Community
I’m in the middle of the first funeral I can remember. I honestly cannot remember going to any funeral. I know I went to some as a little kid, but I have no vivid memories of any.
My best friend here and head teacher of Restore Academy, Peter, lost his “mzee” Friday night. He had throat cancer and went to Kampala for surgery on Wednesday, but died Friday night from complications to the surgery (this is no Seattle Grace). It is really sad, Peter lost his biological father two years ago, and now he’s lost his uncle, who stepped in to take his father’s place as head of the family. The funeral process here in Uganda is much different than back home. Saturday they transported the body back up to Gulu. We drove with Peter and by the time we got to Gulu people had already gathered at his house to help mourn. Saturday afternoon/night probably 50 or so friends and family had shown up at the family compound to pay their respects and help mourn. Many of them traveled from pretty far and are staying on the compound, wherever they can find a place to sleep. This will go on until at least Monday or Tuesday, with the actual burial on Monday. But this custom of paying respect and helping the family mourn is really cool. Virtually all family members drop what they are doing and come mourn until after the burial. Friends come and join them for as long as they are able, many staying the whole time. Its literally a 3-4 day event.
Wanting to respect this norm, I went and sat at the house for several hours last night. As tired as I was, it was an amazing experience. There were about 3 small bonfires with people sitting around talking into the wee hours of the night. There were a few fires for the women and girls and a fire for the old Acholi men. I sat with Peter and five Cornerstone OB’s (alumni) nearby and just enjoyed great conversation. In no particular order, it went from death to life to Jesus to current events to astronomy to Obama to morality to football. But as I sat there listening I just absorbed my surroundings and what was taking place.
I realized I was in the midst of community. Someone that each of us around the fire loved was hurting, and we came together to mourn with him and bring him back up. I take no personal credit for intentionaly doing this, I just knew it was a cultural norm so I wanted to go and sit at the house. But I realized how great that norm is. It reminds me of Luke 6:20-26 and what my buddy James has to say here: http://jamestravels.com/2008/02/blessings-and-woes-2.php. The Acholi culture says that when one of you is mourning, all of you mourn and together (after the burial) you celebrate and life goes on. I’m personally getting a first hand experience of how great that is.
As screwed up as some things are here in Uganda, the sense of family and community is something we all should be envious of.





