Thursday, March 10, 2005
And on the 7th Day...
We didn't rest.
Day 7:
I got up early again. (7o’clock). Jumped into the cold shower (Brrrrr!) and ate very little breaky again. Praise God that I didn’t feel as bad as I did yesterday. Today we left Luweero again to go into a remote village, which was about a 2 hour, bumpy drive away, so I was even more grateful that I felt ok. Firstly though, we headed off to Luweero Boys School. Sat, being lay, got us in the minibus for a 1 minute ride. This didn’t feel like the other schools. It was all too easy. 1 minute down the road? I though this was gonna be tough. Heh. It was great though, because 4 people gave their lives to God and a Muslim even spoke to Christine and thought very very hard about the decision. I also saw some games that the kids played. Piggy in the Middle (old classic) and ball touch/dodge ball where they took it in turns to chuck a tennis ball as hard as they could as each other! Ouch….
We got back and hung about (sunbathed!) until Sat got back from his errands. Oh it was worth it. He had Fruitella and chocolate. Wahoo! He also had some dodgy love song tapes for the journey to Luwangpanga (the village). After our tanning session, we headed out on our 2 hours trip… well, it was supposed to be 2 hours but we stopped for about 40 mins to have some chapattis and coke. Next was more dirt roads in which, the minibus had to go into a ditch (could’ve tipped over) because a truck was blocking the road, we went the wrong way 3 times, some people didn’t trust us so refused to tell us which way to go. (Someone told us to go one way and another, another way) We also saw a mongoose cross the road and a couple of monkeys for our enjoyment. Eventually, we found someone who was willing to lead us the right way – the only problem being that he was on a bike…. A push bike… and we were in a minibus… a large minibus….
This was the funniest trip ever. This guy on the bike led us through someone’s flowers, someone’s minibus high maize, a little bit of field and along a really narrow path which had a branch growing so low over it, that it almost took of the roof of the minibus! Ok, maybe I’m over exaggerating a bit, but the branch did scratch up the roof. We just made it under, but we got there! Yeah!!!
Whoops. Spoke to soon I think. Someone take me back, quick…. 2 women were jogging after the bus whaling at us. “Lalalalalalala!” They were actually going to kill us and I think we were all a bit freaked. Luckily, they were just happy to see us and instead of shaking our hands and saying ‘hi’, they hugged us and whaled some more.
This was a dream, surely. It must’ve been.
After we got out, the women went into the church building. We had a bit of a look see before heading into church. We looked at the pit-latrine area. No concrete here, let alone privacy! In fact, it stank as well. Roaches too *shudder*. The shower area wasn’t much better. It was just reeds built around a wooden frame with an entrance. It didn’t have a decent floor either. Oh yes, this was what I was expecting from Africa!
We went in to the church. Drums were banging, people were singing and dancing… and there was a bit more whaling. Craziness. Hmm, not sure if that quite describes it.
We sat on the alter area behind the pulpit. I needed to sit down. They brought us the milkiest tea on Earth, which I gave to Jimmy when him and the other guys had arrived. Instead of coming with us (because there was no room – not that this usually matters) they had taken the taxi bus (complete nutters) and everyone was glad to see some familiar faces.
The village kids were sat on a mat in the church and were dancing and singing. We just did some more sitting, trying to soak it all in, but there was a slight problem about tonight. We didn’t know where we were sleeping yet.
Eventually, we set up the projector for tonight and after that we went on a walk to the lake (a drunk person tried to take us down to the lake first but we told him nicely that we’d wait for everyone else!). Loads of people end up following us down, (‘Bzungu’) and when we got there, we noticed some fishing boats on the shore. Someone offers us a trip on these boats. Ha! Not everyone is impressed at this but everyone was eventually cajoled into going on these wobbly boats, on this lake full of nasty water. I can’t speak for the others, but this bit was one of my many highlights. We started off by going down a small canal where the boats were kept, which had insects buzzing about the reeds everywhere, but as we came out the lake just opened up before our eyes. The view was stunning. Sun was setting, water for miles in every direction with land just visible in the distance. Forget being worried about falling out of the boat and the disease that was all around us – this was all worth it! We parked the boats up and walked back to the village.
