Bride-Price

When you spend time living in another very different culture there will inevitably be things that you admire, things that you dislike, and some things that you just don’t really understand.  In the last month we have been confronting the traditions and practices surrounding marriage in Uganda, and particularly, Bride-price.  The payment of dowries is found throughout the world: in India the practice of the bride’s family paying a dowry to the groom is widely believed to be responsible for tens-of-thousands of abortions of female foetuses each year, and a marked preference for having sons.  Paying dowries was also common in Europe until relatively recently, in Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice” Mr Bennett quips that he wished he’d saved more of a fortune with which to “bribe worthless young men to marry my daughters”. 
The East-African system is the other way around.  The groom pays the parents of the bride a dowry – or Bride-price – in order to marry their daughter.  This at least has the advantage that families want both daughters and sons, and there is a financial incentive to educate daughters as it increases their likely bride-price.  This African system is widespread and ancient, indeed it is Biblical.  In 1 Samuel 18, the young and poor David has to pay bride-price to King Saul in order to marry his daughter Michal.  However, just because it is widespread and ancient doesn’t necessarily mean that it is right.
In Uganda the customs surrounding marriage are complicated by the over-lap – and sometimes mismatch – between the laws in the very recent constitution, the teachings and practices of Christianity and Islam, and the traditional practices of each tribal group - which are enshrined in customary law.  Here in mountainous south-west Uganda a Bakhongo groom will usually pay his in-laws a hoe, a blanket, twelve goats, some sugar to sweeten the mother-in-law, and some other gifts which the in-laws may demand.  For cattle-herding people such as the northern Acholi, the price may be measured in cows rather than goats.  The Bride-price is negotiated by various Uncles and Aunts on behalf of the two families at a ceremony known as “Introductions”, which is legally recognised as a customary marriage.  Following payment the bride is “given away” which may happen at the same time or on another occasion.  The significant cost of hosting these celebrations, in addition to finding the hefty bride-price, means that a long period of time may then pass before a religious church/mosque wedding can take place, in order that the groom can find the money required – and there is no such thing as a small wedding in Uganda because every relative and member of the community must be invited, seated, fed, and entertained.  It is common that the bride and groom will start living together following introductions while they save for the church/mosque wedding, although this is sometimes frowned upon. 
Why I am I telling you all this? – Because it’s stuff that we had to learn about very quickly when my closest local friend and colleague welcomed me into his new house that he’d finally finished building for himself, his wife and their 2 year-old daughter, and then burst into tears as he explained that his wife had gone to visit her father – a Police Inspector – who had then detained her at home, and was refusing to release her, or even to let her see him or their daughter, until he had received full payment of the outstanding bride-price.  Having spent every last shilling that he had putting windows and doors on the house he had built them, Isaiah was distraught and ended up in hospital one night after some kind of break-down caused by stress.  Even a doctor’s note requesting that the couple be allowed to see each other for the sake of his health would not move the father-in-law.  Being a European, my first reaction was that this problem was essentially about money, so we mobilised some funds to make a significant contribution towards the twelve goats (some of which are often paid in equivalent cash value).  Being a Christian, my other reaction was that we should start praying about this issue, encourage him and others to pray about it, and counsel him that God probably had no intention of allowing their little girl to be permanently separated from both her parents and that he should not lose hope.  It soon became apparent however, that this situation was more complex.  The father-in-law is a Muslim and was apparently complaining that he didn’t want his daughter marrying a Christian.  It also transpired that Rose was legally a Minor (under 18) when she and Isaiah had their daughter Trust and had not completed secondary school - neither of which is unusual in rural Uganda.  The father-in-law was now therefore trying to send her off to a boarding school in another District.  At this point we sought advice – we got legal advice from the Ugandan Christian Lawyers Fraternity, whose office is in our compound, and Pastor Alfonse spent a whole day with the Imam and Elders of the father-in-law’s mosque learning about the Muslim perspective on issues of marriage, bride-price, parenthood etc.  While all this was going on we were seeing Isaiah daily trying to encourage him, and to dispel unhelpful rumours that another groom had been found who would pay more, or unhelpful suggestions that he should “just find another wife”.  