The Great Primate Handshake – Volunteer in Africa, working to conserve monkeys and apes through film and educational content production

Today four of us were lucky enough to visit a local Catholic church. Ellie, Eleanor, Tash and I all walked the 2km from our campsite along the squelchy road (it had rained all night) to get there for a 10:15 mass. We needn’t have worried about being late however as it wasn’t until near 11:00 that we started. Oh Africa!

We were greeted outside by the priest and watched him as he very purposefully began to dress the alter in white cloths, then some of the seats, then the stands for the flowers; in fact it seemed as if he was going to dress every surface he could find. When he’d finally ran out of cloths, a crucifix went on top of the alter flanked by two wooden candlesticks, sporting between them one lone wonky candle.

By the time the mass started only about eight people (including the four of us) sat in the wooden pews. But gradually, over the next hour, in drips and drabs, the place slowly filled up until there were about 70 odd.  It was all spoken in what I guess was Luganda and the readings and sermon were decorated with lively, loudly sung songs with a lot of clapping and drumming to aid us along. It was great fun! And by the last one, some of the community’s elders were dancing and hollering to the beat.
We felt so welcome there, and right at the end were asked to stand up, introduce ourselves and what we were doing in Uganda.

Straight after mass they had what we believed to be the village meeting of some kind. They were trying to raise funds to renovate their church by donating vegetables and selling them off to the congregation. Only Ellie had any money left on her, and with it she bought a bag of beans, but the people were so so kind and started buying us fruit to take away. We felt so awkward sitting there accepting gift after gift, knowing that it would be rude to refuse…

It was burning hot by the time we left at 13:00, and a right sight we were on the dusty road back to camp, each with a different piece of produce and munching on the bananas we’d acquired.

When we got back we found out that Al had taken Lyndsey to the doctors with suspected Malaria. She’s been quite ill for a couple of days now. Luckily she returned without it, and hopefully she’ll feel a lot better when she sees the two pineapples we brought back for her. Nothing does more for a person than a decent pineapple.

James and Ben (with Emily on camera) spent the day as Steve Erwin wannabees and made a documentary in which every member of the Handshake was a different kind of animal. It was absolutely hilarious, and highlights all the little quirks that we’ve grown to know and love about our team.

Meanwhile the Education team had a more productive session, finishing off lesson plans, fact sheets and a PowerPoint that they’ll show to the kids at Kasiisi school tomorrow before the video team debut the videos they’ve been making. It’s sad how everything’s beginning to wrap up now. Only a few days left!