Woke up. Got outta bed. Dragged a comb across my head. Made
my way downstairs and drank a cup…
Woah. I accidentally break into song far too
often. You should have noticed that something was off when I mentioned a comb.
I haven’t combed my hair since 5th grade.
What were we talking about? Oh right. Uganda. I went there.
On the morning I was leaving(I believe it was a Tuesday), I
had to get up at like 5:30 because the bus check-in time was 6:30 and the cook
at Amani wanted to make me breakfast. Got up to find out that the cook had
slept in, but he was working really hard to cook food quickly and wouldn’t let
me go. So I stayed and ate a good a breakfast, but I didn’t leave Amani until
6:15. That meant I had 15 minutes to take a bus into town and then walk across
town to the bus station. Believe it or not, I was only a couple minutes late.
I’ve been blessed with timeliness. Then I hopped on the bus and began my 12
hour bus ride to Jinja, Uganda. It was pretty uneventful, but twice I had
someone decide to sit next to me and become a small serving friend as Tyler
Durden would say. One was a Kenyan woman who was 26, married to a minister, and
currently enrolled in business school on her way home to the boonies for the
election. Then there was a 15 year old Indian kid with his mom. His mother
insisted that he sit with me because she wanted the whole bench to take a nap.
Cool kid though. Sr. Judette picked me up at the bus stop around 7:30pm and
dragged me back to the convent. They set me up with this huge room with a bed
that could actually fit me. They also brought me a full dinner for 4 people at
8pm. I was sure throughout my stay that they were fattening me up for some sort
of tribal ritual.
Next day I asked what I could do at the school or the
dispensary, and they told me that I needed to rest that day after my long
journey. I offered to do my own dishes, and they refused. I inquired as to
where to do my laundry figuring at some point on this mission I’d finally have
to do my own laundry, but no they took it and did it for me. They also cleaned
my room every two days. Sr. Judette would later say that I could look at my
stay in Uganda as a small reprieve from my Nairobi duties.
On that Thursday, I finally went to the school. Charles(the
school religion teacher) took me around and helped me out that day. In the
morning I played games with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
graders. Then in the afternoon, Charles took me into town. It cost 500 Ugandan
shilling to take a matatu(they call them taxis in Uganda). 500 Ush is the
equivalent to roughly 18 or 19 cents. In other words, dirt cheap. He showed me
a couple markets and the Internet café where again it was 500 Ush for 20
minutes or internet. I also bought the first 3 seasons of The West Wing for
2000 shilling(still less than a dollar). Then on the way back from town we
stopped at a bar. I tried the Nile beer. Not too bad. It was a little bitter. I
still like my Tuskers.
On Friday I played with the nursery classes. Some of those
kids are crazy.
On Saturday, I was invited by a local priest of the
Missionaries of Africa community to go to a local prison where he would say
Mass and we would talk Christian shop with the inmates. I took a matatu into
town and he met me with a few others on bikes. I had to ride on the back of a bicycle
down to the lake. Then we took the worst looking boat I’ve ever seen. Counting
the boat’s owner and his assistant, there were 8 of us and the two paddled us
about 3 miles across the lake to a little peninsula where the prison was. On
the walk up to the prison, I asked Fr. Hans what sort of prison it was. He said
it was for people who stole things and who defiled children. Yea. That one took
me a little aback as well. Apparently, it’s not too big a deal in Uganda, but
it’s supposedly gaining awareness? I dunno. It was weird. Then we went in and
had Mass, and halfway through the Mass the families of the guard(who live right
outside the prison!!) came in to celebrate with us. It wasn’t seen as strange,
and nothing bad happened at all. It was a very strange occurrence for me
though. Anyways, we did our thing and then left. Here’s the cool part: The
assistant to the boat owner had left for some reason, so I got to help him
paddle across Lake Victoria. That was sweet.
On Sunday, the German girls showed up, and a priest from the
Carmelites who had said Mass that morning at the convent elected to show us
around. He showed us his home and on the same road were about 30 other
religious and missionary communities. They were all surrounded this school
called the Philosophy College of Jinja also known as the “PCJ”. I was actually
invited to go play basketball there later that week.
I spent most of the next week playing with the kids in the
school, watching TV shows on my computer, and listening to a Financial Markets
class that I downloaded for free off of iTunes U. On Friday, however, there was
a holiday. It was National Women’s Day in Uganda. All the staff of the
dispensary and school as well as all the sisters went a few miles down the road
to this retreat center for the day. They even asked me to spend a few minutes
talking about American women. That was interesting. Not really though, after a
while a debate broke out amongst the people there as to whether Islam is
respectful enough of women. I sat down for that part.
