Church and Pencil Tops

We wake up and leave for church at 8am. We have sweet bananas in the house so I grab a few for the walk.

A matatu doesn’t pick us up right away like last Sunday I stop by Joe’s to see if he’s coming. A man out front tells me he’s already left.

Jeff and Kelley meet Sam, who is coming with us to church. I look for Joe and can’t find him. I wave to Richard, a math teacher at the school where I work. It looks like I’ve missed Joe. Sam says maybe he’s in Kisoga.


We arrive into the trading center at Kisoga and there is Joe in a white polo shirt with ENGLAND in red across the front. He’s eating popcorn. He runs over to the taxi to tell me he has no money for the ride. I tell him I’ll pay, remembering how he paid for me all day on Wednesday.

The ride is much quicker than usual and we arrive in Mukono with 40 minutes to spare. We take our time walking to church. Kelley leaves to go drop off some things for a couple of girls who go to school here.

We walk up the hill to church and go inside. Many people shake our hands and tell us we are “most welcome.” Elder Masdfjksdfilj (that’s not really his name – I can’t remember it – but it does have 13 letters in it.) jokes and acts like he thinks Joe is from England.

After meeting a lot of people we go into the chapel and sit in the second row. Kelley arrives right before sacrament and is surprised when she is asked, along with Jeff, to get up and talk about their testimony of the gospel – what they believe and why.

It is a “missionary Sunday” so the Elders speak and teach the lessons. Sunday school is on obedience and what the motivations are for being obedient – whether we keep the commandments out of fear of punishment, or for promised rewards, or the best reason - because of our love for God.

Sam raises his hand in the middle of the lesson and says, “Thanks so much, this was a good lesson for me. I learned a lot.” It was funny because it was the middle of the lesson not the end, but I’m impressed how brave and open the visitors are here in asking questions and giving their thoughts.

The teacher is from another African country and English is his third language. Before he was called to Uganda he didn’t know any English at all. He was nervous but his father showed him a scripture in the Book of Mormon, which explains that God will never give us a commandment we can’t accomplish – that He will always prepare a way so we can achieve the things he asks of us. He’s only been out on his mission for about for months, and already he is fluent.

After Sunday School Joe asks me for “one of those books.” The Elder who gave the lesson sits with him and shows him some good passages to read and think about and gives him a Book of Mormon.

The priesthood lesson is about honoring our priesthood and living worthily to exercise it. The lesson becomes a lesson about what the priesthood is, because so many people were visitors and had questions. Especially this man David, and also Joe. Some were confused because here, all male members have the priesthood, and not just a select paid clergy or minister.

We also talk about womanhood. The Elder explains that the priesthood does not work with out womanhood and that womanhood does not work without the priesthood. “They need each other.”

There is a sports day planned on Saturday for all the congregations in the area. Joe and I are going. He wants to play badminton. I’m going to show them some basketball skills..ha. I love basketball.

It’s funny because it’s just suppose to be a friendly atmosphere to meet people from other areas, but the Mukono Branch keeps talking about their honor. “We should not bring shame upon our branch by poor performance.” Haha.

Meghan (the Muzungu from Utah) and I sit and laugh at the great people are here. She is a teacher and is spending her time here training teachers in a different teaching method that his used in the US. I ask her if her kids ever ask her to sing or dance and she says, “Oh yeah! All the time.”

“Madam, sing Shania Twain!” (The love her here. Jeff says they're obsessed with Dolly Patron.) I think this is great and I’m a bit relieved that it wasn’t just some weird vibe I was putting out that made the kids believe I loved to perform.

After church I update my blog and have some yogurt and a delicious green apple! for lunch. My stomach is feeling way shaky after dinner last night. (Jeff isn’t doing so hot either.)

On the matatu ride home a girl sits next to me and smiles. I start reading one of my books, Faith Precedes the Miracle. She asks me if I’m saved. I think for a moment and I start to explain that I was a “joint heir with Christ” but just settled with a “yes.” She asked what church I go to and I told her “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

And she smiled and said, “The Mormons.”

“Yes. The Mormons.”

I continue reading and I’m convinced she is sitting closer to me than necessary. Her name is Rachel and she wants to come to church next Sunday. I tell her I’ll save her a seat. I ask her if she’s in school. She says yes and I ask what level. “Two.”

“S Two?”

“Yes.” I take this opportunity to let her know that I teach S2s in Ntenjeru (hoping maybe that she will realize that no matter how close she sits to me – nothings going to happen.. ha.)

I look out the window and think about a conversation I had with Jeff last night, talking about Josephine’s daughter who will not stop calling me. Jeff said it’s crazy how if I wanted a wife I could probably get one right away. I laughed because the poor girl would be in for a surprise when we got home and I have no money and probably have to live with my parents for a while. And then I realized that she would probably be thrilled regardless.

Anyway, Rachel gets off the taxi and a woman with a young child sits by me and we talk. She is nice and wishes me success. The conductor tries to charge me 3000Sh and I say no. Thinking about it later, it is funny that I just said no. I say that I’ve ridden many times before and it’s always 2500sh and the sign at the taxi park says 2500sh and just because I’m a Muzungu doesn’t mean I’m dense.

The passengers laugh and the woman next to me says sometimes people are rude. ( I think maybe she doesn’t want me to feel that all Ugandans do that – I know they don’t.)

I only hardly eat dinner. Lydia made some sort of plain omelet that was delicious and I stuck with that and some spaghetti noodles. I feel like I’m on the verge of being on the verge of throwing up.

We sit and talk after dinner. Then we hear someone crying loudly outside. We investigate and find Abdul. It’s hard to understand what’s going on - something about a pencil.. I guess the older boys (15 and 16 yr olds) were picking on him.

Kelley wants the boys to be told off. Jeff says boys will be boys and I enter into summer camp mode. I stop two girls from the dorm who were going to get involved and I go to the boy's dorm to ask them why Abdul is upset. I made sure to do a lot of asking. I’m not sure what authority I have in the matter.

The story was Abdul picked up a pencil top or pen cap and one of the older boys said it was his and told Abdul to give it back. He refused and hid it in his bed. The older boy got off his bunk and pulled the 10 year old off the bunk to search for the cap.

I give the boys the same speech I gave 100 times at camp. (and that was given to my siblings and me countless times by my dad as we were growing up.) If the pen did belong to the older boy, then Abdul was wrong. But as soon as you touched him and physically moved him, you also became wrong. I explained how it must feel being the youngest boy in the dorm. I let them know how important it is to feel safe here - that this place is their home and what happened made Abdul feel unsafe.

The boys are very polite and came to their own correct conclusions with my simple questions. I tell them if this kind of thing comes up again, to go get Festus or an adult to act as a mediator.

It sounds more preachy here than when I actually talked with them.