Back in Kampala Again!

Sorry for the lack of photos this time!!

The previous evening I asked if I could have breakfast at 8am – so I was surprised when the guy knocked on my door at 6.45. Anyway, I was up and ready anyway so that was OK. I then read my book on “Rwanda Before the Genocide” for a while and then went to the Stanbic Bank (RSA) to see if they would cash US$ travellers cheques – they didn't so I tried to change the last of my Rwandan Francs – they didn't change them either!

I then went down to the Jaguar Coaches booking office and bought my ticket for the following morning and I was surprised hat they were now leaving at 7.30 am rather than 6.00 am. I then thought I'd try the Crane Bank but no luck there either. While I was there, I noticed a clock on the wall said 11.15 an when my watch said 10.15 am – it was then that I found out hat Uganda was 1 hr ahead of Rwanda and it had never occurred to me.

I was supposed to greet a group of clergy that Bishop Cranmer was calling together at 11 am so I was already late. I high-tailed it down to the church, found the Bishop and walked in 30 minutes late – no-one batted an eyelid! The Bishop had been speaking about the dangers of secularisation, so I gave a greeting, told them a little about the work of Wakisa and then commented on the fact that in Australia, the battle secularisation had already been lost – they were most interested and asked a few questions.

I then called a guy called Innocent and he invited me over. He works for an organisation called Help for Orphans & Vulnerable Children (HOVC) and I got connected with them through a couple at my church and it is supported and governed by Australians. He greeted me warmly and we chatted about their work – they are now sponsoring around 135 children who are the poorest of the poor and they have also provided guttering and 1,500 lt water tanks for 118 families – availability of clean fresh water is just so important.

He then showed me around a new guesthouse that had been recently built next door – very flash and comfortable! Then on to a local secondary school to see a couple of buildings that had been donated via HOVC. You may ask why they were funding some school buildings?Well, for church, community & parents' schools, they need to have a basic set of facilities before the Government will step in and provide funding – the buildings that HOVC funded completed this list of facilities and so now government funding will flow to this school where a lot of the sponsored kids will attend – so helping the school will eventually help the kids! I was then most grateful that Innocent drove me to the border and he changed the last of my Rwandan cash for me. I spent the rest of the afternoon & early evening reading my history book and watching Kisoro life walk past the front of my hotel.

Friday - about 6.45 am next morning I walked down to get the Jaguar bus to Kampala, only to be told that the ticket I'd bought was for 7.30 pm, not 7.30 am – the problems of language! Well, I didn't want to spend another day in Kisoro so I found out that a Bismarkan coach was leaving at 8 am and boarded that. I arrived in the outskirts of Kampala about 7 pm, only to find a massive traffic jam - so when the bus stopped to let some people off, I got off as well, retrieved my bag and caught a boda boda (motorcycle) to the Namirembe Guesthouse where I will be staying for the next couple of weeks. Linda Davis (who lives in Bundanoon in the southern highlands & I met in Uganda in 2010) is also staying there and so we had dinner together (she is here to do 5 weeks training of three organisations in baby massage) – that was enough for a very long day!

Saturday – I started with a trip to town to try and cash some traveller's cheques and after a couple more failures, I was finally directed to the UAE Forex Bureau which seems to be the only place still cashing them! Even though the process took about 45 minutes, it was still good to have found them. I did a couple of other errands and then went back to collect Linda and we were off to visit Miriam's university. Miriam is an ex-Wakisa girl who I am sponsoring to do a Nursing Degree. We met at the uni cafe and we had a bit to eat with her and one of her friends, Sandra (L to R - Linda, Sandra, Miriam). The uni was just a series of lecture and tutorial rooms as no practicals are conducted there. The girls had to go to a lecture at 2 pm, I must say without too much enthusiasm.

Sunday – off to St Francis Church in Makerere University with Linda and Miriam. The place was packed and we enjoyed a lively Anglican service with joyful Ugandan singing which almost brought the house down. The lead singer had an amazing voice and personality and I'm sure could enter Australia's Got Talent and win easily. We followed that with a coffee and then went to see if we could find Florence at home (another older ex-Wakisa girl that I have kept in touch with). Turns out that she was in Juba in South Sudan working as an advertising sales rep for a newspaper – it was good to hear her voice again.

Miriam then called Christine (another ex-Wakisa girl who has just completed her Degree in Counselling) to make sure she was going to be at home, caught two different taxis (Hi-ace vans converted to seat 14) and gave her a real surprise. Irene, another ex-Wakisa girl who will be taking her final HSc exams in November, was staying with her and was even more excited to see me! We chatted the afternoon away. (L to R - Miriam, Christine, Christine's sister with Christine's baby Daniel Davis, Irene)

Monday – I joined the girls at Wakisa today for their devotional time and it was really great – two staff were there, Harriet and Rachel, and the girls are really lucky to have such Godly women to guide them. The rest of the day was spent clearing rubbish out of the back shed and around the compound and placing it in a pile for later collection. I also started investigating why a pump, designed to pump water from a large ground tank to another tank above the second floor, was continuously on but not delivering any water.

Monday evening, I met two young Australians who were about to join a World Vision Team doing all sorts of introductory work around Uganda. They were delightful and were really passionate about helping the poor and making a difference in the world.

Tuesday – I continued rounding up rubbish (a passion of mine!) and also started removing some faulty and leaking guttering on the old part of the main building. This was time-consuming as the area I had to work in was quite cramped in places and proper tools were not available. I returned to my room and had a welcome shower about 2.30 pm and then I took Linda into town to buy some material and organise the services of a tailor to make up a dress. We did this in one of the most crowded parts of the city and as always, were amazed by how many small businesses could be crowded into such a small area. We met Miriam after she finished work at about 4.30 pm and she organised to get Prosie's phone repaired for only A$30. While we were waiting, we had a bit of dinner at a local restaurant at a cost of $8 - $10 each.

Wednesday – more work at Wakisa on the guttering and also refitting the door on the shed so that a padlock could be used, and so avoid it filling up with rubbish again. I was just about to start putting my tools away when Rachel let me know that the vanities in the girl's dorm were blocked – so I turned plumber. There were a few girls hanging around and showing a bit of interest so I took the opportunity of getting them to help me, not so much for the training value but just to let them know that such things are not difficult and that they can do them if they like. By the way, the reason that the pump wasn't delivering any water was that someone had turned the stopcock off!

Thursday – 9am saw Linda and I at New Malago Hospital to see the Ugandan Heart Institute where Miriam works. There were about 50 people in the waiting room and although the facilities were tired and worn, I got the impression that the standard of care was pretty good. They also do outreaches to regional centres - they take their equipment with them, do checkups at a very low cost and then, where necessary, provide recommendations for more tests ot consultations. Then working on quite long list of errands took us up to lunchtime, but we were pleased to find everything we were looking for.

Back at Wakisa, I continued with my guttering project. I asked Henry, Vivian's driver, to get me some new parts but unfortunately he returned unsuccessful because the old style of plastic guttering was no longer available. I kept myself busy running string lines to get the levels correct so all the water ended up in the tanks.