February 7th

Yesterday I spent the day with Sheila and Ian, a retired couple from Nottingham, England. They left Uganda last May after being here for 2 years, working in the administration of UCI. Before retiring he had worked for 25 years as the technical manager for a tin can factory in England, and she had worked for the Anglican Diocese as the world outreach coordinator. They came to be missionaries but that didn’t work out, and they associated with UCI and helped to build it from groundbreaking up. They were amazed at what has been done, even in the nine months since they left. Buildings have been built, and the school has received provisional accreditation. The student body has expanded to over 100. It was good to spend the day with them because they knew all of the school’s issues and could ask the right questions. Since they left they have been able to assist with funding to buy some land next to the school to build another men’s residence, because the current one is over-crowded.

Ian told me that after working previously for 25 years in the same place, the 2 years in Uganda were the “best years of my life.”

Yesterday morning we attended the weekly worship service at UCI. It was Sheila and Ian’s first visit to the campus since they had arrived a day before, and as they entered the worship service they were greeted as heroes. The worship service was Anglican in its order, with some Pentecostal elements. Several gospel songs were sung by groups from different villages or clans, in their own languages or in English. A guitar player accompanied some of the groups. They would begin singing and he would pick up the key and play with them. As the groups were singing, people would come forward from the congregation to embrace the singers and wipe their brows. The preacher was Peter, the assistant director, and he used some of the same –what? techniques from his lectures. Throughout the service there was much ululation (a high-pitched, rapid-tongue-movement whooping by some of the women to express joy, support, and approval.

Another quick story: Sheila and Ian are paying tuition for 2 or 3 students at Keframa College, and when they asked Jimmy Francis yesterday whether they should pay in money or in corn and beans, he said corn and beans, because money might be spent on other necessities, but corn and beans needed to be there to feed the students.