Breaking Away

The original plan was to arrive back in the capital city of Kampala on Thursday morning and then spend Thursday and Friday meeting with various people as a group.  Unfortunately, there are several other people I need to meet with in Kampala individually regarding other projects on which I am working.  Accordingly, I reluctantly decided to separate from the rest of the group on Monday and travel back to Kampala alone.  I really don’t want to miss the meetings with the group on Thursday and Friday, so I am hoping to get all of my meetings done on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday morning was another early one – up at around 4:30 a.m. – and then down to the hotel lobby to work.  The prior morning, the night watchman didn’t get up when I came downstairs.  This morning, he did and offered to give me the wireless router, rather than waiting until 7:00 a.m. to turn it on.  Accordingly, I took the router back to my room and got to Skype with my family.  After catching up with e-mails and weekend football scores, I joined the rest of the group for breakfast.  On our first day together, Bob handed out to each member of the group little bound copies of everything Jesus said, so we started off the day with a devotional.  We then spent about thirty minutes talking about what we felt God was doing in our lives.  It was a great way to start the day.

I packed up my suitcases, and then we went out to Restore.  Shortly after we arrived, Henry returned from taking the final portion of his “O” level (S4) national exams – the biology section – so he is now officially done with school until February.

Sometimes my kids (and I) complain when we have pizza or spaghetti more than once in the same week.  We want more variety in what we eat.  The vast majority of people in Uganda, however, have the same thing to eat every single day of the year.  The kids at Restore are no different.  They have the exact same thing from breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the year (with the exception that they get meat with dinner once a week, which is more than most Ugandans).  Today, I got to see how the posho and beans lunch is made.  I learned that the posho in the pot (and beans in the pot next to the posho) serve all 250 kids and the staff for under $40 per day.

Making Posho and Beans, Henry in the Background

While at Restore, we helped the students prepare a really cool surprise Christmas present for someone they got to meet last year and adore.  That’s all I am allowed to say at this point.

At around 1:00 p.m., my driver from Kampala (Tango) arrived to pick me up, and we set off for Kampala.  For those of you who have not been to Uganda, it is very hard to put into words what the main roads are like, but let me give it a try.  Imagine a narrow two-lane highway (one lane each way).  Now take away the dividing stripe.  Then take away about a third of its width, such that while cars can pass each other heading opposite directions, it is quite tight.  Add buses and very large trucks piled high with huge bags of charcoal, such that passing them going the other way necessitates slowing down dramatically and sometimes leaving the “paved” portion of the road.  Now add some serious “texture” to the road – bumps, dips, small (and breathtakingly large) potholes, and seemingly randomly placed speed bumps.  Now add pedestrians and bicyclists – lots and lots of them, about half of whom are children – who are traveling on the same road.  I am convinced that someone could make a mint by creating a video game that recreates this experience.

Fortunately, Tango navigated this video game like an old pro, though he used the horn more in this five-hour trip than I do over the course of five years.  Unfortunately, a bus we came across didn’t make it so well.

Bus Crash on the Gulu-Kampala Road

Miraculously, the bus didn’t tip over and no one seemed hurt.  It sideswiped some trees (just off camera) on its way down, which must have been what kept it from tipping over.

I arrived back in Kampala a little before 7:00 p.m. and checked into the apartment/hotel where my family and I will be living for six months beginning early next year.  After catching up on some e-mail and making some calls, I got to bed at about 9:00 p.m.  Tomorrow should be a productive day of meetings.  Thanks for sharing this journey with me.