Even once the bride-price had been assembled, the father-in-law was refusing to meet with Isaiah to discuss payment.  Meanwhile other family members were being spoken to and it became apparent that the actions of the father-in-law were unpopular with his own family, unacceptable to the Elders of his mosque, and had no legal justification.  Matters came to a head on the day when Rose was due to go off to boarding school and she refused.  To Europeans it might seem obvious that a twenty-year old should make their own decisions, but defying your father in this culture is a big deal. At this point further family negotiations yielded a result that the Bride price would be paid and accepted, Rose would return to Isaiah and their daughter, and they would make their own plans to complete her education.
Nothing in Uganda is quite that simple however, so once five actual goats and the cash value of the remainder had been raised Isaiah then needed to find three crates of sodas, ten litres of paraffin, a carton of matchboxes, a box of soap and a sack of packets of salt, to take as gifts.  The family managed to get the money for these, and I drove him around town collecting them.  He also needed a suit, which allowed me to find a good-use for the linen suit I had bought in Oxfam before coming here which is slightly too small for me, but fits Isaiah perfectly!  On Saturday morning we headed off to the family village with six people and all the other strange gifts in our car and a battered old hire car following behind with another two people and five goats in it.  Inevitably the tarmac road gave way to a murram road, which gave way to a dirt track, then a narrower dirt-track and finally some kind of bumpy muddy and insanely narrow footpath.  Finally we pulled into a clearing, stopped and unloaded the vehicles.  I was confused as we stood around under some trees, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  The family members and pastors were gathered having a hushed conversation, mostly in Lukhongo, that seemed like some kind of pre-battle briefing.  I caught the local word for goats and then “sodas” and a dramatic “cash-down” with a flourish.  If someone approached they would immediately fall silent – not wishing their plans to be overheard.  Finally someone from Rose’s family arrived and formally invited us to proceed onto their land and into their home.  The discussion had been planning how to present the bride-price and gifts in the right way to ensure acceptance.  We were then herded into the father-in-law’s house, ushered into seats – and then left on our own while furtive conversation and sounds of food preparation could be heard on the other side of a curtain.  Finally the father-in-law came in and everyone greeted everyone with lots of smiles and salutation and no mention of the disturbing events of the last month.  At this point I had to leave as I had other engagements and the day was already a few hours behind schedule.  I brought Isaiah back with me as although it is the groom who has to bankrupt himself finding the brideprice and all the other gifts, he is not actually directly involved in the bizarre ceremony of payment.  Suffice to say that Rose was allowed to come home the following day and Isaiah, Rose and Trust are now back together, living happily in their own home – and planning and saving for the inevitably expensive extravaganza of a church wedding in October or November.
At this point you might be asking why did the father-in-law formally accept Isaiah as his son at Introductions three years ago if he had always wanted Rose to marry a Muslim, or to first finish school? – We don’t know.  You might be asking why had Isaiah taken three years to find twelve goats when Uganda seems to be full of goats? – He is a committed Christian who works hard for two charities with no regular salary (now partially rectified), and had prioritised the few resources that he had on putting a roof over their heads rather than paying off his father-in-law.  You might also ask, why did anyone care what the father-in-law thought when the Constitution of Uganda permits anyone over 18 to marry whom they choose, live where they choose and practice whatever religion they chose? – Firstly, the law only permits a church marriage with written consent of the bride’s father, and custom dictates that the Bride’s father won’t give this permission unless he has received full bride-price.  Secondly, Ugandan Police Inspectors are powerful men and not to be crossed.
I apologise for this article being so long, but some issues are so complicated they need a lot of words.  What have we learnt from this, apart from a lot of strange facts about marriage practices here?  A little money goes a long way here, but money alone is not enough.  Influence was required, and that had to be sought patiently by involving as many parties as possible and gaining as full an understanding as possible of the different issues and perspectives involved.  Hope and consistent encouragement were also essential for getting a young man through a very distressing situation.  We Europeans love to find practical solutions to every problem we come across, but there’s also a lot to be said for faith and for persistent prayer, when addressing seemingly intractable problems.

