Day 8 - And STILL feeling lucky

This has been such an incredible day!

Today we moved the meeting from the girls school to the parish hall.  Religion is very important here and Catholicism seems to be the most prevalent religion.  The rooms we’ve been in so far have no electricity and are pretty much just big empty cement rooms  that may (or maybe not) have a few barred windows which mostly don’t have glass in them.  During the meeting we had several visitors including the parish priest, a goat, a pig, a sheep and several curious school children.

The chairperson for the SACCO is a very interesting man who was knowledgeable about Canada and has traveled to London.  He asked a question I couldn’t answer – what’s the history behind the “british” in British Columbia?  Do any of you know?

Now for the most amazing part of the day.  The SACCO was given some property in the village of Aduku by the town council to construct a building and they wanted me to lay the cornerstone.  What an honour!  So we finished our meeting and proceeded to the town square where we were met by a group of the village women dressed in all their finery and they danced and sang for me with a song they had made up in my honour.  We then had a procession to the site of the property with them singing and dancing all the way and many of the locals joining us as we went.  When they sing they make a sound that’s hard to describe but I think it’s called something like ‘ululation’.  If I had internet access I’d look it up – can anyone help me with that?

The head of the town council spoke as well as the Chairperson of the SACCO and me.  They made a big sign with my name on it mentioning that I was from CCA.  So Joanne, CCA and Linda Archer will live on as a permanent part of the Ikwera SACCO’s history.    

I have pictures but am still figuring out how to transfer them from the camera to my computer so I can send them when I find internet access. Until then I will sort them out so that I send only the best ones.  It’s so tempting to take tons of pictures here as every curve in the road is so interesting.  There’s another Canadian volunteer from CCA in Lira, a young man named John who is doing a project to help farmers with agricultural practices so that their land use and subsequently production increases.  He knows how to transfer the pictures so I’m hoping he’ll help me if I can’t figure it out. 

And so it’s the end of an eventful day.  I feel so lucky to have this experience.