Not yet a Bugandan

So the other day I had a bit of a reality check when I went to a primary school that I am working with. I went to have a meeting with the headteacher and a few other teachers that are helping to organize and write a grant for an income generating project that I'm doing with them. The gist of the project involves creating a tree nursery and having at least one batch of tree seedlings sold while I'm here. As a form of advertising they want to have a traditional Ugandan ceremony with all local political, religious, and academic leaders come to hear speeches and eat food. Well this ceremony will cost about a quarter of the entire project. Part of the grant includes a required contribution from the school and I try to fudge this requirement as much as possible. Not lie, but there are some things that wouldn't be considered or given much thought as a financial concern because the students can help-like with cleaning or fetching water, etc. These small actions are a contribution, so for this ceremony I asked of the parents of the children could give a little bit of food that they farmed so they wouldn't have to give money. All of the sudden they started laughing and I asked what is so funny. They told me that these people can't feed themselves, the kids eat once a day, etc so there is no way they can give food for this ceremony. I felt so ridiculous, it was like when Marie Antoinette was told her people didn't have enough money to make bread and she replied 'let them eat cake'. Til that point I had actually thought that I had come so far in assimilating into the Ugandan culture. I guess I will learn humility and new things about myself everyday.