Oh Say Can You See?

Before class I get to school and go to the teachers lounge. Which is really just a small concrete room with a table and stools and a huge 2005 calendar showing some soccer team. They ask me if I’m having some tea and I tell them no thank you. Then one of them says this is the third time that I’ve refused to “take tea” (which is how they say it here.) and asked if I was worried they were going to poison me.

Then Richard says, “No, it’s because of his religion” Richard says he used to go to my church in Mukono but that he can’t afford to take a taxi there every Sunday. The Chemistry teacher, Joseph says he would like to go to my church and asks me what it’s about.

I tell him that one thing about our church is we believe God is the same yesterday, today, and
forever, and if he spoke to prophets in the past, he will continue to speak through prophets today. That God is not finished speaking to us, that his work did not end with the Bible, but continues on even today.

The teacher who is a Jehovah’s Witness, and a good man, asks me what I say about the passage in the Bible that says there will be no one after Jesus. I ask him to please show me this passage, because I don’t believe it says that anywhere in scripture.

He quickly flips through the pages, searching for these words, as the others continue to ask some questions about the church. I explain how the Bible is a record of God’s dealings with His people in Jerusalem, and how God loves the entire world and speaks to people in other places as well. And they are asked to write their revelations just as the prophets were in Jerusalem. I told them the Book of Mormon is a record of God’s dealings with His people anciently on the American continent.

Then this man shows me the passage he has found. It is in Hebrews and says something like, “Thus Jesus, having come at the end of days, has …..” And he points at the “end of days” and says, “see!” I ask him who wrote that passage. He says Paul. I ask him, if everything ended with Jesus, why do you consider Paul’s words to be scripture?

The whole room hooted and laughed and the man just smiled. “Do you consider Paul a prophet?” I say that he was a leader of the church, an apostle, and that apostles are also prophets.

“What about,” he starts, using the familiar argument, “in Revelations where it says if you add to these words you add a curse, if you take away any words it is no good?”

I ask him if he knows that the book of Revelation was written chronologically before some of the books in the Bible. I tell him, and the few listening in the room, that Matthew didn’t get a huge blank book and start writing on it, and then having finished, pass it to Mark, then to Luke and to John and then finally, some time down the road, John the Revelator gets this book and decides he is going to finish it. The End.

The books of the Bible were all separate, and it is man that compiled the scriptures and put them in the order they thought appropriate. All the writings of Paul are placed in the Bible from the longest book to the shortest. When did it ever say that God was finished with revelation?

He can’t think of anything to say but that we have a lot to talk about.

Today I teach math to the S2s before the S1s. I end the S1 class and start packing my bags. “Master! Mr. Adam! Sing for us!”

“What? Why??”

“Sing for us some American music. What about your National Anthem?”

I tell them that if I sing my National Anthem they have to sing theirs. They agree. I sing the Star Spangled Banner and they applause. They ask me what it means. I explain how it was written during the Revolutionary War when we were fighting for our freedom and independence. (Even though it was the war of 1812.. ha. I knew it didn't sound right, but my dad commented and let me know.) I tell them the flag was raised during the day amidst all the cannons and gunshots and the author of the song saw the flag as the sun set.

I told them the fighting continued throughout the night and in the morning, with the first rays of the sun, the author looked out and saw that the flag was still standing, and it inspired him to write this song, which represents to us that no matter what happens, through all difficulties, our nation, and the desire to be free, will endure.

I felt so proud to be American. Haha.

Then all at once they stood and began to sing their anthem. It was simple and pretty and talked about Uganda being a land of freedom and that if they stood together it could not fall. I really enjoyed their singing.

After Lunch all the students have an official debate. The two opposing sides sit across from each other and there is a House Speaker with secretaries at his side. The four proposing and four opposing speakers have their name written on the board with the prefix: Honorable. The proposing argument is: Boys should be given the first priority to education.

