And on the seventh day ...

Well, I've fimally got used to the chickens - and having fresh eggs everyday makes me feel like I'm in some kind of healthy-eating ad for Ugandans. Trust me - they need it. Although I will say, when getting a plate of food I do savour every last drop of greens (the minimal teaspon that they may consist of ...) on the plate.

Shabbat spent with the jews was much like most days spent lazing around in Uganda. African Time rules over all days, most importantly over Shabbat. Friday night involves Challah - made with fredsh eggs (of course!), cooked over a charcoal stove - the mother of all charcoal stoves, using a giant pot - and a lot of elbow grease, the end product is crispy baked goodness, which the rebezzin (Shilla) can be very proud of.

When I return to the Jews for my next hit of fresh eggs and crash course in teaching hebrew, I hope to make candlesticks with the children, as this friday night, we spent attempting to weld the tapering candles to the rather flaky concrete walls, and Mbale is well - known for its clayey swamps, which result in many a half naked man emerging from a nearby bush slaked in red mud lugging a pile of bricks cross-country.

It's a rather odd mix of cultures to spend saturday morning praying int he beautiful thatched synagogue, to then take a shabbat walk down the road to try and catch a Bagisu circumcision ceremony. To be perfectly honest, this failed quite miserably - in my defence I was carrying a six-year-old for the entire journey! But, the mix of tribes from which the Abuyudayah originate makes for interesting decisions: should a jewish mother who is also Bagisu get her son circumcised at 8 days or 18 years? I guess it's as much a probelm with British Jews, or Jewish Brits, as Bagisu Bayudayah or Bagwere Bayudayah, except their cultural traditions lie far deeper than British culture.

In an era where we face difficullties with assimilation, and jsut after the Chanukah season; it's strange to hear talk of the Amin years, where the already small jewish community was squeezed to almost none-existance. The parallels between their short history where grandfathers of some of my friends were forced to study in the caves of Wanala hill and Mount Elgon, bears stark resemblance to the necessity of dreidels and look-outs used by the same jews over 2000 years ago.

Shabbat came to an end as most nights do at Project, with an oil lamp and a glass of Uganda Waragi (well, less waragi I suppose), leading to a rave in the l;ibrary with oodles of children dancing away to auch classics as 'Stamina' and 'Heart Attack', a rather brilliant start tot he week I would say!

Kez