Just When We Thought It Was Safe...

Aaaaah - just when we thought it safe to go out of the house - Al Shabab, a revival and ... Ebola come knockin'. Of all of three - the Revival is the worst of it...  It (10,000 people expected) started Thursday and the only real threat has been to my sanity.  Kaunda Grounds where this event is taking place is next to the big market (cuk madit) and both are just a stones throw from my hacienda... So starting at 6:30 AM going full tilt all day (till at least 9:30 PM) with short breaks - there's been blasting music, bombastic  preaching and throngs of people on the street.  Everything said twice:  once in English from the AMERICAN preacher and again yelled in Acholi.  Lordy,  I am almost certain that it doesn't take 120 decibels to save someones soul.  In fact I think it may be an inverse relationship. It’s late getting started this morning.  With any luck everyone has been saved and we can fore-go another day of deafening evangelizing. If terrorists want to blow up something I can direct them to several PA systems...

 I have purposely stayed away from the market and basically out of town.   The heads up for bizarre behavior came Friday on my way home, just passing Uchumi and my Boda gang - a tall extremely intoxicated Ugandan man approached me with arms flung open preparing to envelope me... I dodged him - not quite ready for a grope and he caught me by the arm saying a few choice phrases like "I want to F*** you."   Well I could have told him to "take a number..." but thought better of it and instead extricated myself and told him to GO.   That seemed to confuse him and he released his hold after a little twisting on my part....  So the crazies are out - and I'm in.

Have read a book, finished a great puzzle, cook chicken curry with my foil packaged chicken and consumed a small roll of Oreos.  Time to go back to work...  I'm out of Oreos.  Steadfastly refusing to do anything productive until tomorrow.  So far, so good.  

So there have been 12 reported cases of the Ebola Virus in the West Nile region - not near here.  There's Nodding Disease (fatal in most cases) in the North affecting kids.  No known cure, no cause determined.  Has everyone baffled.  When things settle a bit, I start reading the news.  Probably not a good idea. But all this comes to us from PC HQ.

Tomorrow (the day I have said I'll be productive)  is here in all its glory... and while I am still resisting being seriously productive, I have to come to Coffee Hut  to send pictures to LABE for a final report. I'm happy to note the town is blissfully quiet.    Only the usual  “praisin’ and prayin’” from surrounding churches. The revival hasn't started yet - giving the churches first go at salvation this morning it would seem.   The revival thing doesn’t work for me – too much historical and philosophical baggage there.  Growing up in Louisiana, Baton Rouge was a target rich environment for evangelists of all ilks. After the really big ones, a neighbor would ceremoniously be hauled off by men-in-white-coats (literally), having locked herself in the closet with the holy-spirit.  I always felt sorry for her kids who were high school  class mates of ours.  Having endured my share of hell-fire-and-brimstone preaching, this tops the scale.  It is just so.... percussive and angry sounding.  Whew! But the mere presence brings up the idea of what people consider uplifting and I can't be the judge of that...  It just doesn't work for me.

However, I actually like the Mulsim call to worship broadcast at intervals through the day (the Mosque is a block away) and I've hiked through the 4 AM fog in China to find the source of Buddhist chanting, bells and incense.  So I'm not totally hardened and have a deep appreciation for spiritual ritual. Timely in a way, that the following came to me this weekend and I think it has elements that are worth some thought. The next paragraph or so of this epistle is a quasi- metaphysical so for those who aren’t interested, fast-forward.  Most of you receiving this, know I think outside the box.  But the box is getting bigger and what used to be outside, is now inside the box and accepted science.  Some is still theoretical, but science, spirituality and neuro-science are overlapping at some interesting junctures.  Those of you who knew me in my previous (pre PC) life will recognize the ideas here, but I like the way they are presented, with a few exceptions of leaps in reasoning. This being the 2012 of  the much talked about SHIFT, there is much circulating about what this means.  Certainly not the end of the world, but perhaps the end of a paradigm that no longer works for us as a civilization.  No gloom and doom here – just something positive I’m passing along to those interested.  I have specifically decided NOT to use this blog as a forum for these types of discussions, so please forgive this transgression. When I received this youtube (Sacred Geometry DNA changes 2012 Mollecular Atom Consciousness.mp4) about Quantum Physics, DNA and reality, I thought I’d pass it along. Because – well – a picture is worth a thousands words?

Onward:  

On other fronts, I spent most of last week going to training sessions in the field.  LABE is training its Parent Educators on how to create Home Learning Centers in their villages.  It's a cram course on what children need  physically, emotionally and mentally to learn.  Good start.  In the span of a week,  PEs are trained on how to teach numbers, reading, vocab etc.  Since text books and standard materials are non-existent, they are taught how to make their own teaching aids out of local materials.  LABE supplies construction paper, glue, markers and number and alphabet reference pages - and ideas. 

Their (PEs and trainers) commitment is daunting.  Twenty seven or so adults rode their bicycles miles to get get to daily training for a week.  It took place  in a "conference center" (spare building at the school) consisting of wooden benches and tables (one center had tables - the other nothing but benches). No lights.  Wooden shutters on some of the windows opened.    These went beyond the usual training and focused on Early Childhood.  One woman came with her new-born, but most of the others were older.

When we drove into the school compound, kids were busy sweeping the school grounds with brooms made from brush collected from around the school and home.  Everyone is expected to bring a broom.  The penalty for not coming with your broom is to pick up rubbish by hand.  All the kids are sweeping...  but the ones getting the center ready are also picking rubbish by hand...

When they see our truck, I notice they all stop what they are doing and kneel - a sign of respect.  Having a truck come in means someone serious has arrived.    I can't get used to the kneeling ritual, but it is expected of children and women.  When I went out to take pictures, some of the kids got a bit confused - keep sweeping or kneel?  Not doing one or the other can result in punishment.  Realizing what was happening, I went back inside.

After a bit the school-gong sounds.  The first sound results in all children kneeling - a sign that they heard it and are getting ready for assembly, which takes place outside. They gather for a school song and a prayer, after which they all file out to their classes.  Most are dressed in tattered school uniforms;  all are barefooted. Uniforms are the only way to tell girls and boys apart at this age:  all have their heads shaved.  This is a poor country, but this school is better kept than most and has some new buildings and teachers quarters.

There are a few new-looking buildings in the rear of the property that don't seem to be in use.  Seems that the contractor took his share off the top and to costs, neglected to put any cement in the "cement.' Built the walls from sand and mud causing them to collapse right after the money was spent...   Engineer noticed it at final inspection, so the buildings are now condemned.   An NGO came in a put up new replacement buildings.

Ah - now 6PM and the Revival is back in force.  Think I may hit that beer in the fridge and start another mystery...  Sorry Jenna, I'll replace it (the beer)  before you get home ;-)  So that's this week's  report from land-locked Uganda...     Almost a year - and counting...