We Are Together January 30, 2009

We Are Together January 30, 2009

We are together is a term frequently used here in Uganda meaning, I agree with you, or I support you or I will help you. This past weekend, Catherine and I had a chance to attend a typical daylong Ugandan celebration in Bududa District. It was a national holiday celebrating the 23 years of peaceful government and progress under the current president, Museveni. There were many humorous moments about the whole experience, but at the end of the day, (another oft used expression here), I could definitely say that we are together.

Most people familiar with AAH have heard stories of Ugandan time and the length it takes to get through long agendas. So when the contact who had invited us said he would pick us (no up) at ex-ack-tly eleven sharp, we were ready on time at the slight chance that he would be there at ex-ack-tly eleven. Not to worry, the car and he arrived about 11:30 am with the apologetic, you know we Ugandans are not very good at timekeeping…

We bounced along the road to Bududu and were whisked into the LC V’s office (that’s Local Counsel 5-an elected town representative). People here have an incredible love for stratifying every job position into numerous levels above and below one’s own status. It goes along with their interest in Robert’s Rules of Order for meetings and should the guest of honour be delivering a speech, or an address?, and who is the proper person to invite the guest of honour to begin said address? This was the topic of conversation for a good half hour while awaiting the Guest of Honour who was a Member of Parliament from western Uganda, but because our local MP was also to be at the ceremony who took seniority, etc was also a topic of concern. We did indeed have a good opportunity to speak to many of these officials from Bududa District and all had nothing but praise for Arlington Academy of Hope, the shining light of the district. For those of you familiar with the ins and outs of the PLEs, Bududa District registered 18 Division 1 students, 16 of which came from AAH. We are together!

Finally by 130 the function was underway with a ragtag brass band, and 30 military police in formations and parade marching. Oh by the way, upon our arrival we were labeled as the pioneers of Arlington and seated in the front couches which are hauled outside and under the tent for functions. Through many speeches we sat, all speeches are prefaced by at least 10 minutes of addressing who is there, Guest of Honours, Madame chair, District Chairman, Sub County regional this, Local Counsel 2, Mayor, Veterans of the regime, Military Captain, Regional District- I honestly could not begin to name them all. One interesting comment made by the Mayor of Bududa? not to be confused with the LC V who was hosting the event was that he feels people in his district waste the most precious natural resource and that is time- you can not save it for another occasion; you must make good use of it every day. We are together! Finally the MPs (Minister of Parliament) had their time to speak. The visiting MP read a patent speech from Museveni about their great progress and concerns for the people. Seemed a bit out of touch with reality to us.

By now it is 430 and the wind is swirling around, the rain has begun and before long we had great gales of wind and torrential rains at a 45 degree angle. The tent blew off its steel poles and we were shuttled in a vehicle back to the chairman’s room where we awaited some food—guess what it was??? The food had been planned for outside so it was rather crowded inside; we were again in the room with the MPs but as we got up to be served our food..some other men felt it was important to be in that same room, took our seats and would not budge, so much for wizened pioneers. Our host then took us to another room where we thought we would be dining with others of the group, but no Catherine and I were seated alone in someone’s office at two large desks to consume our matooke and rice with all the fixings with no utensils-hard to pick up rice that way. People would open the door look in and then as if we were quarantined, close the door again. We both got to laughing at the absurdity of the overall picture. At least she and I were together!

Of course, as in most cases, if all had started on time, it would have been over before the storm. Finally the MPs wanted to see Arlington, so we went in a 3 car convoy (One for each minister and entourage, we went in one of those cars and the third car was the military/security squad for the MPs (checked the seats before we could get in…) Dear friens, never did I feel unsafe. Anyway, we now drove up to AAH and very proudly showed off the Library, school and clinic. The local MP Mr. Wakikona was boasting of this record setting school in his territory. Both MPs said that if they had children of school age, they would surely send them to AAH (we told them jokingly that we had no vacancies at any level. In walking around the school compound we gained a crowd of at least 100 villlagers-because they knew with the vehicles and military escort, that it must be someone important. Others had stopped to look along the roadside and all bargaining and action halted in the trading center of Kikholo. We are together!

The MP, David Wakikona bid us farewell at the Guest House about 6 and yes, we were together for the progress and development of Uganda for that day.