Returning to Uganda

Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. Asher grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip.  

"On the afternoon of Saturday, October 4, we crossed back into Uganda after our trip into Rwanda. We were "home" again. It had been a packed trip to Rwanda, with quite a lot of driving, sometimes crisscrossing the same places more than once, but I have no doubt that it was quite worth it. The number of meetings we had and the people we met were extraordinary. 

After crossing the border, we traveled to Mbarara, a city in western Uganda that we had not visited for very long before. It is one of the biggest cities in the country and a diocese where we have a few Children's Rosary groups. 

In the evening, we visited St. Leo's preparatory School. We arrived late due to some extra steps when crossing the border, but the children were most excited to see us nonetheless. They shouted out a line I had heard more than once before when visiting a school in Uganda, "You are most welcome, our dear visitors!" I don't know if I will ever get used to the feeling of a hundred pairs of eyes focusing on me as I walk into the room. There's an undeniable feeling of expectation that's in the air, and no one wants to disappoint that. However, the experience has gotten easier since arriving. We spoke to the children concerning the Children's Rosary, and even though that school had been praying regularly, they agreed to pray as a Children's Rosary group every week. 

After visiting this school, we decided not to visit a second school we had planned to visit because the day students had already gone home, so we decided to visit the next day. Personally, I think this was a good decision as I had a pounding headache from the long journey and wanted to be able to give more of myself to the children when I felt better. 

The next morning, we woke up at 4:00 am, but not to visit children. We were going to visit some animals. Even though going on safari was not why I came to Africa, it still seemed to make sense to make a stop at Queen Elizabeth National Park since we were going right past it. 

The park was founded in 1952 and named after the queen due to her visit to the country in 1954. It is one of the most well known parks in the region and has a large collection of sought after animals.

The entrance to the park was about two hours away from our hotel, so once we got there, we quickly met up with the guide and got in the vehicle. It was a large pickup truck with seats loaded onto the back bed. We were not permitted to bring our own car in due to the danger from the animals, but as it turned out, it was better we went in the pickup because the mud on the dirt paths was so great that it might have been too much for our car. We were told later that two cars got stuck. 

As we drove through the park, we saw antelopes (called kobs here), elephants, waterbucks, buffalo, bush bucks, and even a leopard. The leopard is a rather elusive animal, living a solitary life and rarely being seen. We were happy we got to see them. 

We also saw some notable birds, such as the wattled lapwig, the red necked spurfowl, and the grey heron. Interestingly, this last bird was once particularly prized in Europe, especially roasted. It is said that for the celebration of George Neville becoming Archbishop of York in the fifteenth century, 400 roast herons were served to him. 

I must say, I think everyone quite enjoyed the tour. It was a cool day, overcast but not rainy. It felt nice to have the wind whipping at you as we cruised through the beautiful terrain. 

That afternoon, we visited St. Mary's School Katete. This was a school operated by a community of brothers like St. Leo's. We spoke to them, gave them some rosaries and sweets, and took pictures with them. They were quite happy for this. 

That night we slept again at Fr. Alex's parish in Mutukula. Our schedule became quite packed at the end of the day, and we ended up having to skip over some planned activities, such as spending time at a baptism celebration for a friend of Fr. Alex's in Masaka. However, we did manage to stop at Fr. George's parish in the Mbarara diocese; he is a friend of the Children's Rosary's, and we were glad to see him.

As we approached Mutukula, we realized it was quite close to midnight and we had not had Mass that day; no one, however, was willing to go to bed with no Mass, so despite the very late hour, we went into the rectory's private chapel, and Fr. Alex celebrated Mass.

It was a beautiful end to a memorable day. 

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE