The Bahai Temple

Friday afternoon, I drove with N.’s parents in search of theBahai Temple, which we had heard was a thing to see on a hill. To get there you take the left-hand turn just before Kabira Country Club. Now, I often drop J off at work and then go straight to Kabira to use the Internet, drink some coffee, eat some muffins, and often hit a traffic jam just before I get to the Club as there are so many cars coming in and out of that left-hand turn. This made me think it was a major sort road, what with so many people using it and all. Turns out, the pavement quickly disintegrates into ginormous potholes (nothing new there, right?), but then it quickly disintegrates into a dirt road. A dirt road with gullies running down the middle and branching out all over the places, ruts so deep I thought the under carriage of our car would drag on the ground, ditches four feet deep running along the edge, and always, always, the potholes. It was a serious drive.

The temple’s well-maintained driveway was a welcome change; it climbs steeply up Kikaya Hill to where the temple sits at the top. The temple itself is a nine-sided structure with a dome on top. The structure, both inside and out, is simple in construction and relatively unadorned—there are stain glass windows, but even these are quite simple in style. There are 7 ½ Bahai temples in the world, all of them with nine doors and circular in shape. They’ll tell you there’s one on each continent, but they don’t have one on Antarctica and I leave you to do the math. Uganda’s temple was the second built in 1962. The religion itself is only about 150 years old.

The grounds surrounding the temple were much more impressive. They extend for acres, are immaculately maintained, and there’s a terrific view of the city (not as nice as the view from Kololo, of course). I’d show you, but I forgot my camera and I’m not driving back there any time soon. It’s worth the trip once, but I was underwhelmed.

Film Festival Update

The Best Things About the Film Festival
1. It’s free
2. A beer costs about $1
3. You can bring that $1 beer with you into the theater
4. The candy guy outside sells candy for $.05/piece

The Worst Things About the Film Festival
1. The candy is really terrible
2. The seats are quite uncomfortable

J, N., and I only made it to two movies last night: the 9:00PM showing of United 93, immediately followed by Monty Python and the Holy Grail. My exact words after United 93: I am intensely sad. There was about 30 seconds of black screen and then Monty Python started up. No intermission of any sort. I suppose it helped us forget how sad we were, but it was a strange mix of movies.

Today's Cultural Lesson

On the way back from the farm on Sunday, P. stopped at the tombs of four Buganda kings. There are 52 Buganda tribes in Uganda, and their king has become a figurehead, along with a Buganda parliament based in Kampala, though it also does not have any power. The tombs are one of the major tourist attractions in Kampala - which I think says a lot about what an exciting place Kampala is to visit. (Nice to live in, but there really aren't too many sites.)

Traditionally each Buganda king would establish his own palace and when he died, he would be buried there. In the 19th century, for a reason I can’t remember at the moment, and now the past four kings have been buried here in this hut, the second largest thatch-roofed hut in the world:



Surrounding the hut are a number of smaller dwellings where the wives of the king used to live. P.’s neighbor with five wives has got nothing on the kings who can have, like, 50. If one of the wives died, one of her unmarried sisters or cousins or aunts or whoever would come to take her place. If she only had married female relatives, they were off the hook and would just have to come for a few days to pay their respects. The widows of the last king still live around the palace and take care of it.



Inside the hut, there are four mounds behind a fence of spears, with pictures of each of the kings. The bodies are not buried directly under these mounds. Buganda kings do not “die,” they “get lost in the forest.” The first two Buganda kings – hundreds of years ago – actually did get lost in the forest. Their bodies were never found. In the hut, there is a curtain made of backcloth – a leathery hide made from the bark of a tree. Behind the curtain is the figurative forest. When the bodies were buried, a hole was dug thirteen feet deep in front of the curtain and then a tunnel dug backwards so the bodies would actually rest behind the curtain, or in the forest. Which I think is a rather nice tradition.

Film Festival

The Amakula Kampala International Film Festival starts tonight. It’s possible that I will watch four movies tomorrow (and call it research for my novel). I’d watch more but I have a lunch date. The festival offers a nice mix of contemporary African films and older films from the rest of the world, many of them with an African theme.

The films will be shown in the National Theater, which I’ve been meaning to check out. Best of all, everything’s free.

Friday’s line-up: Michael Winterbottom’s In This World, Catch a Fire with Tim Robbins, United 93, and the late-night special Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which—shockingly—I have never seen.

I tried to plan out the rest of the weekend, but there’s just too much to choose from! I have to take it day-by-day.

Plus, the paint might actually be dry in the second apartment on Saturday. Ha.