The Swearing

The Saturday before I left, some of us took a little trip down to the district seat, Nakapiripirit. While Bob and the guys worked on finishing a 20-foot steel water tower for the new Resort Hotel, Martha, Amy, Chrissie, and I hung out in the restaurant. We ordered Cokes, which came in 500 ml bottles...none of us wanted to have to use the latrine, though, so we let the guys finish ours off. Martha thought the bare room we sat in was very restful - no stuff to clutter things. Just cool cement and open windows. Of course, then the drilling started. There were some doors and things that still needed to be put on. But it was nice.

Then we went outside and watched the work for a while. Actually, I helped Bobby collect Guiness bottle caps. They were a nice yellowish color. We snubbed the Bell lager caps, though.

After that some of us took a little excursion into the market, where we were in time to watch the parade for on of the official's swearing in (or just "swearing," as one of the local guys told us). His car had already passed by the time we got there, so we figured we'd be safe from assassaination attempts if we watched. The parade was incredible. I've never seen anything like it - a line of people marching toward you, singing, blowing whistles, jumping and dancing. It was very loud, very wild, very much what you hope a parade in Karamoja would be like!


Here's the video of it on youtube.com

After all that excitement, Amy, Chrissie, on of the other visitors (one of the W's friends from NJ), and I ate lunch at an African restaurant, where we ordered beans and posho. It was my first time eating posho, and I much enjoyed it. Posho is made of finely ground corn meal (I think) and cooked into a very thick paste. It's good dipped in beans.

We watched the other guys work for a while longer, then hopped in the back of Bob's truck and rode back home. On the way I asked, "Is that Tekora?" of one of the towns we were passing through. One of the schoolboys, Lokwi, told me no. It was Nairobi. So now I'm more of a world traveler than I thought.

Update 6/4/06:
I'm adding a picture of one of the officials (not the one sworn in), looking very smart in his festival clothes. We met him at the restaurant, and he graciously posed for us.


After the parade

(oh, and note the jerrican speaker in the background!)