Ok Peoples sorry about the delay in updates. I have been quite busy and have heaps to update you all on. Plus plenty more prayer points and things.
Ok so I will put subheadings on the stories but will just mainly comment on pictures as that way is more fun and interesting for you to read and easier and faster for me to type. Ok so here goes!
Christmas parties
Ok so for Christmas I was the organizer of the games and distributing the gift that an Australian work party had brought over with them. Their were pencils and books and toys of all sorts so it was quite fun to be the gift giver. Anyway this photo is one that I took when we went to Busiu village to do a Christmas party there.
We were walking back from playing some games when I saw this cow eating with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains so I decided to take a photo. Anyway as soon as I had taken the photo this crazy man came up to me yelling and looking very very angry at me. I was really quite worried that he could hit me cos he was waving his arms around. Anyway he was speaking Lugisu so I couldn’t understand him. But the group of kids I was with just said some things to him. Then the lovely teacher from Bushikori tried to reason with him. Anyway he was angry mostly because he is a drunkard that said that I was going to try and sell his cow now that I have a photo of it. It wasn’t even his cow he just wanted to make a scene because I was a mzungu and he is an old drunk man. The drunks here are very much addicted to their home brew of beer. You will often see a group of men sitting in a circle, with a big ceramic pot in the middle and thin hoses used as straws drinking beer. It is often what the men here resort to when they cant be bothered to find jobs so while their wives are back home looking after about 10 children and tending to the garden that will be their only source of income, the men sit around all day doing nothing but destroying their brains.
Another thing I may have failed to mention is that Polygamy (more than one wife) is very very common here in Uganda. Often a man will have 2, 3 and sometimes 4 wives with about 10 kids from each wife. Often the wives are forced to marry them because their families do not have enough money to keep feeding them, so they can sell them at 16 or 15 or even 14 years old. Although the minimum age has lifted from 16 to 18 years there are still many children given as wives at 14 years.
Another thing I have failed to mention is that a marriage here happens in 3 stages. The first stage is called the Introduction; where the man is introduced to the future wife’s family and the vise versa. At this ceremony the father of the wife to be, lays down the bride price that the husband must pay in order to marry the woman. I think in some ceremonies the price has already been stated so sometimes at this point the husbands family walks out parading all the things they have been told to pay for the bride. So out will come cows, chickens, baskets and baskets of eggs, fruits and veggies. It depends on how well educated the girl is and how wealthy her family is, as to what the price would be. So a girl that has university education and is from a wealthy family has a huge bride price. Often the bride will have 3 to 4 different dresses to change into on the day as she will eat lunch in one outfit, be introduced in another and do the introducing to her own family in another outfit. The next stage is the marriage where they will sign the legal documents to say they are married. The third and final stage is the wedding and sometime the wedding will not come until 5-10 years after marriage when they have enough money to pay for a wedding. The weddings here have become very western with white super frilly dresses and lots of food. They also have to cover everyones transport fees and you offend someone greatly if you don’t invite them. So hence not many people here bother to get married because it is just too expensive to do so.
Ok so I will put subheadings on the stories but will just mainly comment on pictures as that way is more fun and interesting for you to read and easier and faster for me to type. Ok so here goes!
Christmas parties
Ok so for Christmas I was the organizer of the games and distributing the gift that an Australian work party had brought over with them. Their were pencils and books and toys of all sorts so it was quite fun to be the gift giver. Anyway this photo is one that I took when we went to Busiu village to do a Christmas party there.
We were walking back from playing some games when I saw this cow eating with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains so I decided to take a photo. Anyway as soon as I had taken the photo this crazy man came up to me yelling and looking very very angry at me. I was really quite worried that he could hit me cos he was waving his arms around. Anyway he was speaking Lugisu so I couldn’t understand him. But the group of kids I was with just said some things to him. Then the lovely teacher from Bushikori tried to reason with him. Anyway he was angry mostly because he is a drunkard that said that I was going to try and sell his cow now that I have a photo of it. It wasn’t even his cow he just wanted to make a scene because I was a mzungu and he is an old drunk man. The drunks here are very much addicted to their home brew of beer. You will often see a group of men sitting in a circle, with a big ceramic pot in the middle and thin hoses used as straws drinking beer. It is often what the men here resort to when they cant be bothered to find jobs so while their wives are back home looking after about 10 children and tending to the garden that will be their only source of income, the men sit around all day doing nothing but destroying their brains.
Another thing I may have failed to mention is that Polygamy (more than one wife) is very very common here in Uganda. Often a man will have 2, 3 and sometimes 4 wives with about 10 kids from each wife. Often the wives are forced to marry them because their families do not have enough money to keep feeding them, so they can sell them at 16 or 15 or even 14 years old. Although the minimum age has lifted from 16 to 18 years there are still many children given as wives at 14 years.
Another thing I have failed to mention is that a marriage here happens in 3 stages. The first stage is called the Introduction; where the man is introduced to the future wife’s family and the vise versa. At this ceremony the father of the wife to be, lays down the bride price that the husband must pay in order to marry the woman. I think in some ceremonies the price has already been stated so sometimes at this point the husbands family walks out parading all the things they have been told to pay for the bride. So out will come cows, chickens, baskets and baskets of eggs, fruits and veggies. It depends on how well educated the girl is and how wealthy her family is, as to what the price would be. So a girl that has university education and is from a wealthy family has a huge bride price. Often the bride will have 3 to 4 different dresses to change into on the day as she will eat lunch in one outfit, be introduced in another and do the introducing to her own family in another outfit. The next stage is the marriage where they will sign the legal documents to say they are married. The third and final stage is the wedding and sometime the wedding will not come until 5-10 years after marriage when they have enough money to pay for a wedding. The weddings here have become very western with white super frilly dresses and lots of food. They also have to cover everyones transport fees and you offend someone greatly if you don’t invite them. So hence not many people here bother to get married because it is just too expensive to do so.
SOOOOO anyway this is the nice photo I got at the Christmas party in Busiu. Anyone interested in buying the cow? Just joking
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