The First Few Days

Well the time finally arrived for us to go. We were able to check our overweight luggage in without any extra charges and no one questioned our heavy hand luggage. All our connections went smoothly and we enjoyed the service on the Emirates flights. Dubai airport is enormous, soon to be the biggest in the world! As everything in Dubai is. Our travelling time from Melbourne to Uganda was just over 24hrs. We were very glad to see John there to meet us.

First impressions – lusciously green (God's garden), pleasantly warm, busy with people moving using all forms of transport, lots of people walking, taxi bikes (boda-bodas), taxi scooters (pickies), lots of overfull mini-bus taxis (matatus) all driving at enormous speed and without much distance between them with seemingly no regard for road rules. John's driving is to be commended! He drove us to a missionary's home in Kampala which just happened to be near the top of a hill overlooking Kampala and Lake Victoria. The view was fantastic especially seeing the sun rise over Lake Victoria. A lovely birthday morning present for Liane. We are now called Muzungu (White person).

After a morning doing some chores in Kampala which included picking up some Americans and changing our US dollars to Ugandan shillings (we were nearly millionaires) the full Bushikori bus headed down the road to Mbale (pronounced Mmmmm-Barley) We drove through the Mabira forest (which the government has just sold for a sugar plantation which caused a violent protest where 3 people were killed. This was in Kampala just before we came) We stopped at a roadside stall for Anne to get some pineapples and chicken and were swamped by boys and girls wanting to sell us some lovely chicken on a stick, cooked banana or cold sodas. John told us to wind up the windows but someone opened the side door to the van! John nearly died as people were poking chicken on a stick at us. Beth (one of the Americans) said in an assertive voice, "NO!, GO!" Anne got out of the bus to get her things and we were rescued as another taxi bus arrived crammed full which caused the flurry of activity to move to them and we shut the door quickly. They were all desperate to sell something. What a way to make a living. We saw the Nile river and papyrus reeds just like the story of bay Moses. What a relief to finally get to Mbale after 4 ½ hours of driving over some pretty rough and dangerous roads. The next morning we walked Annie and Emma to school and walked into the town for a look around. We met the crew from Jenga (another missionary group) and then took a boda-boda ride to our new home.

The internet connection here is extremely slow and frustrating!!