Adventures in Pictures

THE FIGHT

It is fairly common that Pastor and Mama will have someone bring a gift to their home. Usually fruits or a chicken. Well this special week we had two cocks brought to the house. The orange one, having arrived about 2 days earlier, was not very welcoming when his new friend, Mr. Whitey, came and was trying to claim the territory as his. We usually tie the hens and cocks to these poles and all is fine. Well, not today because they decided that they wanted to fight.

After trying to stop them, we realized that it was more fun to watch them. So we held our own cock fight at the house. We would place Mr. Orangey across the courtyard, waiting for the new intruder to cock-a-doodle and then the attack would happen. I see how this could be a thrilling activity in the States but so illegal, because if we would not have stopped them they would have fought to the death.

BULOLELO WOMEN’S GROUP

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Last week I was invited to attend a “women’s group” for one of the workers at LCH, Annett. Always curious to see and experience new things of course I went (also feeling very honored because many times I think people fear to invite me to more “village-ish” things). The essence of this group is that women from the surrounding area gather about 2 times a month and “host” all their friends at their home. The ladies combine their funds to help pay for food and buy the host something that she is needing, whether chairs or iron sheets for the room. They also have the “health inspector” of the group inspect the sanitation and structure of the house, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and compound and then make comments.

Timeliness is not exactly understood here. The invitation said events began at noon. Me and my friends from LCH arrived at Annett’s house at 1:45, only to see that we were some of the first ones there. But we did receive a warm welcome from some of the ladies who ran to greet us on the trail shouting their “aye-ye-ye-ye-ye-yah!” I like that.

But when there is music playing, there is only so long one can remain sitting until their feet start tapping and they have an overwhelming urge to get up and move to the music. So of course we danced.

To keep everyone under control and the kids out of the party, security was resent and ready to use her power.

And like any good party, food was served… rice, matoke (un-sweet bananas), chicken, gnut sauce. One interesting fact is that when you are at an event such as this (or a wedding) then there are no eating utensils because your fingers do a great job at scooping your large portion of food into your mouth. Another interesting fact is that it is very common to use banana leaves to steam food and then to cover it to keep it warm.

SISIYI FALLS

There are two popular waterfalls near Mbale. About a month ago I visited Sipi Falls, but my new friends invited me to join them on a day trip to Sisiyi Falls. With all the rain, things were so beautiful!

These are my new friends. They are working as teachers at a missionary school and I eat pancakes, play games, and spend the night on Fridays with them.

It was a small hike to get to the base of the waterfall. Once we reached there, we climbed around on the rocks to make our way up a boulder near the falls to sit and chat a bit.

After lunch we did more hiking and adventuring.

And even got to pet a monkey. It is the owners monkey that has been tamed and was tied to the tree. We were a bit nervous at first, but ceased the opportunity to get near and touch a monkey. All in all it was a great day.