Uganda #10: Travelling to the Village for the Lumbe Ceremony

My mother says the village where my grandfather lives will be like going camping: no running water or electricity, which means candles & torches at night & having someone fetch water from the river tyo be boiled & used. I also means an opportunity to develop my imagination & creative skills to pass the time. Even though we'll be gone for 4 days, our suitcase bulge with what seems like 2wks worth of stuff, sunscreen, anti-bacterial wipes juice, toilet paper, OFF bug spray, slippers, Nikes, dressy shoes, 1st aid kit & creams, sunglasses, hat, toiletries.... you never know. My aunt & Pius take a small tote & we're off on the 2 hr trip to the village. We climb into a small open truck, 3 people in the front & 4 in the back. We picked up a caterer, who will help prepare food for the lumbe.
I decide to wear jeans & seeing me, my mother decides to do the same. The village culutre is very conservative; women only wear dresses. I want to be comfortable & can't see myself lifting things & walking around in a dress. My aunt is unhappy my mother is going against stradition & wearing pants, on top of that jeans!!! She instead wears the tradtional Baganda dress (a busuti). A dress with includes 3 layers of material, butons tied to one side & a wrap belt. THINK a kimono with puffed sleeves. I'm excused from wearing a dress becaue I'm young & will be perceived the same way the hip hop generation with their low rise jeans are viewed by the baby boomer generation. I know in the village my mother will be scorned by the elders but she wants to be comfy.
The truck is packed wiuth food to feed 1000 people, pots & pans as bg as a small child. We drive along the sometimes rocky, pot-hole filled roads as it becomes increasingly dusty with red soil (enfufu). Auntie covers her head with the head wrap. We keep some windows half open to air condition the car but also keep out the enfufu.
When we stop to buy string to tie the bags down, some vendors apporach the car with plantains and kabobs. A street kid runs to the car & asks to wash it. The driver politely declines. Despite the lack of privacy & pushiness, people treat each other with respect. Even the poor hustling or beggin for food are replied with, "No, thank you Mister. I don't have anything." In America, people walk past the poor like they are lepers or invisible creatures.
Uganda is very hilly & mountainous with gorgeous views of the green landscape: banana trees, corn or maize fields & coffee trees everywhere. In the distant u can see nice homes way up with the hills where the wealthy live. There is s huge divide between the rich & poor.