Another four day update!

Sorry about dropping off the radar folks, we were out of Kampala for a bit, in Gulu in fact But I’ll start at the beginning of where I last left off.

So Sunday was once again off to church, this time we went to Watoto North. The songs that the choir performs just get better each time! Pastor Joshua (aka PJ) gave us a sermon about how Jesus wants to build his church with people. It was very interesting. After church we went to Garden City for lunch, then came back to the guest house for an afternoon of rest, as we had an early start on Monday.

Monday began at 5, brekky was at 5.30 and we were on the bus to the airport by 6. We checked in and were taken out to the tarmac to see our plane. We walked past a few normal size planes, then a few really small planes (that made me nervous!) and finally reached our plane, which was pretty small, but not too bad. The plane could seat about 16 passengers, plus our two pilots, and was small enough to have the wings above the seats (ie. you look out the window and see underneath the wings, instead of over the top!) We survived the trip, making a short stop at Pader to drop off some passengers. Gulu airport was about the same size as the plane! We were then reunited with Moses (who had driven up separately with our luggage) and taken to the Gulu Churchill Community Hotel for a second breakfast and a rest before traveling out to have lunch. After lunch we went to visit the Living Hope centre where Dorothy showed us around. We were introduced to a group of women who were in a trauma counseling class, and were given the privilege of listening to one lady’s brave story of how she had confronted and forgiven one of her “enemies”. Then we were shown around the rest of the complex, from the classrooms where English and mathematics takes place, to the workroom where the ladies are taught skills that will enable them to provide an income for themselves and their families, to the room where bulk bags of food were being divvied up into food packages for the women. Living hope Ministries is currently looking after over 900 ladies, and has actually had to turn some away as they cannot take on any more. It’s only a two year course though, so as one group graduates, another will be brought in to fill their place. We gave out some sweets to the kids and mothers that were there, which they were so happy to receive, it was a very rewarding, yet emotional, experience overall.

on Monday night, back at the hotel, we ran into Pastor Allan and his wife Matise and their son Israel, who was immediately swept into Nanny Nette’s arms. We met Pastor Allan the next day also at Watoto Church. And Matise is the director of the Living Hope program. Truly dedicated people.

Tuesday was a late start, we didn’t have to crawl out of bed until breakfast at 9.30am then we were taken out to Watoto Church Gulu and had another engaging session with Pastor Allan. We then went out to Grace College, where Watoto pays the school fees for 200 children to attend. Watoto really does some wonderful things within the community. Our next stop was at the building site for the next Watoto Babies Home, a site that also has plans for a church and guest house. It was a lot busier than our little building site, with people everywhere working to get this structure up and running!

After lunch we headed out to the Watoto village, Labora, which is about an hour out of Gulu, if only because most of the road is a narrow and eroded dirt track! We were greeted by Mama Betty who showed us around the occupied circle of homes. Most of the kids were at school though, so we walked up and disrupted class to say hi! We saw the kindy kids, an older class studying religion and another class learning to sew, boys included! Those kids had such great smiles, which only got bigger when we handed out some sweets. All the teachers had said that their classes had been very well behaved that day, with the exception of Tony who got sent to the naughty corner, where he met Dennis who was already there!

On the way back into Gulu, as we still had some sweets, we handed them out to the school kids walking home. Some were very frightened and ran away, but once word had spread that we were just handing out sweets, they came nervously back.

Today we got up and packed, ready for the drive home to Kampala. Jeanette and I were rather “excited” at the prospect of spending hours in the car with the “three wise men” fortunately, we had Bonny and Moses to keep them under control! The roads were mostly ok, except for the 5km stretch of road that had a speed bump every ten metres! And no, I’m not exagerating, it’s the only way to slow Ugandan drivers down, Unless of course, they are driving buses… yep, bus drivers don’t like to slow down, or stay on their side of the road for that matter!

It wasn’t long after our very bumpy stint that we noticed the car was a bit wobbly. Turns out one of the rear tyres had stuffed up (the boys are trying to use all these technical words on me, but stuffed up will do fine) we had the right spanner to take off the dodgy tyre, but not one to get the spare tyre out of it’s hiding spot. So we tentatively drove down the road in search of a servo or similar repair place. Unfortunately, the tyre didn’t want to cooperate, and popped. Fortunately, we were in an area with a few people, and a very helpful boda boda driver, who drove up the next hill in search of a mechanics toolbox for us. Jeanette and I went and stood under a shady tree and watched five African men and three Muzungu men all change a tyre. So if anyone asks you how many men does it take to change a tyre? You know the answer!

We got to Kampala ok after that, and headed straight to Javas for lunch again. A very late lunch mind you, so dinner won’t be too big tonight! Then we came here, all of us except Ian, who offered to take the luggage out at the guesthouse.

I haven’t had a gelati in a week or so, so we will have to pop in, just so they don’t forget our faces! Not because we want one… I swear!

Expect another update tomorrow!

–
Zoe Maclean
Editors;
Tony Long and
Peter Mack

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