King Me

Another great week here in Uganda.  For those of you new to this blog, it is a country in Africa...Yes! Africa, I am here in Africa - can you even believe it.  What an adventure we are having.  For those of you at a certain age (old) you should come and join us here in Africa.  There is a great work as the work goes forward with these good people.

We had a special opportunity to go with the young elders to teach a lady that has some hard decisions to make.  She has been taking the lessons for 3 months but has a boyfriend, who doesn't want to get married and is not interested in the church.  The elders asked on Thursday if we had plans for Friday night around 5:45.  We did not have plans so we agreed to go with them to help teach and encourage.  Around 5:15 the elders showed up to our door and I invited them in believing they were there to see the nurse.  They didn't say anything until Sister Squire finally remembered the conversation from the day before.  I don't need reminders, my mind is like a lock, I just can't ever find the key.  We made it to the appointment and had a wonderful discussion about faith, prayer, the holy ghost and listening to the spirit.  I don't know what her decision will be about being baptized on the 25th but we will be praying for her.  It is wonderful to introduce the people of Uganda to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  In the Congo Mission they had 5,000 baptisms last year.  The mission was split recently and I imagine both missions will be doing great.  We are working to a goal of 1150 here in Uganda in 2014.

Yesterday we spent our P day going to see more of the history of the area.  We went to the Parliament building and the Palace. I did not know that Uganda has a King along with President Museveini who is over all of Uganda.  The King is over about half of Uganda in an area called Buganda.  King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, he is the current Kabaka  (King) of Buganda.  After the disaster of Idi Amin and his torture of thousands of Ugandans, The King agreed to support President Museveini  as the President of all of Uganda and he had input of his area of 56 clans.

 

Idi Amin was the third President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979.  He took control by deposing Milton Obote who was out of the country at the time.  Over his eight year rule it is said he killed from 100,000 - 500,000 of his people.  Anyone who he thought had more education, was believed to be a threat to his rule and was eliminated.  The tour guide put the number at 300,000.

This is a statue of the current King outside of Parliament 

Here is the view from parliament looking down the royal mile road to the Palace.  They drive down for special occasions only a couple of times a year.

Here is some of the pictures of the 56 clans.  The people are all born into one of these clans and they can't marry someone from the same clan and they can't eat whatever their token is.  I would want to be from the broccoli or any of the other vegetable groups.
 

 This is the chair where the speaker sits.  They wouldn't let us sit here but we could take a picture standing by it.

This is a picture of the Palace.  The King no longer lives here because of all the people that were tortured and died here.

 This is a Bentley the British gave to the royalty of Buganda. The king had a total of 10 different nice vehicles he had been given.  Idi drove it around for a while and then destroyed all 10 of the vehicles.  You will see that Sister Squire had to be given a skirt so she would be dressed modestly to tour the grounds (she had slacks on - "P" day).

 This is the top of the area where Idi tortured and killed the people he believed were a threat to him.  They would grab the people and put a hood over their head and drive around all day then when it was dark they would drive them here and throw them in one of the four cells with no food or water for four days.  Then they would have them come out and stand in around 10 inches of water and electrocute them. 

This was a group from Kenya that had traveled to Uganda for tours.  They all have school uniforms.

 Not a great picture but you can kind of see the heavy electric wires at each end where the current to the sliding doors and to the water was run.

If you look along the right hand side you can see the where the level of water was.  After they killed the prisioners they would haul them off to Lake Victoria and feed them to the crocodiles.

 This is a picture of the gate looking back down the royal mile to the parliament building.

What a fun surprise today at church.  We had these four come in just at the beginning of Sacrament meeting.  The two girls on the left (Katie and Tessa) are going to be in Lugazi for three months doing an internship (they are BYU students).  Tessa's sister Britta and her husband Clark just came over with them and then they are heading out to see some of Africa on their way home.  They have been put right to work.