Let me first introduce myself. My name is Simon
Schoon. I am a retired pastor of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and
also retired professor of the Protestant Theological University in the
Netherlands. I
have a special interest in Africa, because my wife and I adopted a son from
Ethiopia in 1977 when he was a half year old.
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| with my scooter driver in Jinja |
Truus is a longtime friend of our family. She invited
me already many times to visit her in Uganda and see her project in Ococia, Amuria
district . At last, I could in the beginning of this year, accept her
invitation. And it came out to be a very good decision. Especially I admired that she managed to
build a school for retarded and handicapped children. The
paintings on the walls of the building, made by a local artist, are very colorful,
mostly images of nature. But there are still many challenges ahead for the full realization and
implementation of the school program, the teachers, and so on.
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| "Eukenos" building |
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|
Olivier B. Bommel and Tom Poes from a Dutch
comic strip
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Truus is already for a long time a close friend of our
family. She started to study theology in Amsterdam, together with my late wife
Riet in the beginning of the eighties. In 1996 they travelled together to India and worked for a certain period
of time in the project of mother Teresa in Calcutta. Last
year my wife Riet died. When Truus invited me again to come to Uganda, it
seemed to me that it could be a helpful
step in my mourning period to visit the place where Riet had such a good
time with Truus in 2010. So, I did, and I have no regrets. It was a very
special experience.
Of course I visited also the Franciscan sisters
in Ococia, who were assisting the community in different functions.
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| Two of the sisters with Truus |
In Ococia I was shown around in the
schools and health center. I spoke with the priest, the nuns, the workers in
the school and hospital, and had also a chance to ask my questions to patients
and students. As theologian I had a special interest
for the celebrations in some of the churches of this very Christian country.
Religion seemed to give people consolation in their rather poor circumstances.
Nearby was a Pentecostal church where we on a
Sunday morning were welcomed and seated in the front of the church. It was a very special experience, a jubilant service that made me realize that
our kind of church services in Holland would be regarded by African people as
very boring. The people present were ecstatic praising the Lord, but in such an
enthusiastic and noisy way that I got a terrible headache. We saw and
experienced that these churches fulfil a very important functions in the life
of the people.
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| Pentecostal service |
Let me finish
with some pictures, by which I can make clear that we did also some tourist
sightseeing.
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| At Sipi Falls |
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| At the so called sources of the Nile near Jinja |