I have been remiss in the upkeep of my web-site. Rather than having nothing to write about, the truth is that I have been so busy that I haven’t had the time to sit down and reflect on the last few weeks. Also the telephone connections have been a bit dodgy in the last couple of weeks making it nearly impossible to send/receive emails and to update the web-site.
Now Dad has returned home and again I have the time to try and put some
experiences on paper. The house seems quite empty now that he is back in
Ireland. Dudley (that's the name I gave my kitten in the end) provides some
company, though he is slightly less stimulating intellectually. For a great day
all he needs is a Ping-Pong ball and a bit of space.
We did a bit of traveling when Dad was here. As we were planning on covering a fairly large distance, we got the loan of a bigger vehicle. I left my Suzuki jeep behind and instead took Andrew's pickup. We began our journey by heading north to Murchison Falls National Park. The park is named after a huge waterfall where the entire Nile river forces itself through a narrow cleft a few meters wide. On route we were stopped by an armed policeman who asked us if we would be kind enough to transport some of his buddies to the next town Masindi which was 40km away. We didn't like to refuse. We got some strange looks from pedestrians as we sped past, armed to the teeth, with 'Praise the Lord' emblazoned on the side of our vehicle.
We
did the boat trip to the foot of the falls in the afternoon and then a game
drive early the following morning. Our guide was Dennis who you can see in the
photo on the left. About an hour into the drive he lept out of the back of the
pickup with his gun and crept down to the lake shore where he proceeded to fire
AT some fishermen who had drifted inside the protected border area of the park.
It wasn't a shooting up in the air display of force, it was more of ready - aim
- fire kind of effort. Whether he meantt to hit them or not, the fishermen took
off like the clappers.
We spent a couple more days at the lodge in the
park relaxing. The price was hugely
reduced because of the outbreak of Ebola in the area. From there we headed south
by the Congolese border to Fort Portal. We were stopped again by an armed
policeman this time asking us to transport some prisoners that he had captured
to the nearest police station. They were a bedraggled looking bunch of men all
tied together with a big length of rope. I felt very sorry for them though was
glad to be rid of them when we reached Kigadi.
Fort Portal is a beautiful old colonial town in the Rwenzori mountain range in the West of Uganda. As it is so high up it is much cooler than the rest of the country. It is famous for its many tea plantations which make the hills even greener than those at home. Dad and I had both picked up a nasty stomach bug (Giardia) before getting to Fort Portal. Despite that sickness, we spent a very pleasant few days with the Jackson family who are also here in Uganda with CMS Ireland.
As we were both feeling a bit fragile after our bugs we headed back home to
Luweero as soon as we could. In total we drove over 700 miles on some of 
the
worst roads I have seen in Uganda. It was quite an experience. We spent the last
week of Dad's stay in Luweero. I took delivery of my new kitten which as I
mentioned above I have named Dudley. Dad sugested 'Jigger' after a jigger fly
parasite that had been removed from my toe a couple of weeks previously but I
thought that would be a bit unfair on the poor creature!
So after all the adventures of the past few weeks I am now back to the grind. I have begun teaching in the local secondary school and will be spending one afternoon a week at Kiwoko Hospital. I will also be teaching an evening class a couple of nights each week as well as continuing with the other classes that I have been doing already. The computers have still not arrived. The latest I heard was that they have left Mombassa and should be here in a few days but I have heard that before.
