Back in Kabale and on to Kampala

A hair-raising journey back to Kabale as expected. Sights en route: small children (3/4 years old), unaccompanied and carrying items back along the road (note to self – Joe!); people breaking rocks along the wayside; cows and goats being herded; 2 men pushing a bicycle with a jerry can up the hill.
The matatu dropped us off at the Post Office. Adrian enquired about Post Bus tickets. Fi and I went to Hot Loaf and bought supplies for the journey back again. Then off to find Amagara Café, where we came across the Irish girls again. They confirmed that the food was good, but took a while to arrive. They also said that they had used the internet. Looking into the Internet café, it appeared to be not too busy, but I wanted to get back to the hotel, so we walked back to the Post Office and supermarket, tried in vain to find a special hire, and so decided to trudge back up the hill to the White Horse Inn. Electricty was off in the hotel, so no chance to charge the camera (which was lasting very well despite the low battery display). After a change of clothes, we pottered back down the hill and into the Internet café which by this point, (as I should have expected) had a huge queue (argh! Frustrating!). So – we pottered around the African Crafts shop to see the sorts of things one can buy as souvenirs, then decided that we were really hungry and went back to Amagara to eat (having briefly considered the Little Ritz restaurant above Hot Loaf for a cup of tea). Still a queue for the internet so decided to just check as we finished our meal and otherwise leave it until Red Chilliies in Kampala. Most amusing menu in the Amagara Café – the ‘strapline’ for my ‘U.S. Burger’ read – ‘swallow your pride…’. Service was very slow but gave time to update diary and play ‘3s’ with Fi. Mooted going to the Sheraton in Kampala for a swim and a G+T on Sunday. Given the slowness of service, I decided to try the internet between dinner and pudding – it took half an hour to send one email via Gmail, but very good to have made contact.
Back at the White Horse Inn, DSTv was working, so I managed to see a little bit of the Italy-Portugal game in the Rugby World Cup. Channels kept switching though (perhaps controlled by reception). Went to bed at half seven and to sleep at half nine. Woke at about two/three o’clock thining that there was something nasty in my room and that Fi had recommended that we contact the Rwandan church to deal with that. Odd, really, as I wasn’t taking Lariam as an anti-malarial (although perhaps proof of why I should not). Woke again at about 4.45, so put the light on and waited until half five to get up. No hot water for a shower (must learn to take showers in the evening) so just packed up.
At 6.15am we left: Reception had left the sliding door slightly open to allow us to drop our keys back, but it was still very dark, so we used our torches to find our way to the gate, roused the gatekeeper (who was sleeping on three chairs, wrapped up in a coat and a blanket) who unlocked the padlock from the main gates to let us out. On the path exiting the White Horse (before we went down the hill to the Post Office) we suddenly heard footsteps behind us. Past us ran a youngish man – no lights, but wearing a fluorescent jacket. As we walked down the hill he ran back (up) past us.
We were the first people at the post office (6.30am) so sat down on the steps outside. A man in a uniform, with a rifle slung across his back arrived on his bicycle and said that we could get on the bus, so this time we managed to obtain a front seat (a wise decision, given the number of people we subsequently stopped to pick up – even before leaving Kabale there were people standing at the back).
Quite bemused that even in the mist, most Ugandan drivers do not seem to put their lights on. The reaction to oncoming traffic seems to be: flash the headlights, indicate right (to show where the edge of the vehicle is). 8.45am – almost every man on the bus gets off for a ‘short call’ as the local euphemism is. We’ve been going less than 2 hours!!!
Sights en route:
Obushera was the first PO stop, or perhaps Ntungama
We saw 20 people being herded towards the police station.
MTN slogan is ‘y’ello’ – which would explain why every fifth shop is painted bright yellow (an equal number are painted red for celnet).
Mbarara. We were offered socks, boiled eggs from street vendors as we sat on the bus.
Just past Mbarara. 11am, the bus was invaded by men with goat-on-a-stick. Small boy with 2 live, bound chickens. Chapatis, bananas (mgoya), iced water. Fi and A buy bananas.
11.15am off track again.
11.45am Kyazanga – we pass a matatu with a windscreen visor proclaiming ‘Bin Laden’. Nice.
Just past one of the toll stops/weighing bridges, there were stalls offering tilapia (fish) – 2 on a string. It seems that the approach is to tie the fish to your radiator grill to avoid it making the vehicle smell inside (and presumably also lightly cooks the fish as you travel).

