Church, fishing, and stolen ipods!

Sunday morning, I went to church in Katosi with Heidi, the peace corps volunteer. I don't usually go to church, but I wanted to see what it was like in Uganda and I thought it would be a good cultural experience. It was! there is something spiritual/ a little haunting about listening to people singing and praying in another language. maybe that is why priests in the US used to do it in latin?? Anyway, it was nice to hear, but at the same time it reminded me of rwanda. I had not been in a small african church like that since going to two churches in Rwanda, where tens of thousands of people were killed during the genocide. The churches became memorials, and there were hundreds of skulls lined up all around, with bones and bloody clothing in piles on the floor.
So when I was sitting in church in Katosi, in a church that looked exactly like rwanda's genocide memorials, i almost started to hyperventilate. I started to wonder if everyone in katosi tried to take refuge in that church during some horrible violence or something, what would happen? Could the people that were praying and singing so beautifully next to me be slaughtered by their neighbors? Could I be?... Even if I was not in Rwanda, things like that can happen anywhere under the right circumstances (and yes, even in the US), and that is scary. But I decided I would just have to have faith in people (and be careful, of course) and do everything I can to make sure nothing like that ever happens to anyone ever again.

On a lighter note, yesterday afternoon I went fishing! Raymond, Heidi, Avery, and I took a boat across Lake Victoria to a little peninsula in the area, and then we stood on some rocks and tried to catch fish. We had these gigantic wooden sticks to use as poles (they were at least 3 times my height!) and we dug up worms to use as bait. It was an absolute failure; None of us caught anything, and i never even saw one fish in the water. That is one problem in Katosi. it has historically been a fishing village, but there has been so much overfishing that there are hardly any left. That is why the women in the area founded the organization I work at, in order to empower the women to find alternate sources of income.

Anyway, even though I caught no fish, it was seriously so much fun. I kept trying to throw my bait in the water, but the hook kept getting caught on the trees behind me, and i kept almost falling in the water. Some villagers came to watch, and of course they thought it was hilarious...which it was! I had so much fun I do not even care that I probably got schistosomaisis again. ok i do care, oh hell! I kept getting splashed by the waves, and eventually my entire feet were soaked and so were most of my legs. Then later that night, my feet started to itch, just like last year when I got schisto. this time, we could even SEE the snails that the parasite lives in floating around the lake, so great. but oh well, at least i know it is curable! On the way home, the sun was setting over the lake, and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Another ridiculous thing that happened...we had our first encounter with theft! Avery and I have a window in our room that we have open when we are home. Even though there are bars in front of it so that no one can climb in, we found out that that does not stop people from reaching in the window with sticks to steal our things. Avery had left her ipod on her bed while she was in the living room, and the window was open. When she came back, her ipod was gone, even though it had been at least four feet from the window! we looked around for it and finally we told raymond that is was missing, and he guessed it was stolen. Avery was sad, but figured she would never see it again. But Raymond told the man across the street (who has a loudspeaker) to announce a reward for whoever would return the ipod! a little kid (who apparently used two sticks to reach in a grab the ipod throw the window) returned it to the loudspeaker man apparently because he was afraid there was some tracking device inside it.

So we were very happy when we found this out! except then the loudspeaker man told us we had to pay him for the ipod. WHAT?? thats right. he made avery buy back HER OWN IPOD (which even had her name engraved on it). How ridiculous, haha! and then he acted like he was the good guy, and said "i will address the boy who stole the ipod and fix the problem." but HE is part of the problem, right?? he made avery buy her own ipod when he knew it had been stolen from her. That is just how they do it here though, and at least we got it back! Avery asked if it would have been good to go to the police, but Raymond said that would probably make things worse (one of my friends was mugged by the police when he was in Uganda...haha). They even do mob justice here, as opposed to going to the police. Like the other day on the way home from teaching, we saw a big crowd with people fighting in the middle. We later found out that the crowd was beating up a man that had stolen something! It was interesting though, because the atmosphere was not this aggressive, dangerous feeling that you might expect. it was more people were laughing and doing what they believe is the right thing to do. it even seemed like the guy getting beaten up felt like that too. It was interesting, but I could not stay and watch.

I hope everyone is doing well,
love colleen