Prayer Request:

Please give thanks that Isaiah and Rose and Trust are now re-united, and in a way that has repaired good relations with both families.

This long case-study is not uncommon.  Throughout this region there are young men struggling to afford to marry the women they love, and young women frustrated that they are being literally traded for cattle – which can also create problems if they don’t produce a return on that investment in the form of children.  Please pray for all those affected by this practice and for the church as it struggles to reconcile Christian principles of marriage with ancient cultural traditions.

Many hands make light work!

Have you ever created multiple tropical-fruit gardens with goat-proof fences?  Have you ever dug the foundations for a row of shops?  Have you ever run a sports day for a hundred African children?  Have you ever bought, killed, prepared and cooked a cockerel for important guests?  Have you ever stood on a hilltop public roadside and watched over forty elephants lumbering through the bush all around you?

Only two weeks ago most members of St Andrew’s St Baptist Church Cambridge would have answered “no” to these questions.  Yet in the last fortnight an intrepid team of six from our home church have done all these things – and more, whilst visiting us here in Kasese.

The team of six included our Minister Rev Dave Morris, his wife Judy (a retired PE-teacher) and their daughter Helen (a Master’s graduate of Theology); Andrew Thomason (a Cambridge Mathematician), his wife Chris (a physiotherapist), and Lynette Ongeri (a pharmacologist).   More important than their diverse ages and professional backgrounds, however, were the things they had in common:  all committed Christians with a genuine love for their Ugandan brothers and sisters in Christ, all prepared to work hard in a difficult climate and to learn new skills from others, and always (well, mostly!) prepared to see the funny side of different situations and to suspend English conceptions of timing, hygiene, or health & safety, and go with the flow of life in Kasese.

The visit started with a quick Swahili lesson from our teacher, leading to the creation of an amusing new dialect – Yorkshire Swahili!  Following some familiarisation around town the team got stuck into work and re-planted the fruit garden at Alpha School – which worked well as the delayed rains have meant that April is planting season here.  The first weekend provided the opportunity to take our visitors to Queen Elizabeth National Park where they particularly enjoyed seeing hippos from the car, on a boat-trip and even right outside our hostel.  The highlight however, was on our drive home, when, puzzled that we’d seen no elephants inside the park, we pulled off the main road to a small viewing pavilion to get a good view over Lake George and spotted five different groups of elephants lumbering through the bush and converging for what looked like a grand elephant conference!  With the light gently fading over the mountains and the evening peace only disturbed by the chatter of birds and the odd trumpeting elephant it was a serene half-hour that we will all treasure.

Sunday saw us all worshipping together at Kasese Central Baptist Church (KCBC).  Although heavy rain delayed the service by 1.5hrs it did not dampen the warmth of the welcome our visitors received, or the liveliness of the singing.  Our Cambridge church had hand-crafted a wooden cross from their old pews and a banner with the 2012 church text (Ephesians 6:14-15), which Rev Dave Morris presented at the start of his sermon.  We often struggle with church here, juggling supervising Sam with trying to discern meaning from a stream of Swahili, but on this Sunday, so soon after Easter, we were reminded of the power of the worldwide fellowship of Christ’s church, and that his enduring love knows no boundaries of race or culture. 

Anyone who has heard any of Dave Morris’ excellent sermons will know that golf is often alluded to, so we were glad that some friends offered him and Judy the opportunity to have a game on Kilembe Mines Golf course – with the Rwenzori mountains towering above them and pigs and goats grazing around them it must have been an unusual game!

The real hard work started on Monday with the team and members of the church creating six small fruit gardens from scratch at KCBC, which will be given to six families from the church to look after.  Each small garden is 5-foot square and comprises a banana stem and a papaya seedling, complete with compost and mulch, all taken from our own garden.  Most of the labour was then in fencing the six plots with pole, reed and string fencing to keep out goats.  With so many people working together as a team – digging holes, chopping reeds, treating poles with used-oil, gathering stones and tying hundreds of knots, it was finished by Tuesday afternoon.  By now the team were adjusting to the climate, bonding well with the local church and also managing to produce excellent evening meals from produce they bought each day in the market.  Therefore on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning (after an early start for Women’s prayer-meeting) we stepped up a gear and helped the church dig out the foundation trenches for a row of five small shops-to-rent which should provide much needed income for the church.  It soon became obvious that the best way to work was in pairs with one breaking soil with a hoe and the other shovelling it out with a spade, which enabled some great conversations and lively banter between locals and visitors!  Nonetheless, trench-digging under an African sun is exhausting work so we were quite relieved that torrential rain prevented further work on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday saw Judy take centre-stage and use her years of PE-teaching experience to run a sports-day at Alpha School.  Much fun was had by all with balloons and balls seemingly all over the place and it was great to see the young, underpaid and often under-enthused teachers really getting into it and goading their teams to “be serious” and “run faster”.  In the afternoon the team witnessed some local building as Alfonse demonstrated the principles of brick-laying Kasese-style in the corners of the foundations.  Thursday evening saw the team presented with the instructions for their “team challenge” on Friday – to host Alfonse and Alice for a proper Ugandan feast.

