Lots of Functions!

By Anthony:

This is a random photo post, but most of the photos are from different weddings, burials, visits and functions we went to in the past few months. Play this nice song below first! You can listen to it while looking at the rest of the post. It is a Roman Catholic choir singing at a burial that Sara went to. It was the mother of our friend who died. She was Catholic but our friend is a Pentecostal bishop, so there was a nice mix of Pentecostals and Catholics at the burial and our Pentecostal friends said that they really loved the rich music and theological lyrics from the Catholic songs.

-->  Choir Song  <--

Next I'll share some animal photos from our time in South Africa that didn't make it into Sara's post. This was a Drakensburg dwarf chameleon we found on the hotel grounds.

Also on our hotel grounds, where we were all walking in barefoot playing volleyball and badminton, was this little guy, a rinkhals. It looks like a cobra but actually isn't quite a true cobra. This one is a baby but still lethal. Like many species of cobras, it also spits venom. This one was only about a foot long. We are thankful no one stepped on it.

Still in South Africa, we saw a few of these amazing grasshoppers.

Here is a picture of us enjoying our huge avocados from the tree in our yard.

 

We attended the traditional wedding (called an introduction) of our colleague Stephen's son, Andrew. The church wedding was a week later. In the traditional wedding there is a lot of dancing and it takes most of the day. The issue of brideprice is sorted out either before or during the ceremony. Additionally, there are gifts given to the parents and the clan of the bride. We find these events interesting to watch, but they are tiring because we have to wear ear plugs the whole time due to the crazy loud speakers which are ubiquitous in Uganda and because we are always inevitably one of the centers of attention.

During the ceremony there are a lot of games consisting of the groom's clan or the groom himself trying to look through a line up of ladies to see if he can find who his bride is. Somehow Sara got roped into joining one of these games, but unfortunately Sara and I don't know how to dance as naturally as our Ugandan friends! Sara earned us some cultural brownie points though. People were so happy, especially when she knelt down with the rest of the ladies.

 

This is a video from Andrew's wedding at church in Soroti. It took 30-45 minutes for the bride to make it from the back of the church to the front!

Our dogs found a family of hedgehogs in our yard. We safely moved them outside.

A beautiful butterfly I found:

Here is a church service we visited in Amuria where I preached and Sara taught an inductive Bible study method. 

It was our pastor friend Robert Okello who we were visiting. Here is him and his wife with us.

 

We had a weird vehicle problem recently. The lock got messed up and my key got stuck in the door in town and I couldn't remove it. So Sara guarded the vehicle while I went home to get another key and then take the vehicle to the mechanic. They had to take the whole door apart to fix it.

Here is a video of us hiking in Mt. Elgon. It's nearly impossible to hike in Uganda without having an armed guard present. It seems really unnecessary as there are almost no big animals in Mt. Elgon National Park, but it does provide jobs for people. It was a pleasant surprise that even as a Muslim, our guide was happy to talk to us the whole time about the differences between being a Christian and a Muslim and he was interested to learn more about Jesus from us.

Weddings here are a really big deal. Here is our friend Moses, who translates for me on the radio, having his upcoming wedding being announced in church. This is simply a pre-wedding announcement, and a chance to see his fiancée, Faith. But 30 ladies marched Faith in and maybe 20 men marched Moses in. Cheering is normal, but there was a lot of extra cheering for Moses since he serves our church in many ways and people know him well.

We visited the parents of our own church pastor, Egonu, in the village. I also help coach him regarding preaching. This is an awkward picture because I was trying to get him to point to the middle of the flower. His brother designed this grass-thatched hut and in the middle of the flower is a speaker for the radio. So they can sit on the little veranda and enjoy listening to music.

Inside one of the huts:

The roof makes a convenient shelf for everyday items:

Our local church had a big farewell celebration to our pastor, Joseph, who had served there for 20 years. He was promoted to be an assembly pastor now in a different area of the district. There were lots of gifts given including cows and goats.

These are the ladies of our church doing this dance:

A giant toad I found in our yard:

One of Sara's cute baby rabbits:

Last, here is Beorn. No, he is not in time-out. He found the bench there and thought it a nice place to hide out!