Ugandan Travels 1 - My First Taste of God

Most of the early development missions were carried by religious groups. Western religions are therefore well implanted throughout East African communities. Our field assistant Peter Atoki is greatly involved in the management of the local catholic church around Kibale National Park. It was thus a pleasure to accept his invitation to the Sunday service. As the church filled out to what seemed the maximum capacity every minute, the singing became more and more powerful. Joined by more traditional percussions, catholic songs have never seemed so uplifting. Even though I don't have a clue of what the sermon was about (my Rutooro isn't there yet) I was filled with hope when it ended. the sense of unity between all these human beings was bigger than any of us. What these isolated communities achieve by uniting their strengths against AIDS, malaria, yellow fever, droughts... and by cooperating to fight these challenges was palpable in this church, under this roof. We are so much stronger in a group, and that feeling is what I will call my God from now on, this is the higher instance I believe in. And I deeply hope the primary goal or churches was just that: to create a central place for community building.

To end the morning with an even more positive note, we bought a chicken from the auction and offered it to our kind friend Atoki, as seen in the picture.