Observations

I was sitting here (on our veranda) the other day thinking – we’re living the life of Riley really (whoever he/she was/is!).

Apart from Sundays

• all our washing up is done for us
• our main meal is cooked for us
• our washing is done for us (apart from my undies – oops, you didn’t want to know that did you?)
• the weekly shop is done for us
• some cleaning is done for us
• all our water is fetched for us
• drinking water is prepared for us
• the grass is cut for us
• electricity is generated by the sun for us

So it’s going to be a huge shock when we get home and have to do all these things for ourselves - well not the water bit, and we do have a washing machine, and a car (or two) and an electric lawn mower, and electricity comes very conveniently down a wire!

We do do some work, I hasten to add – we don’t just sit around all the time. In fact we were both in Pete’s office this morning – he was testing my database and I was translating his PowerPoint presentation – when a cat came to the door miaouing pitifully, followed by the sound of a hen clucking happily just outside – all quite normal.

We have got used to a new ‘normal’, so we don’t notice differences so much any more. For example, women have their young children with them all the time. They carry them on their backs, in slings, until they are quite old (two / three?). This includes bringing babies, in their slings, into work. Children do not seem to need to be entertained here, are quite content and seem to cry only rarely. They seem to be able to sit for hours without becoming bored. Care for children is shared between a group of women and girls (never men). It is difficult for us to establish which baby belongs to which parent or family as they are constantly handed round.

 

 

Another thing that is now ‘normal’ is the excitement children get just seeing white people. If we walk around we can often hear the chant of “Mundele” (white man). This is chanted as “Moon-de-leh” and, at first, is quite endearing. However, it often involves children (twenty or thirty at a time, if it is break time at school) running up to us to shake our hands, just so they can touch a white person (which seems to give them immense pleasure and excitement). This can certainly impede progress and one is not quite sure how clean the hands that are keen to shake ours are! Pete has taken to avoiding walking out of his office at certain times to try to avoid the onslaught.

Couples here do not, seemingly, do things together. A few weeks ago a couple we have got to know told us that we were unusual because we went to places, and did things, together. They had noticed this in white people before – it is not the practice here. Even if couples are going to the same place they seem to go independently, couples do not sit together in church or at other meetings. They talk about each other as if they were not related – “You will have to ask X about that”, never you should ask my husband. From a course for couples we have attended (with about 10 other couples) it is clear that couples lead very independent lives, only coming together at the very end of the day.

As in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, friends hold hands as they walk, or sit together. We believe that men and women who are couples must not do this but it is OK for friends of the same gender. We remember years ago, when we came to Uganda, the sight of two soldiers on guard at Entebbe airport and fully equipped with all the kit soldiers have, including rifles, walking around hand in hand.

There is a lot of singing here. When this is done in church, or in church groups, someone always sings the first few lines as an introduction, and then lead the singing. Often someone, or more than one, taps out the rhythm. When the singing is in church there is always a conductor who leads the singing. He, or she, announces the song, sings the first few lines and then enthusiastically conducts the congregation. People we have spoken to think it strange that we do not do the same in the UK

A less happy thing, but one we have also got used to, is the high number of accidents that there are here. As mentioned in a previous blog, many people travel by moto but there also a lot of people who are limping and / or recovering from a moto accident. Many of these injuries are minor but others can be more serious. The bishop’s driver has been in hospital since before we came as result of being hit by a car whilst on his moto, another diocesan staff member has been on crutches since we got here as a result of an injury to his leg (he is now using the crutches less). It isn’t that people drive recklessly but the roads can be awful. You are meant to drive on the right but you drive where the road is smoothest, avoiding dips and holes. When it is wet the mud roads become very slippery. When people pray for a safe journey it really does mean there is risk of it not being safe!

Finally, community means many different things here. As in UK there are different communities but here ‘community’ can mean

• your tribal group (there is a real mixture in Aru),
• your clan (a subset of tribe which appears to be related to the small area/village your family originate from)
• the community of houses where you live. There are often no formal boundaries to these family groups of homes and some paths go through the group of houses. The community is those who live in a small local area. They know each other and, because so much of life is outside, spend a lot of time together.