Kakira: Where's the church? Who took the steeple? Religion's in the hands of some crazy-ass people

You know one thing I really like about Uganda? The religious freedom. It's a really religious country, but people don't bug you about what you believe (as long as you believe in something--atheists and agnostics, you will have a harder time here). My family, for instance, brings together a bunch of religions under one roof. Mama Fina is Catholic, Annette is a Born Again Christian pastor, her son Ali is a devout Muslim...we have a lot going on up in here. I asked Annette if she would take me to see her church for prayers this Sunday, and she said I could, so I'll be going to the Born Again service tomorrow. Becky goes with Mama Fina to Mass since she's actually a Catholic.

Hmm, being around so many religious people almost makes me wish I had a little faith. No easy fix for that one, I suppose. I'm a little jealous of Ugandans' strong faith.

But anyone can do what they want religiously here, which is great. It's really nice to see people who are different religions coexist. Even some married couples have different religions; for example, Billy and Robert's host dad is Christian and their mom is Muslim.

Another interesting things about Uganda is the school system. We've visited a lot of schools, and they're all what you would think of when you think of an old movie about British schools (I'm sure that's what they're modeled on). Long, dark wooden desks and benches behind them, and the teacher has a little wooden table at the front. When an authority figure comes in, all the children stand up together and respond in unison when spoken to. "Hello class 4." "Hello sir, you are welcome." "You have visitors today, and you are very lucky." "Yes, sir." And so on. It's kind of creepy the way the responses are so drilled into them.

Ugandan kids study 20 subjects in their first year of secondary school! 20! We asked Ali to tell them to us, since we couldn't imagine 20 subjects for all the students to study. Some of them were Math, English, Physics, Building/Construction, Technical Drawing...I can't even remember all of them. By the end of secondary, you have selected a smaller number of subjects that you like and you end up concentrating in either science or arts courses.

Caning is also widely practiced in Ugandan schools. There is definitely support getting organized against the practice, but it hasn't gained that much momentum at this point. Ali told us that in some schools, they cane by numbers, like the student is expected to count from 1 to 100 and however many numbers they miss, that's how many lashes they get. So if you get to 99, you only get hit once. If you only get to 45, you get hit 55 times. (I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying to us.)

By the way, the title of this post is from the Jimmy Buffet song "Fruitcakes". I am not funny enough to write that line.