Another aspect of lecturing in the Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology that I enjoy is visiting my students on their Sunday placements. All students in their final year of study are placed in churches in either Mukono, Kampala, or Namirembe Diocese, and we rotate among our lot, visiting them, supervising, and encouraging them.
Well, I generally enjoy it. I do find it difficult to not have a church home, and feel a bit like a nomad. As much as I would love to just slide into a pew or chair on Sunday morning, I do tend to stand out, so I’m often asked to sit up front, pray for the children as they go to Sunday School, or process in and recess out. Yeah. That’s a bit awkward for me, but when in Rome…
It’s becoming clear to me that Sunday supervision is also a plot to make me learn Kampala and it’s environs. Fortunately, in Africa, when you ask a stranger for help (say, to ask directions), the stranger is happy to help. Unfortunately, street signs are apparently forbidden, and directions can follow the lines of “go to the police barracks, and” “she doesn’t know where the barracks are!” “OK, follow the blue fence as it goes around, and when you get to the big tree, branch right.” That is a true exchange, and I didn’t know where the barracks are. Unfortunately, there were several big trees, so I ended up asking someone else where the church was. That person was going to the service, so I gave him a ride the rest of the way.
Tomorrow, I get to go to St. John’s, Entebbe. As in near the airport. This is a bit funny because when my bishop was here last year, he was staying in Entebbe before flying out, and he asked me where he should go for services. I replied, rather cavalierly, I might add, “Oh, St. John’s, of course. It’s right next to the golf course. Everyone knows where it is (if he had to ask for directions).”
I knew about the golf course because we went to St. John’s once when I was a student. Once. I have flown into and out of Entebbe any number of times, but that has been at night, and I’ve not been driving.
I’ve been studying the map, and now that I’m becoming somewhat familiar with Kampala, it doesn’t look that bad. I just don’t think that it’s right on Entebbe Road, and I’m praying there will be signs because I don’t know how many people will be out at 6:30 am (because I want to go to the 7:00 service to get back home at a reasonable hour – all roads go through Kampala, and everyone drives on the weekends).
When I go to Namuwongo, THAT will be exciting. It’s near the International Hospital Kampala, which I have been driven past twice, but again, I don’t remember enough about it to remember where to turn. All the houses and shops look the same as you’re going past. It will take time to remember, “oh, it’s the house with the pink wall.”
Lord, have mercy!
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