Happy Kampaloween!!

A few weekends ago (Halloween in the states) my roommates and I had planned to have a going away party for our roommate Felix who was supposed to be leaving the first week in October. His stay got extended, but we had already planned the party, so we just switched up the theme a little bit to Kampaloween- pretty clever huh? This was not the only part that was already planned. Felix had already planned the food and decorations. He had gotten Christmas lights to put up around the house and tiki lights so people could hang out outside. He also had arranged for a rolex guy (egg omelet in a chipati) and a pork guy to come and grill/ cook outside for people’s delicacy enjoyment.  We did not, however, win in the costume category! We got so stressed out with options that a friend and I ended up going as Halloween- ya know, black and orange… I know, less than creative, but choices are pretty limited in costume shops in Kampala. One group of girls came as different bars in Kampala: Fat Boyz, Stake out, Cayenne, Silk, etc. It was delightful and definitely kicked my costumes tush! We did, end up throwing a great party and someone even brought some candy corn so we could get into the holiday spirit. And it wasn’t even only just Americans. We had British, Germans, French and Ugandan in attendance as well. The idea of a costume was lost on some, but we still got a little taste of the tradition. A woman from down our street even came to ask if we were celebrating an early Christmas with our lights and we decided not to explain we were almost all Jews living here, we just invited her in and she stayed for quite some time- just a testament to what a great Kampaloween it was!

We took Saturday off of touring or doing really anything (we had gone dancing after Kampalaween and gotten back very late!) and instead chose to come back to our Ugandan roots on Sunday and visit the Baha’i temple. (This was also good timing considering the LOUD services that begin right outside our window promptly at 8:30 EVERY Sunday! Seriously, it’s like they are inside of our house) We wanted to make sure to get there in time for some services at 10:30 so we got to the temple grounds around 10:10 so we could walk around and explore and just take in the sights because it was beautiful! Such a relaxing and delightful place to visit! The only other Baha’i related place I have been is in Haifa and apparently that is not a temple, just a shrine. This was a beautiful building, but more than that, the area that it was settled on was so manicured and gorgeous. It sits on one of the seven hills of Kampala so you get away from the city traffic and are surrounded by flowers and gardens and serene beauty. You really feel like you can just sit and relax for hours there.

The service was quite interesting as well. First, four Ugandan children all came to the podium one by one and said some sort of psalm or poem. Then different members from the congregation got up to do different readings. In between each reading was a lovely song from the choir who as located directly underneath the dome of the temple. The sounds were lovely. Afterwards we heard that the leader of the congregation was on a pilgrimage to, where else, Israel and therefore they had to do the service themselves. The half-hour service was nice and felt like any religion would have enjoyed it. There was even a part from a Hebrew prayer book: “May the meditations of my heart and the words of my lips be acceptable to you O God.”  That was exciting when I finally figured out why that sounded so familiar. We also talked with a few white women who had been living in Uganda for many years (since 1980) and called Kampala, along with the Baha’i temple, home.  We had assumed they were just visiting, but it was clear these were members of the congregation. As the only Baha’i temple in all of Africa, I guess they really do get people from all over.

This last weekend we went to visit the Abuyudaya tribe and see Sipi falls and I can’t wait to write about it- it was awesome! But that will just have to wait until next time. Until then, one month until I am back in the states- soo crazy!!

Love to all,

Shira ZK

Uganda in the News

Well, Uganda is all over the news these days! Well, if by ‘all over’ you mean once in a while there is an article about the country somewhere on the “Africa” page of the New York Times website, then yes, they are all over the news! There are US troops coming in, a new/ old bill in the parliament and Mussevini has a bunch of protestors- pretty much a wildly exiting place to live- huh?

First things first: America. There was an article a while ago saying that the Obama was sending in 100 troops into Uganda to see how to deal with the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Kony. There has been more recent news that makes sure to state that there will be no combat, it is just some troops seeing what the situation is. The reason this is so weird is because there hasn’t really been a “situation” in over twenty years. There was definitely a bloody fight in the 80’s up in Northern Uganda, but since then- not much more than a peep out of Kony. This brings about a great deal of suspicion that the US is mainly here not to see about Kony but see to see about a new place for drilling oil- eh, 6 of one, half a dozen of the other- right? Not really…

There has also been some frustration with the government here- it’s no “occupy” movement, but people are beginning to protest. No worries, I have not attended anything even resembling a protest, namely because there haven’t been any large gatherings. People, instead, are walking to work as in protest of the rising gas prices.  Only in Uganda, where you take a matutu four bocks would a walk be considered some type of protest. Apparently people here don’t walk much so actually walking to work is a big deal! I haven’t seen much of this, however and the day it was supposed to start was the day I was 20 minutes late to work since there was a huge traffic jam, so it’s unclear what will come of this.

 There is also a bill that has been reopened in parliament. It says that being gay would be illegal and punishable by death. There is actually very little support for this bill (which is good news) especially from countries who give aid to Uganda so it can never pass, but why they would even reopen it makes no sense to me! It is also interesting to see the different views when it comes to homosexuality in this country. There is not a great deal of support for this bill, but still it is quite stigmatized to come out of the closet. There are a few who have done so in Uganda but many more cases of men who are married but still have sex with other men. They do not want to say they are gay, since this practice is not yet accepted. However, it is common to see two young men who are friends and walking down the street holding hands or two men holding on to each other on the backs of motorcycles. In the US (or at least northeast US) it is not AS stigmatized to be gay, however, when I see two men holding hands, I assume some sort of homosexual relationship. (I know ass, you, me, I know). No Ugandans have a problem with the hand holding but many still consider sex between two men to be unnatural, especially since its from the bible and damn, do Ugandan love them some bible!

The good news is that the Ugandan Little League team whose place in the world Little League series got taken away when they couldn’t provide correct birth certificates to the US may actually get to play! This was the first African Little League team to get to go and then they couldn’t provide the correct papers so they had to sit and watch in Uganda. Then a woman in Canada said that if the funds were raised to bring them to North America, they could play a few games in a different league in Canada! It would be amazing and so exciting for this team!

Things here are going famously and time is at the same time flying by and crawling by (probably depending on where I am at the moment.) Hopefully I will get to write a little more this week and tell you all about Kampaloween- yup, you read that right- and a gorgeous Baha’i temple we visited. For now, I was trying to show you how worldly I am, and also how much time I really spend reading the paper every morning (hint: it’s usually more than an hour)

Love and miss you all!!

Shira ZK