Kumi District

All week long I had been planning on going back to Obalanga to check up on the mass grave project. I had already lined up a piki-piki (motorcycle) for the journey and packed a bag of snacks. Then late on Friday night the LC3, the Local Chairman (sort of like a mayor) called me to say that he was going North to Karamoja and he wanted me to come next weekend instead. Well, that put a damper on my plans, but not for long. I was itching to get out of Soroti, even if for just a few hours, so on Saturday morning I decided to go to Kumi District instead and see a little bit of Uganda's history.

It took us forty-five minutes to arrive here... a gorgeous place with a lot more rock in the landscape than in Soroti. Soroti is in a very flat savannah. The place is called Nyero and we came to visit the famous Nyero Rock Paintings.
This is how one website desribed them: "Widely' recognized as some of the finest rock paintings in East Africa, the Nyero Rock paintings in Kumi district are surrounded by intrigue and mystery. No one knows who drew the paintings."

"What is for sure is that the geometric paintings inscribed using red, white, and purple pigments were drawn about 400 years ago. Some people have put claim to ancient yellow hairy Bushmen whom they say were once living there hundreds of years ago."

Another cool looking tree... I love trees!

Since we were in Kumi district I decided to pull a surprise and stop by the University to visit my friend Zima. She was shocked and delighted to have me drop by the school. She was an intern at the Fida office, and is from Kenya... I may be spending Christmas and New Year's with her and her family in Kenya before departing from Nairobi on January 7th.

Here I am on the back of a piki-piki.

We got home by 1:45 pm and that gave my plenty of time to go to the market and cook for a dinner with my team-mates and the Chinese. A very fun, relationship-building evening. (Some Indians from town were also invited, but they were preparing for their 9 day celebration at their temple.... which they invited us to come and see.)

The Shaarda family showed up with a very fun "Thanks Karen" cake for dessert. Aawww!! It is so nice to be appreciated... Lydia is a joy to teach.

Here is Josiah grilling pork with a few of our Chinese friends. The rains had come, the power was out. So we ate by candle light around my big table and happily I had chopsticks in my silverware drawer. After dinner the rains cleared and we had a bonfire until 10 pm. That's when the Shaardas, Bokmas, and myself headed to town to go to the Hindu Temple. We were invited to watch the dancing. I felt like I was in India again. Lydia and I even wore our Indian outfits so we could fit in just a little.

It was a strange feeling watching the Indians dance around their Hindu god. The dancing was energetic, the clothing beautiful, but the whole scene just left me feeling sad. How can you dance around a statue and think that everything is grand? I just finished sharing the story of the "Golden Calf" and that needed to be destroyed. May God's name be Glorified today!