Shrine on, Shrine on Harvest Moon...

Yesterday we went for an adventure close to home.  In a blog post a couple of weeks ago we talked about Martyr's Day, where they walk as far away as Kenya and the DR Congo to come to where some Christian Missionaries were killed by the Bugandan King. As we were heading down for the gorilla trip we saw a few of these pilgrims coming along the highway.  They have over three million people last year but this year the guide said they estimated it to be close to five million.

This is the memorial chapel.  The beams and cross members all all symbolic of the number of those who were killed.  It is surrounded by different shrines to remember the fallen.  The Catholic martyrs have all been anointed sainthood because of all the miracles that followed their deaths.

Here is the mural that showed different depictions of how they died.  The man in the bottom right was speared to death because the King did not like him saying the Lord's Prayer because the only kingdom was his kingdom.

Here is the scene where they were all burned to death.  They were bound by bamboo sheets rolled up and then placed on the logs.  The wood was watered down so it would burn slowly causing that much more pain resulting in a longer death. 

On the way to Namuconco (the designated execution grounds about 20km from the palace) they would stop at every crossroad and give the people a chance to recant Christianity but none of them did and so one would die to show they meant business before moving on.

 

 The Chapel is surrounded by stained glass with a picure of each of the marters.

Another one

This young Christian had a Uncle that sent him away several times trying to give him a chance to live.  He kept coming back so to stop him from feeling the pain of the fire his Uncle had him clubed to death before they put his body in the fire.

There was a wedding at the Shrine so we got some great pictures of the bride and groom while on our tour.

Very cute flower girls

 

Love the traditional dresses.  The hoot and holler when the bride and groom come out of the chapel.

 

Typical wedding party vehicles fixed up for when they leave.  We saw one where the camera man was in a car ahead of them with the roof open filming the vehicle driving on the highway.

Now, on to more exciting news.  Sister Squire is becoming an expert on boils.  We had an Elder that she lanced a boil on his elbow and he ended up going to the hospital and having it done.  I may have misled you a bit, it wasn't her fault :).  It had become infected and so it needed to be lanced and packed every day for over a week.

This one is under the arm and very painful.  She had him warm it up and when she popped this bad boy she had stuff all the way up her arm.  Loved it!

Mostly blood coming out.

It appears they are both having a good time.  Notice the lovely operating room.

Here is one of the girls at church.  I love all the different ways they fix the little girls hair.  They are so dang cute!  Looks like the old Raggedy Ann dolls hair.  The smiley face was handed out at Primary.

Side view

Here is another little one with cure hair.

We had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) this week.  They have them come in from all over the mission and for dinner this time they took them to the Protea Hotel for their Friday Night Buffet.  I don't think we will be invited back because of the amount of food they ate, but several folks commented on how well behaved our group was.

 

There wasn't a lot to clean up on the buffet line when these boys were done.

 

Random photo of the day.  They have to post their land and vacant buildings because some unscrupulous folks will sell land they do not own.  I guess it is easier to post the property rather than deal with explaining to someone why they have to move off the land they just paid for.

Double random bonus, here is the fallopian tube structure at the top of our street.  Not sure what happend but Uganda will never be the same.

 Before

After

Ramdom trifecta!  It was President Chatfield's birthday this month so Sister Squire and I had a authentic portrate done for him.  He is a man of many talents and not all of them are spiritual.  He was a rodeo cowboy in his youth and still has horses and loves a good ride on a bucking bronco.  We just knew this would be one of his goals while in Africa.