At 3.30pm we finally reached Kampala Post Office, having successfully bypassed the taxi park. A 5-10 minute walk down from the Post Office we found Nandos, or at least, the ice cream parlour next to it. The anticipated waffles and ice cream were not available, so we had cones and water and Krest Lemon, and then got a special hire back to Red Chillies. Fi bartered the man down from 20,000 USh to 10,000Ush. Driver happily chatted away to Fi about her previous trips to Uganda (and thus understood why she wouldn’t accept paying 20k). Same cottage as before in Red Chillies, which was nice, but headed straight for the internet. Compared to the slow connection in Amagara Café, Red Chillies Internet access (free, and relatively fast) was a joy. Dinner was good. To bed about half-past eight, waking at about 4 (loud dogs, muezzin etc.). Got up at about 8am, having drifted in and out of sleep.

Bushara Island, Lake Bunyonyi - II

19-21 September 2007
After dinner we went to sit next to the log fire and joined the student medics who were on a short break from their elective in Rwanda. Neither of them speak Rwandan or French (a moderate hindrance one might presume) but have been involved in all kinds of interesting procedures: post-mortems (where the Afrikaans doctor expressed surprise that they had actually cut the body open rather than just sticking a scalpel/other sharp object into the aorta and seeing if it comes out dry). They have fixed X-ray machines and antirefractors at their hospital and the other day an ultrasound machine (taking 6 people to lift) was brought to them from another hospital to see if they could fix it. The error message said ‘insert disk’. They asked the ultrasonographer if he had tried this and learned that he had not, as he did not feel qualified. They tried it. It worked – thus restoring to action a machine which had been out of action for 18 months!
Fi then enjoyed looking at lots of pictures of pus and unhealing keloid scar excisions etc. She got quite excited. Apparently all the cows in Rwanda have TB, so milk is always boiled. We (3) all had ginger beer (Stony), then walked back to Firefinch and Cisticola having ordered breakfast (lemon scones and fruit salad for me and Fi, bacon and sausage for Adrian, coffee for the two of them, passionfruit juice for me).

This morning I woke up at about 5am – too terrified of the dark/tent-ness to move in case something nasty got into bed with me. Fi wasn’t well in the night (too much garlic in the crayfish) so she and Adrian ended up playing monopoly. The dawn chorus was a little too loud for my taste.
My shower (first since the post bus) was bliss – outside, from a jerry can – but wonderful! Slightly odd to be showering outside (flipflops are the answer), but beautiful views from the shower over the lake. Went down and had breakfast outside Fi’s tent, mosicoil set alight, and quite looking forward to using the Internet later that day. Lemon scones were enormous and delicious.
At about 12 noon, we wandered up to the Swallows Restaurant to order lunch before going swimming at Jacana Dock (which Adrian discovered when he walked round the island while Fi and I were playing cards). Fi and Adrian went to find the rope swing. I finished the Crusader novel I was reading. Dreadful sub-Da Vinci code book – a waste of a morning even speed-reading it.
Lunch took a very long time to arrive, given that it was a straightforward request for 3 tomato sandwiches with cheese and bacon – Fi’s without tomato ;-).
Fi and I bought wraparound skirts from the little craft stall in the restaurant.
We had ordered cake for 5pm and dinner at 7pm – more crayfish (crayfish chowder, crayfish masala, stirfry crayfish and some pineapple fritters). Lady with the internet was supposed to turn up at lunch but didn’t. Frustrating.
Finished reading through Judges that afternoon.
Back at the restaurant, Fi enjoyed looking at some lovely pictures of pus being drained from a Rwandan’s back into a kidney dish. I took a quick peek, which confirmed my career choice of ‘not-being-a-doctor’. Spice cake turned out to be cinnamon cake – nice! – Decided that I must make it back in Blighty, along with chapattis. Made a start on ‘Desiring God’ (Piper).
Struggled to finish my dinner – crayfish chowder was good, but struggled through the chapatti. Barely touched the crayfish masala and found the pineapple fritters hilarious/overwhelming in equal measure. We had anticipated the proportion of pineapple:fritter to be in the region of 90:10, or even 95:5. However, it was more like 10:90. Imagine a scone the size of a man’s fist, with a small piece of pineapple in the centre. We had to give up and donated the ‘fritters’ to the med students.
After borrowing paraffin lamps from the restaurant, we took the 10 minute walk back to our tents and played Scattergories. Lots of mosis about.
Listened to Judges sermons to pass the time until a reasonably late point in the evening, but unfortunately it didn’t lead to me sleeping through the night.

