Well hello again ladies and gentlemen,
I have decided to be more prompt in this blog because I have been getting pretty lax, short for lackadaisical (which is dumb because you don’t spell it laxadaisical. And also, just because I’m already on the tangent, why is LAX short for Los Angeles International Airport? Does anyone actually know? I mean, come on, it’s not Los Angeles International Xport. But, that’s the topic for another blog. Back to the matter at hand). So I’m going to try and continue with blogging once a week again… no promises though.
So this last week, from Thursday to Thursday, has been mildly intense. I say this because, on Saturday, I was fortunate enough to go to an Introduction (a traditional, pre-wedding event that can be anywhere from 6 months before to 2 weeks before the wedding). Then, on Monday morning, in the wee hours of the morning, I had to wake up because we were taking the football boys to Jinja for three days. So here I am on Thursday (I started writing this blog on Thursday), having arrived yesterday from Jinja, writing this blog to you. So let’s start from the top. The Introduction.
So it’s Saturday morning and we are getting ready. I’m wearing a traditional Kanzu with a Jacket on top (to know what a Kanzu looks like, just look at my Facebook photos in the Uganda!!! Folder). The guests are supposed to meet at the church at 10 in the morning, where transportation will be provided. The plan was then to have us arrive at 11 in the morning and start the proceedings. Well… I don’t know if you know about timing here but it isn’t exactly “up to scratch,” as they say. Even though I knew this, or thought I knew this, I decided to arrive at around 10 anyways because the importance of keeping time was heavily stressed earlier in the week. But after waiting for a few minutes at the church, I decided to go to my friend’s house (which was two houses from the church) and wait there. To cut a long, and complicated, story short, we didn’t end up arriving until 4:30… in the afternoon. Now, although culture is often blamed for this, it wasn’t culture this time. In fact, I’m told that the general rule of thumb is the 2 hour delay. Basically, if you say 10 o’clock, it’ll start at 12. This isn’t the case for all, or most, things but for big events I’m told this is usually how it plays out. But this time it wasn’t culture. It was, at least in my opinion, lack of organization and discipline on the part of the guests. I’m not gonna go into detail but, as you can imagine, things got pretty stressed for some and tensions ran a bit high. Because of the people that I knew and the place where I was staying, I was able to see a lot of this and how it played out and it really helped me open my eyes. Usually as guests, we show up, dance to the music, eat the food, have a good laugh, and then go home, leaving the organizing, cleaning, preparing, disassembling, and whatever other work there is to do to the host. That is our job, if you will, as guests. And that is fine. But rarely do we realize what happens behind the scenes and I think that if we knew, we would have a little more respect and appreciation for the host… I don’t know. That’s just my opinion.
But enough of that. We did, eventually get there and we did end up having a really good time. It was interesting to see how everything happened and what the proceeding were. Also, don’t know if I was ok with this (just kidding. It was fine), I was put in the front, on the couches, to trick the host and the members of the hosts village into thinking that I was the groom. (They obviously knew I wasn’t but it was just part of the whole thing that happens and they picked me to be that guy. I got a sweet view of the whole thing. Then, halfway through the proceedings, the bridesmaids got up and picked the real groom from among the group and I had to get off the couch and sit in the back where the view was, need I say it, not as spectacular.) I was also able to carry one of the gifts to the front and give it in (there were many gifts). It was a good time. We all ate the food with our hands (which they say actually makes it taste better because you are using more of your senses. I would agree). And afterwards we had cake. Blinking delicious. I don’t even know why. It was just so good. The cake was shaped like a cooking pot placed on three rocks, with matooke inside. After all of this was done we headed back. Off to sleep, then to church on Sunday, then to get ready for Jinja with 58 boys below the age of 18. Oh yeah. Oh and by the way, the wedding is next Saturday so I may also say something about that I one of the blogs to follow.
