Visit to Acholi Quarters

 

The day that I visited my friends in Acholi Quarters last week, it rained. And when I say it rained, I mean it really rained. Overall, for just over an hour, but really intense for at least 30 minutes, and by the time it had finished, the dirt roads that weave their way through the informal settlement were rivers of mud.

When I arrived, the taxi driver wasn’t able to wait as he had another fare to go and pick. Quite reasonable – that is the nature of taxis! But it did mean that he deposited me, plus two bags of donated baby clothes, in the middle of the road that was acting live a river! Normally, Harriet and Miriam come up and find me and we walk down to their homes together. I know where they live, and I can get to them on my own (and sometimes have done), but generally they come up to find me. Given the intensity of the rain I was glad to see that they had sensibly stayed inside and not tried to meet me, but that did also mean that I was slightly unsure where to try and shelter.

And that was when Acholi hospitality shone through. An elderly jaja (grandmother) recognised me as she looked out from her one-room home just by where I had been abandoned, and she called me to come and shelter. Initially I thought I wouldn’t mess her home by going inside but would shelter on the porch. But she was having none of it, and her daughter also appeared from the home and was equally insistent.

So in I went, and what a beautiful time we had together. It ended up that I shared the room with jaja, and three grandchildren, ages 14, 10, and 2 (the mum stayed outside roasting g-nuts on the stove which she was already doing when I arrived). We sat on the floor together, and just enjoyed each other’s company. As it happened I knew the older two as we support them to go to school, and they were able to do some translating. But jaja and I also communicated via sign language and broken English, and it was a very special time. There were times during the storm when the rain on the metal roof was so loud that communication wasn’t an option. and we did have to be careful not to nudge the buckets that were catching the drips from the leaking roof.

I was under no illusion of the destructive power of the rain that day. There will have been some makeshift homes which probably didn’t withstand the rain. And the roads also took a battering. As the rain subsided, and I walked through the community, the clean-up and drying out was evidently already underway. Sadly, it is just part of life for the residents of this community, and so many other informal settlements like them. Rainy season can mean mega rains anyway, and with climate change, the degree of ‘mega’ is increasing, and having greater levels of impact than previously.

By the end of the afternoon, I did get to meet up with Harriet, Miriam, and many more of the Acholi folks which is always such a joy. But on this occasion, new memories were made with one particular family and I’ll be forever grateful to that jaja for opening her arms of hospitality to me.