Becoming Ugandan

We had the pleasure of attending part of a traditional Uganda wedding ceremony last Saturday. It was held for a family that is friends with Ignitius, and he graciously invited us to attend. Lauren and Gloria dressed in Ugandan gomesi, which I hear are very uncomfortable because they are tightly wrapped and heavily padded. On the other hand, Dan and I dressed in kanzu which are basically light robes, and are worn with suit jackets. In my opinion they look sharp and are very comfortable. I'm a big fan.
There's a saying in Uganda: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing slowly. Weddings are certainly worth doing, and, as the saying goes, are done slowly. We only saw the introduction ceremony, and it lasted about six hours. My favorite part was when the groom's family brought the dowry out to the center of the lawn. This included dozens of closed baskets, extravagant couches and seats, a large container of traditional alcoholic beverage (mwenge), a quarter of a cow, and two live chickens.



Peter took Dan Lauren Gloria and me to the small fishing village of Senyi the next day. Our original plan was to fish using line and tackle, but once we got there we discovered the only fishing available was using nets, which is very labor intensive. After all the hard work we went through on Saturday of sitting through the introduction ceremony, we decided to just relax instead. We picnicked, napped and read in the shade with a gorgeous view of the lake and surrounding hills.

Mzungus are an uncommon sight here, and we collected a large following of curious children. They watched us so intently, for almost the whole afternoon. You'd think they were expecting us to do tricks for them.


Today I gave presentations about composting practices for two classes. One of them was at Providence Home, which is a charity that takes care of disabled children and the elderly. As part of their program they send some children to local schools, and for others they have their of vocational classes. This afternoon I visited there with Gloria and Lauren during the childrens' play hour. The main attractions were soccer, bowling with empty water bottles and my camera. Providence has lots of positive energy, despite the great obstacles so many of its members face.