Abundance of Palms

We may not have ashes for Ash Wednesday, but we certainly have palms for Palm Sunday!  Since palm trees are rather common, Christians bring palms with them to church on Palm Sunday, rather than the church purchasing them and distributing them.

And for those without easy access to palms, they are sold along the road, beginning the day prior.  I went to Kampala on Saturday to speak at a Bible conference, and as I was driving home, I noticed people carrying rather large loads of palm branches.  I didn’t quite connect that they would be selling them, though.  

For Palm Sunday, I went to supervise a student “deep in the village,” as we say.  When I first visited him in December, I was given a hotel as the landmark for where to turn off Entebbe Road.  I’ve traveled that road a couple times since then, and still haven’t seen the hotel.  However, the road I want is right across from a rather large and well-known hospital.  The rationale behind giving directions escapes me, but I made it well to the church.  On the way, I saw a number of children selling palms on the side of various roads, and even saw cars and bodas with palms attached.

Boda driver with his palms; photo credit to bodabodababy@blogspot.com via Mary Jane’s blog.

Naturally, I was the only person in church without palms (I thought I’d find a seller at a place where I could stop along the road, but never saw them in time to pull over safely.  Ugandan drivers aren’t bothered with that safety thing, generally.  I’m still American enough to care.).  Thankfully, I don’t think anyone passed judgment on me, as they knew I came all the way from Mukono.

The service was in Luganda, and while I could figure out what was happening, and sing the English equivalent of the songs (as many verses as I could remember, and I’m sure I did some creative verse splicing!), then my student asked me to give a word of encouragement to the Christians, as they wanted to hear my voice.  

At our faculty evening Eucharist, a few of the students brought their palms to the service, and the warden went and got palms so that the team on duty would at least be appropriately armed for the day.

The evening closed with Easter carols being sung in Nkoyoyo Hall.  I’m not quite sure what Easter carols are.  I’ve been told it’s like a cantata, but that confuses me even more.  I may have to attend next year to get the full experience.