10. Uganda - Sunday 11th October

Today was our second Sunday at Church - I can hardly believe that we have been in Uganda for over a week already. It was a great church service. First there was lots of singing but unlike Scottish churches (my old church anyway) it was really joyous and everyone was dancing, including us. And after the main prayer everyone prayed their own prayers aloud so the church was filled with voices. People come up to give testimonies, to thank God for helping them with difficult situations in their lives. Some of these situations sounded very alarming. Several choirs sang (including the Rainbow children's choir featuring several of our pupils joining in all the actions) and then we all greeted each other with a hug - and by all, I mean everyone in the Church, so about 200 people were all walking around the Church hugging each other! Then George got up to make a short speech to thank everyone for their great welcome; he prepared it last night and made an excellent job of it, pausing at the end of every sentence for the translator - the whole service was in both Lugandan and English. 

Up we all got on stage and sang a song that we practised last night; "Wagula Wagula Wagula Wagula

Buli jo" and we did the dance that Bush taught us. 

The 4th year pupils who have exams tomorrow were brought up to the front of the church and "teacher George and teacher Susan" were asked to come up and bless them - it's the first time that I have ever anointed anyone with oil! 

Next was the sermon, which was about the growth of the Church, and quite similar to sermons at home, based on a bible verse. After the blessing Gabriel signalled to us that we could leave - we had been at the service for three hours and it was still only half way through. What an amazing experience.

At lunch we had yams - they tasted like a cross between potatoes and roast chestnuts. The food that has been given to us here has been plentiful and generous. It consists of 2 or 3 dishes of noodles, rice, beans or peas. Sometimes there is a meat or fish stew, or chappatis. Everything is cooked on an open fire. Dessert is either pineapple or watermelon. 

Today I helped Bush to make the chappatis - well actually all I did was to roll out the dough that she had already made into circles as we sat outside chatting. Then Bush built up the fire, which is in a shed across from the house, and we fried the chappatis one by one in hot oil in a wok; it only took about thirty seconds for each to puff up and turn golden. 

Gabriel (jokingly) told George that I won't be going home next week because he is keeping me here in Luwero to teach French. Then they had a pretend arm wrestle over it, although George pointed out that it was a futile gesture  because Gabriel is a very powerful man - if it had been for real he said that he would have lost "a valuable member of staff!" which I found very amusing.