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Charging to go to church

June 16, 2014

There is one funny thing I wanted to pass along about my journey to Namuwongo:  my final stop for directions was with some boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers; they know where everything is.  As it turns out, I was at the junction where I needed to turn off Namuwongo Road, but I didn’t know that at the time.

So, I was asking these three boda drivers where the church was, and they were telling me, when one interrupted to say, “for 3,000 [$1.20], you follow me and we go.”
For the moment, we’ll set aside the exhorbitant cost of this offer (if I had ridden his boda, the cost SHOULD have been no more than 1,500), and note that the others were willing to do the properly hospitable African thing and give me the directions.
This one, however, saw the color, not the collar, and wanted a profit.  So I pointed to the collar and asked him, “are you charging a musumba [literally a shepherd; pastor] to go to church?”
Apparently, he was, for he repeated his offer.  I declined.

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Jessica Hughes

I’m Jessica Hughes, an Anglican priest serving at Uganda Christian University through the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (SAMS). “Here I am” is both an answer to the geographical question “WHERE are you?” and a nod to my favorite Bible verse, Isaiah 6:8.

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Here I Am

I’m Jessica Hughes, an Anglican priest serving at Uganda Christian University through the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (SAMS). “Here I am” is both an answer to the geographical question “WHERE are you?” and a nod to my favorite Bible verse, Isaiah 6:8.

Click here to read more about me.

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