Kampala

After the holiday on Wednesday at Jinja we spent Thursday experiencing the challenges of travelling in Kampala as we visited Sanyu Baby Home, an orphanage near Namirembe.  We had visited 3 years ago and Ruth was keen to go again and show Beth.

So we set off, waving down a “matatu” taxi – these are almost as numerous as the sand on the seashore it seems – they are all Toyota minibus design and seem to cope with a lot of punishment.  Ended up in the Taxi park and then found another matatu for the second leg to Namirembe.  Cost us 1000 shillings each per leg, that’s about 22pence equivalent each.  So a cheap form of transport but we had to wait a long time to get out of the taxi park for the second leg.  The traffic in Kampala is both dense and risky with hundreds of “boda-boda’s” [= motorcycle taxis where you sit on the back and pray!] cutting in and out of the traffic constantly.

We were made very welcome at the home which deals with children aged 0 – 4 years, many just abandoned.  They have 49 in the home at present and we arrived just as they were having lunch – some just milk, the older ones lined up in home made wooden highchairs in a long row, absolutely gorgeous kids, eyes as big as saucers, and a very happy atmosphere. 

Beth and Ruth helped feed some children and played with them a bit.  Ian was asked when he was going to start doing regular medical ward rounds of the children [we saw at least one child with hydrocephalus who will be getting treatment]!

Moved on to “Matoke Inn”, [matoke is the word for cooked green bananas, a staple food here which we enjoy] a guest house run by AIM [Africa Inland Mission] – it’s a peaceful place with pleasant gardens used by people going in and out of Uganda and in transit to Congo, Sudan etc so we always meet very interesting characters.  There is an American young man who has been working in a secondary school about 80 miles from Kisiizi for the past 8 months [where one of the other teachers there is a good friend of ours from our original Kisiizi days]; a Chinese couple and a Sudanese girl.  After a good meal, we set off for the airport and saw Ruth and Beth safely off.  Back through driving rain on roads without cats’ eyes and with on-coming traffic often using full-beam headlights made it a difficult and potentially hazardous trip with occasional dramatic lightning to light up everything. 

Friday spent initially looking for a PA system for the hospital – walked a lot of miles in central Kampala looking at equipment, sadly finding a lot of it was fake branded goods.  Finally purchased a set which we hope will do the job, then Ian visited a couple of places and talked to people about the idea of setting up a bakery at Kisiizi and the feasibility of such a scheme.  Generally very positive feedback, we hope to visit a bakery tomorrow.

This evening we had the joy of a reunion with special friends Edward and Enid Turitwenka with whom we worked at Kisiizi in the past.  Ian had been deputy to Edward when Edward was the Medical Superintendent.  Edward has just been appointed as lead of the ENT Department at Mulago, the Kampala teaching hospital, meaning he is effectively in charge of national ENT, a challenge and an opportunity.

So a lovely evening catching up with them.