Goodbye Day ...

This is going to be a brief post. I am emotionally exhausted. But it was a very good day, even though it was the day of goodbye.

We actually started out with a demonstration of an FH program that we had not seen before ... foot irrigation pumps. These are used, especially in the dry season, to irrigate fields, taking water from swampy areas and moving it to higher fields.

In Canada we have step machines; in Uganda they have pumps.

This is a relatively new FH program (three years); the machines are given to groups of 10 families who share and manage them.

They showed us how they irrigate a maize patch. At one point a water fight actually broke out between the women doing the irrigation.

And now the closing ceremonies started. I would have to say it might be a somewhat smaller affair than what I had seen from previous years, primarily the school kids and the adults associated with them. But it did not lack in emotional impact.

The children first danced and did a play. We see a lot of evidence of the education system using education (for example reading texts we have seen) to teach and reinforce social messages. We got it full force today ... a powerful recitation against child marriage and child malnutrition, a dance showing the benefits of girls staying in school, another play encouraging men to speak out against other men over-drinking and perpetrating family violence and exploitation.

We then got a number of songs from the school choir expressing their sorrow at us leaving, in two cases individually by name. Once again young Edward, the cutest little choirster on the face of the Earth, did mine. All extremely touching.

The church choir (officially the Marare Sounds Of Peace Choir) sang. Initially they came in sing one song. In that set they sang four. Later they came back for another song ... no, make that three. In the second set they were joined by their two male members, so they were a full four parts plus soloist. They are marvelous to listen to, especially for a choirster like myself. I am listening to one of my videos of them as I write now.

Then were the speeches ... several ... parents association, school management committee, headmistress, FH staff, culminating in a speech from the bishop's representative, Rev. Wantala. He works in the diocese office as their youth specialist and is an excellent speaker (later we chatted with him at lunch)

Finally came the high point ... we were presented with traditional clothes ... long cream robes for the men, beautiful colorful sashed dresses with high peaked shoulders for the women.   My battery was near death and I didn't get a picture of us in these...

Actually, no, the high point was lunch ... we were ushered into one of the classrooms and showered with food.

We waddled out for an informal time of visiting with the children and adults and playing before we left. Now it started to feel like goodbye. It was hard to walk away.

As I walked to the bus I had the funniest experience. A little girl walked up to me and said, "Do you know Rocky?" I kind of mumbled, not really understanding ... and she said, "Do you know Brenda?" .. this was the Pon's sponsor child! We got a picture...

And we left, my camera battery utterly dead from all the pictures I took. But whether it is us or other in the team, Northgate will be back. And in the meantime we leave them in Christ's capable hands.

Marare People Profiles

I just want to mention a couple of people who have caught my attention as leaders ... unfortunately I have less information on them than I would like ...



Sarah Rose

Rose is the choir leader. She is also an VSLA member and member of the Adult Functional Literacy group. She is definitely an influential person in this community.

Joshua

Joshua is the Lay Reader in the church. I stand to be corrected on this, but I believe the role of lay reader is one who can lead a service in the absence of a ordained minister. This parish has a dozen actual churches and one ordained minister (the Rev. Charles, who we met) who makes the rounds; Joshua takes care of it the rest of the time. He is clearly an articulate and well-spoken man who also served as the father's representative at the meeting with the mothers we described in yesterday's post. (For the life of me I can't find a picture of him in my 1000 .... I'm somewhat devastated by this ..)


(finally one aside on the weather. It has been very warm, although not oppressively so. Although we are one degree from the Equator, Uganda is on a high plateau and so is not as hot as you might think it would be.

It is, however, quite humid. Combined with the dust (not clouds of it, but somewhat more than we are used to) and you do feel kind of grotty much of the time. We have taken to showing morning and night.
We have had rain most days, although only once was it a lot or long lasting. The rest of the time it has helped cool things off.)