Since leaving St. Louis, I hadn’t had a chance to attend mass and I was
really missing it. Luckily, John McGee knew of a good place to go to mass, so I met up with him and a few other group 2 teachers at 7:45 am to head to mass at Gulu high. Side note…as we were walking the road to Gulu high, the funniest thing happened! From out of nowhere, John goes “we can finally get the answer to the question!” Thoroughly confused, I asked him what he was talking about, and he just pointed up the road to a bunch of chickens crossing the road. I died laughing….it was so funny. Then, when we came closer to the chickens, he asked the chickens why they were crossing the road. Of course they didn’t answer so he said “what are you, chicken?” Oh my gosh...so funny. Anyway, so we get to the church, which is actually the school library, and mass was already half way through. Apparently mass started at 7:30am and not at 8:30am like we were told. So here we are, 5 munus who definitely stand out in a crowd...late...and I guess it’s considered an honor for white people to come to mass because right in the middle of the mass, 5 people walk out of the service, get chairs for us and set them RIGHT UP FRONT, next to the alter. Such a walk of shame to our seats. Once I got past that though, the mass was INCREDIBLE. First of all, one of the things I love about the Catholic mass is that it is the same everywhere you go….even a gazillion miles away from home, on a completely different continent, I could celebrate the mass just as if I was at home…and for some reason, that was such a comfort. Secondly, this mass was a youth mass and so the energy was incredible…I wish you could have heard the singing led by the teens during the mass. It was almost overwhelming.
A friend of mine and I were talking about what incredible faith the people here have. With the amount of suffering these people have seen I would not have been surprised if the Acholi people would have turned their backs on a God who could have been perceived to have turned His back on them. But instead, they cling to Him...it just puts things in perspective for me and my own faith when I throw temper tantrums on God for reasons microscopically smaller than the experiences of the people here. I don’t know…it’s really inspiring. Anyway, when the mass was over, they asked us to stand up and introduce ourselves to everyone…kind of embarrassing…but they were so welcoming and happy to have us there…it was so humbling. Then, during announcements, the priest, who had to rush to even be able to celebrate the mass there (sometimes they can’t get priests to make it out there) informed everyone that 6 men were going to be ordained deacons within the next month, and he was asking the congregations of all the masses he celebrated in the next few weeks if anyone knew of any reason that these men should not be ordained because we shouldn’t have any secrets in the Catholic Church. My jaw dropped, but I actually thought that was a neat practice because it only enhances the respect and credibility of those men who do become ordained which I think helps the church in a global sense. Definitely looking forward to my next mass here!
Since leaving St. Louis, I hadn’t had a chance to attend mass and I was really missing it. Luckily, John McGee knew of a good place to go to mass, so I met up with him and a few other group 2 teachers at 7:45 am to head to mass at Gulu high. Side note…as we were walking the road to Gulu high, the funniest thing happened! From out of nowhere, John goes “we can finally get the answer to the question!” Thoroughly confused, I asked him what he was talking about, and he just pointed up the road to a bunch of chickens crossing the road. I died laughing….it was so funny. Then, when we came closer to the chickens, he asked the chickens why they were crossing the road. Of course they didn’t answer so he said “what are you, chicken?” Oh my gosh...so funny. Anyway, so we get to the church, which is actually the school library, and mass was already half way through. Apparently mass started at 7:30am and not at 8:30am like we were told. So here we are, 5 munus who definitely stand out in a crowd...late...and I guess it’s considered an honor for white people to come to mass because right in the middle of the mass, 5 people walk out of the service, get chairs for us and set them RIGHT UP FRONT, next to the alter. Such a walk of shame to our seats. Once I got past that though, the mass was INCREDIBLE. First of all, one of the things I love about the Catholic mass is that it is the same everywhere you go….even a gazillion miles away from home, on a completely different continent, I could celebrate the mass just as if I was at home…and for some reason, that was such a comfort. Secondly, this mass was a youth mass and so the energy was incredible…I wish you could have heard the singing led by the teens during the mass. It was almost overwhelming. 
A friend of mine and I were talking about what incredible faith the people here have. With the amount of suffering these people have seen I would not have been surprised if the Acholi people would have turned their backs on a God who could have been perceived to have turned His back on them. But instead, they cling to Him...it just puts things in perspective for me and my own faith when I throw temper tantrums on God for reasons microscopically smaller than the experiences of the people here. I don’t know…it’s really inspiring. Anyway, when the mass was over, they asked us to stand up and introduce ourselves to everyone…kind of embarrassing…but they were so welcoming and happy to have us there…it was so humbling. Then, during announcements, the priest, who had to rush to even be able to celebrate the mass there (sometimes they can’t get priests to make it out there) informed everyone that 6 men were going to be ordained deacons within the next month, and he was asking the congregations of all the masses he celebrated in the next few weeks if anyone knew of any reason that these men should not be ordained because we shouldn’t have any secrets in the Catholic Church. My jaw dropped, but I actually thought that was a neat practice because it only enhances the respect and credibility of those men who do become ordained which I think helps the church in a global sense. Definitely looking forward to my next mass here!
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