We had a mic hooked up and Patrick was talking into it… or maybe MC’ing, for about 20 mins, without breathing! Jimmy told me that he was inviting people to come and watch a video. And the people came. The video was called ‘It’s Your Choice’. It was all in Lugandan so we didn’t have a chance of understanding it. We got the basic jist that it was to do with AIDS and becoming a Christian. Or so I thought… Maz had other ideas. She still thought it was the Jesus video even after the point in the film where a guy had used a condom to seal a leak in the engine!!!! Oh my Lord. That bit made me wet myself with laughter!
That finally finished and we went around chatting to people about it. Me must’ve talked to 10 people and the funny thing was that they all happened to be saved and also went to thins church. ‘Woteva’, thought. I told them all that I’d see them on Sunday then!
We ate, put up the girls’ mozzie nets (we finally found out we were sleeping in mud huts) but while putting up the girls needs, we scared a MASSIVE cockroach off the wall and onto the floor! Whoops. We never found it.
We went outside and all the lights were out. It was pitch black and I looked up at the clearest night sky I had ever seen and will probably ever see.
Wow. This was worth it.
The milky-way lay scattered across the sky in a way so bright, that even without my glasses on, it was possible to distinguish between the stars. It went about 270 degrees around my head. And that’s not mentioning the other stars either. Awesome. My friends back in England said that they’d gone to Wales and seen the milky-way too, but I don’t think it was this amazing.
Anyway, us lads found out that we were staying in somebody’s mud hut about a 5 min walk away. I kept looking at the stars as I walked. We got to the hut and put up the nets. As we were doing this, I looked up and notice a HUGE spider on the ceiling. ‘Sat, can you shine the torch above my head a second, I’ve seen something move.’ AS he did, the light revealed not just one spider, but about 25 all on the ceiling. No lie.
Grrrrreeeaatttt (as Tony the Tiger would say)… Sat and Reg actually seemed quite scared. I just assumed that the spiders would stay on the ceiling cos there were none on the walls or floor. We finally crawled into our nets and I used my joggers as a pillow.
‘Two nights of this,’ said Sat, ‘And you’ll be talking about it for the rest of your lives.’
One night was enough.
Day 7:
I got up early again. (7o’clock). Jumped into the cold shower (Brrrrr!) and ate very little breaky again. Praise God that I didn’t feel as bad as I did yesterday. Today we left Luweero again to go into a remote village, which was about a 2 hour, bumpy drive away, so I was even more grateful that I felt ok. Firstly though, we headed off to Luweero Boys School. Sat, being lay, got us in the minibus for a 1 minute ride. This didn’t feel like the other schools. It was all too easy. 1 minute down the road? I though this was gonna be tough. Heh. It was great though, because 4 people gave their lives to God and a Muslim even spoke to Christine and thought very very hard about the decision. I also saw some games that the kids played. Piggy in the Middle (old classic) and ball touch/dodge ball where they took it in turns to chuck a tennis ball as hard as they could as each other! Ouch….
We got back and hung about (sunbathed!) until Sat got back from his errands. Oh it was worth it. He had Fruitella and chocolate. Wahoo! He also had some dodgy love song tapes for the journey to Luwangpanga (the village). After our tanning session, we headed out on our 2 hours trip… well, it was supposed to be 2 hours but we stopped for about 40 mins to have some chapattis and coke. Next was more dirt roads in which, the minibus had to go into a ditch (could’ve tipped over) because a truck was blocking the road, we went the wrong way 3 times, some people didn’t trust us so refused to tell us which way to go. (Someone told us to go one way and another, another way) We also saw a mongoose cross the road and a couple of monkeys for our enjoyment. Eventually, we found someone who was willing to lead us the right way – the only problem being that he was on a bike…. A push bike… and we were in a minibus… a large minibus….
This was the funniest trip ever. This guy on the bike led us through someone’s flowers, someone’s minibus high maize, a little bit of field and along a really narrow path which had a branch growing so low over it, that it almost took of the roof of the minibus! Ok, maybe I’m over exaggerating a bit, but the branch did scratch up the roof. We just made it under, but we got there! Yeah!!!
Whoops. Spoke to soon I think. Someone take me back, quick…. 2 women were jogging after the bus whaling at us. “Lalalalalalala!” They were actually going to kill us and I think we were all a bit freaked. Luckily, they were just happy to see us and instead of shaking our hands and saying ‘hi’, they hugged us and whaled some more.