Went to sleep at 10.45, woke at 2.30 and again at 6.30 or so. Dawn chorus in full song once more. A bird with an enormous wingspan seemed to be in the shower – I could hear it flapping its wings. Shower arrived at 8am. Getting back from the shower I discovered flip flops under the bed (I had been borrowing Fi’s – she also discovered some under her bed). Packed up and waited for breakfast to arrive. Planned the rest of the day – up for lunch, motorboat back to the mainland, Adrian to buy tickets for the Post Bus, me and Fi to go to the Hot Loaf to buy provisions for the journey back up to Kampala, investigate the Amagara Café (for food in the evening), then special hire to the White Horse Inn (pathetic basungu that we are), then walk down to Voice of Kigezi so that I could use the Internet (at last), and then walk back through Kabale, perhaps popping into the market. Fi and Adrian decided to puddle a dugout round the island before lunch, so I sat up in the restaurant reading Ugandan supplements from Sunday papers (most recent copy available dated August 2007). Lady behind the reception humming ‘Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer’, which made me smile.
We checked out, and were pleasantly surprised to note that they had not charged me the single supplement, so our stay came to $270 with 30,000 USh for extras (a figure which we think was made up – but is basically about £10). Current surplus (for lo, I am an accountant, and thus must play with spreadsheets even on holiday) of 250,000 USh.
The boat came at 1.35pm with profuse apologies from the motorboat driver for being late (most amusing – clearly trained for msungu clients as we had only requested him to arrive at 1.30pm). Really nice journey across the lake – lots of dugouts coming back from the mainland (it became apparent that it was market day). The matatu driver was waiting for us (altho’ it was 1.50pm, rather than 2pm as booked – eek!).

Bushara Island, Lake Bunyonyi

Benon drove us from Rwasesi into Kabale and insisted on finding us a special hire himself. He was unfortunately unsuccessful, and also found that his car was no longer starting. After an hour or so of speaking to mechanics and calling his garage at the other end of Kabale, we decided to walk down to the Highland Business Centre and pick up a special hire from there (in the meantime, we popped into the supermarket to buy some water and heard Moloko on the radio and noted that the supermarket was run by some Ugandan Asians - felt a tiny bit like being back home. Fi says that some of the Ugandan Asians who left under Amin have since returned).

On the way down to the Highland, we passed the Little Ritz Restaurant, and the Hot Loaf Bakery (both of which were haunts of Fi's when she lived in Uganda). The Highland used to have internet access, so I was quite hopeful of being able to make contact with the nearest and dearest, but it was not to be. 15 minute drive in a minibus (just the three of us) up to Bunyonyi, passing people breaking rocks by the roadside, washing clothes and drying on bushes. The road up to Bunyonyi is very steep, and due to the (typical) state of the roads (i.e. full of potholes), meaning that the journey was a little hairy at times (as the road fell away to the side). Frequent and urgent prayer seemed to get us through though. At the top of the hill was a little sign saying 'humps' (which seemed a little superfluous by that stage...). There is also a small petrol station (a development since 2003/4 says Fi).

