a village burial

so today i went to a burial. it's so hard to put everything in words, i will try since i didn't feel right taking pictures there. So I have a friend here called Bena, she's married, one baby, and she's 29yrs. She loves Jesus and wants to help the girls from her home village know how God sees them and show them that God does have a purpose for their lives, she's started an organization called Alive With Purpose. I have really enjoyed getting to know her and hear her heart for the people here. Anyway, so I was helping her in her office type up the constitution for renewing her community based organization certificate. I asked if she wanted to come home for lunch and she said she could not because she had to go to a burial. her great-grandma had passed and was being buried out in the village in the afternoon. So...then she asked if i wanted to come with her. which i did. I am trying to take every opportunity to learn more about the culture, plus I wanted to be there with my new friend, to support her. The youth pastor from her church stops by the office at 11:30am, he was supposed to arrive at 9am to go over something with her, but apparently he was delayed...Bena says, african time, i just smile. she tells him she no longer has time to go over whatever they were going to go over because she has to leave for a burial. then enters the associate pastor from her church, charles, he works for an organization called Light, he has a vehicle. when he hears about the funeral he offers to drive us, along with simon (the youth pastor), Bena says they will come and now simon has begun calling others to come too, Bena says that it is good for others to go and stand with the person who has lost someone. we stop by my house on the way out and pick up jennifer, then we swing by somewhere else and pick up another lady, dina. we are now, the 6 of us in the truck cab, and we head out. the village is near so it only takes maybe twenty minutes. the road is bumpy but the four of us across the back are pretty tightly packed we don't move too much...we turn off the "main" road to the village and start driving on a walking path for a short while and then we park outside a cement house that Bena says is her family's. Now we proceed to walk further along the path which opens up to a compound with maybe 4 or so huts on it. the introductions have already started, and the temporary shelter that has been constructed the previous day is now packed with women on the floor and men on the benches, the shelter is big sticks standing up right with branches over top. the people have actually over flowed from the shelter and there are people under every edge around each hut, and under a tree. there were over 300 people...not going to lie, felt a little out of place walking into this scene. i spot the coffin amidst the people, Bena heads toward it, jennifer and I and the pastors follow shortly behind. she kneels by the coffin briefly we just stand, then she introduces her self and her friends (that's us). we say our names, they clap and then some men clear off a bench for us to sit on in the front row of benches. there were a few more introductions after we sat, but they cut the rest off because they could tell rain was approaching. the grandmother was catholic. while one man is praying for her, another is standing up saying that that's not necessary because it's not helpful once she is dead. then the pastors we came with preached the word of God, a few people raised their hands to accept Christ. then we did some sitting, some standing as we went through what i think was some part of a catholic service, then another pastor shared the gospel as well, for a long time, many fell asleep, and all in a language that i did not understand. then he went over to the other people sitting around the huts and started summarizing what he had been teaching under the shelter but people began telling him that the rain was coming we had to hurry up. so we got on with the rest of the service. but at anytime while someone was talking a lady may enter into the shelter crying a loud for this dead grandmother, someone would try to console and the person speaking wouldn't even skip a beat, everyone's attention would just be diverted for a brief time. ok, i better move this story along. so they eventually put the white sheets over the body and put the lid on it, carried out from under the shelter and lowered it with ropes to it's final resting place. the service continued. someone got down on top of the coffin and put sticks across the top of it, i think maybe to keep it from floating up if it was heavy rain or something, they were also mixing cement on the side of the grave, but the rains came heavy and we ran back to the house before we got to the rest of the covering of the grave. and it ended just like that. everyone else was just beginning to eat. we met Bena's father (who teaches at Gulu University) and then we prayed together and left. ok, so that's enough for now i think. all in a day.