Album Launch Party and the Beauty of Ciproflaxin

It's possible that some of you are wondering what happened to me this week, since I wrote the majority of the posts last week. To put it mildly, I was not feeling well. I chalked it up to my sensitive stomach at first, and then considered the possibility that the malaria pills were too much for my delicate little system. After a week of misery, I finally took a dose of Cipro. The results were amazing. I woke up this morning feeling okay for the first time since Jinja, and with a newfound love for Cipro. And this evening, I actually don't feel compelled to go straight to bed.

But that's in the past. Let's go to today, which offered us a real cultural experience. A pastor for one of the local churches, along with a band made up of some of his youth, put out an album and hosted a party for the event. Sarah received a printed invitation and all - clearly this group had gone to a lot of work. The invitation said 2, but knowing how time works here, we didn't get there until 2:30. Upon arrival, we were a bit surprised to find that there were no cars. We asked Joseph, the 17 year old who had come with us, whether the event had started. He said that the rain had delayed it, but that it would start very soon. We went into the building where they were building the stage (using a rock as a hammer...) setting up a "spotlight" and wiping off chairs. Number of guests: zero. Of course, as the muzungus, we were directed to the chairs in the front row and were told that it would all begin in about 20 minutes.

An hour and a half later, already deafened by the volume of the worship music blaring louder than the speakers were meant to handle, Joseph and a few other kids from the youth group got up to sing some worship songs. We think they had nice voices, but it was a little difficult to tell what with the volume of the speakers and all.

Then the MC's came out. One was pretty normal. The other was wearing a black shiny suit and really liked to dance. And for anyone who has seen "Lost in Translation," think of the people in the talk show. They asked Andy to open the program in prayer and to sing a song. The mic kept cutting out during his prayer, so he finally just yelled. And then he sang with an out of tune guitar with the volume as high as it would go. Classic. They announced one opening act - a gospel singer who sang along to his album. Then they announced another one. And then another. We think the third is the last, but then the female MC bursted out into song. At this point, we're nearing 5 pm, 30 minutes late for a meeting that we had scheduled. It should be noted here that guests were dancing up to the woman giving her change as a "thanksgiving." Sarah gave Andy some money and asked him to go up. And like a true African, he danced his way over. Again, classic.

Finally, the pastor and his youth came out. They were actually pretty great, but they sang three songs and then left. We snuck out with them, pretty sure that they only came out as early as they did because we had to leave. We were also pretty sure that they would be there for several more hours.

At least two lessons were learned today. We knew that the time written on the invitation wouldn't exactly be honored, but we did have the pastor's word that the thing would begin at 2 and end at 4. It started at 4 with no end in sight. We also left with a renewed appreciation for silence - sheer volume, whether it sounds good or not, is practically considered a virtue.