At the top of the hill the driver stopped to enable us to take photos of Lake Bunyonyi. Another couple of minutes took us to Bushara Island Camp jetty and we had a choice of a motorboat (with canopy) or dugout canoe (hollowed out tree trunk) to take us across. We chose (wisely) the motorboat) given the weight of our baggage and arranged to meet the special hire driver on the Friday at 2pm (not really believing that he would be there). It took about 10 minutes to go across the lake to Bushara. Looking over the water to the mainland we could see the bright red jumpers of schoolchildren and Friesian (obviously posh over there) cows grazing on the hillside alongside the ubiquitous Ankole. We offloaded at the jetty and walked up a long steep hill (actually not that far, but with backpacks and at that altitude - not fun) to get to the Swallows Restaurant (a circular, reed-covered, open-sided area with about 30-40 seats. We sat down for a Krest Lemon and perused the menu (which was a mixture of Ugandan and msungu food). We tried to stifle our laughter as a group of 3 Irish girls declared "42 items" when handing over their washing to the receptionist (doubting that we had 42 items between us) and then were asked to itemise them. Still no internet access (although technically available), but with an indication that it would be available the next day. We then took another tiring 10 minute walk down to Fireeater and Cisticola 'luxury safari tents' (read - two large single beds inside a safari tent, under a reed roof, with a verandah and wash basin and a separate long drop [WITH SEAT!] and shower) which were on the opposite side of the island.
Unfortunately, no mosi nets supplied here, or any obvious points to which one could attach the mosi nets we brought with us, so Adrian and I set about trying to string one up. Not the world's most stylish attempt, but reasonably functional.

Uganda - Kabale and Rwasesi

We left the White Horse at a reasonable hour and walked down the hill to the main road in Kabale (see picture below) having left a quantity of washing at the hotel to collect after our trips to Rwasesi and Lake Bunyonyi.

Adrian went off to Stanbic Bank to change travellers cheques (a process which took the best part of an hour, as each cheque needed to be individually photocopied, money counted twice by hand and twice by machine, all under the supervision of a second teller), Fi and I went to find postcards.

As we were in the Post Office, Joram (a friend of one of Fi's Uganda friends) happened to be passing and popped in (a pleasantly random occurrence).
Benon arrived in his car, saw that changing traveller's cheques was taking quite some time and went off to collect Trust, Brave and Pearl from Kabale Primary School where they are boarding. When they came back, we all piled into the back of the car and went to Rwasesi (about 22km away).

Passing along the road we stopped to buy some vegetables from roadside stalls. We also passed the site of a coach crash. Apparently 2 people died as the coach came off the road (travelling too fast in the dark at 5am it seems). Dangers on the road are marked out by placing branches in the road as markers.

The next day and a half in Rwasesi was really special. Lots of sitting on the verandah, watching the world go by (and the world going by watching us). A very nice location to read some of the books which I had brought with me, or scribble over my printouts of Judges.

Benon, Judith and family were extremely hospitable - enormous quantities of food at regular (and slightly too frequent?) intervals - main meals included matoke, spaghetti, rice, Irish (i.e. normal, as opposed to sweet) potatoes, chicken, 'soup' (chicken stock-ish), cauliflower and courgettes, pineapple for afters. Breakfast and breaks comprised chapattis, omelettes, home-made popcorn, bananas, roast groundnuts.
The children were very happy to be at home and enjoyed the food a lot (normally posho and beans/rice and beans every day). Main meals were rounded off with a small drop of (lethal!) Cypriot Altar wine. Lots of Ugandan tea and chai (kind of hot milk with tea leaves). I even managed a couple of cups of weak black tea. Hot water and hot milk stored in thermos flasks and brought to the table as required.

Benon and Judith have a very posh house by local standards - they have electric lighting, a landline telephone (mobiles far more common in Africa apparently), a courtyard out the back leading to the kitchen (wood fires), and the long drop (two - one for adults and one for children) which has a concrete floor, and a couple of bricks on which to stand. Water is not too far away - about 200m, and is used very carefully. Thus, a real treat to have jerry cans of hot and cool water with which to wash in the morning. The house has a very clever irrigation system which channels all the waste water from the kitchen / wash room / rainwater round the house and down into the field where they grow their food.

On Weds, due to the recent rain, Benon decided that a trip to Kamuronko (where Fi worked in 2000) was not feasible as the road would be too slippy/muddy (a very, very steep hill), so instead, we walked into Rwasesi village to look at the church. As we walked up the hill, we passed a couple of young children at the water tap ("How-are-you?" "I-am-fine.How-are-you?" - much giggling). After visiting the church we stopped off at the Primary School to visit the headmaster and sign the visitor's book. The headmaster's office is decorated with lots of (mostly) handmade posters (the dangers of AIDS/school leaving exam results going back to 1970/photos of all the school children with their roll numbers - looking slightly like criminal mugshots). The school year starts in January, so Trust (currently in P6) is about to take her final exams in Kabale PS, which will determine how good a school she can get into. She may need to travel as far as Mbarara (2 hours drive) to go to a good school.

