Mpigitown Community

Ah, the second post for today. I thought I would make up for last week. Here is the building where the Mpigitown Church meets.





Simply put, I love it. I enjoy meeting there and I love looking out to the sky while singing and praying. It is great squeezing in on benches and having children come to sit with you. I love the openness as you can hear what is happening inside from down on the main street. People come up and look through the cracks in the wood to see what is happening. It is strange, but practical, that a cow grazes out front (no need to cut the grass or fertilize it!). The dirt floors are humbling and I am beginning to grow a dislike for carpeted church meeting places.

Yesterday, I was teaching and learning from the “youth” here. (The youth is age 19-30) We met for over three hours, which is normal. But, what happened next, is something I will never forget. After about half of the people left, a few of the “youth” began to teach me how to use the base drum. This turned into what I can only describe to Canadians as a dance party. There are traditional dances from every tribe in Uganda and each one has a different song. So, they danced and danced. Then, one of the wives left and came back in with a giant bucket that she proceeded to dish out of. It was pork and, as I explained in a previous post, an honor to eat as meat is scarce. So, I pitched in and bought a case of sodas. Everyone cheered and hollered. We had a great time partaking together and we even invited a couple people we ran into on the street on the way to get drinks.



This was fellowship. I learned a lot from their love and generosity. What would this look like in Canada? Can’t we be so boring sometimes, especially as the church! Like I said, it was a joy filled evening that I will never forget.

This is Nelson, the pastor of the church in town. He is in his 50’s but looks in his 30’s. It is humbling to be teaching him to say the least. The picture I took is of his family in Kampala, where they live. Nelson commutes out this way as the live on government sponsored land and have free rent. It is always a state of restlessness, though, as the government can come in anytime and take the land from the people and simply demolish the houses.




Both Nelson and his wife, Irene, speak excellent English. She especially fluent and corrects him sometimes when he translates for me. As you can see, they have five children. The youngest, Joseph, is always at my side when I go to visit, even though he doesn’t understand much English. All the kids are in school and Nelson and I are going to visit a couple of them at boarding school when we go to Jinga, a city on the Nile River.

Nelson is who I travel into the bush with. He seems to know everyone. Actually, he is described by Geoffrey as (cue Schwarzenegger voice) “The Mobilizer”. He is always full of energy and excited for our “programs”. Everything is a program here. If you want to ask what someone is doing that day, you ask them what their program is. I learned this early on as I didn’t want a translator up front during church services. I explained this to Geoffery several times to no avail. Scott then suggested to tell him that it was my “program” to listen without a translator. The next Sunday, no translator.

A couple of stories…

Football with the boys has been even more enjoyable recently. We laugh a lot and I am going to miss it immensely when I leave. I have even started to play a bit with the little ones as they come back from school early. I keep forgetting that they are 4,5,6 years old as they play like they are teenagers.

So, I said we laugh a lot more. Mainly, we are now able to laugh at each other when we mess up. Sometimes the boys (or myself) shoot way off target. Sometimes they (or I) miss the ball completely. The other day, one boy missed and ripped his pants. Another missed and fell right on his butt.

Also, I have taught them a new phrase, “he is sleeping”. During one of our games I shot it from the other end of the field as I realized that the goalie was lying on the ground. He scrambled to catch up to the incoming ball but to no avail. I said, “the goalie was sleeping” and it is now used whenever someone is not paying attention.





So, the story. Last weekend it was a tie game, 3-3. The sun was going down and we didn’t have much time. I stretched a pass to one of the strikers who almost scored but a defender kicked the ball out at the last second. So, we had a throw in near the goal. The kids always try to get me to throw in as I can throw the farthest. I am glad I did this time, as it gave me a perfect view for what happened next.

I saw Laurence running the front of the goal and I heaved the ball as hard as I could at his feet. He turned to kick it when suddenly a white chicken came out of nowhere onto the field, almost as if it was chasing the ball. Well, Laurence booted what he thought was the winning goal. Instead, we heard a loud squawk as a mass of feathers went flying into the air. We must have all laughed for the next five minutes as the sun continued to set.



I feel strange carrying around a camera here. I never did at home and it makes me feel like I am a tourist. As well, it is dangerous to take pics in certain places as someone will either try to steal your camera or ask for money because they are in your picture. This is why I want to share about the craziness of the taxi park and its hundreds of vans but only have some “hidden” pics so far. This is also why I am having trouble taking pictures of town here. I think I might take some on Thursday as I will be hiring a boda. We can zoom off if anyone comes to confront me.

So, that being said, the kids here love the camera. It is hard to get a pic in without them posing. Now, with digital camera displays, they all want to see themselves as well. This fact has led me to befriend some kids that seemed to want nothing to do with me. Shafik is one of those kids. Whenever I would talk to him he would shy away. However, one day I went and sat beside him on a log. I pulled out my camera and took a picture of us together. I showed him the shot and his face changed instantly. He began to laugh and talk with me. Now, whenever I see him, he comes up to me and says hello. Here is the pic of “Fiki” and I.





More to come…