Friday started early with me helping Andrew to purchase, kill, pluck and prepare the biggest cockerel we could find in Kasese market – a challenge which he rose to admirably, having honed his chopping skills on hundreds of reeds.  Bethan then took the team off to Kiburara bible college, where Dave and Helen taught the first and second year trainee pastors.  On their return the kitchen become a flurry of activity with Chris and Lynette doing an excellent job of leading the chopping of many vegetables, and boiling/frying of beans, cabbage, rice and chicken stew, while Bethan taught David how to make steamed matoke.  Somehow as well as these five main dishes the team also produced some amazing chocolate brownie.  We enjoyed a good feast and it was a joy for us to eat in our own home without slaving over the cooking ourselves.  More importantly it was lovely to be able to host Alice and Alfonse and to collectively thank them for being the inspirational leaders and great friends that they always are to whoever they meet.  There was laughter all-round and serious speculation that Andrew and Alfonse might actually be brothers!

The final weekend brought the long journey back to Kampala, but before the team headed for the airport they were able to experience the massive contrasts between city and provincial living.  We enjoyed playing pool, eating pizza, worshipping in English, and witnessing the magnificent display of traditional dancing at the Ndere Cultural centre; but it was also pleasing to hear from the team that those will be the experiences soonest forgotten, while memories of the fellowship, warmth, sincerity and good humour of the people of Kasese, and in particular Alfonse and his family, will stay with them for ever.  

Thank you to St Andrew’s Street Baptist  Church Cambridge for being such a supportive home church; for all your hard-work and fun and laughter – and for playing with Sam, cooking, washing-up and bringing us cheese and chocolate.  We look forward to being with you all again soon back in Cambridge!

Prayer Requests:

Thanks that the church visit was so successful and that everyone got home safely and in good health.

Thanks that as brothers and sisters in Christ we are all part of one body – his church – and for the fellowship and love that can bring to people everywhere.

That the relationship between St A’s and KCBC will continue to be a positive one which provides benefit to both churches and glory to God.

For Pastor Alfonse as he juggles the many demands of his job on a negligible income, for his health and for his family.

Baking Cakes in Kasese - By Bethan

You might remember I had written in a previous blog that the Kasese Central Baptist Church Women’s Co-operative is saving money with a local co-operative savings scheme in the hope that they may open a café in town when they have enough money. I have offered to teach them how to bake and make western-style foods to sell, as there is a potential market with passing tourists and local well-off Kaseseans.  Local people don’t use ovens as we know them (they use charcoal stoves or cook on firewood over three stones).

Last Friday the women were due to turn up at my house at 2pm to learn how to make a lemon cake.  By 5pm with only Alice here (our pastor Alphonse’s wife and also member of the co-operative) we decided to postpone.

The following Friday, with arrangements made to meet at my house at 2pm, it again reached 3.30 and I wondered if anyone was going to come.  But then a phone call “we are at the gate”.  (Alice has told me that sometimes people who have not been to our house before fear to go into a mzungu’s house because they’re not entirely sure what it will be like and what we might offer them or expect from them.)  I went to the gate and found four women and two children.  I invited them in and we sat around the dining table discussing what plan the cookery program will take and if we are all sharing the same vision of what they would offer as a café and how they would work as a co-operative.

Then we moved into the kitchen.  Esther, a new young mum, had her baby Kristobel in a baby-bjorn-type sling the whole afternoon; Andrew, the 20 month son of Josephine played with Samuel and had a fabulous time and Alice and Josephine’s sister did most of the cake preparation while Josephine kept very detailed notes.  The women were very serious, sticking to every detail of baking including Josephine chiding her sister for measuring 178g of flour instead of 175!  There was much excitement putting the cake in the oven while we sat at the table discussing how to price up a piece of cake including all the ingredients, the gas used, the electricity and water and wages involved in day-to-day running of the café ad trying to find hidden costs so as not to get stung.

When the cake was ready Alice ever so carefully prised it out of the tin and they mixed icing to go on top.  We then all sat around the table and prayed for good learning, for delicious food, for good profits in the future and good fellowship.  Then we ate the cake and marvelled at how wonderful it tasted!  Samuel was even gentlemanly enough to feed some directly into Andrew’s mouth (this is how Ugandans feed their children) as he stood, mouth open, next to Sam!  The women were excited about the list of things we were going to learn in the following weeks and months.

So that’s a very long story about a very delicious cake and some very lovely women!

A bit of an update. By Bethan.

