Once again apologies for long gap between posts. Communication is proving more tricky than I'd hoped. This is partly because I've been on the move so much, but also lack of access to a computer.


Anyway, here is a quick summary of my travels since I last wrote. The day the conference ended, most people dispersed to their various locations around the Central Region of Africa, but a numbered stayed on for a couple of days of planning and envisioning meetings. I took part  in the first of these on short-term work and was sitting in on a session about medical work when my phone rang! It was Judy and my first conversation with her since leaving home. A nice treat.


I also managed to venture into Jinja on my own to change some money. My boda driver was named Peter and was delighted to discover I had a son-in-law of the same name. In fact, he was so pleased, he took his hand off the handlebars and turned round to shake mine - a bit disconcerting.


The following day we made the long drive in Zillah's car from Jinja to Kagando hospital, near Kasese, and close to the  DR Congo border. Once again we drove through some beautiful green countryside, with a mixture of maize fields, sugar cane and tea plantaions being the dominant features. We stopped in a large town called Fort Portal for lunch at a small restaurant. This was my first real introduction to 'normal' Ugandan food, a bit more basic than what was on offer at the hotel in Jinja. The toilet facilities were also a lot more basic, but still welcome after a long drive.


The roads are also worth mentioning. For the most part, the one from Jinja to Kagando was tarmac, but every time we approached a village or town there were three or four sets of rumble strips at about 30m intervals with a large speed bump in the middle of the village. I can see why all the mission partners have off-road vehicles to drive; a conventional car wouldn't last very long.


As we neared Kagando, it became clearer that the hospital and village nestle in the foothills of the highest mountain range in Africa, with several peaks over 16,000 feet. Sadly, during our brief stay the tops of the mountains were surrounded by mist, which is quite normal. One mission partner who accompanied us lived in Kagando for seven years and never saw the peaks.


The visit to the hospital was itself another eye-opener. It has expanded over the years and now has an excellent modern nurse training facility (around 200 are trained each year), but the hospital is still very basic by UK standards. Patients are usually accompanied by 'attendants', friends or family membrs who look after their feeding, washing etc., and who sleep on the floor on roll-up matresses they have brought. There is also a cooking area where these attendants prepare the food in the traditional village style using wood and charcoal fires.


All three of the mission partners who accompanied me are medics who had come for discussions with hospital staff, so I took the chance to walk into the village on my own. I met two young boys on their way home from school who were eager to show me their work and to tell me that English was their favourite subject. I was wearing my Man Utd football shirt and this proved a helpful conversation starter with various people I passed. Most were pleased to hear that I was actually born in Manchester.


On a similar walk the following morning, I accidentally came across the village primary school. This was started back in the 60s by Dr Keith, who is something of a legend in AIM circles and especially in Kagando. The director of the school insisted on giving me a guided tour of the school, where I was greeted by every class in turn, including the one meeting under a tree because they are due to build a new classroom. The bricks for this have been made by the school staff and were stacked in some of the classrooms.


After lunch we left Kagando for the drive to Mbarara. This has to be the most beautiful scenery yet. After a brief pause for photos on the Equator, we headed across the Rift Valley, most of which is now National Parks, one of which is named after the Queen after she visited some years ago. On our way we stopped for more photos of buffalo and antelope just a few metres from the roadside. We also saw colobus monkeys, but sadly no elephants of which there are several hundred in the area.


As we climbed out of the Rift Valley, we stopped on the ridge for a drink and an opportunity to really take in the stunning views and more photos. We made one more stop at a newly built hospital in Ishaka, which forms part of the Kampala International University (KIU), though it is quite some distance from Kampala itself. As the name suggests, the student population is very international and many of the faculty are from Nigeria. It's nickname is Kenyans In Uganda - but there is a strong Islamic influence. Finally, at around 6.00, we arrived in Mbarara, my home for the next six days.


These days have been filled so far with:
1 A visit to Mbarara hospital where Zillah works in the physio department and is helping to start a new degree course in physio - the first in the country. It's due to start in August, but at the moment the equipment they have consists of a desk and a computer but no chair! Life here is challenging.
2. A trip with Connor Johnston (short-termer) to the Abide house in Kabale, near the Rwandan border. Abide is an eight-month discipleship programme for guys who have just graduated fron high school. They live together as a community and study together from Tuesday to Friday, mainly Bible-related subjects, but also practical courses on computers and agriculture. At the weekends they go as a team to the home village of one of them to engage in evangelism using a model called 'Prayer-Share-Care': they pray with people, share the gospel and carry out practical tasks to help the families. The trip to and from Kabale was yet another new experience. The road was a good deal less well-maintained and our transport going was a car with six seats and up to 11 passengers and coming back a minbus with 14 seats and 21 adults, two babies and a variety of baggage both inside and on top.


Time to stop now because Seb needs his computer. More later.