This was a dream, surely. It must’ve been.
After we got out, the women went into the church building. We had a bit of a look see before heading into church. We looked at the pit-latrine area. No concrete here, let alone privacy! In fact, it stank as well. Roaches too *shudder*. The shower area wasn’t much better. It was just reeds built around a wooden frame with an entrance. It didn’t have a decent floor either. Oh yes, this was what I was expecting from Africa!
We went in to the church. Drums were banging, people were singing and dancing… and there was a bit more whaling. Craziness. Hmm, not sure if that quite describes it.
We sat on the alter area behind the pulpit. I needed to sit down. They brought us the milkiest tea on Earth, which I gave to Jimmy when him and the other guys had arrived. Instead of coming with us (because there was no room – not that this usually matters) they had taken the taxi bus (complete nutters) and everyone was glad to see some familiar faces.
The village kids were sat on a mat in the church and were dancing and singing. We just did some more sitting, trying to soak it all in, but there was a slight problem about tonight. We didn’t know where we were sleeping yet.
Eventually, we set up the projector for tonight and after that we went on a walk to the lake (a drunk person tried to take us down to the lake first but we told him nicely that we’d wait for everyone else!). Loads of people end up following us down, (‘Bzungu’) and when we got there, we noticed some fishing boats on the shore. Someone offers us a trip on these boats. Ha! Not everyone is impressed at this but everyone was eventually cajoled into going on these wobbly boats, on this lake full of nasty water. I can’t speak for the others, but this bit was one of my many highlights. We started off by going down a small canal where the boats were kept, which had insects buzzing about the reeds everywhere, but as we came out the lake just opened up before our eyes. The view was stunning. Sun was setting, water for miles in every direction with land just visible in the distance. Forget being worried about falling out of the boat and the disease that was all around us – this was all worth it! We parked the boats up and walked back to the village.
We had a mic hooked up and Patrick was talking into it… or maybe MC’ing, for about 20 mins, without breathing! Jimmy told me that he was inviting people to come and watch a video. And the people came. The video was called ‘It’s Your Choice’. It was all in Lugandan so we didn’t have a chance of understanding it. We got the basic jist that it was to do with AIDS and becoming a Christian. Or so I thought… Maz had other ideas. She still thought it was the Jesus video even after the point in the film where a guy had used a condom to seal a leak in the engine!!!! Oh my Lord. That bit made me wet myself with laughter!
That finally finished and we went around chatting to people about it. Me must’ve talked to 10 people and the funny thing was that they all happened to be saved and also went to thins church. ‘Woteva’, thought. I told them all that I’d see them on Sunday then!
We ate, put up the girls’ mozzie nets (we finally found out we were sleeping in mud huts) but while putting up the girls needs, we scared a MASSIVE cockroach off the wall and onto the floor! Whoops. We never found it.
We went outside and all the lights were out. It was pitch black and I looked up at the clearest night sky I had ever seen and will probably ever see.
Wow. This was worth it.
The milky-way lay scattered across the sky in a way so bright, that even without my glasses on, it was possible to distinguish between the stars. It went about 270 degrees around my head. And that’s not mentioning the other stars either. Awesome. My friends back in England said that they’d gone to Wales and seen the milky-way too, but I don’t think it was this amazing.
Anyway, us lads found out that we were staying in somebody’s mud hut about a 5 min walk away. I kept looking at the stars as I walked. We got to the hut and put up the nets. As we were doing this, I looked up and notice a HUGE spider on the ceiling. ‘Sat, can you shine the torch above my head a second, I’ve seen something move.’ AS he did, the light revealed not just one spider, but about 25 all on the ceiling. No lie.
Grrrrreeeaatttt (as Tony the Tiger would say)… Sat and Reg actually seemed quite scared. I just assumed that the spiders would stay on the ceiling cos there were none on the walls or floor. We finally crawled into our nets and I used my joggers as a pillow.
‘Two nights of this,’ said Sat, ‘And you’ll be talking about it for the rest of your lives.’
One night was enough.
# posted by TommyDB @ 10:28 p.m. 
Comments:
<< Home
Perhaps Tommydb, we should get past the seventh day!!!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment
# posted by 
: 6:35 p.m., March 21, 2005
: 6:35 p.m., March 21, 2005 << Home
