Holla From Kampala: The Big Weekend

Contrary to what you may all think, this “big weekend” had absolutely nothing to do with my birthday. Bigger things happened – I finally bought a fan. All I can say is that it has been life changing. I am not really sure how I went over a year and a half without a fan. I became accustomed to always sweating and never being able to sleep past 8:30 because it would get too hot in my house. Now all that has changed. I guess my reason for waiting so long was because I did not want the hassle of bringing a fan back from Mbale. A hassle it was. The taxi drivers could not figure out how to get the fan to fit. First, they tried to put the fan in the very back/trunk – no way was that happening. Then they comically tried to put the fan through the window to lie on Caroline’s and my lap. However, that failed because then they were no longer able to cram two more people in our row. Finally, they had me sit up front with the fan in between my legs and the base hanging out the window. It was a sight to see. My neighbors then all laughed hysterically with the sight of me walking through the school gate lugging a huge fan. None of my neighbors use or have fans – so I’m sure I looked all the more ridiculous. Oh well, I do not care. The fan is awesome and it is all I talk about. I think this goes to show how sad my life is here in Uganda. Buying a fan constitutes a big weekend for me.

On Sunday, Namengo Girls had a blessing ceremony for the P7 class. The P7 class takes their PLE (Primary Leaving Exam) next week, and then they move on to secondary school. The blessing ceremony is an all-day event and it is more like a celebration. I missed last year’s blessing ceremony because I was in Gulu for Halloween, so all of the teachers and students incessantly asked me all last week whether or not I was going to come. I did attend, and like any Ugandan function/ceremony, it was quite the experience. Definitely not like my 8^th grade culmination ceremony, to say the least.

The blessing ceremony started at 9am on Sunday at church. I went to church for my first time since being at site! (Before then, I had only been to church during training when I was living with my host family). Clearly, people were a little distraught by this fact because everyone came up to me and said, “Ah! Yes! You have finally come to pray!” I guess people are no longer falling for my line of, “I pray from home.”

Church started with an hour long mass, which was then followed by the blessing ceremony. Sister Goretti spoke, and then she said, out of the blue, “Now our PCV from America would like introduce herself and say a few words.” My head shot up from my daze as I thought to myself, “Wait, what? Me?!” I greeted everyone in Lugwere (of course, people went nuts with cheering, laughing and clapping!) Then, I said something along the lines of how happy I was that people could come to the ceremony and that I was so proud of all of my students. Blah, blah, blah. The ceremony continued with the archbishop blessing each of the 55 P7 candidates, and then students gave a “humble” speech.

Thankfully, there was a little break after church and I was able to go home and sit happily in front of my fan while I ate a granola bar. (I told you, I love the fan!). After my glorious 30-minute break, I headed to the Main Hall for the rest of the ceremony. Before I entered, Sister Goretti said that she wanted me to prepare a speech to give the students. Basically, I had a full-blown panic attack and texted Caroline immediately. We spent a good 30-minutes texting each other potential speech ideas. She had a good point when she texted me, “It does not matter what you say. No matter what, they will think it’s awesome. They will laugh and cheer. Just be as ridiculous as possible.” I took her advice and gave quite an awesome speech, but more on that later.

The ceremony started with some words from the MC, a prayer and welcome from Sister Goretti, and words from the head teacher. The P3 class and the Girl Scouts performed some songs, and then the P7 class followed with a few good-bye songs and a speech from a student, Dorothy, on their behalf. Overall, this was pretty entertaining. I also loved being able to see my P7 students performing, even though all the songs were pretty much the same. Then it was time for my big moment – basically, I killed it!

I should start of by saying that I kept being introduced as the “chief special guest.” George, the MC, kept saying that I was right off the plane from the US, and I came just for this ceremony. Sister Goretti’s welcome speech went on and on about everything I had done for the school. The program even had the item, “words from chief special guest.” It took me a while to realize, “Oh, that’s me!”

I started off my speech in the typical Ugandan format; after all, I had to do this right. So I started the speech by thanking everyone:

“Thank you Sister Goretti, thank you head teacher, Godfrey, thank you P7 candidates. Ah, and thank you MC. Thank you teachers and thank you parents. Ah, I am most grateful. You are all most welcome.”

You are probably thinking to yourselves, “Wait, did you really say this?” Yes, yes I did. I went through this whole mandatory shpeal – I have been to enough workshops, staff meetings and events to know this is how it is done. I continued my speech by introducing myself, giving a little info on Peace Corps and bragging about how I was definitely the luckiest Peace Corps Volunteer because I got placed in the best school. (Of course, everyone cheered and went crazy!) I went on to tell the P7 class that I enjoyed teaching them and that I was really proud of all their hard work. I ended the speech on one final, awesome note:

“As you all know, I was just in the U.S., and everyone back home sends their greetings. On behalf of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers, the US and…” [at this point I held up my phone with a picture of President Obama] “…President Obama, we all wish you good luck. We know that you will do well! Thank you.”

Everyone started screaming, cheering and laughing. I am pretty sure about 90% of the room thought I was serious and thought I had actually spoken to Obama. My fellow teachers definitely knew I was kidding, but nonetheless, everyone kept asking me to see the picture of Obama. The reason I decided to say this is because Ugandans always ask Americans, “How is Obama?” as if we know him or something. So, I decided to have a little fun with my award-winning speech.

The ceremony ended with parents and teachers coming up to present “success” cards to students – basically “good luck” cards. Once again, all 55 students had to come up on stage individually and get their card. At this point, it was 2:00, and I was so hungry. Afterward, it was time for pictures. Students and families could get their picture taken with the school camera, and I was asked to join a lot of these photos. Photo ops are always entertaining in Uganda because Ugandans never smile. I could not help relating to Conor Grennan’s description of taking photos of people in Nepal in his book Little Princes:

“Each time their smiles and roughhousing ceased immediately and they stood bolt upright, the Official Royal Patriots. As soon as I took a photo, they collapsed again, and lobbied for photos with this boy, or these children.”

I think that sums it up perfectly. So I spent the next hour posing for photographs, and I am sure I was the only one smiling. We also had to take big group photos, which took forever. After 45 minutes, George finally started to wrap everyone up and began the “closing”. Sister Goretti gave a final prayer and by 3:10, we were finally off to lunch! Yay! By this point, I was famished. I heaped my plate full of matoke, rice, chicken, meat and cabbage. We also got soda – score! This constitutes a delicious feast for me, so I was beyond happy. I finished my meal off in about two minutes.

I came back home, bathed and crawled into bed to watch Dexter. Obviously, I had my fan on too. And that, my friends, was my big weekend! Jealous? Thought so…

Now, for some photos. Sorry, these were taken on my iPhone so they aren't the greatest quality. Don't worry, I will try to get photos from Francis - and you can see some quality ones of my students and me. And hopefully one of me giving my speech!