THW/Padibe

DAY 3-Padibe

Awakened by the roosters at 4, 5, and 6 am, and then off to 7am mass, breakfast, and then the days activities began. Mary, Dee Dee, and Vicki joined Bob Okello for the continuation of the Oxen Training specifically for women.

Dee Dee & Vicki at Oxen Training

Bob had started the training a few days before we arrived, bringing in trainers from another area. Quite a few people were taking the training session this time, including a woman from the Congo who brought a friend from Japan. Look for a more complete report from Vicki Solomon, who also is a long time member of the Peace Harvest board of directors. Peace Harvest is our partner for oxen, training, plows, and wagons in Padibe. Dee Dee is the Three Holy Women representative on the board.

Dee Dee Leading the Oxen

Rob & Peter had the first of five sessions beginning the Cultural Project.

Cultural Project Committee

We are calling these sessions Phase One. The Cultural Project’s main goal is create a system for the Acholi people to remember and reclaim their culture after so much being lost during the twenty year war.X The objectives of Phase One include 1. Discovery of Acholi culture, 2. Build trust with the committee of ten from Padibe, 3. Telling of stories 4. Devising  a drama based on the stories with added Acholi song, dance, and ritual. We have five sessions to accomplish as much as we can.

Devising Exercise

In the afternoon Peter, Mary and Rob took a walk through the town area with Tommy, Vanansio, & John Bosco on the way to Onek Francis’ family compound for visiting, dancing, dinner and much laughter.

Padibe Market

Francis is a gentlemen who worked with Rob on the water project on his two past visits and is the vice-chairperson of the Padibe Global Solidarity committee. We were welcomed into his family compound and seated outside under a grove of trees with small tables set in in the center of the circle of chairs. Culturally the men and visitors all eat together and the women eat in a separate area. Almost immediately Mary was beckoned to join the women in the cooking hut and she disappeared for awhile.

Mary Cooking in Hut

The women demonstrated their way of cooking the traditional foods served at lunch and dinner. The cooking is all inside a hut over a small clay stove built into the floor. The hut gets quite smoky.  Mary was invited to join in prepping and cooking the millet bread, greens, and  other traditional foods made from simsim (sesame), red millet, peas, beans, sorghum, maize, greens, and groundnuts.

Traditional Dinner

She assisted carrying out the trays of food, with red eyes from the smoky cooking hut and then joined us for dinner. As we sat for dinner a woman brought a basin with a bar of soap and a pitcher of water for the washing of hands. Toward the latter part of the meal the key women of the clan were invited to join us. After dinner about sixteen women friends and relatives entertained us with the traditional welcome songs and dancing. It wasn’t long before Mary, Peter, and the men joined in the fun and dancing. We had been welcomed “home” and happily joined in the festivities.

Watching Themselves Dancing

The evening concluded with the traditional welcome which is a formal speech by the host followed by the visitors each offering their heartfelt thank you speech. Francis gave Mary her new Acholi name, KEROWINY (which was used for the rest of our trip whenever she was introduced), it means, “beautiful woman who cooks well for her man.” At least that was Francis’ definition!!

Francis and Family

Posted by Mary & Rob

DAY 1 (NOTE: we have returned to the US now, but due to internet service were unable to post anything on the blog and will do our best now) Travelers included Rob, Mary & Peter Goodman, Dee Dee Pellegrin, and Vicki Solomon.

After traveling 23 hours we arrived in Entebbe at 2:15 am, Dec 1 and were met by our very good friend, Bob Okello who loaded our nine large suitcases along with five backpacks in the vehicle and of course six bodies. We made a quick trip through a pretty much dark Kamplala to our Hotel for a shower and a few hours sleep. Kampala and the rest of Uganda have been suffering many power outages and literally half of Kampala was without power. It is a great country if you are in the generator business as everyone who can afford it buys one for a back up. Oh, by the way, Uganda continues to sell electricity to Kenya. We said farewell to Kampala quickly in the morning and headed straight for Gulu, passing the White Nile just before reaching Gulu district. It is a very beautiful view of a powerful river, many rapids, and a small raging waterfall, and the road was full of monkeys, the species I cannot remember. But, it was a good introduction to the more natural side of Africa. for Mary and Peter’s first trip there. Fr. Romano has since told me that now there is a major game track re-developing at that site and elephants are now being seen. They are returning to their traditional routes that were closed to them during the twenty years of war. Progress, even for nature in the absence of the violence.
We had a wonderful dinner at Bob and Nighty Okello’s home even though after the flight, the short sleep at the hotel and the long drive we all felt more than slightly in the ozone. Many of Bob’s family came to dinner their three girls were a delight. Peter has always had a natural connection with children and it carried over to Uganda as the three girls were all over him, playing, talking and very much relating. This dad and his mother were quite proud of him.