...you are very smart

Greetings All! And Happy 2^nd Sunday of Lent

Yesterday I went with my host family to their cousins introduction celebration.  An introduction celebration takes place when a woman and a man proclaim their love for each other and after the man is accepted by the woman’s family, they announce their engagement.  The celebration began around 3pm and we sat until 9pm through speeches, dances, songs, gift giving, etc. As the entire day was in Lusoga, I was not entirely sure what was being said, but it’s funny, the longer you are around a language understand, the easier it is to make some sense of what is going on. I wore a traditional gomesi dress, Margaret gave me one to borrow…everyone kept saying…”you are very smart” which is an expression, meaning “you look nice!” All of the women dress in their best and the men all wear kanzu (long white dresses over nice slacks) and a blazer over their kanzu. Many gifts are given by the man and his family to his bride’s father including: a cow, furniture, produce, money, drinks, meat, etc. Margaret was telling me that this tradition of “offering” is in some ways trying to become abolished because at times, it can lead to an increase in domestic violence.  The man has often been reported to say, “you are now my property, because I bought you;” therefore, leaving him with the “right” in his mind, he can hit her.

However, on a more happy note, the celebration (though long) was a wonderful experience, and it was nice that I was able to spend time with all five of my host brothers.  The family is so open and welcoming.

This week will be one busy week for us Lazarus Community founders. Tuesday we will head to a demonstration garden just outside Kampala, which is nearly 1.5 hrs away with 10 of our members.  St. Francis has offered us this opportunity and is providing a small meal and transport for our women. The garden is about 7 acres and will take us about 4 hrs to walk through.  We have chosen 10 of our members who are the best at mobilizing, communicating, and leading the other women. We hope that the following day, Wednesday (our crafts day) we will have a few of them present to the women what they learned so that we can increase their knowledge on how to improve their own production.

Then Thursday we will travel to Nakasedhere (1hr drive) to visit a majority of our women in that sector of our program.  We will stay the night there in Nakasedhere where Henry and Fr. Jenga grew up and conclude Friday evening.  The women of this village are a bit different than the women on Ntinkalu for example, they are much younger, and there are about 40 more members which means about 2x more children in need.

After this week, I will take the time to organize the information and experiences gained throughout the week and begin to draft a more complete project proposal for a better understanding of who and what exactly Lazarus Community is working for and with. A brief overview of what I did this past week, developed a draft of how the project proposal shall be completed, researched for donors, read much information regarding our vulnerable population, and created a draft of a brochure for our crafts program that I hope I will be able to distribute while I am home for a couple of weeks in September.

Much Love for you all!

Anne Therese