(Poster in the room outside the headmaster's office: No smoking, drinking alcohol, x, y, z, sex abuse or telling lies allowed in this school. Not sure whether to be disturbed or amused by the order. Probably a little of both).

After dinner on Tuesday, the children treated us to a display of singing and Bakiga dancing. Video of one of the songs below (the dancing is currently too large a file size to upload - will try to tweak)

Uganda - 17 September: Kampala to Kabale

Woke at half 4 to the sounds of crickets, cockerels and what I think was the local muezzin. Out of bed properly at about 6am and at twenty to seven we went in search of the special hire (taxi in a car, as opposed to a 'matatu' - a minibus taxi which takes on and releases passengers throughout the journey), only to find that Carlos had gone to Entebbe. So - no choice other than to walk down the track and try and pick up a special hire along the road or (as it turned out) in Bugalobi, the village next to where we were staying.

7am appears to be rush hour in Kampala aned surrounds. Lots of matatu travelling along the road, distinguishing themselves primarily by tinted windscreen stickers declaring their support for e.g. Chelsea FC. Lots of 4x4s dropping children off for school. (Reminiscent of Kensington and Chelsea? Perhaps not - most cars and vehicles in Uganda seem to have some 4x4 capacity, and most appear to be made by Toyota).

We picked up a special hire in Bugalobi for 10,000 USh and got to the main Post Office by 7.30am. We bought tickets for the Post Bus to Kabale leaving at 8am, and eventuall boarded. The first two seats were taken up by big blue boxes of post, and various bags were slung underseats or in the racks above the seats. 29 seater bus. Adrian jumped out when we unexpectedly stopped at a service station and went off to buy provisions for the journey (bread - which is v.sweet in Uganda, crisps, and some Coke with which to wash down the dispersible doxycycline). The bus almost left without him until the conductor looked around and suddenly announced - aah, msungu! (to which Fi and I replied - "Yes, he's in the shop!). Apparently service stations with shops attached are a relatively new phenomenon in Uganda - at least since Fi's most recent visit in 2003/04.

Not much to report about the journey - nine hours without a meaningful stop is best accomplished by not drinking v.much at all. Lots of children waving at the bus when they see the msungu (and some v.cute small children in one of the small towns shouting 'hello msungu' when we passed). At the two major post office stops, passengers on the bus were offered an array of goods - goat kebabs, chapattis, boiled eggs, ties, socks, onions, bananas etc. etc. If Sunday was a day of excessive TV/movies, Monday was time for audio overload. I spent most of the nine hours listening to various albums/sermons on my mp3.

As we left Kampala, we passed through various streets where shops specialising in the same trade grouped together - thus we saw coffin-makers, spare parts dealers (with random lorry fronts put on the top of roofs etc). Travelling through the countryside we saw lots of barbershops, MTN and Celnet sponsored shops (mobile phone networks) and lots of "AIDS research/herbal clinics". Butchers with no visible refrigeration. Brick makers. People working in fields (bending over without bending their knees). People washing clothes by hand and spreading clothes out on bushes/in fields to dry. Lots of signs pointing to schools (boarding and day, primary and secondary) Lots of redevelopment signs stating the plans for redeveloping a certain area, who was funding, who was involved in the planning etc.

We arrived in Kabale at 5pm, could not find a special hire to take us up the v.steep hill to the White Horse Inn, and rejoiced to find a huge double bed with a box mosquito net, DSTV (with the Rugby World Cup), shower, flushing toilet and a nice bit of peace and quiet.

Interesting signs from the journey:
"Say 'No' to Sugar Daddies. Stop Cross-Generational Sex Now"
"Life can be busy with your hands full. That's why all Nokia handsets some with a Handsfree Speaker"
"The Mayor of Kampala is pleased to report that the first of 500 litter bins have been installed".
Most advertising seemed to promote alcohol.

