rev. Eddy told me a story about a couple of young girls who had been kidnapped recently, but one had recently come
Sign Posts (1 of 6)
Around the property were several sign posts with different value messages...maybe we should post these around our schools...just a thought!!! back to the village. One of the girls had been released because her name was similar to one of the kidnappers, but unfortunately the other young girl had not been so fortunate and had been killed as part of a human sacrifice. My heart grieved greatly as he told me this story, both for the life that was lost and for the trauma this young girl had experienced, as she was forced to watch the whole ordeal before she escaped!
I share this story because this is a cruel reality here in Uganda. As friendly as the people are and as safe as I feel walking around this village, there are some who still participate in outdated practices such as human sacrifice. We walked to the home of the girl who had escaped and spent a little time with one of the older sisters. I didn’t ever have a chance to meet the young girl who escaped, but had I seen her I’m not sure I could have kept myself from crying…I just can’t believe what a horrible ordeal she has lived through and I cannot fathom how her life will forever be changed as a result of that
experience.
After leaving the young girl’s home, we walked to the church. The Lay-Reader (Pastor) was getting ready to leave, so we spent some time with him and walked with him to his house. When we arrived he invited us into the living room…and proceeded to re-greet us - even though we had just spent about 20 minutes laughing, talking, and walking together, when we entered his house he formally greeted us by shaking our hands as if it were the first time we were being introduced. This is a common practice in Uganda, this “formal” greeting when you enter a house. Shortly afterward Rev. Eddy got a call and he had to return to the church, but I stayed back and talked with the Lay-Reader for about another 30 minutes. We then headed back to the church to meet up with Rev. Eddy.
Rev. Eddy told me that we’d be taking the church’s car back to the house, but we would have to wait a bit for the other Reverend to return. So, we sat at the church and as the sun set I had a sudden fear that I’d end up with malaria that night for
Sign Posts (3 of 6)
"Respect Your Teachers"...this is one of my favorites! :) sure…I was wearing a t-shirt and capri pants…I was TOTALLY exposed to the mosquitoes!!! Luckily, I remembered that I had packed a small amount of bug repellent in my bag, so I quickly applied it and felt a little more protected. Around 8pm (after we’d waited for about 2 hours) Rev. Eddy called to find out where the car was…apparently there was a miscommunication and it would be back shortly. Instead of waiting we started to walk back…but as we neared the house we were picked up and after we dropped the other Reverend off at his house, we too the car back to Rev. Eddy’s.
When we got back from the long day I bathed - it had been a long, hot, sweaty day! I think Harriet could see I was exhausted, so instead of making we wait to eat with the family, Harriet served me dinner first. (It’s weird to eat by yourself when people are starring at you!) Dinner was fried chicken! Yeah, something I knew I’d be able to eat…if I could get around the fact that I had to eat it off the bone. (Again, another one of my food issues is eating meat
off the bone; somehow it seems very caveman-like and I don’t do it very often if I can help it!) Of course there were potatoes, pineapple and bread too!
Exhausted from the long day I crawled into bed…and prayed a prayer of thanks giving for the amazing experiences I’d had that day!
Sunday, January 7, 2007
I knew I had a choice to attend the English church service, but it was at 7am and well, you all know me well enough that given the choice I won’t ever choose to be somewhere at 7am!!! I got up, took my bath, ate a little something for breakfast, and Harriet and I left for the 9am service (which I knew would be in Lugandan, but it was fine…anything is better than 7am!).
I ended up sitting up with the reverends’ wives in the front of the church. Shortly after the service began, Rev. Eddy called me up to say hello to the congregation…I’m not sure of what I said exactly, but it was short and sweet - we were in church and the focus should not have been on me, but on worshipping God! Since my
understanding of Lugandan is limited to just a few select words, I didn’t know much of what was being said, unless one of the wives sitting next to me happened to translate…and I was grateful to them for their efforts to ensure I knew what was going on during the service. After the service ended I was greeted by SEVERAL people, some of which I actually remembered from Friday’s fellowship…well, I remembered their faces, but not very many names.
We headed back to the house and I changed and packed up, since I would be leaving that afternoon. Sadly, I had a HORRIBLE headache (bordering on migraine) by this time (probably because I was slightly dehydrated - I wasn’t drinking a lot of anything so I wouldn’t have to use the hole anymore than I absolutely had to), so I decided to take a quick nap before Rev. Eddy came back from the third service at church.
Around 2pm we ate lunch, took some pictures and then piled into the car for our journey back to the compound. First we drove to the outskirts of another village for me to see the seminary where Rev. Eddy when to
Sign Posts (6 of 6)
So simple, but so important!!! school. The seminary has an interesting history…it once was the site where the king of Uganda would send Christians to be persecuted for their beliefs - they were wrapped in wood and burned to death. There now stands a monument in recognition of the martyrs who died for their beliefs…hearing this story and seeing the monument causes one to pause and think about what one would do if their beliefs were challenged and one’s life was at stake.
Rev. Eddy then took us to the main hall of the seminary where he showed me a mural that was painted on the main wall that told a story of the history of Uganda…it credits the “muzungu” (the white man) for bringing education, medicine, and technology to Uganda, all of which have allowed the country to far more advanced than some other African countries.
We left the seminary and, after one stop by a friend’s house, we were on our way back to the Hurley home. I thought it would only take us about 20 minutes to get back, but instead of taking the main road we took a back dirt road. The road was bumpy (like all roads in
P-7 Class at Seeta Parents' School
This was the second of two P-7 classes that I spoke with...again, very curious about life in America. Uganda) and in some places pretty muddy…in one spot the mud was so deep I was afraid that we would not be able to get through in the car we were in (it was actually a station wagon, NOT a 4-wheel drive vehicle), so it was low to the ground. (If there is one thing I’ve learned about driving in Uganda it’s that anything less than a 4-wheel drive vehicle with good shocks is not worth spending money on…the roads necessitate the expense!) While it took us about 45 minutes to get back, I enjoyed the drive back because it gave me further exposure to the way many natives live.
Rev. Eddy and his family joined us for dinner and stayed around to talk for a couple more hours. It was nice for everyone to have a chance to talk so that relationships could be strengthened…it’s rare that wives get the chance to get out of the house and visit with other wives, so this was valuable for both Harriet and Danielle.
Soon it was time for Rev. Eddy and his family to make the journey back to Seeta, so we gathered to say our good-byes. I was
P-7 Teachers
I had a chance to learn about the Ugandan school system from these men...it was VERY enlightening, to say the least. very grateful to this family for allowing me to spend the weekend with them. It was a valuable experience that I will never forget and I now have new friends which I shall never forget either! My time in the village has given me many things to think on and ponder…I’m guessing my mind will be pretty busy over the next few days.
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Angela S.
non-member comment
I could see...
why you desire to go back! It's so funny that any other nation you go to, they greet you wholeheartedly. It's very different from the way we greet internationals here. You kinda of feel special and embarassed all at the same time (at least I do) when you are asked to stand up and give an impromtpu speech! Still, you feel like you're given significant things to do, and be a part of, when you are in a foreign country solely to serve! My heart goes out to that girl too who was captured and had to witness what could have happened to her. The trama that people go through too. Seems to me that, once you meet people like that, or come into contact with people like that, it causes your heart to want to stay longer. Life becomes deeper, more real doesn't it? Whatever you decide to do, I do wish the best for you! It's been cool to get to meet you before you went to Uganda and then after. :) I just wish I could come back more often. Too bad for student teaching! haha. Anyways, if you wanna stay connected: angs1027@yahoo.com. Blessings to you Denice!