Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Electric Flash

Every week, we've had the usual power issues of power on then power off when the school loses power. It's not been as frequent as it was before Christmas (touch wood) but it still happens.

This week has been a little unusual though.

After 7pm, when it's dark, power has been flicking on and off randomly and then insanely as though one of the vervet monkeys has got a hold of the breaker and is flicking it up and down. The solar generator squeals on and off, internet flicks on and off, and the lights dim then glow then dim again.

"Stupid Ugandan Power Service," we'd mutter and laugh.

Today, as we were getting ready for a marathon kit making session, we heard Ediga's voice coming from the front door. "Hello? Hello?"

It's unusual for Ediga to come to the door during the day unless he has mail to deliver. We went to the mailbox ourself today so I knew that wasn't the reason.

"I am checking the power meter and the power is very dangerous. Come see."

Andrew, Ediga and I trekked around the side of the house to see the meter and power connector. Where there used to be two connectors, there was one connector and a melted mess.

"Must be fixed soon. Ask the directors."

I returned inside and told Corey that we were lucky we didn't blow up in the past month. It has to have been this past month because the meter is checked monthly. A quick text to our kind Mr. L. and the school electrician was here by the end of the day.

"He's very good." Andrew remarked about Ediga.

"He's awesome!" I replied.

I don't know what we'd do without him.


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Friday, February 7, 2014

A quick update on CCVS

Yahoo! The Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations in Lira has guaranteed funding to operate for another year. Isn't that wonderful? Just thought I would let you all know because I spoke about it twice in my December blog posts. What a relief for those counsellors and for the people getting treatment. Great news!


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Sunday, February 2, 2014

A Traditional Wedding








So here we are, two mzungu wedding crashers. We arrived at All Saints Cathedral 20 minutes early and went to stand with all the other people waiting for the wedding. I have to say that I was surprised at how many people were early like us! But then we started to notice that not only were we getting our usual stares, we also felt that there was no-one who even remotely looked familiar.







"Maybe this isn't Sam's wedding." Corey suggested.

He was right. Where we should have gone left and into the church, we had gone right and joined the throngs of people from the previous wedding. This cathedral does a wedding an hour with an "in" door and an "out" door. Luckily we saw Betty and followed her into the church. No wonder people were REALLY staring at us!








































The wedding started right at 1pm with a handful of people in attendance but by the end of the hour-long service, the church was full. Rebecca arrived in a beautiful fitted gown with a ruffle from the knees down. Corey said that it looked liked feathers. It severely limited her ability to walk so they had to play the wedding march twice to give her enough time to reach the pulpit.

























The wedding was much like a church wedding at home although I have never heard that a wife's job is to comfort, feed and wash her husband and that a husband's job is to comfort and buy shoes, jewelry and lipstick for his wife.



















The wedding party left in a convoy to get photos taken. We went directly to the Speke resort and had a quick snack between 3 and 4 knowing that the reception would probably begin late and Corey needed to eat. We were right and the couple arrived just before six. There was seating for about 500 people and Sam mentioned in his speech that 456 people were invited. I would say about 400 people showed up.



















We had three or four speeches before moving to the buffet line which was a mix of traditional foods and then dishes like beef medallions and tilapia in lemon butter sauce.

The speeches began again at around 7 and by lasted a good 3 hours. I delivered a speech on behalf of Niteo which the MC joked that no-one understood because of my accent and that he couldn't translate except for the "thank you" part. Oh well, I'm sure Sam got it! The MC was actually really good which helped the evening progress smoothly despite it being so long. There was also a live band that was excellent. Rihan and Julianna, two famous Ugandan singers, performed as well.

Sam and Rebecca then cut the cake which was served to every table except ours because the young bridesmaids were too scared to come to the mzungu's table! We did get some after Asia's husband, the only other mzungu there, went and asked the ladies cutting the cake for the chance to try it. It was the best cake I have had in Uganda.







Sam and Rebecca left so that she could change into her party dress which was a gorgeous gold sequin full length gown. A video played of Sam and Rebecca talking about each other and their relationship. They first met in 2008 but met again in 2012 and started seeing each other then. The video was really well done.

When they returned, Sam said a thank you speech and then it was time to dance. By this time it was after 11 so there weren't as many people there. We danced three songs before Apollo arrived to take us home.

When I spoke to Betty, she asked me if this was similar to a wedding in Canada. I told her yes, that we had big weddings like this with similar proceedings.

"This is considered a big wedding?" she asked.



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