Muchwa, Palace and Goretti, Fri June 27

The group was greeted and honored this morning in Fort Portal, at the Kabarole District government offices, a building known as Muchwa. Kabarole (kah-bah-ROLL-eh), home of most of the Batooro people, amounts more or less to a state in the union that makes up the nation of Uganda. Ceremonies began with a brass band and a parade of students, followed by inspection of the ranks by numerous dignitaries.

Some fifteen students from nearby St. Maria Goretti School did a beautiful a capella rendition of the Tooro anthem. Our group did a rather less stirring a capella rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.

The ceremonies followed the now-familiar sequence of speeches. It turned out that a reporter from Ugandan national television was present, filming portions of the event for national broadcast (we expect to get a DVD of that film sometime later). One of the speakers was introduced as the equivalent of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry with respect to the speaker’s representation of Kabarole District in the Ugandan parliament. Barbara spoke, introducing all of the visiting educators. Elizabeth Ross was presented with a charming resolution by the district government encouraging more exchanges and mutual growth between our countries and peoples.

After the ceremony we were driven, to our surprise, to the offices and home of the ceremonial King Oyo of Tooro, just around the corner and up a steep hill that overlooks much of Kabarole. The king was crowned at age 3 and is now 18 years old. He was in Kampala on this particular day. His family and he have become friends with Ghaddafi of Libya, who funded the reconstruction of the circular royal office building. Libyans are visible elsewhere in Uganda; for example, the Lake Victoria Hotel in Entebbe is now owned by Libyans and has been renamed the Libya Hotel.

The view from the palace grounds is said to be the most beautiful in Tooro. If only the clouds would clear and we could see, for the first time ever for us, the 17,000-foot Rwenzori peaks and their snowcaps...


Next, onward to St. Maria Goretti Secondary School, just down the hill from the royal compound. Our friend Richard Ali Tumwine from last year’s Uganda-Weston exchange group teaches here. We had an excellent traditional lunch, then heard speeches and were treated to unusually graceful dancing.


Later on we were told that the town of Fort Portal had been swarming all this day with police, to ensure security of the visiting American teacher group. There were radio broadcasts throughout Tooro for two weeks about our visit. Who would have guessed it?