Here is my interview with Maria and her daughter Scovia. Hannington was free about 5:30 so we hopped in the car and went to find the old lady in the field. First we went past her house to the widow’s house at the beautiful tree so we could give her some rice to thank her for her hospitality yesterday. She was so happy to see us and very excited when we gave her the rice. She was just chuckling when Hannington told her how much I enjoyed our visit yesterday and I wanted to thank her for sharing her story. She told Hannington that if she had gone to school she would have known more English so we could talk together. She said that she would also have asked me how I met my husband. I told her that John and I went to school together and she laughed. She is a doll. We drove to Isa’s house which was just next door and they invited us inside. It is a small room with a mud floor. They had a small couch and two chairs and a small wooden table that all had seen better days. I sat on the sofa and noticed some noise coming from a chair next to me. It was a chicken. I’m not sure what he was doing there except for pecking around. Isa lives with his grandparents. His Grandpa was a Pastor for 30 years. He lives there with his wife and 7 grandkids. Two of his granddaughters are pregnant and one already has a child. I posted a picture of them earlier making mats. They are both beautiful. Isa’s grandma’s name is Scovia and she was born in 1948. She had 10 children and 6 of them are still living. She was born in Nabisooto and so was her husband the Pastor, they went to school together and after decided to marry. They have 15 grandchildren. Isa went across the street to get his great grandmother. She is the one whose picture I got when she was sitting in the field. She came over but stayed outside on the concrete sitting on her knees on a gunny sack. I moved over to a stool by the door so I could be closer to hear her. Her name is Maria. She is 87 but says it feels like 100. She was born in Sebanda which is the next village over. When she was little she played with her friends and as she got older she had to fetch water, find firewood and work in the garden. She met her husband in Sebanda in school and they got married when she was 18 and had her first child at 20. When I asked how they fell in love she laughed and said that she was beautiful and he was handsome and that was that. They got married, had 10 children and were farmers. I thought it was neat that she had 10 kids and her daughter also had 10 kids. Out of the 10 kids, she had 5 girls and 1 boy still living. So both mother and daughter had 10 kids and each only had 6 still alive. That is a very high mortality rate. Every time I asked Maria a question she giggled. She reminded me so much of my Grandma Dorie, even her face reminded me of her. I asked her what her life was like during the wars. She said that Idi Amin’s administration was long but they were not bothered much in her village. The one that hurt them the most was when Museveni was fighting for power against Milton Obote. The guerrilla soldiers were living in the villages. They would go and bomb the soldier’s barracks. The soldiers would search for them in the villages but they could not tell who was a guerrilla fighter and who was not so they would kill everyone. When they heard that the soldiers were coming they fled their homes and animals to a remote village. The Pastor said that they came back when Museveni took power. He said they were like skeletons because they had so little to eat and they had no shelter so they were out in the rain. The soldiers had destroyed everything. Maria says that now she can’t work in the garden anymore because of her back. She says that her life is disturbed a lot because she is in a lot of pain. She gets up in the morning and makes breakfast and then spends the day preparing food mostly. She lives with her grandson Joseph who looks like he is maybe 14. Her greatest joy in life is having a friend to talk to. Most of her friends are dead. One friend used to come visit her but now that friend is too old to come. She said that she was very happy at that moment because of our visit. I told her that every time I came to Uganda, I would come and visit her. She said she would like me to but what language would I speak to her with and how would we talk. Hannington told her that he would translate like he was doing then. She said “you come and we’ll talk.” I will definitely go. I told her that God loved her so much and that she was a treasure. They all said that they would pray for my trip home and look forward to my return. I got my camera to take some photos. The Pastor and his wife loved to see their family photo. I took a picture of Maria and showed her. She said “I have seen myself” then she giggled. Hann took a picture of the two of us together then showed her and she said, “I have seen you.” I hugged her and told her that I really enjoyed our visit. Hann went to get them each a bag of rice. Scovia came out to thank me, she was so happy. Maria was excited and kept patting the bag of rice saying that she was going to cook it for dinner tomorrow. It was time to go. I hugged Maria again. She really is a treasure.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 21:46:11 +0000
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