Saturday, 24 September 2016

Take me home country roads (Friday)

So we’re here again – in our lovely room at the bottom of the garden at Heritage Country Hotel overlooking an amazing view right across to beautiful high mountains in the distance. We know they’re beautiful because we’ve been before, we can’t actually see them through the mist and rain. I enjoyed a cold shower in the dark as the generator couldn’t be fixed. It seems to be working now, although we’ve been told it can’t work the new electric showers. In the interest of pretending we’re roughing it, we declined for someone to fetch a bowl of warm water down to our room so we can wash in the morning. Tom says cold showers are good for you and I’ll get used to it quickly.

We left home at 2.30am yesterday and had the most uneventful journey we’ve ever had, smooth connection in Brussels (although I had stop Tom from commenting on the yellow T-shirted group whose leaders made sure the rest of us knew they were important missionaries to Uganda). We arrived in Entebbe at 7.30pm and to our amazement someone was waiting for us outside the airport displaying our name – and half an hour later we were at the hotel. Oh yes, with all our cases.

Those of you following us on FB will by now have met Bob the Mouse (#bobthemouse) who has come with us to help tell our story to the children we know, or who are going to get to know us when we’re back! He’s had a great day today…. He’s met Charles who is once again driving us around – I don’t think he has a clue what Bob is doing. We left Entebbe at 8am today and with a couple of stops arrived in Rukungiri at 4pm. Another shock – Charles actually correctly predicted our arrival time (he’s usually 2 hours earlier than we arrive).

Coming back is never predictable. Each time so much has changed. We had wifi last night in the hotel, our food was on time tonight, there are fast new roads (mostly) and electric showers (OK they don’t work).  Then other things are exactly the same.  Everywhere people walk at the side of the main road with trucks thundering past, carrying unbelievable amounts of food/water/ belongings and children.  The lucky ones have a bike or motorbike – though none of them looked very safe. On the way here we passed new hotels in towns, then shacks, huts, sheds, wooden and tin structures,…. allserving as family homes.  We passed lush plains, and dry bare earth with cattle and goats scrabbling for grass in the dust. There is still a huge amount of visible poverty and struggle.


Tomorrow we are meeting Moses and Penlope to plan a programme for our week down South.  And for those interested – yes we met the lovely Penlope’s baby Trissy, and I will bring photos.

Sorry no pictures - technical issues! 

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