Paparazzi and the Archbishop

This was an unusual Sunday, to say the least! We were up early and dressed once more in our basutis so that we could go into Ggaayaza, a small town nearby where the Roman Catholic Church was celebrating its 100th anniversary. Vennie (the tutor), and Mr. Lubega drove us there. We thought it was very strange to stop at a market in order to buy a gift for the bishop, but we trusted our host who assured us this was the proper thing to do. He is a wise man.

As we arrived we were shown outside the church to the VIP tent, one of many tents all in a circle with a large grassy area in the centre. Again, people everywhere stared and pointed at the white people in traditional Ugandan clothes, but by now we were used to it. We enjoyed the service—we were glad that at least a few things were in Latin, like the Kyrie and Agnus Dei, although our hosts did their best to translate for us.

There was a choir in matching outfits, along with some drums and a keyboard (there was a sound system and speakers) who sang a great deal of music, in traditional, classical and contemporary styles. There were banners everywhere and fresh flowers in tall white stands—everything looked very festive. After the Archbishop had finished preaching (and he seemed to have a great sense of humour—there was a lot of laughing!) three brides, all dressed in white, came forward to be married! They had flower girls and bridesmaids along with fathers and brothers, with all the women dressed beautifully in very western styles. Communion followed, with several stations around the tents, which made me begin to wonder just exactly how many people were attending the service.

Then the offering began. There was the usual collection of money, but then many people began to come forward with gifts for the archbishop (we are told they were household items, local crafts and food). We thought this very odd and rather greedy…but then we discovered that those gifts will be distributed among the various priests, nuns and brothers. That made more sense (how many fruits can an archbishop eat by himself?).

After the benediction, there were boxes put out to receive tithes (which they understand to be separate from the offering). All of a sudden we were told by Mr. Lubega to get up and follow him. We hadn’t noticed because the MC was speaking in Lugandan, but we were being introduced and asked to come forward to present our gift to the bishop! He was glad to receive the Canadian visitors and commented on our dress. At that time I got a look at the crowd: there were about 5000 people--oh my!

Our fun didn’t end there. A few minutes later the archbishop sent for us because he wanted his photo taken with us, and we went to the centre of the grassy area again to shake his hand. There was a huge crowd of photographers there, and it felt like a million flashes went off. Anne and Karin were both red-cheeked with embarrassment. It was far too big a fuss to make over us, but they were so pleased that we would honour their country with our dress. Hopefully we will be able to secure a copy of that photo because of course we didn’t have a camera with us—we were going to church, for heaven’s sake!

A meal was served to the religious leaders and we were invited to join them. It was a buffet on the grass, with delicious traditional food. While we ate there was another choir, this time very traditional, with all kinds of drums, and dancers. They were amazing and did dances and songs from several tribes, so we saw dancing we’d never seen before. The women dressed in leopard skin print scarves and did all of their movements with clay pots balanced on their heads. Wow! What was so funny to me was how many things were going on at the same time. At one point there was singing and dancing on the grass, plus wedding photos (the dancers had to move around the bride), plus a catering company setting up tables for lunch! (Actually, the caterers had a hard time figuring out where to put the buffet tables, and kept moving them to new places. Karin leaned over and said that they needed Wendy!)

When we finally thought to check the time, it was well after 5:00 (we arrived at 10:30 am!) but we had been having such a good time we didn’t even notice. Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess!