A Ugandan Thanksgiving

Hello All!

                On Sunday, I learned what “Thanksgiving” means for Ugandans.  Saturday, Jaja asked if I wanted to go to a Thanksgiving for her brother Paul.  At first I thought of our Thanksgiving and got all excited and immediately signed myself up!  But then I thought it through and realized this was probably going to be different from our November feast complete with (real) football!  And boy was it ever different!

                Now for a bit of background that will completely put this thing into context…Paul was gathering his family and friends together to literally give thanks for being released from prison.  Remember the riots I wrote about in late September?  Paul’s garage is right across the street from a police station that rioters burned down.  The police accused him of being the ringleader and put him into Luzira (the main prison) for two weeks on charges of treason and terrorism.  He was arrested with 22 other men for the burning of this police station.  He was released after two weeks and all charges dropped- so he wanted to thank his family and friends for all the financial and emotional support.

                When we got there, the house was full with family and friends.  The celebration had already started and people were singing songs!  Now Paul and his wife are Born-Again Christians, so this celebration exposed me to a different religion and style of prayer.  Pretty interesting!  So we sang for a bit, in both English and Luganda (I just took it all in during the Luganda).  Then they had a couple of scripture readings and then Paul, his wife Jessica, their kids, and a friend gave testimonials.  They really spoke a lot about the difficulties of having him in prison and the charges and how God got them through as well as their friends and family.  It was pretty touching and at one point the pastor turned to Paul and told him he was a lucky man because this type of thing mostly occurs during funerals and he was here to witness all this love.  Very true! 

                During Paul’s testimony, he spoke a bit about the conditions and the stress he was put under.  He said out of the 23 men in prison for burning the police station, only FOUR knew how to speak any English.  Only FOUR- that sure doesn’t make it easy to defend yourself or understand everything going on around you.  As one would expect, being in prison is not a cake walk and Paul spoke about still feeling confined even though he was a free man.  At the end of all the testimonials, the pastor led us all in prayer for Paul and his family and then he also decided to add in a prayer for Uganda.  At that point, it was definitely needed.

                After, there was food and people mingled for awhile.  Then we went on and Jaja and I got beers with her cousins.  The conversation started with how born-agains don’t serve alcohol and the reasons behind that, etc.  Then it switched into Luganda and I switched out.  I just sat there listening to Luganda flow around me and daydreamed.  It was quite the perfect place to daydream too, as we were sitting under this awning and it was a beautiful night!!!  It finally hit me why I love this country so much: everywhere you go is outdoor dining!!!  (I’m such my Mother’s daughter!) 

                So all in all, I had a very interesting Sunday!  I learned a lot and had quite an experience!  It was also fun getting to hang out with Jaja outside the house! 

Hope you're having a great day!  <3cm