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Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala
July 5th 2009
Published: July 6th 2009
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This morning was special because we were up with the sun (everyday at 7:00) and got some writing done, and then went to see David at the internet café. Because we went in the morning, and probably extra because it was Sunday, it worked. Pretty fast, but more importantly, it didn’t come in and out! We got to get all our list done, but probably could have been there another hour or two if it was available. I’m sorry, but the blog site wouldn’t let me post pictures.

It seemed every 5 minutes there were more people coming to the house. It was so fun! There were probably 40 people here before it was all over. Barnett was running around keeping us all on track and on task. All of the ladies were dressed in gomesis or other traditional dress, and all of the men were in kanzus, and looking very smart. All of the ladies, minus a few, loaded into the taxi (with a goat and a rooster) and the men loaded in various cars, and we made the long trek across town to Prossy’s parents’ house for the introduction. I’m not going to lie- it was hot in those things.

One of the men who came over was named Christopher. He was sitting in the living room leafing through my book that I had left in there. I’m reading a book about Paul Kagame, who was a man who was very instrumental in the cleaning up of Rwanda after the genocide. I asked Christopher what he thought of the book and he said he’s been reading about the story a lot in the newspaper. Then he told me that he knows Paul Kagame very well. They grew up together. Wow. That was pretty cool.

Once we arrived, we let the goat out of the car and then got in two lines, women on the left and men on the right. When it was time, we all filed in for the big event- the kwanjula, the introduction. There was a tent on one side of the courtyard with all of Prossy’s family under it, including some men on two couches in the front. We all sat in chairs under a tent on the opposite side, facing them, with Jordan’s family on the couches in the front, except Jordan.

The representative from each side spoke back and forth for a little while. Ours, Dickson, told a story about a young man meeting an auntie who introduced him to a pretty flower, and now he wanted the flower. After several processions of various relatives, the aunties came out and one of them had to wander through our crowd and pick the young man.

Any procession and any picking and most of the conversation is hammed up pretty good. “We have lots of aunties and lots of flowers, how will we know the right one.” Things like that. As the auntie tried to find Jordan, the walked almost all the way to another white guy, just to tease, and then finally found him. It was hilarious!

When the lines of aunties and daughters and sons each came out Dickson presented each of them with a gift. Oftentimes it was sweets or some sort, but there was also makeup for the ladies. And there were sealed envelopes with money in them. When Dickson gave them to people, sometimes he said, “This is an open check. Just fill in the amount.” But for most of them, he said, “This is a dollar/dollars.” The representative from the other side kept responding, “I hope they’re not Zimbabwe dollars!” It was so funny!

Between meeting anyone, the traditional dancers came out and performed beautifully. Some of the songs and dances were those that I recognized from tour.

Sarah and I met some Canadian guys on our way to the house. They were coming to the function as well. One, Josh, is a high school teacher who worked here for a year and now teaches in Canada, but brought some of his students over for a visit. The other was his student, Daniel.

During the ceremony, Josh sat on the end, followed by Sarah, then Joshua Kityo, then me, then Daniel and some other people after him. It was great, because some of the ceremony was done in Luganda, so Joshua could translate for us. Barbara was behind us, with a friend of hers, Josefine, and they were laughing the whole time! It was funny. As Joshua explained thigns to me, I explained them to Daniel. Though, I told Daniel that some of the stuff I was telling him I knew, some Joshua told me, and some I was making up- he had to decide.

One of the funniest part of the evening was when Dickson was introducing the people with Jordan as his family. I had no idea he was going to introduce us as well, so I was surprised to hear my voice. A few names later, he said “Joshua” and both the teacher and Kityo stood up. It was the funniest thing I had seen in a while!

At one point, Dickson was giving gifts to some sons and said that there was one we could never get a hold of because he’s not on the network. So he got him a Mango. (Mengo is a phone company down here.) And out of Dickson’s magic bag, he pulls an actual mango fruit. Then he said the same thing to another son and gave him fruit as well. Quite the play on words.

There was one time when they gave us gifts. We each got a soda (I got a Mt. Dew!) and samosas. Samosas are a sort of small pastry with a meat mixture inside. So good!

Finally, we had introduced Jordan and his sister had found Prossy, who had been introduced. Then, all of Jordan’s family went outside to get the gifts from the cars. The women all carried baskets on their heads full of vegetables, while the men carried in large bags of rice and sugar and crates of soda. Spencer brought in the goat and the rooster.

In Ugandan culture, the women kneel before the men. Once we were far enough in the night that they could allow Prossy and Jordan to get married, Jordan was sitting in a chair with Prossy kneeling before him. Jordan said some nice things to Prossy and then said, “In my culture, she is required to stand and I am required to kneel.” There were lots of sounds from the crowd as a man kneeled before a woman.

There was dancing at the end, but they all laughed at me when I hiked up my dressed and danced like it was a Western hoedown. So I did my best to dance like a Ugandan. I’m really not good at either.

When there was a break in the action, Grace came and found me to ask when we were leaving but wanted to change her clothes. I went with her and changed into some regular clothes myself. Then I was more comfortable and didn’t have to be in any more pictures, either. We all loaded back into the taxi and journeyed home.

All in all, the kwanjula was a great experience. I learned a lot about culture and had a lot of fun as well.

When we got home, I was sitting on my floor bed and saw a cockroach come out to visit, so I squished it. That’s a first. Grace, Annette, Sarah and I played a bit of Skip-Bo before turning in.

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7th July 2009

Dancing
Please tell us they have pictures of you dancing. Miss ya, dave

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