The Neighborhood II & III

Everyone around here seems connected in one way or another. I am constantly surprised when I find out who are related. This is Isaiah.



His grandfather is William, who I wrote about in a previous post, and his sister is Harriet, one of the girls here who is HIV positive. He lives just down the hill from me and has always been so great to me when I go visit. To him, I am always “Brother Shaun”.

He is newly married and works odd jobs in the community, whether it be making bricks, growing crops or helping with building projects. The last time I visited, he took me to the “magical” giant tree I kept asking him about by his house. Here it is.


It is also where everyone in the community gets their water. While we were there, there were children coming and going. For some reason, this moment hit me harder than anything the past few weeks. It struck me even more when I realized how difficult it was to trek the full jerry cans back up to his house.



Here is a family from the church. They are David, Ruth, and the 6 D’s kids. They remind me of the Vantrapp family as they are all extremely musical. The last time I went over for lunch, the children put on a dance number for me and David played the guitar. They then proceeded to ask me to sing, for some reason believing that all mzungus are good singers. I didn’t belt out a tune but I did bring a coco plant to share as you can see on the table.



I am trying really hard with Dustin, their youngest, as he is completely terrified of me. The other day I was visiting and I guess he didn’t see me come in. When he came around the corner to see his mom, he literally fell over when he saw me and crawled out of the room as fast as he could.


This is Vincent, a favorite of almost anyone who has come here from Canada. He is 85 but it doesn’t show. He is full of life and has actually taken to learning some English. You can hear him almost everyday working down at the quarry below where I am living. Here is a shot of him breaking up rock after he has hauled it up.




Last Sunday, Vincent brought all the grandchildren on stage during the church service to celebrate the return of his oldest grandson. Though translation, it seemed to be some kind of prodigal son moment and everyone cheered as he was introduced. The two smallest, Immaculate and Cissy (C.C.), are girls here at the children’s home. Vincent, at his age, cannot take care of all of them so thankfully they were selected a couple of years ago.

When I got here, I was immediately drawn to these two sisters simply by their love for life. Immaculate is at the older girls home and is the actress of the bunch. Her mzungu impersonation is always hilarious. Here is a shot that someone took of her (on the left) laughing with Joyce and Rachel.




Cissy, the youngest, on the other hand, is shy and I had to scroll almost back to my first week here to find a shot of her. Though reserved, I guarantee if you met her she would make you smile.



A Couple of Stories:



Jeff tells our elephant safari story pretty well.



On Sunday, I went down to the Masembe’s (the Ugandan family who started this whole project) house to visit. I am always happy to go down the hill as there is always something new going on. This Sunday there were half a dozen kids separating strands of used paper. When I asked, they told me they were making paper that they could use to sell as cards or for school. “Hmm,” I thought, “making your own paper.” Imagine if we made kids in Canada do the same before every term!

Anyways, one of the reasons that there always seems to be at least 15-20 people at the Masembe’s is that they are the only people in the area with power and a television. This Sunday was no expectation and Michael (the father) wanted me to join them in watching a movie. He gave me two choices, both from 1994, and I chose Accidental Twins simply because of the name. It didn’t have Devito or Schwarzenegger but I soon realized it was, literally, an educational film. I can’t imagine in Canada going to the video store on a Friday night and asking what new movies they had on planned parenting. But, hey, Michael assured me it was one of his favorites.

It was a local film and the unintentional comedy was through the roof, including the lines, “I am poor, besides, paying five cows for your daughter is against my religion”, “If you talk to me again I’ll kick you” and “I’ll tell you what I told the last five women that came to me looking for money, I’m not the father.”

I thought this couldn’t be topped. However, when Michael switched off the movie, on the television was a game show that tested how well couples knew each other. That was fine except it was sponsored by “A Good Life”, a Ugandan organization that promotes healthy living. That meant that there was a round about STD’s and the final challenge consisted of questions about condoms and spinning a wheel to win prizes including a mattress, mosquito net, and a jerry can. You just can’t make this stuff up.


More to come…