Farewell Uganda

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Today was our last real day in Uganda. We got up fairly early to go to church with the Choir kids. We were a bit late due to taxi problems, but all in all, it was good to be in church.

It’s a fairly large church on the outskirts of Kampala. The church Choir led us in times of worship before transitioning into the message. The sound wasn’t great, and there were errors in the PowerPoint, which was hard to read, but God was in the house. It was so much fun getting to worship with Choir children again, though I did feel a little self-conscious of my tone-deafness. Oh well. The kids left for Sunday School, so Sarah and I found ourselves in a mostly empty balcony in our lawn chairs. The preacher got going, but it was a little hard to hear due to the EQ and concrete walls. After a few minutes, I had to step out because I wasn’t feeling well. (Just a short stint and now I fell fine.)

I stayed in the back downstairs for the remainder of the message. Interestingly enough, part of the sermon was about the fact that Uganda will not develop unless its people get more diligent with their time. That means being on time, scheduling appointments and planning ahead. I only thought it was interesting because from our experiences in the last few weeks, the Africans have been pretty good about it (the ones we interact with) but the Canadians aren’t so good. This has been a bit of stressor for me, I’ll admit.

After church, we had to say goodbye to some of our new and old friends. Then the children walked with us back to their school. Suzan and Martin from Base Choir held my hands the whole way. I met new kids and saw old kids and got to know some of the kids Sarah toured with before I joined. Another girl, Maria, is the cousin of one of the girls in Choir 31, Patience. As great as it was to be with them, my thoughts kept floating back home to where my grandkids were preparing to go to Collide this week. If I’ve learned anything over the last two years, it’s that God sometimes takes us away from places we’re most comfortable and the people we love most, but He always uses that time and distance for His glory. Still, there are days I don’t like it very much.

We had a great time hanging at the school. Lots of aunties and uncles were there too. We had lunch and told stories and looked at pictures. Lunch was served- matooke and meat- and we enjoyed the beautiful afternoon outside. For a few minutes, it poured down rain, so we brought in all the laundry on the line and waited it out inside.

A few of the girls asked us to write down all of the names of the kids in Choir 31, who will be joining them at school in a few months. That was not a fun game. Try coming up with the names of 26 children on the spot. Sarah, Stacie and I put our heads together and got it done.

Before we left, the children all sang for us and prayed. Auntie Jodi and Mackenzie flew out after leaving the school, so they were sad to go. All the Base Choir kids got together with us for a picture, and then they sang. I held my composure pretty well until they started a song we taught them on tour. “And friends are friends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them. And a friend will not say never, ‘cause the welcome will not end. Though it’s hard to let you go, in the Father’s hands we know, that a lifetime’s not to long to live as friends.” I didn’t cry, but it was then that I realized just how much I would miss my abana. It also made me miss the Choir 31 staff and kids.

Before evening approached, another Young African, Joseph (from Rwanda) came to pick us up with a taxi. Stacie also got to spend the evening with Sarah and I. Stacie toured with us for a while on 31 as our Music Supervisor before coming to Uganda to train the new Choirs. It was great to get to spend time with her. Joseph took us to see the Ndere Troupe, which is an adult dance troupe that does traditional dances from all over Uganda. It was fantastic! Between the dances was a bit of sort of Ugandan stand-up comedy, which I thought was funny but the others didn’t enjoy quite so much.

One of the best jokes was something along these lines: The MC had 4 of the male dancers stand up. He asked us what they all had in common. Then he went on to explain that they were all “unchangingly, provocatively, unequivocally, incredibly black. The people of Uganda are they blackest in the world.” He went on to explain that the reason these men were so black is because when God created the world, he started in Africa with the black paint. He painted all the people and then baked them so they stayed that color. Which is why he created Lake Victoria- so he could cool them off and wash out His paintbrush. The MC then asked some Asian audience members to come down, and asked us what the blackest part of their body is. Clearly it was their hair. He said that after God finished with Africa, He went to Asia. Because all the people there greet you with their heads (bowing), He only painted their heads black. Plus he was running out of paint. Then He moved to Europe. The MC had to British girls come down, who were blond and pink. He explained that God ran out of paint, but they are starting to sell black paint on the internet, if anyone is interested.

My only criticism is that there was food, which was great, but it took them a long time to get our order so they brought back 2 plates of food instead of 4, telling us they ran out. Over the next hour or so, we watched the people in front of us get fed. Oh well. As far as I know, it was my first time to eat goat. It was a bit chewy and fatty, but not too bad. A little too salty for my taste.

The show was more or less a tourist trap. I haven’t seen that many mzungus in my entire trip! There was also a group of British high school students sitting near us, I think here to work on a school, and they all were partaking in the loose drinking laws here and enjoying some beer.

When the show was over, we loaded up in the taxi and headed back towards the house. Joseph got out en route, so we said our farewells on the street. Stacie continued on after dropping us off. We were thrilled to have electricity when we got home, and packed up all our things to head to Kenya.

This was our final night in Uganda….

for this trip.

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