De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

This was to be one of our busiest days in Uganda. Bro. Dominic, who had been with us for the first few days in Kisubi and then Kasasa, took us to visit 2 our of De La Mennais Brothers schools in Kampala, the capital, about 12 miles from where we were staying in Kisubi. The day began in relaxed fashion. Bro. Francis and I took a stroll around the grounds of the Kisubi lakeside retreat where we were staying, admiring once more the watchful pelican-type birds that congregate around the property. Mid-morning we set off to visit a hotel complex that the Brothers wanted us to see as an example of the type of place that rich dignitaries stay in (including the Queen!) when they visit Uganda. It was indeed impressive, though we did feel rather awkward at the relative opulence of it all. However, this feeling was tempered when we were told that it gave lots of emplyment to local people. Even so... The name of the resort was very familiar to us Scousers (and adopted Scousers), Speke being a large...

After a week of meetings in France (see previous blog post) it's time to get back to our Uganda trip... ********************* So we said goodbye to Ibanda and set off on the 4-5 hour journey back to Kisubi in 2 Toyota Hiace vans... ... driving through a relatively small nature reserve where we stopped to take in the scenery beside a lake. Although the following story describes an event that took place on the equivalent journey to Ibanda a week earlier, I cannot complete this series of articles without telling it. We were in the 2 Hiace vans and needed to fill up with petrol. So we stopped at a Shell garage on the central street in the middle of a large, bustling town. Bro. Michel, our French group member, hopped out to go over to the bank just opposite the garage (so I thought) to change some of the group's dollars into Ugandan shillings. I decided to try and do the same, having been warned, however, that banks would be unlikely to accept most of my dollars as their date of pri...

I am indeed proud to be a De La Mennais Brother and I want the whole world to know it :-) I'm proud of what we stand for - helping young people to grow as individuals and in particular helping them to come to know and love Jesus Christ. I'm proud of the individuals in our congregation and the marvellous work they do. I'm proud of their dynamism, their dedication, their enthusiasm (even when they are no longer young), their warmth, their prayerfulness, their hopefulness.... I'm proud of our Brothers' communities and the fraternal atmosphere that reigns in them. I'm proud, and I want our congregation to be able to carry on doing it's work which I feel in today's society is ever more relevant and necessary. To give but one example... I know many Brothers who after having reached the end of their professional careers in France at the age of 60 decided to commit themselves to the missions and spend their "retirement" teaching in our missions in, for...

Later on during our last day in Ibanda, Bro. Vincent (the Ugandan Provincial who had come to meet us in his home town) took us to visit his mother and other members of his family. Even as a Brother, he still has an important role to play in his family as eldest son, adviser, settler of disputes, etc... Bro. Michel with Bro. Vincent, his mother (centre front) and other members of his family). The main street in Ibanda. A frequent scene throughout Uganda (and also Togo, visited last year) - bicycles, mopeds, motorbikes by the dozen. The evening's festivities began with an invitation to a scout jamboree led by members of the school's scout group. A bit like the campfire fun and games at Kasasa, we were entertained by dances, songs, sketches, etc... Team Win! members in borrowed scouting gear. And finally... back at the Brothers' community they were waiting to offer us a farewell party with an abundance of food and drink (as you can see below... the drink, at least!). As it was...

Here is a video clip from our time in Ibanda orphanage on day 14 (see previous article). Click on this link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfkeQvvt27E then on "watch in high quality" just under the video window to the right, otherwise the resolution is too low.

Well, it's been a very busy last few weeks, what with doing lots of translation work (French to English) for our Congregation's new magazine, La Mennais Magazine, and of course celebrating my 40th birthday!! which required me to attend a couple of meal celebrations that did end up going on a long time... a real bind, you know! ;-) Anyway, here's another blog bit. ********** Day 14 was our last in Ibanda before going back to Kisubi near the capital Kamapala for the last 2 days. So we tried to fit as much into the one day as possible. I think we did pretty well, but it means there's too much stuff for one article. So here's the first part. We were asked by one of the Brothers if we would like a tour during the morning around the enormous school property and its farm. Team Win! go exploring. Note the seriously big palm trees. Francis leading the way. Some innocent, inquisitive pork-flavoured friends about to be cruelly taunted by Giant Jack T. with shouts of "Baco...