Uganda - 15/16 September 2007

Up to Manchester on the train, bereft of mobile phone (at home) and housekeys (in the safekeeping of a trusted individual), it was faintly reminiscent of being a teenager (younger readers - in my day, we didn't have mobile phones - we kept a small amount of money on us and remembered people's phone numbers...). Thus I was most glad to see my sister waiting for me in the car park of Manchester Piccadilly.
Tombob bounded over shortly afterwards, having just moved into halls and we went off to Sainsburys to kit him out with his first serious shopping expedition. He seemed to survive this rather brutal mothering experience (strict instructions on how to tell whether meat is cooked through properly, advice on what is worth spending money on and which items are just as good in their 'sainsburys basics' options) and we dropped him off at his halls after dinner.
The minicab came at 3.45am in the morning and took us to Manchester airport. I'm not sure whether I am more disturbed that the bars/pubs in the airport are open at 4am or that they seemed to be doing a lot of business at that hour (as we were passed by people drunkenly singing on the travelator). As usual, I set off the security scanner. 4am is not the best time for me to be taking my shoes off - my fine motor skills decline with lack of sleep.
Plane to Amsterdam was half full. Sky was relatively clear - I saw the Wash as we flew over the East of England - really rather square (not that this should be a surprise to me, having watched weather reports for quarter of a century).
Schipol is the Clapham Junction of the airport world. 10 minutes after landing we were finally allowed to exit the plane. We had a little time before the main flight to Entebbe so we wandered off to find coffee and breakfast (mental brownie points awarded to self for remembering to bring some Euros). We knew we were in Europe from the fog of cigarette smoke surrounding the eating areas. Yuk. All conversations were interrupted by tannoy announcements every 2-3 minutes by a very strict sounding lady requesting that Passengers X,Y,Z proceed immediately to Gate X,Y,Z otherwise their luggage would be taken off the plane.
Yet more hand baggage security checking and ditching of water and we were allowed into a holding area before boarding the flight. Most impressed with KLM. This was my first long-haul flight and the biggest plane (2/4/2) I had flown on. The wings were enormous and the G-force on taking off quite something to behold. I spent the next 8 hours developing square eyes by watching:
Ocean's Thirteen (diverting, but not as good as 11 or 12)
2 Weeks Notice (seen before, still amusing)
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (I managed to fall asleep during this one, only to wake up and find out that Keira Knightly appeared to have usurped Chow-Yun Fat as captain of one of the ships. In any other film I would probably have tried to watch it again to work out how this might have happened, but I feel no desire so to do in this instance).
That took up most of the flight. I sat next to two Polish ladies going out to visit their brother (an RC priest working with orphaned children) and trying to communicate how to complete the arrivals card (they spoke no English, I no Polish and they only had a few phrases of Polish-English on a sheet of A4).
Entebbe airport was quite a change from Schipol. It reminded me more of the Hamburg airport which Ryanair use - everything seemed to be contained within a small marquee/warehouse (it become clearer at the end of the holiday that this was a temporary construction, probably due to CHOGM - of which, more later).
In the absence of a queue for non-residents who had already purchased a Visa, we were directed to classify ourselves as East Africans, and we passed through security (such as it was) v.quickly. We saw the first of the CHOGM posters:

"Are you ready for CHOGM?" (what's CHOGM, you ask? Well - here are some clues:

"Her Majesty the Queen,
53 Heads of State
6,500 Civil Servants"

or

"1.6 billion pairs of eyes on Uganda")

Yes - it's the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting which is being held in Uganda in November 2007. Therefore, just as Entebbe got a fresh lick of paint around the time that F last visited Uganda, Uganda (and Kampala in particular) is now getting spruced up for HMQ to visit in November. This manifested itself in a number of ways during our visit to Uganda. The airport is having a marble floor laid, major hotels in Entebbe and Kampala seem to be having 'rehabilitation' works. Most roads around Kampala have roadworks, most pavements around Parliament Avenue are being ripped up and mended, flowers are being planted by the roads.

