Exams FINISHED! And hail!

We had a colossal thunderstorm today; not terribly unusual.  The hail, however, was new to me.  Way cool!

I had something all written for when I got to the network, but apparently overwrote the file.  Jessica is a bear of little brain during/after exams.

I'm off  to Kampala tomorrow to stay with Bishop Muhima's kids, and am very excited about that.  I'm going to avoid a computer as much as possible, so I'll be back on campus (and online) 5 May.

Blessings!

Goin' to the cathedral

For the next two semesters, I will be doing field work in a parish; here it's called block placement.  As near as I can tell, it's the equivalent of field work for seminarians in the US.  One of my friends did absolutely nothing on his field work, and one was given three parishes to preach in every week.  Some are sent to churches close by, others are sent far away, either to rural parishes, or in Kampala or Entebbe (which in ideal conditions is at least 90 minutes away).

My friends have been speculating where the school will send me for my block placement.  Tom thought they would send me to All Saints' Cathedral in Kampala (which is Archbishop Orombi's parish).  Isaac thought they would post me with someone else, presumably so I'm not traveling alone.  

Today after chapel, Canon Moses pulled me aside and asked to speak to me.  Egads - that never happens.  He told me that they were planning to place me at the Cathedral in Mukono; is that OK, or did I want to go to Kampala?

I'm fairly certain that I am the only student who has been given a choice about placement.  The Cathedral in Mukono is literally outside one of the side gates - I'll have to allow ten minutes travel time to be sure that I'm not late.

Wow.  I am actually quite relieved that I won't have to worry about traveling on Sunday mornings, especially in the rain.  Part of me feels badly that I'm [most likely] getting preferential treatment, but my gratitude is slowly beating that out.

"Yoga!"

Not that yoga...

In Soroti, "yoga" means "greetings," and is the traditional way of saying hello.  The response is "yoga nago" (or something to that effect; I don't recall the second word), but it's basically a conditioned response.  It's like when someone says "Praise the Lord," the conditioned response is "Amen!"

One of the people I met at the wedding was the Soroti Diocese's Diocesan Secretary, and we were talking about his seminarians I know here, which was nice.

I thought it would be fun to greet my friends from Soroti in their native language. Tonight (Monday) at supper, I saw my friend Charles, and went over shook his hand (standard greeting), and said "Yoga!"  He replied "Yoga na-" before he did the double take when he realized who was greeting him.  

Priceless!

Soroti Wedding

I did go to Soroti with Dr. Opol and his wife, and while I'm now worried about finishing his take-home exam (his words this weekend: "oh, don't worry about that.") in sufficient time to keep studying for Pentateuch on Wednesday, I'm glad I went.

The bride, of course, was lovely, and it was a wonderful service. Yes, I'll post pictures eventually. Dr. Opol used a lot of the liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer, so it was very familiar. But wow - our services seem positively sterile compared with the African exuberant joy! You've never heard such carousing in a church, and it was fabulous.

Time-wise, the service was three hours, and the reception was probably about four-five, which by African standards is making good time. I was gratified that the MCs kept the reception moving along.

Two differences really stood out in the reception: the speeches (which actually were cut short because the speakers blew; otherwise, we could still be there), and the presentation of the presents. Some presents came with speeches, but there was a line to give the presents to the speeches. This included the chickens and a goat. Someone announced a cow, but we never did see her. The page boy (ring bearer?) kept trying to feed the goat, who wanted nothing to do with the grass the little guy was offering.

Then we went to Serere, Dr. Opol's village, for the night. They have a lovely house there, though it lacks electricty and running water (which is common in the village). Driving through the bush is quite an experience, and Dr. Opol just has a car, not a truck or an SUV like many have. At one point he was marveling at some scratches on the hood, and I had to remind him that he'd been driving through the bush, for goodness sake! It is stunningly beautiful there; I understand why people like to go there, though I'd really prefer to have running water.

One of Dr. Opol's nephews had died a few days prior, so we went to pay condolences for the family, and were only there for about four hours. The kids were fairly star-struck to be around a muzungu; there were a couple who sat on the ground and just watched me read my notes. Most of them got up the nerve to shake my hand - I was quite proud of them.

We arrived back at campus about 11:30 Sunday night. I probably have more to say, like about the school Dr. Opol is building in the village, but 1. am tired, and 2. need to conquer his exam. More later!

Nice day!

"MDiv, stop!"

Last semester, we had the wrong exam paper.  It happened again.  At least last semester it was an exam for a different class; this was different.

This time, we were taking the African Church History exam, which is one of the classes we take with the Bachelor's students.  I noticed that our paper was the same as theirs, which was fine.  I chose the questions I was going to answer, and made my outlines. 

I had written one paragraph when Canon Moses stopped us.  Our paper said "Master of Divinity" on the top, so I'm not quite sure what happened.  But he collected our papers and gave us new ones.  I liked the first questions better, I must say.  The second questions were doable (and thankfully related, so I could reuse my notes).

One thing that has been great is that for the three papers we've sat for thus far, they've had us attempt four out of eight questions.  Last semester, we had to choose two questions from section A and two from section B, which I am not fond of at all.

I had been dreading telling my class that I'm not sitting for the African Theology paper.  They've been very supportive; Amos told me that he was surprised that I sat for African Church History.  One friend, not in my class, called me a chicken for opting for a take-home exam.  He kids a lot, so I hope he's just teasing.  The Dean agreed that it was a good decision, which is a relief.

The internet in the Honours College has been gone for about a week.  I can often get access in the dining hall, but came Thursday evening, and it was out there too.  This is tragic for communication, but especially since I ws planning to do my research for my take-home exam on the web.  I will probably have to go to the library now, and will just pray that I can find the books I need.

Mea culpa

Two exams down, four to go.  While I am certain that I will not fail this semester, I'm not at all confident that my grades will be as good as last.  We're all praying for favor and grace, but while I understand everything, I seem to have misplaced my brain capacity.  First exam wasn't too bad.  Second was.  Not anticipating enjoying the third this afternoon (African Church History).  After this, it eases considerably, but we'll still be going at a good clip until Wednesday.

Logistics of exams

While I'm trying to memorize the potential bias in information collection, I remembered something about exams I forgot to mention:

Today on the way to church, we walked by some classrooms, and they were being prepped for exams.  How?  The desks are actually in neat columns and rows.  Exams are the only time this happens; the rooms are usually a mishmash of desks, and it's fairly difficult to navigate past the first three rows.  

The only things we're allowed to take into the exam room is our pens, registration card, and keys.  No phones, no paper.  None of the lecturers need us to bring our Bibles.  I've had my registration card out for two days so that I won't forget it.

Church today was confirmation and communion and only took two and a half hours; we had 10 students and one staff confirmed, which is pretty cool.  Bishop Zack, the assistant bishop of Kampala, was here.  Wow.  What a dynamic preacher.  He apparently likes to really go off the cuff:  he had the children come up on stage to sing a song for us before they were dismissed for Sunday School, then asked the parents to stand up.  He then told them that he wanted each of them to take a turn helping in Sunday School, and that he was going to see if that really happens.  Later, he told the chaplain to not disseminate confirmation certificates unless each person confirmed had planted a tree on campus to take care of the environment.  That last one really surprised me and felt very Episcopalian (which isn't a knock on anyone, but reminded me of home).  I mean - who's going to coordinate that effort?  Eleven people are supposed to 1. obtain trees (which presumably cost money) and 2. plant them randomly?