Culture, Part 2

What has been really amazing, a real blessing, about my experience serving in Uganda, is that it hasn't been about constantly staying at the Rafiki Home and tending to the children and compound here, which still would have been great. We do two days of outreach weekly, which gives us opportunities to serve in other ways and to see other needs around Kampala (and by the way we get to see all of Kampala, I know my way around quite well!). I went on a safari, and last night we went to the Ndere Center to learn cultural dances and about instruments I've never seen before.

Even church is a cultural experience. The last two weeks the sermons have been cultural eye-openers. The head of Watoto Church (there are several campuses in Kampala and one in Gulu, a northern district) and then the regular pastor both spoke about Uganda, the Blessed Nation. I haven't found several of the sermons before these very fruitful, and even these last two weren't very spiritually fruitful, but they were culturally enriching! (Because Uganda celebrated the Jubilee the sermons have been geared to what Ugandans must overcome and the sermons have been very specific to Uganda, of course I've always gleaned something from them.) Yesterday's sermon Pastor Josh discussed why the Ugandan Culture needs to become a Jesus Culture, and his five main reasons were: the lack of respect of authority in homes, schools, streets, police, etc.; although the familial ties for cultural reasons to tribes is important, tribalism, where all is for and about the tribes, is combatant for God's dominance in their lives; the poor work ethic of Ugandans is very prevalent, a research study revealed that 1 Chinese person does the same work as 20 Ugandans, even 1 Kenyan can do the work of 4 Ugandans; the warped understanding of sexuality is the 4th reason Uganda needs to shift its culture, in the next 5 years Uganda will report 780,000 new cases of HIV; finally the level of corruption is just astounding, Uganda recently did improve from being 3rd in the world for their level of corruption as a nation to 5th, so at least there has been some improvement. Both pastors were urging the congregation to take personal responsibility and to be accountable for helping shift these stigmas.

Back to the Ndere Center... So we arrived by 6 to find our seats and grab a coke before the show started. It is an outdoor ampitheatre that serves food and beverages while you enjoy the 3.5 hour performance. There was an MC that explains where each dance is from, about the instruments and dances, and he also added a lot of random humor to the evening. I took a few notes, really just to make my mom smile (even those that know my mom are smiling right now, cause you know she would be doing the same thing), but only hearing these instruments and seeing the dances for yourself would really help you understand the feel of the evening. It was beyond enjoyable!

Today our cultural experience was further deepened by serving at both the Sanyu Babies Home and at A Perfect Injustice (API for short). Ok, well Sanyu was a bit of a stretch for me today... I changed the two most disgusting, poopiest, (ugh, yuck, etc), oh the most disgusting, diapers you could imagine. Then one naked baby excreted right in her high chair (shared by others, imagine a high chair stretched out for 6 babies to sit together) and then projectile vomited, one kid ate his own poop, and about 6 3-year-old boys got circumsized before we arrived and so they were in dresses with their little bloody penises hanging out. Oh today was an experience!! Before even going to Sanyu I bought 50 kg of beans (remember I said I was blessed with extra money that I am distributing by way of donation items through all the ministries I serve at?) for API. Do you know when I got there (ok, let me tell you carrying 50 kg of beans with the help of another guy, through the slums of Kampala is not easy) I found out their trailer had just been robbed and they had such a need!? God is awesome!

Despite having been hungry all day from fasting, having to deal with all the grossness at Sanyu, I had a great time at API with the street kids teaching them about following rules and playing a game with them. Even coming home I was so patient and happy to be with the kids to talk to them about Noah and God's promise, their lack of listening to my commands of sit down, fold your hands, keep quiet, etc. didn't even phase me. I had a great day!                                     10.22.12