DAY 3-Padibe
Awakened by the roosters at 4, 5, and 6 am, and then off to 7am mass, breakfast, and then the days activities began. Mary, Dee Dee, and Vicki joined Bob Okello for the continuation of the Oxen Training specifically for women.
Dee Dee & Vicki at Oxen Training
Bob had started the training a few days before we arrived, bringing in trainers from another area. Quite a few people were taking the training session this time, including a woman from the Congo who brought a friend from Japan. Look for a more complete report from Vicki Solomon, who also is a long time member of the Peace Harvest board of directors. Peace Harvest is our partner for oxen, training, plows, and wagons in Padibe. Dee Dee is the Three Holy Women representative on the board.
Dee Dee Leading the Oxen
Rob & Peter had the first of five sessions beginning the Cultural Project.
Cultural Project Committee
We are calling these sessions Phase One. The Cultural Project’s main goal is create a system for the Acholi people to remember and reclaim their culture after so much being lost during the twenty year war.X The objectives of Phase One include 1. Discovery of Acholi culture, 2. Build trust with the committee of ten from Padibe, 3. Telling of stories 4. Devising a drama based on the stories with added Acholi song, dance, and ritual. We have five sessions to accomplish as much as we can.
Devising Exercise
In the afternoon Peter, Mary and Rob took a walk through the town area with Tommy, Vanansio, & John Bosco on the way to Onek Francis’ family compound for visiting, dancing, dinner and much laughter.
Padibe Market
Francis is a gentlemen who worked with Rob on the water project on his two past visits and is the vice-chairperson of the Padibe Global Solidarity committee. We were welcomed into his family compound and seated outside under a grove of trees with small tables set in in the center of the circle of chairs. Culturally the men and visitors all eat together and the women eat in a separate area. Almost immediately Mary was beckoned to join the women in the cooking hut and she disappeared for awhile.
Mary Cooking in Hut
The women demonstrated their way of cooking the traditional foods served at lunch and dinner. The cooking is all inside a hut over a small clay stove built into the floor. The hut gets quite smoky. Mary was invited to join in prepping and cooking the millet bread, greens, and other traditional foods made from simsim (sesame), red millet, peas, beans, sorghum, maize, greens, and groundnuts.
Traditional Dinner
She assisted carrying out the trays of food, with red eyes from the smoky cooking hut and then joined us for dinner. As we sat for dinner a woman brought a basin with a bar of soap and a pitcher of water for the washing of hands. Toward the latter part of the meal the key women of the clan were invited to join us. After dinner about sixteen women friends and relatives entertained us with the traditional welcome songs and dancing.
It wasn’t long before Mary, Peter, and the men joined in the fun and dancing. We had been welcomed “home†and happily joined in the festivities.
Watching Themselves Dancing
The evening concluded with the traditional welcome which is a formal speech by the host followed by the visitors each offering their heartfelt thank you speech. Francis gave Mary her new Acholi name, KEROWINY (which was used for the rest of our trip whenever she was introduced), it means, “beautiful woman who cooks well for her man.†At least that was Francis’ definition!!
Francis and Family
Posted by Mary & Rob
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