Yesterday I drove to the congo border to a town called Nyabagando where I had been asked to speak at a scripture union day for 100 young people at the secondary school about spiritual gifts. It was typically Ugandan in that I was told verbally to go at 10 then an email said 11then a letter said 12! When I phoned up I was told to go at 11.40! Random! When I turned up at 11.30 the children were just sitting down to breakfast (!) so I had to sit and eat with them - luckily only bananas and bread as I had already been snacking on the way. Then the man who should have been before me wasn't there - his was 'on his way coming' so I persuaded them to just let me speak and be done wtih it. Then they showed me the program and it explained a lot. It said "Madam Bethan 11.30 session 1. Madam Bethan 12.15 session 2. Madam Bethan 12.45 questions and answers." Oh my goodness! I only prepared about 45 minutes of talking and I thought that was a lot! So I told them I would do what I had prepared and we could fill the gaps as we found them. But no one passed this message on to the MC so when I finished at 12.15 I said to the youth that I had finished and that I hoped it had been a good session etc. The MC got up, the kids sang some songs then he said "now Madam Bethan is coming back for session 2." I looked at him horrified and beckoned him over, whispering in his ear that I had, indeed, finished and that he shouldn't expect more of me as I had nothing more to offer! He was so good and immediately got his thinking cap on and made an activity that I had done in my talk seem as though it had not been finished so he said we would continue for that activity for longer until lunchtime! Meanwhile, however, people should write their questions down on paper and give them to me so I could answer them afterwards.
Luckily the questions were not too daunting and with the help of the concordance at the back of my Bible I was able to pick out some answers that seemed to help the ones who had asked them. Phew! I was so relieved to have got through it, but I did have an enjoyable morning and it seemed as though the young people had both enjoyed it and got something out of it too.  I certainly enjoyed singing "Amazing Grace" with a lot of energy and vigour, despite the words being nothing like I was used to!

Then in the afternoon I went to teach some people from church how to play the keyboard by ear. It is hard because I have never taught the keyboard by ear - I am after all a typical classical player - and I have to keep slowing the pace down as I rush off expecting them to know things like triads, keys and major/minor.  It's hard for a musician to believe that someone doesn't know the difference between major and minor but I suppose that's the same as a history teacher not believing that I don't know exactly when Henry VIII was King! But I enjoy meeting wtih the learners (I know most of them, and the women have a wicked sense of humour, usually involving winding me up and then saying "Oh Mama Samwell!" when I fall for their jokes!)

All in all a good and busy day and then of course back to my Sam who had a huge grin on his face when he saw me.  It's nice to be missed!

Please see photos and video clips in the picture gallery on this blog.

Gratitude and Generosity

“We have run out of sugar for the children’s maize porridge, they are hungry and crying”.

“The timber we bought for this job is not enough.”

“The tailors are asking for more stools”.

“We need money for more firewood”.

There are some days working here when it is easy to feel taken for granted.  However much you do or give it’s not enough, and more is demanded.  However much you plan ahead, things still go wrong and immediate solutions are expected. I had one of those days in late January just before our trip home.  Following a barrage of such requests and demands by phone, by text and in person, I was handed a letter.  It began with customary greetings, blessings and praises to God.  In my weary mind I was anticipating the inevitable request for money that was likely to follow such effusive greetings and blessings.  So I was pleasantly surprised (and then guilty about my cynicism) that the second paragraph said:

“I am okay because the way your handling my child x.  He is in good condition, thank you very much, and I am informing you to come at my home and I see you for the work you have done for that child x, God bless you too much.   Thank you for helping my child, God will re-ward you.”

The letter was from someone we had never met or spoken to before, whose son is training in carpentry.  I was bowled over as this was the first occasion on which anyone had directly expressed gratitude to us concerning the projects in Acholi Quarter, and a definite invitation with a fixed date (as opposed to “when are you coming to my place?”) is a big deal.