Jinja. Oh man this was intense. 58 boys, 4 adults (yes I am counted as an adult thank you very much), three intense days. Oh yeah. Alright so Monday morning I woke up in the wee hours of the morning (6:15) and got ready to go to Beersheba by 7, where the boys would have been waiting since about 5 (African time doesn’t apply here because the boys would be so excited to go. And plus, there were two mzungu's (white people) here who were planning to leave on time). So we arrived, everyone arrived, and we waited for the bus. When it arrived, we all climbed aboard, took our seats and went on our way, the boys shouting cheers like “ Beersheba, Beersheba, FC, Beersheba, Beersheba, FC” (accompanied by constant clapping) and “We go, We go, Beersheba Boys we go” (this one was modified from Uganda’s football teams cheer.) Well, part way in the journey everything died down as impatience and waiting set in. If you’ve ever been on a long journey you know how it goes. First excitement, then restlessness, then anxiety, then excitement again. Two hours later we arrived, piled off the bus and went to sort out rooms. So before I continue I want you to do something interactive for a bit first. Take your left index finger and place it on your chin. Then follow the jawbone round to the left hand side to the point where it curves up and, right before that point, you notice a small gap between the bone and the neck. If you aren’t following, I apologize but just go to the place where the jaw bone meets the neck on your left hand side. If you are wondering why I asked you to do this, here is why. When we were sorting out the rooms, one of the boys jumped down from the third bunk (yeah they have three bunks) and, below him was another bed with a nail sticking out of the frame that holds the mosquito net. Well, imagine that the boy managed to aim himself in such a way that the nail went straight into the point where I told you to put your finger. Yup, straight into the gap between the jawbone and the neck. Don’t worry. He was fine, it was a pretty deep wound but he was taken to the hospital where it was cleaned and plastered and where he had a tetanus shot in the cabina (the *cough cough* excuse me. Buttocks). This kept him out of the activities for the first day but the next day he was able to continue because it was healing up quite nicely. What a start. Well, after that little incident, we organized everything, had lunch and the younger boys got ready to play some football while the older boys got ready to go on the challenge course. Heck yeah the challenge course. It was amazing. Oh man. I love obstacle courses. And there was a zip line to finish it off. I went twice throughout the few days. The boys loved it (at least most of them did) and we all had a great time. After all that, we ate a delicious dinner, and sat around to watch a DVD of footballs greatest mistakes… so funny.
Ok, that was Monday. Now on to Tuesday. In the morning we played some basketball, went on the challenge course again, and relaxed while playing dominoes. After lunch, the under 12’s played the under 15’s and tied, much to the under 15’s dismay. Then the Under 18’s played against the team from where we were staying. One of the most epic games ever. I won’t go into detail but it was crazy. So much fun to watch. I had to stop myself from jumping whenever the boys scored or whenever the other team was about to score. We walked away very happy from that game. A great end to a great couple of days (oh but it wasn’t actually the end). Then in the evening we watched Monsters vs. Aliens (Great movie. Hilarious. One of my favorites in fact. I’m not afraid to say it). We were gonna watch another one but it wasn’t being read by the DVD player. That’s alright. I’m not complaining.
Wednesday morning everyone was up at around five (which was annoying because I was trying to sleep). When I did eventually get up around 7, I could tell that these boys were really sad to go. They were sitting there quietly, having packed, and were looking very, very sad. I could well understand. Most of these boys haven’t even been out of Musoto. A lot had probably never taken a proper shower before and had rarely eaten as well as we did on this trip. And that isn’t even including the fun things or the comfortable beds that they were able to sleep in. Most just sleep on a mat on the floor back where they live. But don’t worry. The trip isn’t over yet. At 8, we walked down to Lake Victoria (It was blinking far) and many of the boys were able to buy fish from the villagers which we then strapped onto the front of the bus for the journey back. The fish were able to dry out during the trip. We were also able to take many photos and ended up being very late back to the base where we were staying. After that, we had breakfast and packed up. Before we left for home we took a small bus tour around parts of the lake and also over the river Nile. But alas, we had to head home, and off we went, loving the memories of our time in Jinja, and mourning the fact that we couldn’t stay their longer.
And I’m afraid that marks the end of this blog.
Until next time
P.s. so I don’t know if you are interested but I decided to find out just why LAX is named as such. Here is what I found out:
“Before the 1930s, existing airports used a two-letter abbreviation based on the weather station at the airports. So, at that time, LA served as the designation for Los Angeles International Airport. But, with the rapid growth in the aviation industry, the designations expanded to three letters, and LA became LAX. The letter X does not otherwise have any specific meaning in this identifier.” (Taken from the LAX frequently asked questions page on the LAX website)
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