Today we arose African style again, had breakfast, then left for orphanage to play with the kids and have Bible study. We took two soccer balls as we walked to the orphanage. When we rounded the corner the whole compound went into an uproar. They were so excited to see the balls, and well, maybe us too.
Playing ball in the orphanage
We kicked the balls over the fence and the play began. The boys took over both balls, the older ones with one ball and the younger ones with the other. The girls came to me asking that I get one of the balls for them. I intervened for them with the men on our team and the girls got their ball. Then they asked me to play a keep away type of game where we tossed the ball to another person on our team. Jacque and I were on opposite teams. The team tried to get the ball closer to their side of the fence to score a goal. Sort of a skirt-wearing-girl version of soccer.
We played in the same yard with the boys as they played soccer and that’s when I crashed. An older boy, that towered over me, and I collided and we both went to the ground. Neither of us had seen the other. There I was rolling around on the ground and in my skirt. I’m afraid that I frightened the orphans as they saw much more mzungu, pasty white legs than they bargained for. What fun! The girls all came to help me up, dust me off and ask if I was okay. I told them I was fine, but I had a very painful hip-pointer type of pain immediately. I played a little more, then bowed out.
Chuck gathered a bunch of little ones and he began to sing to them. The older girls joined in and taught us a song that we originally thought was in their language. The song was in the Queen’s English and I guess our Texas ears couldn’t pick it up. They wrote the words down for us, then we got it.
Lunch with the Orphans
After singing praises, we ate lunch with them. They eat posho and pintos. Posho is made by adding white corn flour to boiling water making a solid lump of hardened grits-type food. It’s too hard to be spooned, and needs cutting. They scrape a plastic bowl across it to shave off a chuck to serve bean soup over. The beans are plain, nothing added. We ate out of their bowls with our hands just like them.
After lunch we had to leave because late the night before we received notice that Susan’s grand uncle passed. They call all men in their family baba which means father and the women mama. Need I explain the meaning? The unexpected death meant we had no time for the Bible study so we could go to the burial. The Ugandans call funerals burials. We walked back to the missionary house and found Phil had returned with our team leader, James. We loaded into the vans with the family and left.
The ride was very enlightening. We saw much of the village. Susan stopped by the property where the ministry is going to build a vocational school where welding and sowing and other skills will be taught. The orphans will be taught a skill.
Ugandan Burial
When we arrived at the family’s house, we noticed the women and young children sitting on the ground in a group and the men sitting on homemade benches and stumps in another group. The women were dressed in their best. As we unloaded we were asked to go to a shady spot where lawn chairs were set up for us. A van of the orphan girls arrived with wailing, They went into the house wailing and after a while it turned into singing.
Peter came and asked for one of our team to preach. Once again, we were so honored. The men on our team told Chuck to take it. He went to get his Bible and while he was gone the orphan girls brought us a bowl of rice with spices and small beef chunks. After eating, they called us to the house front. We got up to go and the orphans picked up our chairs and ran ahead to give us a front row seat for the burial. Several men spoke, the orphan girls choir sang, then Phil spoke both in their language and in English with an interpreter. Then Chuck preached with an interpreter.
After Chuck finished, the men backed the van to the house and went in and brought out the small wooden coffin/box with black paper tacked to it and placed the box on top of the van. We were then told to get into the van and the family piled in with us. We drove while all the other people walked to the burial. The driver stopped beside a 4 ft hole. As they placed the box in the grave, the orphans led the people in singing. Then Paul, Susan’s brother handed me a handful of their red dirt to toss onto the box along with the family’s handfuls. Talk about humbling!!
After the family threw their handful of dirt on top, several men picked up shovels an began piling dirt to fill in the hole. The orphan girls lead the people singing as the men worked. Susan asked Cameron if he wanted to shovel and a man gave him a shovel to help.
Sorry I didn’t take pictures of this, but we did video parts of the burial and will upload it to YouTube when we get good internet. The internet here is sporadic at best. Here is the uploaded video of the orphans singing. The orange tarp is attached to the deceased’s house where his body was.
After the van ride home, the team sat in awe of the day. Awe!
More pictures are uploaded on Facebook. Check them out.
Please pray for the mission. You can sign up to be a partner in prayer. And for updates while on location you can subscribe to feed here.
Please comment below. I’d love to respond to your questions about the burial, the singing or the orphan’s meal plan.
This post is part of the Living and Working on Mission Blog Series and you can read more about our trip in the previous Uganda posts. If you enjoyed it you may also like the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series, the Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges Series or the other Blog Series.
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