Today is the six month anniversary of when I arrived in Kampala. The time has gone by so quickly! I now feel pretty "settled" here - I know how to negotiate around town by taxi or boda, I'm starting to take on some of the speech patterns of the Ugandan way of speaking English (another blog post soon about more speech idiosyncrasies I'm learning here), I'm making friends outside of the Baha'i community - notably with my participation in the Kampala Singers - in general I don't feel like a stranger or outsider (although I am). The Ugandans are such a welcoming, warm people, and they appreciate it when a "muzungu" participates in their activities, offers hospitality to them or is willing to come into their homes. This coming weekend I will be going "up country" again - this time to the north - which should be very interesting. I'm told I'll see lots of baboons along the way, and I'm going to a part of the country that for many years was plagued by a rebel army called the Lord's Resistance Army that wreaked havoc for many years - kidnapping children and forcing them into military service or raping the girls, killing whole families, destroying homes. They've been chased out and now the rehabilitation of the area is beginning. There are Baha'i communities in that area and I'm going with some others to visit them. I'm looking forward to it - and will be sure to take lots of pictures and will write about my experiences when I return.
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from left - Patrick, Ronnie, Shebare, Michael making music on Boxing Day |
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| Carolyn and Nina with "Maama" Edith Senoga, an early believer, former Counsellor and all round lovely woman |
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Boshra and Mariam from the Office of External Affairs. Mariam is the one who makes beautiful Greatest Names from beads. Anyone want to buy one let me know! |
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| Fred and Brenda Talamantes |
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Herbert - our statistics officer. He has one of the hardest jobs -trying to figure out just how many Baha'is there are in Uganda. I tease him a lot because he's so quiet and serious most of the time. |
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| Paul Mugasha and Wes Baker. Paul is a story unto himself, I may write about him sometime |
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| This sweetheart of a kid was saddled with the name Shoghi Aqdas! Baha'is will understand why that could be a burden! |
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| Vi Gilbert, Carolyn Wade, Nina Oloro |
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| Our talented youthful singers |
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| Namara - the assistant BPT manager |
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| Emmy - foreman of the Temple Grounds.. |
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| Mary and Edith - two of the hardest working people on the hill. Mary is our cook and Edith our cleaner |
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| James - I'll have to write about him sometime too. Just love him! |
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| Alex - some of the kids seem to "get" to you more than others - for me Alex is one of those kids |
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| Robert and Cyrus who live with Carolyn. These two are great fun to play canasta with - especially Robert! |
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Nafha and Shahram Ebrahimi - this was their last Feast as they are moving away.Nafha and I "clicked" the first time we met so I'm really sorry that she's leaving. |
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| Mullah Husayn one of the "boys" that work on the hill - Youth Year of Service |
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Johnson - I always think of the song "Someone to Watch Over Me" with him - because he literally watches over me as the night watchman on the hill. I feel very safe! |
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| Ben Ekoot - a member of the NSA and quite the wit. Always fun talking to him. |
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| Patricia Senoga and Charlie Anglin with Boshra. Patricia and Charlie are cousins and the grandchildren of Maama Senoga. The young people here are really stellar. |
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Mathias Onama - the National Secretary. While the whole NSA is my "boss" - he's the one I work the closest with. |
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| Brenda - my able assistant |
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