No work for today. Initially, I had nothing planned apart from church service. Once I got to church, however, I found out it was the diocese’s silver jubilee (25th anniversary). There are 19 dioceses (grouping of Catholic parishes) in Uganda so this was a big deal. The priest had asked me before mass if I was going which I said I was not as I would need to take a matatu (van taxi) which are historically unreliable, and I probably would have been very late to the event. After mass, the priest came right up to me and said “you’re coming with me”. So I found myself in the passenger seat of his 2000 Camry navigating potholes and dirt roads along with his secretary, picking up a nun along the way to the jubilee celebration about 10 miles away.
The event was huge and so much fun- I am glad I went. There were probably ~3,000 people there from all over the diocese and some visiting from the capital. There were three other Mzungus that I saw including two priests (one visiting from Rome who was introduced) and one girl about my age sitting with a group of nuns. The priest bought me a program which had the order of events and some words from the archbishop and bishop (thankfully half translated in English). Mass was first and began with a processional of priests from each parish and banners representing their districts. Mass proceeded and after there was an awards ceremony for members of the diocese that had served for 25 or more years in the area. A gentleman in the Kiwoko parish received an award for 30 years of service as a catechist (a fully indoctrinated person of the church who lives in hard to reach areas of the parish and ministers to people there in the priest’s absence). He must have been 80 or more years old based on his grey hairs, stooped back, and milky white eyes indicating cataracts. Everyone cheered and cheered for him, the women yelling out with the traditional “ay-ay-ay-ay-ay…” (listen below).
After mass and awards, there was entertainment with many forms of traditional dance and food food food! I felt a little badly but the priest brought me to the religious persons line for food as it was shorter, and I sat under their tent. It seemed like they all had guests they brought there but I still felt like I cheated in some way. There were chicken legs, matoke (smashed plantain), rice, squash, chicken gizzards (which I hard passed on), purple yam, Irish “Mzungu” potatoes, and a paste made of ground beef and groundnuts (peanuts) to mix with all of it. I was stuffed after this feast!
After 7 hours of celebrations, we were ready to go. Since it is the rainy season right now, we waited out the hour long deluge which gave the priest time to make sure everyone from his parish had money for a taxi home- an interesting dynamic as in the US the parish typically takes care of the priest financially but here the priest (with his secretary) manage all the finances so he is expected to do things like this for his parishioners. Eventually, we started making our way back home. This time, we went all the way to the sister’s house as she had gotten a ride to the main road where we picked her up in the morning. This was quite an adventure- think trying to drive for 10 miles in a dirt roadside ditch after it has rained. The priest navigated it expertly of course and was surprised when we didn’t even have to get out to push the car once. As a side note, there was no fuel gauge on his dash so I have no idea how he knew if we were good on gas, but at this point I literally was along for the ride. The sister lived in what you would call the African “bush”. Just like the catechist I talked about before, she and 2 other sisters ran a small primary school and ministered to some people at the outer-lying edges of the parish. There are small chapels in these areas (which are no more then four walls plus or minus a roof), called outposts, and the priest comes to do mass as often as possible but mostly the people are ministered to by the sisters as there are 21 of these outposts across 30 miles that the one priest is responsible for. I was the last stop of the day and thanked the priest profusely- it was better than my initial intentions for the day and I feel so lucky I was here for this celebration.
Lugandan word of the day: akatale (noun, market or trading center, these are spaced every couple miles and consist of all the basics you could need- butcher, hot foods, fruit/veggie shop, sometimes phone repair or money loading for SIM cards, etc.)
Medical learning point of the day: Clinics and “health centers” apart from hospitals are unregulated in Uganda and anyone can open one even with no formal medical training. This leads to much mismanagement of disease processes, especially birth complications and maternal/ neonatal morbidity and mortality.
