1/3-5/14 UGANDA: KAMPALA TO NAMATUMBA TO MBALE!

1/3-5/14: UGANDA: KAMPALA TO NAMATUMBA TO MBALE!

Fred's kids in backyard

Joanie entertaining Fred's youngest kids

Joanie showing photos to Fred's older kids

Fred's family was disappointed that we weren't staying longer, but we made the most of our time: teaching dances to the kids and conversing with the older boys, The oldest is out of secondary school and starting a truck garden nearby to try to make some money. Fred couldn't get ahold of the bus company, so we didn't know when the buses were leaving, but he knew where they left from. He was pretty casual about getting out of the house and stopped to visit his sister on the way. The traffic was lighter than last night until we got close to the bus area. We finally had to pay someone in order to park and we hopped on motos and buzzed around the traffic. The congestion was insane! We got there and the bus didn't leave for another hour. Joanie climbed on and got seats up front, not always advisable because of the number of head-on accidents. Everyone wanted a tip, from the public toilet attendant to the guy who commandeered our luggage and put it on board. He smiled at me and showed Yehudah where he was putting it. Guess that was suppose to be reassuring. 

 

Our bus!

Kampala Bus Terminal - crowded!

 

Couches for sale

It took the full 1-1/2 hours to get out of Kampala as we had been told. We kept our contact informed along the way as we estimated and re-estimated arrival time. We passed through the Mabringa Forest Reserve. We passed the town of Jinja, which is where a lot of people do whitewater rafting as the outflow from Lake Victoria forms the River Nile. The wetlands around there are planted in sugar cane and rice and there are processing plants of both as well as a big brewery.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Source of the River Nile

 

Yoash & family mezuzeh on their door

We are currently in Namutumba, one of six locations for Abayudaya communities.  Here people live spread out, although they congregate in one synagogue.  Yoash Mayende has been a Facebook friend of mine (Joanie) for about a year now and so I made contact with him before the trip.  He invited us to stay here.  He, his wife, brother and his wife plus a 5 yr old child are all students.  Yoash spent time in the U.S. this past summer through Kulanu, studying in LA.  So he is very "hip" and more informed. He plans on getting a counsellor job at a Jewish camp for the summer and traveling some as he was given a two year visa and it's hard to get one, so he wants to make the most of it. 

The group of young children who lived in the courtyard gathered round to check us out, so it was a golden moment for me, Joanie, to play with them.  They loved all the games and songs.  So, whenever we returned they would eagerly gather around to learn the next song or dance or game.  It was very sweet! 

Lesson I

Creative Dance

Follow the Leader

Hokey Pokey 1

Hokey Pokey 2

Hokey Pokey 3

Circle Dance with Yoash

Creative Dance with Joanie and Yoash

His brother, Joseph, rented a moto and transported us to evening services in a rather dark synagogue. They have solar lighting, but the cell wasn't working, so Yoash took the battery to be fixed.  However, the place that fixed it had an electrical fire last night and word is that it burned in the fire.  So, such a shame and so expensive. Their first one was a heavy duty one and was stolen. 

The elder rabbi was one of the original followers of Semei Kankangulu who, when Idi Amin came into power, joined the Amin army.  He now has nothing, lives in a traditional hut with several young children and a younger wife, practically toothless.  They honor him as their elder rabbi. He does the drash but the younger people lead services.  The service is traditional conservative spiced by occasional Abayudaya melodies.  All is translated into Luganda, the native language.

Yehudah and I introduced ourselves and sang Reb Aryeh's "Wings of Peace," which they joined.   The rabbi requested the words which we have on a sheet.

Saturday morning was much better attended.  The place was full, with over 50 people, including many children.  The service was again the same combo, lacking any of the traditional dancing we enjoyed in the Christian services in Rwanda.  And long.  We were all called up for aliyahs, me first as a Levite. Two New Yorkers showed up in a van accompanied by several men from Mbale, so we all drove together both ways.  The elder man, Eddie Renson, served as Yoash's tour guide in NYC last summer. He has visited here about 5 times.  He brought along his nephew, a teacher and artist, who would like to find work paid or volunteer, and to stay in East Africa.  

This time in our introduction we introduced the song "Mayim" and the dance, which we would teach outside after services.  "Mayim" is good because the chorus is so simple.  

