Ugandan Legends

Salam all!

I'm still alive, escaping from alligators and their sisters ;) Things are much different here, I mean, I've been to yemen, but that was only 3 hours away, here I needed 27 hours (including two stops, one in Dubai another in Adis-Ababa) but oddly enough, I'm in the same time zone as Amman!?

And dangers are really of a different caliber, each day when I walk to my room in the hotel, I must watch out for Mango's falling on my head from a giant mango tree! I usually find some on the ground, so I literally pick mango's from the ground and go have them in my room! Yum Yum!

Another thing cool here is the harmony among Muslims and Christians. I mean, for example, although the country has a president, it also has a king. he is called Kabaka of Buganda. The king here is more of a spiritual and influential post rather than ruler. The king family has two branches, one is Christian, another which converted to Islam. The way that a king is crowned is not straight forward. Actually, the first born of the king cannot be crowned as king. The crown prince is elected from one of the sons or nephews of the King. So sometimes you have a Muslim king, others you have a Christian! the king is now Christian, but the crown prince is Muslim.

We went to Friday prayers the other day, and saw the sidewalk leading to the mosque filled with students wearing cute outfits, and everybody in the mosque was wearing their most beautiful cloths. The yard of the mosque had a huge throne like chair, and many other chairs around it. We didn't quite understand what all this fuss was about. Later, and in the middle of the sermon (5o6beh), two guards entered, one of them, an old man (not less than 70) was wearing panther leather like Tarazan and holding a spear and armor. Behind them entered the crown prince of Buganda! We later learned that it was the prince's birthday! and that all the people came to this old mosque to greet him and wish him a happy birthday! as for the thrown, it was for the christian king! And the granddad Tarzan is the royal guard!

After the prayers, everybody went to greet the prince! And then the prince got out to pay respect to his uncle - the king. When we got out, we saw that the women's yard was separated from the men's yard by a low fence, and a man (orchestra coordinator) was singing to the ladies and they were singing back wish beautiful voices and much enthusiasm, and of course A LOT of drums were there! Yes, drum banging, ladies singing, people clapping, all IN THE MOSQUE! They never really sang Happy Birthday to you, and didn't bring a cake or candles, but everybody was cheering and clapping and singing along! Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures due to security, but it was a scene I will never forget!

We also learned that on Saturday, a similar ceremony was going to take place in church!

I attach some photo's of the temporary office we are in. It's basically a one floor house with a huge garden.

Take care and stay in touch!
Regards,
Ali Afrikano