Uganda 15: September 28, 2004

Abayudaya

My wife, the Amazing Organizer, put together a group of 20 Americans, Israelis, Brits, and Ugandans to spend Rosh Hashanah with the Abayudaya in Eastern Uganda. We had an eclectic group, including a med student, a Peace Corps volunteer, a teacher at International School, an Israeli bush pilot, a friend of ours visiting from the U.S. after working on an AIDS project in Kenya, and some random backpackers that a member of our group met in the market earlier that day. The Ambassador attended again, once more providing an excellent impromptu speech.

The Abayudaya once again welcomed our group, though our numbers displaced a few community members from their chairs. The community has undergone some changes since last year -- a new water tower (which allows for two flush toilets in the outhouse behind the principal's home), fencing, and a new paint job on the synagogue proudly proclaiming that this is the Abayudaya Congregation's Moses Synagogue in Nabugoye. Nevertheless, things largely have remained the same and the community still lacks a paved road, running water, and electricity. Some community members still rely on the well nearby donated by a Muslim charity.

To me, the amazing thing about the Abayudaya is not that they survived adversity, but that they survived decades of indifference and isolation. Yes, they suffered under Amin, but for 50 years prior they got on with life with little contact with other Jews. Still they maintained traditions, despite living amongst majority Christian and Muslim populations, who except for religion, where exactly the same peasant subsistence farmers. How easy it would have been to intermarry or to forget about their faith. Yet, they are still here.

The community is slowly growing. Most families have four to ten children, though the head of the community lamented their low birthrate. The population now between 600-700 scattered in several villages over about a 10-15 kilometer radius. A few members are at University in Kampala, but most have remaind in their home villages. Some of the community that left during the Amin years (Uganda's version of the moranos) now want to rejoin. The community remains somewhat leery of their intentions and consistent with Jewish practice discouraging prosletyzing makes them undergo a two year trial period during which the Abayudaya assess the newcomers. Only after that time will they be welcomed back. Interestingly, the Abayudaya now take international recognition of their faith seriously. Though Israel does not recognize the community, perhaps for fear that the Ugandan Jews would all exercise their right of return, several American congregations have worked with the community to integrate them into modern Judaism. The community anxiously is awaiting the next visit from a conservative Rabbi to convert additional members of the community so that they will be viewed as Jews by their American brethren.

Evening services once more were lit by a light bulb powered by a diesel generator. The next day, I got my favorite seat next to the window where I could watch rural Uganda pass by during prayers. Women with children strapped to their backs or wood piled on their heads. Peddlers walking bikes loaded down with clothing or kitchen ware. Children running to school. The ever present goats. While the community's rabbi remains in the U.S. for another three years of study (I saw him when he came to pick up his visa), members of the community lead the service, primarily in Hebrew, but again with a few beautiful psalms in Luganda. The community leader again presented the state of the union speech, which included admonitions to properly wash fruit before eating and to increase production of vanilla for export. Outfits ran the gamut from suits to traditional Ugandan flowery dresses to a young man in teffilin (prayer shawl) and a "Don't Mess with Texas" t-shirt.

We stayed at a nice hotel in Mbale. Liz arranged a buffet dinner after services. Management said they had a dance performance for us. We expected traditional Ugandan dances. Instead, we got 30 minutes of rap/disco lip synching and dancing. Michael Jackson clothes and MC Hammer moves.

Tororo CDC

This past weekend I traveled to Tororo, 120 miles east of Kampala near the Kenyan border, to review the Center for Disease Control (CDC) home based AIDS care program. Its an innovative test program focusing on providing AIDS care to rural Ugandans. Uganda was one of the first African nations hit by Uganda and now counts over one million HIV positive citizens as well as over one million AIDS orphans. Nevertheless, Uganda has become a model for fighting HIV/AIDS beginning with early, high-level recognition of the problem and the willingness to use whatever means at its disposal to fight the disease. While historical HIV/AIDS rates are difficult to estimate, everyone agrees Uganda has dramatically cut its rate of HIV/AIDS infection, while working on ways to extend and improve the lives of those currently suffering from the disease. As part of the CDC program in eastern Uganda, the US purchased a fleet of motorcycles so that local staff can regularly visit over 1,000 locals, most of whom live out in the bush. Along with providing anti-retroviral drugs, the program focuses on promoting general health through mosquito nets and vessels for clean water -- measures that in and of themselves dramatically reduce morbidity.

We started by meeting some of the staff at the CDC facility, based at a local hospital. African hospitals provide a bed and medical care. Nothing else. So on the Sunday we visited, female relatives were in the hospital yard doing the laundry and tending cooking fires while attired in their church best clothing. We then went on two house calls or, more accurately, "hut calls". At the first hut, we visited three generations in a small-holding farming family. The mother danced, ulululating when we arrived. She was so happy for the assistance they received. The family sat us in chairs under a mango tree in the yard as they kneeled to shake our hands. I basked guiltily in the reflected glory of the successful CDC program as the family expressed their joy that their daughter could raise her son and work in the fields again. The 30-year old daughter had HIV/AIDS and had been turned out by her in-laws after her husband died. After returning to her family, she visited the CDC clinic and got tested. About a year ago, she began participating in the program and receiving ARVs. She was very excited and happy about her improved condition and felt no stigma from being HIV positive or from the regular visits by CDC employees. In fact, she tells neighbors about the program and proudly showed off the new family water jug, to which they add a cap full of chlorine for safe drinking water. In the second hut, the patient, a 30-something year old woman cared for her two children and several other youths who had lost their parents to AIDS. She noted that many neighbors asked about her care regime and decided to get testing after seeing her condition improve. She also had her water jug on a table in her hut covered with an embroidered doily. She said that the mosquito net, which covered the bed she shared with her two children, also had made quite a difference. That's your tax dollars saving someone's life.