Friday: Multiple Lunches, Power Outage and Motorcycle Lessons

As we were discussing the design of the newsletter this afternoon, power went out. I think we were all a little relived to have a break, and Andy and I took the opportunity to take a nap. Then the Diocesan Secretary called to tell us that he was leaving for the weekend and not planning to return until after we depart. He was standing by the building that he shares with the Bishop’s chaplain as his living quarters, and so after saying goodbye, we naturally went over to meet the chaplain’s family. Apparently they were in the middle of lunch. The DS sat down. Seats and plates were brought outside for us. And then came the beans and rice. It was delicious, possibly even more so because we were eating with our hands. (Utensils haven’t so much come here.) One of the woman asked me if I knew how to cook. I said yes, but not this food. She promised to teach me tomorrow.

As we were finishing, we saw the Bishop’s wife pull up to her house. She walked over, saw that we had eaten, and asked why we had not eaten lunch at her house. We explained the situation, and then went back with her because we had planned to walk with her to an adult literacy program. Lunch was brought out. Andy started to say that we had already eaten, and we would just let her eat and come back. The look on her face said it all. And then she told us that it is very rude to refuse food in the Acholi culture. So we ate lunch again. Lesson learned.

Later in the afternoon, I was walking back to the computer building from the latrine, when one of the staff on his boda-boda asked me if I knew how to ride. I said no. He asked if I wanted to learn. I said yes. Unfortunately we didn’t get very far because the rain started pouring down. He told me we can continue tomorrow. Really, though, I didn’t make any progress until Andy came out and started explaining things.

In light of the rain and the lack of electricity, we went back to the Guest House to rest again. As it started to get dark, we went for dinner. The Bishop’s living room was lit by a gas lamp. He had traveled to Pader (the district just south of Kitgum) for the day, and so we waited. Dinner was brought out as it became obvious that he was not going to get back at any reasonable hour. At 10pm, when it was really obvious that he would not be back soon, Andy drove his wife to town to run an errand. I stayed behind in the dark guesthouse with my little flashlight. When he came back, we turned out the flashlight and tried to go to sleep. We missed the fan.