Baby Opiyo, our groupmate, celebrates his birthday as his father has a celebration for the first twin which includes Acholi cultural dances. Plus, more crazy factoids about Gulu and my family.

“You are so beautiful like a crested crane. Your neck is so long and soft. You have so much beauty.”

These are the words of one of the songs that the Acholi Youth Cultural Dance Group danced to at Jacob “Opiyo” White’s Birthday Party as one of our groupmates, Opiyo, celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday. He got the name Opiyo because he is the first twin and his brother Ochen is the second twin. There are many ceremonies, including a birth pot, for twins and beliefs surrounding them, including if Opiyo gets angry, he has the power to kill Ochen, no matter how far apart they are (Note to Jacob’s brother Nick: keep Jacob happy!?!).

Opiyo’s father went crazy for Opiyo’s party and got him a DJ (who played rap and Kenny Rogers (at Jacob’s request)), the Dance Group to perform, and a ridiculous amount of food, including a cake with two candles, one for each decade (or they say he is only days old now since he was just born into a new family).

The dancing was absolutely amazing and we all participated. In one of the dances, the group sang about a man who had two sons. The first born was a leper and the second was normal, but in Acholi culture, only the first born can marry. The problem was the leper could not find a bride so the father told them both to go and whoever gets a wife and brings her back can marry her. So the leper went right to the river where women were washing clothes and grabbed the most beautiful woman and put her on his back and ran home where the father was preparing the wedding ceremony. So the women married the leper. The next song was about pride and sons and daughters dancing together so it was as interesting.

Another song had these words: “All women’s food does not taste the same as some food is spicy with good sauces and other’s food is not good, but they are all the same because they are all women. All women don’t look the same: some are pretty, some are ugly, but they are all fine because they are all women.”

A Chaford board member told me that the elders would dance to discuss community issues, whereas the kids and others would dance to pass the time and keep the youth together and build relationships. The final two dances were to celebrate a war victory where the boys danced with axes, and another dance, called the Courtship dance, where girls would dance over to a boy and then they would leave the circle and they would sit down and if they accepted each other’s dance/performance/everything then they would get on their knees and touch each other’s faces and heads and then go off for fifteen minutes and then come back later. The boys would also court the girls by putting a large necklace over the girls so it fit over both of them (Note to Self: Get Large Necklaces!).

Basically, the night was extremely memorable and our Professor Ron, who is in town and has lived in Northern Uganda for half of his life doing research and living with the Acholi here (see his book The Roots of Ethnicity: The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda), said that we will never forget this for our entire life. He is right, plus the cake was good.



Time for random factoids about Gulu and My Family:

· More Random Crazy Gulu:

o There is a guy that walks around town naked who we creatively call “Naked Guy”. Rachael’s Dad went to school with him and attributes his nakedness to the “insurgency”, as in he was picked up by the rebels. My brother Tony says he saw him at the Insane Asylum when Toni was with our uncle, and the doctors keep sending Naked Guy back on the street because they do not have the time and are not paid enough to deal with him.

§ Some Highlights include (guess which one didn’t happen):

· I saw him eating a banana

· Susannah saw him walking with a pink flower in the glowing yellow sun

· Jacob had a nice romantic birthday dinner with him

o Tuesdays and Fridays are the official days for people to beg in Gulu. So when those days come around, us “munus/muzungus” (foreigners) are even more popular. I cannot wait to tell the people I work with back in Chicago that countries have designated days for people to beg rather than the freedom to beg any day like in the US, assuming a cop does not throw you in the back of his car for loitering or for existing.

o The old ladies that I give my water bottles too are now discussing and we are working out a system where each one gets my bottle on a different day so they are equally dispersed among the seven of them. Talks are still in place and I have three weeks, but I think it is sustainable...it is not, but any munus here should really save their bottles and give it to them because they are like little recycling centers.

· More Random How Funny My Family Is:

o My brothers went around doing Idi Amin (“The Last King of Scotland” and Ugandan dictator) impressions with chicken bones for an entire dinner.

o My older sister Winnifred asked my mom for three names like white people and my brother Tony said why don’t you be called Adyero Winnifred Museveni (the last name of the Ugandan President)!

o My mother Santa, “Big Momma”, wants me to train her in computers, and she told me her family tree so we are going to try to map that on the computer.

o Everyone still makes fun of me for saying, “so long”, “oh yeah”, and anything else as my slight Wisconsin vernacular is even funny here.

o Lona, my youngest sister (we are both “The Last Born” according to my Dad) is the best tire hula-hooper in the world, but she didn’t know the name for what she was doing so I guess she is the best tire…in the world.

o My family asked me my traditions and I told them our holidays and they laughed.

o On a serious note, my cousin keeps trying to get money from me for school fees, books, shoes, etc. and I have to pass his notes to my father. I can help him, but I do not think I should go around his Uncle.

All happy families are the same...all large families are very funny (see Anna Karenina for the allusive rip-off)...

Apoyo Mate,

Nikolai "The Crested Crane" Anywar