Saturday evening we returned to do Havdalah, but very few people showed up, except someone did have a Havdalah candle.  Under a brilliantly star-studded sky we said the prayers together.  A few more people showed up.

Havdalah

Havdalah Candle

Yoash, Joseph and their wives and Joseph's young son are living in pretty squalid conditions, in a courtyard, renting their spaces.  The spaces themselves are fine and I especially slept very well both nights.  Just the outhouse was putrid, not kept very clean given the number of people using it, there is a junkyard at the end, goats come in at the end of the day so by morning their shit is all over.  We learned that their family home had burned down and, besides, they wanted to live close to internet access. They are all students, so this is temporary.  Joseph's wife is becoming a nurse, but told us that her funding never arrives on time for her to begin with the other students and doesn't cover all the supplies she needs to buy herself.  Joseph is waiting to finish his schooling until she gets a job.  Yoash is trying to go back to the States for awhile on his visa.  We never spoke much with his wife.

We are now in Mbale, so I will write about the few days until now in a condensed form.  

Joseph asked us to do a CL Training for the Namutumba community, so we planned that for Sunday morning.  This was our first intro with teens, so the simpler exercises went well but not so the more complex.  By the end of the session perhaps 30 teens and a few young adults showed up.  We had bought chapattis and juice for all.  The rabbi gave us some mangoes which we brought to Nabugoye.

Breakfast Chapattis - fresh!

Namatumba CL Training 1

Namatumba CL Training 2

Namatumba CL Training 3

Rabbi's home

Rabbi's kids helping with synagogue project

Abayudaya Fancy Hats -  want to buy one?

Fancy Hats close-up

Abayudaya Fancy Hats for guys

Abayudaya Kippot from Namatumba

Back view of Namatumba Kippah

Namatumba CL Training 4 

Namatumba CL Training 5

Namatumba CL Training 6 - Rabbi looking on

Joseph and family plus Yoash's wife

We returned by moto to Yoash's place with Joseph, had lunch of poshe (corn porridge) and took off for the minibus in the heat of the day, with the women and children. After much haggling by the bus runners we got in one, which left fairly promptly and we were in Mbale in an hour.  This was the first bus that left full but almost everyone got off within 15 minutes and the bus was empty with just us and one or two people the rest of the way.  The ticket taker wanted to charge us for our two bags the passenger fares as he had put them on a seat, but we haggled, telling him 1) we had never been charged for our bags and 2) the bus was empty, so he relented and actually shook hands with Yehudah when we got off, smiling.  He appreciated our standing up for ourselves.

Mbale is a fairly big city, but we looked for Republic Street where a student had told us was a great coffee wi-fi spot.  After finding two other places, someone finally guided us to the Eco Turista Coffee Shop and Guest House.  We had bitter lemon sodas, the wi-fi worked, and we met Hedy Cohen, a woman from Chicago who created an organization called RAIN UGANDA for HIV screening, cervical cancer screening and education: http://www.rainuganda.org/.   We came up with us doing a training for the counseling staff probably next week, especially possible as we have some funds we can contribute to support that effort.

Israel came and got us in a car!  We are staying with his family on Nabugoye Hill, as the guest house is fairly expensive and we prefer a homestay anyway.  The family consists of 4 children:

Yehudit Namuyonjo, age 11, Elishevah Magoba, age 9, Yashaal Kayendeke, age 5 and Matan Siriri, the one boy, only 2. With their wonderful mother Tehira Birungi and their hardworking father, Israel Siriri, who is a civil engineer.  Their first names are Hebrew, then the second name is traditional, from a relative.  Their home is quite nice, with a fairly large living room, dining room area.  We have the guest room but share the bathroom with the parents - a typical Ugandan bathroom with toilet and no seat, open shower.  The sink doesn't work but there's a sink in the dining area for washing hands.  I have only washed my hair twice since we are traveling, so on a very hot afternoon I did so and was cool the rest of the afternoon.  Tehira is the very best cook of any place we have stayed, so each meal is a pleasure.  Her story is that she trained as a nursing assistant but now Uganda is not employing nurses unless they finish the full degree and she currently cannot afford to return to school.  Instead, she is making small, woven bags brightly colored from some plastic material, plus beads and wants to market them, but is discouraged by how hard she thinks it will be.  We love her dearly.