Meetings.

We're making good progress here after a couple of busy weeks. We've learnt four tenses in Swahili and four of the eight or nine noun classes (each of which uses different prefixes for adjectives, pronouns, demonstratives etc). Now we just need to learn hundreds of words of vocab (and the other noun classes and some more tenses).....
Sundays at church continue to be a headspinning 3-hour immersion in Swahili, but each week we understand a little more than the week before, which is very encouraging!

Last Sunday (24^th) was lovely, we had an official welcome at church, so after the service there was a little party with a special "welcome" cake and sodas for everyone. It's a poor church so the generosity of this gesture (by the dedicated women of the church) was very touching. Luckily we knew something was going to happen so we turned up with the biggest of our papayas and were able to share that with the whole congregation after the cake (both the cake and the papaya were cut into very small pieces to ensure that each of the hundred people there got some!) Then I was able to give a quick thank you in my poor Swahili and Bethan led everyone in a joyful rendition of "Wipolo Bot Banga" (an Acholi song which has national popularity) to much ululating, dancing and clapping - from the women, - Ugandan men are generally less lively. Had this happened on our first Sunday we might have been a bit embarrassed and confused by it, but after over a month it felt genuine and was really special.  In fact it felt like communion.

Over the last two weeks we’ve also been getting out and about meeting people, mostly for work and also socially: - 2 or 3 local and international NGOs and a couple of local government officials, and some other Mzungus who live up the hill in Kilembe (where it’s much cooler) for an evening of playing boardgames, speaking English and even wearing jeans, jumpers and socks for the first time in a weeks!  We’ve also found another Mzungu baby for Sam to play with – Jack is a 9-month old Australian who lives in the compound for staff at Kasese Cobalt Mine, which has a swimming pool and a wood-fired pizza oven!

Most important of all, however, was the meeting we held yesterday (Sun 31) in Alpha’s school hall in Acholi Quarter.  Having heavily plugged that there would be a community meeting at 1pm on Sunday and prayed fervently that people would come, I was very pleased when we finally started at about 3pm that people representing 50 households had turned up – and by the end of the meeting at about 5pm there were over 80 people there.  As the average household size there is 6, we were therefore able to hear representations of the concerns and aspirations of approx 300+ people.  We asked questions in English, which Alphonse then translated into Lukhongo and Rotoro (the two local tribal languages), then people raised their hands and we counted and recorded the number of hands raised.  After many of these questions to establish a baseline of numerical data about household size, employment etc then we opened up the meeting to hear the voices and opinions of those present. 

The answers have given us much food for thought and will inform our first project proposals.  In a nutshell they revealed a community that is desperately poor, has very large families but no salaried employment, much illiteracy, no electricity, little (and costly) healthcare, has to walk and pay to get water, is troubled by crime, and leaves toddlers and young children to fend for themselves for most of the day while their parents work at subsistence farming.  There had been three deaths in the community in as many days.  They are especially concerned about their youth – many of whom benefitted from Uganda’s implementation of Universal Primary Education but have become despondent since leaving school with so few opportunities for further training or employment.  Unfortunately these despairing youth didn’t turn up to the meeting to represent their own views, so I will be attempting to meet them on Thursday at the football grounds where the young men practice most evenings. 

What we also gathered from the meeting was that the people of Acholi Quarter are united in their desire to improve their situation and seem willing to contribute what little spare time/resources and skills they have to doing so.  As with so many parts of Africa where government provision is lacking, the work of Alpha Ministry and the local churches seem to be the cornerstones of social provision in this community.

For those who pray:

·         Give thanks that so many turned up to the meeting and participated so actively.

·         Give thanks that we were fit to go ourselves – Sam had a suspiciously high temperature the night before and we mobilised a UK prayer chain by text message – by the morning he was fine again!
·         Please pray that Gareth is able to meet with the youth of Acholi Quarter on Thursday.  Despair, drunkenness and drug use add to the list of their difficulties.  Please pray that we can engage with them and help them find hope for a more constructive future.