We were picked up from the airport by a special hire driver from Red Chillis in Kampala and spent the next hour acquainting ourselves with the peculiarities of Ugandan driving, namely:
1. Always drive as fast as possible
2. Overtake at the last minute, and only when you have got sufficiently close enough to the vehicle in front to be almost touching (it makes tailgating look cautious)
3. Flash your lights repeatedly at the vehicle in front if they refuse to accede to 4. Your unspoken request to pull over so that they can overtake)
5. Don't use your lights unless it is pitch black
6. Don't use your indicator other than as a signal to vehicles behind that that is where the side of your vehicle is
7. Slow down almost to a stop to deal with the frequent road humps, and don't drive straight over them - instead, swing out into the road (often to the other side) and drive across them at an angle

Last minute faffing

It came to me, in passing, that today is the first anniversary (I think) of moving into the flat. It has gone rather quickly.

This morning started with a reminder from Feeble to take my doxycycline... which then prompted the realisation that I had been given capsules rather than dispersible tablets (not a good thing)... so, off to Sainsburys to plead with the pharmacists to give me different drugs. 20 now, will need to pick up another 30 on my return from Uganda.

Then, searching through the house to find my train/plane tickets to get me to and from Manchester.

Photocopying of passport, debit card details and itinerary. Baking of bread. Preparing to make cake. Washing of bed linen. Turning of mattress.

Some might say that I was putting off the actual packing.

I think that I've got the book list narrowed down - really I should only take 2-3 books, but (as usual) I can't narrow it down. The Bible, obviously, and my print out of Judges so that I can do some prep while on holiday. The shortlist for other books is as follows: Knowing God (Packer), Amongst God's Giants (Packer again), Desiring God / The Pleasures of God (Piper), How to Win Any Argument (logic book by Madsen Pirie), and perhaps a Judges commentary. On the other hand - I'm taking a set of sermons on Judges on my mp3, so perhaps could leave the commentary until I get home? I need to scribble all over my print outs of Judges before I actually read a commentary anyway. Perhaps yes, commentary to stay at home.

Oh, blogging probably counts as procrastination as well, doesn't it?

Bank Holiday Weekend

Busy day today. To the doctors first, where I was very pleasantly surprised (i.e. nice, competent doctor!): malaria prescription now corrected, and everything else dealt with very efficienctly.

Spoke to Feeble last night about Uganda plans (mental note that I need to buy a mosinet, and another SD memory card for my camera and find some long-sleeved tops, and find my waterproof jacket, work out whether I can get Ugandan schillings in this country, get some US dollars).

Brief overview of the Uganda trip (now only three weeks away - 12-13 days of work left - eek!):

Sat 15 - up to Manchester
Sun 16 - travel to Uganda: Manchester to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Entebbe, Entebbe to Kampala.
then (and I don't have all the details - Feeble has them):
From Kampala to Kabale - about 6 hours on a bus / the post bus (yes, the bus with the post - I really want to get the post bus).
Staying in the White Horse Inn in Kabale for a day or so before going down to Kamuronko where Fi lived when she was in Uganda on her gap year. Then we meet Benon and Judith and Trust and Brave and Blessing and Peace and Joy (I think that that is all the kids - I may have added some?? not really sure about Peace - but there are *lots* of children). Then back to Kabale.
Then up to Lake Bunyonyi and staying on an island in the middle of the lake. Apparently the lake is bilharzia-free and Feeble promises me no crocodiles. I say that there are still snails and I will not be swimming in it. Euch!
From Lake Bunyonyi back up to Kampala and then out for a short 2-3 day trip to Murchison Falls National Park - waterfalls (clue is in the title) and safari. Apparently there will be lots of hippos and maybe some lions and lots of lovely birds.
Hopefully I will take some decent photos, but thankfully Feeble will be taking her new digital camera, so I shall probably appropriate some of hers. ;-)
Then I fly back on 29 September, and have got 1 October off to recuperate and get back to normal.

Uganda

Feeble has managed to get two weeks off Radiology at the end of September so we (Adrian & Fi, and me) are all off to Uganda for two weeks to visit her friends from her gap year. Am very excited. Guide book purchased, making a list of things to see and do. Fi has found out that there are liquid anti-malarials (expensive, but as I pointed out, cheaper than hypnotherapy to resolve my inability to swallow tablets - an inability that Adrian also shares, sensible man that he is).