The day came last Thursday so we met with Isaiah and the trainee, assuming that we would walk together to his father’s place.  Isaiah looked puzzled and suggested that we should go in the car.  I wasn’t sure which Kasese neighbourhood we were headed for so we got in and started driving.  Then Isaiah asked me if I had enough petrol and it dawned on us that the unknown neighbourhood in Kasese town to which we were headed was in fact an unknown village somewhere within Kasese District.  Some 40km later and well along the Kasese-Bwera main road we turned off onto the dirt road to Kagando hospital, our trainee in the back assuring us that we were now very near.  Passing the hospital after another 6km we continued into Kisinga town.  Was it here?  “Yes we are coming now now.”  We then turned off onto a narrow and bumpy dirt track and drove another few kilometres, (which takes a while on such tracks), before finally reaching the village of Kajwenge where we were much relieved to hear that this was indeed the village we were after.  I slowed right down assuming that one of the houses we were approaching would be our destination, but after a while as we seemed to be leaving the village and heading back into the countryside we were directed off our track onto what in England would be called a footpath, or maybe a bridleway.  I was getting nervous as we drove through banana plantations with branches brushing the car, occasionally slamming on the brakes to avoid killing a chicken, duck, goat, or child in my path. I was also praying that it wouldn’t rain today, which could have quickly turned this no-nonsense dirt-path into a slippery quagmire.   Somehow our indefatigable Toyota Landcruiser made it through the farms and the footpaths and we ended up on a steep slope in the middle of a farm on a hill in the middle of beautiful Ugandan countryside.  “Tumefika” (we have arrived) stated our trainee, to our great relief.

We were greeted warmly by his father Nelson who proudly showed us around his beautiful farmstead of bananas/matoke, cassava, sweet-potatoes, pineapples, avocado trees, coffee, cocoa, vanilla and various African “greens”.  Inevitably there were also lots of chickens and children running around.  Sam has the Lee gene which loves to put things away and soon busied himself collecting coffee beans which were drying in the sun and putting them all into a big cup, to the bemusement of one of Nelson’s young children.  We also walked to the crest of the hill from where we could see over the valley to another hill where there is a Baptist Church and primary school to which the children undertake a marathon daily walk, leaving before dawn and returning after dark each day. 

On returning from this walk lunch was ready and one of the household poured water for us to wash our hands and blessed the food before leaving the three of us and Isaiah to enjoy an African feast of chicken, spaghetti, doda (a bitter spinach-type dish), avocado and bananas.  I have got used to African hospitality where the women and children eat separately while the man/men entertain guests, but this was new to be left to eat entirely by ourselves.  After we’d enjoyed a good feed someone appeared to question why we  “had eaten so little” and then left again, so Isaiah and I duly set to our duty of polishing off as much of the rest of the chicken and spaghetti as we could – including the gizzards and the neck which are a “delicacy” reserved for visitors.  We excused Bethan from eating third helpings on account of being pregnant and having a compressed stomach!

After we’d eaten most of a chicken and what must have been an entire packet of spaghetti, Nelson and the whole family came back in and we had some formal introductions, prayers, and conversation, in which we learnt that one of the men of the family is a special-needs teacher shortly taking a post in Kasese town, and that Nelson is the “cousin-brother” to Dorothy who Bethan has started some other special-needs work with.  It really is a small world!  During these conversations it was good to learn more about our trainee, who lives alone in Acholi Quarter (hence being in the project there) and whose wife and expected baby will hopefully join him there when he completes his course and starts making a living.  As this trainee actually has the worst attendance record of our carpenters, it was very useful to learn more about his situation and understand the pressures he is under, including time taken off for the sickness, death and burial of close family members.

I never go anywhere empty-handed and had presented Nelson with one of our finest papayas on arrival (fortunately one thing that he didn’t grow himself).  Nelson expressed gratitude for this and said he would give us something in return.  But we were surprised when, following hushed conversation outside, people came in bearing a sack of five pineapples, a bag of four avocados, some vanilla seedlings for our garden, some “Greens” seeds for Isaiah’s garden, and a mature hen with its legs bound.  We were bowled over by such generosity.  Having just eaten one of their chickens we certainly hadn’t expected to leave with another one!  Whatever our guilt about accepting such gifts from people who struggle to provide for their own children, it is highly-offensive to refuse, so we accepted them with profuse thanks.   The pineapples and avocados have been shared out here, and the hen is now laying eggs with our other two hens in our garden. 

More importantly, we have grown in our understanding of why the projects we are involved in are so needed, but also why we must be patient with those who they serve.  To our English minds, persistent absence from free-training smacks of ingratitude, yet our visit to Nelson’s farm showed us that gratitude and generosity are here in abundance, but that the challenges of life for people here place multiple conflicting demands upon their time and loyalties.

Prayer Requests:

Give thanks that the projects in Acholi Quarter have been running for three months and are starting to make a visible impact on peoples’ lives, and on their wider families.

For guidance as we have a big committee meeting this Thursday to evaluate the projects’ first three months.  We especially seek wisdom in addressing budgetary pressures, and in responding to the patterns of student attendance – and absenteeism -  we have recorded.

For the generosity of those who have relatively little and give so much,  which we can all learn from.