I guess the issue is that sometimes a mother does not have enough money to send all her children to school. So should she send the boy before the girl, or the girl before the boy. In my opinion gender shouldn’t determine which child goes to school.

Those proposing say that in the Bible, God made Adam first and then Eve. So it should be with education. (I want to tell the girls that the Bible also says the First shall be Last and the Last shall be First, but I keep quiet.) The opposing said that God made Eve to help Adam and how can she help Adam without an education? The proposing said all major discoveries have been from men and that it is this theory (giving a man’s name) or that theory and not the Shania Twain Theory. Haha. The girls said: educate a woman - educate a nation.

I don’t think there was one clear winner on the subject.

After school I walk with the Chemistry teacher, Joseph to town. I say I’m going to get a haircut and he comes with me. Jeff got a hair cut yesterday and it looks fine. They shaved his face too and it only cost 500Sh! So, I walk in, confident that everything will be great. I tell the barber to just trim the sides a bit, but do not shave it. OK OK

BUZZ! Right into the side of my head above my ear he shaves the hair off. “Like this?”

“No! ha but it’s too late now, isn’t it? Go ahead..”

So he shaves all around my head and leaves the top. I look like Vanilla Ice. Haha I’m not upset as I would be in America because everyone will just assume this is what muzungos do to their hair. But I will wear a hat to school tomorrow. (As if I haven’t been doing that everyday anyway.)

Then Joseph says we should go to Kisonga (said like Chasoga.) It’s the biggest village between here and Mukono. I asked how much it would cost and he says, “No, no you are my guest!” Why do these Africans want to buy me everything? It’s the opposite of what you would expect.

We get to Kisonga and go to a bar and he orders us soda after soda and we sit and watch Ugandan music videos. Which are very funny. Joseph, or maybe I should call him Joe, to differentiate between him and Joseph from Mukono.. Joe told the girl to put in some English videos. He is from the border of Uganda and Kenya, so he doesn’t speak Luganda very well, mostly Swahili.

The girl puts in a new DVD and it’s the Back Street Boys. Haha I love it and think that this DVD will be filled with funny videos from my middle school days. But I was wrong, the DVD was every music video the Back Street Boys had ever made. And the Africans sat and sang along. Haha.

There was a woman who managed the shop named Josephine, who after I took some pictures of her and the shop, asked for my number and made me write down hers. She said if I was ever lonely she had some daughters I could spend time with. Haha.

We go next door to play some pool. The balls are a bit smaller than the ones in America and they are only colors with no numbers, except the 8-ball, which looked like a miniature of ours. The owner of the place came up to us and played a game of pool. Of course he was brilliant, owning the pool table and everything. He shows us what is what and then gives us three free games.

Robby calls me! It is so great to talk to someone from home. He has called me about three times I think, only for a few minutes, but it's still great. He is driving down the highway listening to the Uganda music playing in the background on my end. Crazy.

Joe keeps asking me what I want to eat and I tell him I am OK. Finally he says that it hurts him that I won’t eat. He wants me to have a good time and to buy my dinner. So we order some Matooke and Fish before we head on home.

We catch a taxi to Ntenjeru. There is no one else in the matatu and we sit in front. I make sure to put my seatbelt on. We get to Ntenjeru and the taxi is going no further, so Joe gets us a motorcycle to Nsumba. He lives between here and Nsumba and he pays for the driver to drop me off after him.

The guy drives behind Joe’s building right to his room. He wants to show me his place. “This is my girl,” he says pointing to a woman cooking something on the steps. I had no idea he was married, or living with this woman. We get inside and there is a baby sleeping on the couch. “Who is this?” I say. “This is my girl.” Haha. I say goodbye and head on home.

The driver drives allt he way into the courtyard of the White House. I say, "Webale" and he drives off. I poke my head into the boy's dorm to say hi. There are five boys staying there now. One of them is turning eleven. His name is Addul (everyone says it like Aba-doo) He is following along as I type this out right now on my laptop. His reading skills are very good.