Holy Cross Novitiate, Uganda

Since we've arrived yesterday, Bry'Chell and I have had a great time. The Holy Cross guys, Joe the volunteer, Bry'Chell and I celebrated Holy Thursday up the hill with the Brothers of St. Joseph, a small diocesan community. Their chapel was quite simple, but did they sing! It was fun hearing all those male voices. I'm not used to being in such a male group--I was glad for Bry'Chell, we were the only women.

The celebrant was a Trappist hermit. He's the chaplain for the brothers. For someone who said he wasn't that comfortable in English, the guy preached better than many English-speakers that I've heard.

After liturgy, the generator was turned on from 7 PM until about 10:30 PM so we could charge our electronics and even see each other for dinner and hanging out. It's funny, that was really plenty of electricity for the day. Since the hot water is heated using solar heaters on the roof top, other than changing computers and cell phones, it's not that hard to do without power. I don't know what they do about refrigeration, I'll have to ask.

Today David and I went swimming in the lake. It was great! I would not have gone in by myself--first, I don't swim alone--Red Cross training and all--second, I don't like to swim in strange water. With David, I felt quite comfortable. He's been in the water and knows it, so I enjoyed the chance to swim. I haven't been swimming since we've been in Uganda.

It's nice being with a community for the Triduum. There are four canonical novices here. They seem like really good guys. Bry'Chell has been having fun with them at meal times. They seem to enjoy her Luganda speaking skills. Since anyone is more interesting than me, she is having fun swapping stories with them about school and life in general.

The afternoon we will start Good Friday services with the St. Joseph guys and process to the Holy Cross place. It will be interesting to see how it goes, a bit different from the 8th Day Center's Walk for Justice that we usually do on Good Friday.