But not without trial. We left SLC Monday, 11 March noon and arrived at our Kampala apartment around 1:00 am Wed morning. Pam and I lost each other in Heathrow and hooked up just as the plane to Uganda was boarding. (Our cell phones not working in London) Upon arrival in Kampala not a single one of our 4 suitcases made it.. Not to worry, we each had a complete change of clothes in our carry on. Since British Air doesn't fly to Kampala but twice a week, we had to wait til Friday morning to learn that our luggage was indeed on its way. By this time we were 6 hours up the road to Gulu so today, Saturday, I drove 3 hours back towards Kampala to meet our mission driver half way to pick up our luggage.
Day one: After getting to bed around 2:00 am Wed morning we were at the Mission office in Kampala by 11:00 where we were oriented and then drove 6 hours north to Lira for a missionary zone (training) conference on Thursday. The pictures of the school children are in Lira. Two nights in hotel in Lira then we took off Friday for Gulu where we have been assigned. The senior couple who have been here 18 months will be leaving next weekend...home to Idaho.
On the way to Gulu from Lira we stopped at the Chobe Safari Lodge. We had a wonderful dinner on the patio overlooking the Nile where hippo's were swimming on the river's edge and making delightful grunting noises. We saw monkey, the Uganda Kob (as in corn "cob"...sort of Impala looking), wart hogs. Didn't see any giraffe or elephants but saw evidence of elephant on the dirt road into the lodge...if you get the drift.
What can I say about the roads? They are more like wide sidewalks where hundreds of Ugandans are walking and walking and walking or bicycling with an occasional car weaving in and out of them. Or maybe they are motor bike (bota bota) courses filled with hundreds of bota botas, hundreds of bicycles, hundreds of people, a few cars and a number of large gasoline haulers on their way to Juba, Sudan. Or perhaps a better description of the main highway....it isn't a road at all... just a 200 mile pothole occasionally surrounded by asphalt pavement. Whatever, the roads make for long, back-breaking, bone-jarring trips and multiple near-death experiences...our own as well as others on bota botas, bikes or pedestrians (I had one fellow jump in front of my slow moving car today in Gulu looking angry and appearing to be trouble. I stopped, naturally. My traveling partner said, "Just hit him". I nudged forward. The fellow put his hands out to stop my forward motion. My partner says, "Run over him." So I did...or I tried to and the fellow managed to move out of the way and banged on my window as I drove by him. I didn't know it at the time but turns out he's the town "crazy" and likes to make trouble by placing something on your car or sitting down in the road to stop traffic.)
A Link follows that you will enjoy: http://chobesafarilodge.com/
Baptismal font at Lira Church Branch.
I enjoy your posts! :)
ReplyDelete