For the last two days, the sisters let the German girls and
myself join them in the cloister for meals. They played a lot of Wagner which I
was totally OK with. He’s great. They also made us a cake and talked about how
I should be a monk and also how I look like Jesus. Finally, it was time for me
to go back to Nairobi. The elections were over, and, as I had explained to
everyone I could, there was no outbreak of violence in Kenya. All the sisters
said good bye and Sr. Judette and Sr. Philomena(basically my caretaker and good
friend during my stay) took me to the bus stop. They waited with me awhile and
Sr. Philo told me that she had already cried and wouldn’t burden me with her
tears then. The sisters were totally awesome in Uganda. Anyways, my bus finally
showed up and coincidentally the only other white person on the bus had been
seated next to me. Her name was Kristin and she’s from Canada. She recently
made herself a world traveler with trips to Europe, Southeast Asia, and Peru.
Pretty much all the places I want to go. We talked for a while about the poor
state of our bus and the heart palpitations that occurred whenever we went off
road and the bus felt like it was tipping over. It was nice having someone to
talk to. By the way, it was a night bus. We left around 8:30pm and I arrived in
Nairobi almost exactly 12 hours later. I dragged myself back to the Amani
center, got some tea, and then went to teach drawing at the primary school at
11. I actually almost missed it because my iPhone(which I used as a glorified
music player and watch) is set for the time at home so I always just do the
math in my head. Well, over the weekend Daylight Savings started! Made for a
confusing morning, but at least now I’m only 7 hours ahead again. I’ve been
gone since before the LAST time change. Talk about an interesting thought.
My trip to and from Uganda was incredibly enjoyable.
Everything is so green there, and avocados were in season. I lost like 8 lbs.
on the Kili trip. I think I gained 15 in Uganda. Food was great, the sisters
were awesome, and almost everyone in Uganda speaks English. Things I want you
all to think about:
1.
The prison needs a bunch of rosaries as well as
some other groups. I know that the Legion of Mary led by Natia Meehan a few
years back would sometimes make rosaries for different ministries around the
world. If anyone is interested in making and/or buying some rosaries that I
could send to the sisters there that’d be awesome.
2. The sisters in Jinja are also sending me some
trinkets that a women’s home hand made to raise money. The problem is that no
one in Uganda or Kenya wants them. So if anyone knows a good venue where I
could sell or accept donations for them back home would be great.
3.
I was told that an American guy and his
girlfriend had stayed at the convent for 6 months or so a few years back. I
know this because Sr. Judette told me he raised money for them back home to buy
a bus to transport their kids to and from school. I have two points here. The
first being that they really like having volunteers for their and if you’re
interested let me know. Second, I may have some more fundraising ideas for the
convent in Jinja as well as some of my projects in Kenya.
Things I liked about Uganda:
1.
So much fruit all the time. Avocados are almost
always in season. I even had fresh apples for the first time in years. The
bananas were great, and jack fruit is a new favorite. I have no idea how to
describe it, but it tasted awesome.
2.
Instead of Kenya’s language spectrum of 47
tribal languages, Kiswahili, shang Kiswahili, and English, Uganda has 2 tribal
language(Luganda and Busoga) and English. It was awesome.
3.
The use of motorcycles as public transportation
is rampant in Uganda. I love it. Makes having long hair really worth it.
4.
Transportation and food was dirt cheap.
5.
I got to play basketball for the first time in
almost a year.
Things I want to raise money for in my last month and 10
days in Africa:
1.
3 basketball hoops. I really wanna get this one
done. It’s been my plan to do it the entire time I’ve been here. I just haven’t
had enough info on it. Now I know that hoops themselves are fairly inexpensive.
They go for about 1000 Kshillings a pop. What I haven’t figured out is how much
it will cost to build the contraptions to hang them. I know what I want to do
is get a few 2x4s and bolts. There’s pretty much nowhere to mount the hoops on
a pole, so I’d have to attach them to walls.
2.
St. Maurus needs some cement for the slate
floors. I don’t know how they got there, but there are some massive holes
there. If I can fill them that’d be great.
3.
My dad was kind enough to send me some pencils
and drawing books to help me with drawing class, but the kids really need
drawing books. They use printer paper and sometimes use their school notebooks.
I’d really like them to have actual drawing paper for the rest of the term if I
can pull it off.
4.
I’d also like to get the kids at St. Maurus some
developmental games. They love memory, so I got them a pretty nice set of
memory cars last fall. But most of the older kids just sit there all day. I
want to get them some games and some new educational posters to put on their
walls.
Those are my ideas for now! Thanks everyone for supporting
me in spirit for the past 6 and a half months! I really can’t believe I only
have a little over a month left. I still have so little I want to do, and so
much time to do it in! Wait, reverse that!(Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory, in case you missed that reference).
Also, Keep Lauren Ellis in your prayers because she’s
joining the Catholic Church at St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church on
Easter Vigil! That was a lot of “church” references. Good things come in threes
I suppose!
I think that’s it for now. Sorry for the lengthy post. It’s
been more than 2 weeks!
-Harris Moriarty
To Mail Me Anything:
Benedictine Fathers
Amani Conference Centre
P.O. Box 32101-00600
Nairobi - Kenya
To Donate Anything:
Southern Benedictine Society
100 belmont mount holly road
Belmont, NC 28012
(Write "BVC - Harris" in the memo section of the check)
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