Take Me To Church-Eric Hozier

Everyday seems busier than the last and while Sunday began with a relaxing start, it got busier and busier as the day went on.  We were finally able to sleep in and relax around the campus for a few hours in the morning, which was nice.

At noon we all took off for Kampala to see some sights.  Transportation continues to be an adventure and today we rented an entire mutatu taxi for the day.  As a result, we were treated to some African music videos on the drive, mixed in with some Michael Jackson and Phil Collins hits from the 80’s (our driver told us he really loves Celine Dion J.

Our first stop was the Acacia mall for an ATM stop.  It is so fascinating to me that malls look and smell the same wherever you go.  After this quick stop we visited the craft market, which has locally made crafts and gifts for some souvenir purchases.

Next we visited the Ugandan National Mosque (formerly Gaddafi Mosque) in Old Kampala.  After receiving proper head and ankle covering, we went in for a tour.  Hassan, our tour guide, was very animated and happy to share information about Kampala, the Mosque, and Islam with us.  We learned Kampala received it’s name as a combination of the word camp, because the British first made their camp there when they colonized, and the word impala which are antelope that used to be very prevalent in the area.

The mosque is the second largest on the African continent and was finished in 2007 with monetary help from Libya so it was originally named Gaddafi Mosque.  It can hold up to 15,000 people and an additional 1,100 women in the gallery (women are not allowed to worship on the main floor in case they distract the men).

While we were on the tour we learned about Islam, how they pray, and Muslims in Uganda.  We also happened to be in the mosque for the 4 o’clock prayer call and were able to watch the muezzin call the prayer over the speaker for the entire city-that was a pretty cool experience.  We also trekked all the way up to the top of the minaret for a 360-degree view of Kampala.

After disrobing from our mosque-appropriate attire, we quickly ran over to the Ba’Hai temple, which overlooks Kampala from a different hill.  Even though the temple closes at 5:30 each day, and we arrived at 5:30 exactly, we were allowed a short 30-minute visit.  It seems most things in Africa can be negotiated which is both a blessing and a curse but this time worked to our advantage.

The Baha’i religion was founded in the mid-1800’s in Iran (then Persia).  The fundamental beliefs are based on peace, unity, and equality.  Baha’i’s believe in oneness of religion and humanity and their temples are nine sided and have nine doors to represent nine major religions.  There are only eight Baha’i temples in the world and this is the only one in Africa.  No rituals or preaching can take place in the temples, they are only for meditation and praise.

We learned that Uganda is considered the spiritual center of Africa.  One person told us this is because it has freedom of religion and is the intersection of the Christian and Muslim areas of Africa.  Someone else told us that it is because the source of the Nile is in Uganda and the Nile is important in both Christianity and Islam.  It seems like both are viable reasons so we'll go with both :)

 

After our quick visit, we were off again to Ndere Cultural Center for an evening of traditional dancing, music, and food.  There was an enormous buffet of Ugandan food as dances were performed from around Uganda and East Africa.  My favorite was from the upper Nile region but everything was amazing and the MC was hilarious-making fun of just about everyone in the crowd.  My favorite part was at the end when the MC said, if the world did more dancing together, we would always have peace and then invited everyone in the audience down to the stage for an international dance festival!!