Uganda Adventure: Day 7; Kamwenge main celebration

Thank God for the medications! Ada last night gave me some less strong drugs that helped me get some seven hours of good sleep. Yay!

Ian thankfully woke me up at 9.30, because we were supposed to leave for Mass of celebration at 10. As we have grew accustomed, the plans got moved by 40 min later, so I was able to have breakfast and coffee. When we arrived at fr. Izzy’s house, we learned that the reason for the delay was because it was the election day in the village, which started at 10, so the Bishop wanted to give people more time to vote and still get to the celebration.


The Mass was set up to be outside of a school. Several tents with chairs and school pews were there. People have already gathered, filled up under the tents and set around on the ground. More people than yesterday. We headed toward some of those empty school pews, but of course, someone then escorted us to the front, left of the altar, right in from of the sisters and between the priests who were concelebrating and those who were not. The first row!

There was even a program printed for the occasion, with songs and readings. After few speeches, as is the custom here, the procession began. The dancing kids in white and yellow outfits, the sisters, priests, some 25 concelebrating, and several more seated behind us, two bishops, and fr. Issidore as the celebrant. I was thankful for the program to be able to follow parts of the Mass, and even follow a few songs. Our fr. JC gave the first homily in English, the only Muzungu allowed to speak there, and then the current bishop, who was also ordained with fr. Izzy, gave a longer one. It was very comfortable to sit outside, with cloud cover and a little breeze. There was light rain for 10-15 min, we were under the tents, but others didn’t move much. Seemed they were used to it.

With every song, the children would come out and dance. The presentation of the gifts was a beautiful procession with dance and also two people who brought on their heads huge baskets with fruits and vegetables. After the Communion, for one song that the children danced, few deacons, sisters, and locals joined in the dance, and then I joined in the dance as well! They were all happy that a Muzungu started dancing their dance! And I was happy, too : ) At the end, they introduced all the priests, one by one, sisters from different communities, and of course us. The Mass lasted 3 hours.

Afterwards, they had prepared a little brunch for us in the school library, St. Albert the Great, but the people outside didn’t eat yet. The main program just then began, with speakers, a comic MC, dances, introduction of the family, and the cake at the end. Fr. Izzy’s uncles’ families gave him a goat and a longhorn cow!

And then, for which I was very confused, they invited fr. Izzy, a few other priests, and the five of us to come to the front. I though it was just to congratulate and take pictures with him, but then we were told the gifts will be presented then. We didn’t bring gifts, so I was confused. We just stood there while other people started coming with gifts and few from the family were accepting them. I was taking pictures when one lady handed me a huge box. I though it was for the father and passed it to someone else, but actually it was for me?! They had a gift for each one of us! Wow!!! People from this little village presented gifts to us! So humbling!

Other speakers followed, ending with fr. Izzy’e talk until after 5, ending a bit short because of the rain. The people there didn’t eat since before 11! We again ate at the library, seated like royalty at the table with bishops and fr. Izzy. I even had to ask his mother to move to the table with us and not sit on the side. There were few other chairs along the walls, but many priests and sisters had to stand and eat. I later talked to them how I felt uncomfortable to be treated with so much care, but they all said that is the custom how the quests are to be treated. I wanted to offer some help with serving several times, but I think they would be offended. The other people were served outside, and some waited probably for an hour in the line. One priest told me there were more than 1500 people there! Just children from all the schools were 700. That’s a lot of mouths to feed.

We snuck out, came quickly to our rooms, and after some car trouble tried our luck at the internet café that Lawrence (Sebastian’s cousin) owns. The connection was not good enough for email, much less to upload photos. (I was surprised there was even internet at all), so I just typed up some of my notes I’ve been writing down. Close to 9, I went back to fr. Izzy’e house, but there was no getting out of there that easy. They all loved it when I called out MURIMUTA (hello to a group) when walking in. Many family members were still there and were watching picture slideshow from today. They have solar power there.

I also realized that some people were quite well off, like this lady Florence, the senator, who was now running for re-election, and was also giving speeches during the celebration. She has a very nice house, a car, a nanny for her toddler son, a personal mechanic,… even just from how she and her son were dressed one can tell she is upper class. On the other hand, the kids living around our inn live in mud houses, run barefoot with rags for clothing and have bloated bellies. Huge class difference. We were finally able to say our goodbyes around 11 and get to our rooms. We were leaving early (9.30) tomorrow toward the Mweya lodge and safari!

In the last couple of days I have really experience Uganda.