Taking Henry home!

Students go home!

Henry looking smart in his suit ready to go home.

On May 1st we went back home to the village where one of the students we have been helping by paying some of his fees and providing money to buy the resources he needed for teaching practice. Final exams were over and we arrived at college to collect him, his trunk, mattress and a bunch of matoke (green bananas). Other students were piling into matatus (taxis) with all their gear. What a welcome we received! His family live very near Lake Kyoga and the Kenyan border about four hours north of Kampala. All the family and neighbours came out to meet us and then we were invited into a traditional hut with a 3-piece suite and a table squashed in and Henry's father said a prayer and made a speech welcoming us. They served us sodas, hard boiled eggs and nuts and then each family member was introduced and shook hands. We were then taken to see the crops they grow on their plot of land and the goat project that they are setting up to support the family. Henry has 3 brothers and 2 sisters. We then had lunch! They brought many bowls and serving dishes with potatoes, rice, matoke,chicken, goat, a salad of carrots, peppers and avocado and what they call 'soup' a thin vegetable stew like gravy. The very odd thing was that having brought in this feast and said another prayer, all family members left and we were there on our own!! Do we serve ourselves and eat?......will Henry or his Mother or Father join us?.......should we wait?......we looked at each other.......!!!! Luckily our driver Joseph who we know well ,returned from changing the flat tyre on the car and explained that we should eat as the custom is for men in the family to eat together, women to eat together and honoured guests (us!) to be served separately! The food was very good, far more than we could eat and I hope the family would eat what we left. That sort of 'spread' is definitely not the usual fare! We had taken some money as a gift towards the goat shed roof but were also given a copy of their project funding request for 17million Ugandan Shillings!! A bit more than even us 'muzungus' have to spare.

The village

The rock!

The goat shed without roof.

Quote from the covering letter: It is indeed a pleasure to be with you today in our family. Surely, your historical visit shall never be forgotten. God is indeed great.Indeed our guest, on behalf of this family, allow me to deliver a note of appreciation for accepting to travel all the way from Kampala to what I can proudly refer to as your second home.Surely our dear guest, it is hard to get the exact words worthy or equivalent to all that you have done for us.

Our meeting with the family was in some ways strangely formal with well organised introductions and the children only allowed to peep into the hut to see these strange people! Henry and his brother took us to see an amazing volcanic rock in the bush about 100m high and about 500m long! Then we returned to say goodbye to be given a woven basket with g-nuts (peanuts) they had grown and some embroidered serviettes and tablecloth. Henry's mother giggled and shrieked both on our arrival and departure, hugging me and laughing as I kissed her cheek!


The Family


We then set off to stay a night in Jinja before going to Sipi Falls which I will write about in my next entry.