Hit the Road Jack

We left the hotel at 7.30am – after confusion about the time, we were ready at 7am!

We had an extra passenger, the hotel manager (Jerome) asked us last night if he could ‘hike a lift to Kampala’, as his daughter was in hospital.

Yesterday at this time we were walking back to our room up the steep rutted track from the Global Care office, smiling at children coming out of school, and buying a delicious avocado for about 8p from a local shop. Then we had a cold shower because there was no power again, enjoyed the glorious view of mountains and trees, sipping tea listening to the birds.

I am currently in a hotel in Kampala, listening to totally different noises. There are calls to Friday prayers, people chatting, horns blaring, sounds of stairs being washed, loud music from the bar opposite, and I suppose I should add the hum of the fridge. Yes folks, we are back in town. I think this is the first Ugandan hotel I’ve stayed in that had working hot and cold taps, and all the plug sockets are fixed to the wall. Not a wire in sight. Even more amazing, no wires in the bathroom, and a light over the mirror…

We travelled for over 7 hours today, our longest stop being to change a tyre. We’d just left a small town where we’d stopped for fuel, a ‘short call’, and for Charles and I to finish off my breakfast chapattis, when there was a loud bang under Tom’s seat. It is impressive to watch Charles change a tyre – the jack wasn’t high enough so there was a bit of searching for rocks in the swamp, leaving me guarding the car and luggage. Tom says I’m formidable – ha ha ha – when the local children saw me in my sunhat they all burst out laughing.  Tom was very excited because his rock was better than Jerome’s. The joys of travelling with 3 blokes.

It is fascinating making a long journey like this. You leave mountainous terrain with small, ramshackle, thatched huts spaced out wherever there is flat, cleared ground. After an hour of a bumpy pot-holed road with endless speedbumps, you arrive at the main road. You pass through bustling villages and largish towns, with bodas weaving in and out of the lorries thundering between Kampala and Rwanda. Buses dangerously overtake bicycles, motorbikes, cars and pedestrians, then get stopped by the police at every checkpoint. I sat in the front today and found myself wincing frequently, or trying to breathe in when someone was coming towards us on the same side of the road. We passed vast areas of swamp, a game park with zebra close to the road, sugar plantations, coffee farms, piggeries. In some areas the hillsides dotted with cows remind me of home.

But everywhere there are people walking barefoot at the side of the road, carrying ridiculously heavy packages.  

There are stalls selling a few tomatoes or pineapples. People working in the fields. There are shanty towns and remote villages – no running water, no electricity.

We were ready for this weekend to re-charge our emotional batteries.  But while we are resting in a comfortable, clean hotel with a well stocked restaurant, I keep seeing those three sets of twins . 

I can feel the mud squelching underfoot, see the sad eyes of the ragged toddlers, but maybe next year they’ll manage if their sister takes them with her when she goes to school, and they can join the feeding programme at Kahororo. 

Then I think of the twins at school, and their father who was so grateful and truly believed that because of Global Care his children are alive.  

And the progression ends with the twins at the carpentry shop – gaining new skills and hoping for self-sufficiency. 


I am truly thankful that I came here in 2008 and had my life turned around by this amazing charity.