January 7th-11th: Thursday-Monday
Thursday morning I left with Martha and the kids for Mbale. The Wrights were going down to Kampala for the weekend in order to do some airport runs including dropping of Ben Smith. Ben and I were going to go rafting in Jinja on Saturday before he flew out Sunday morning.
Meanwhile this meant I got to spend the day in Mbale. On the drive down I sat up front with Martha and we talked about my time in Tanzania and everything else. We arrived in Mbale and after eating lunch at the Proctors’ we left the three youngest girls and went into town to run some errands. Martha took Bobby to see a therapist at CURE and Rachel and I descended into the market to try to buy some ingredients to concoct a fruit salad for dinner that night at the Protars’. We also tried unsuccessfully to buy some shorts for Bobby at a reasonable price.
The next day I was to spend the day in Mbale where I would meet Jim, Ben and the other singles and we would go rafting on Saturday. However the white land cruiser broke down and we were unable to procure another vehicle I just went down with the Wrights. That night we stayed at the ARA, the American Recreation Association. It is an extremely facility with the nicest rooms I have stayed in Africa and a swimming pool and tennis courts. That night was music night which is something put on by these two British guys which the Wrights have played in before. Unfortunately this time there was hardly anyone around and besides the Wrights only one other guy performed. Still it was fun.
The next day I awoke to the most delicious breakfast I have had in recent memory. Over easy eggs, bacon and sausage with a croissant or something. Then Bob, Bobby and I went into Industrial Kampala to pick up some parts. We stopped at several shops and bought various car parts, looked at toilets, and bought a mechanics creeper.
After we ran our errands we returned to the ARA and loaded everyone and everything up and then traveled down between Kampala and Entebbe to stay with a friend of the Wrights, Clark. We unloaded all our possessions into his extremely nice and comfortable house and then returned to Garden City. Garden City is the only real mall in Uganda and is rather amazing. We ate at the food court where I had Lebanese food. Then we wondered around and checked out all the shops. Bobby and I went exploring found a store that was exactly like America. It smelled like America, looked like America, it was freaky.
That night we went and saw Avatar. All in all I thought it was a pretty lousy movie. the special effect an action sequences were amazing as where the opening 15minutes when any originality slipped in. the rest of the movie was filled with card board cut out characters and plots strait out of any Disney movie. The plot was boring and predictable and the characters were about as shallow as puddles.
The next morning we went to church at New City a Presbyterian church after Bob had dropped Ben Smith off at the airport. The congregation was about half African and half ex-patriots. The singing was good as well as the message. After the service we went to a Tandoori restaurant called Khanna Kazana or something like that. The best food I have ever had. It is my favorite restaurant in Uganda.
That night after we returned to Clark’s I was put under the knife. For about a week I had had an infection in my arm. Saturday I had started taking anti-biotics and although I had tried to drain it of puss earlier nothing had occurred. Now though the time was ripe. Bob did some digging and prodding with a leather man and suddenly I was gushing black blood. Vast quantities of black blood and pus came out and the swelling went down from a golf ball sized bulge to almost nothing. It hurt. Thankfully Bob gave me some extra strong painkiller and as it turned out. That was the last I needed for my arm. I had been needing to take some so I could fall asleep for the past several nights.
That night Bob picked up Andrew Dickson who has been gone for the last couple of months to America and New Zealand. The next day we packed up and gave one of the vans we had driven down to Andrew While Bob and Bobby rode in the new Dina truck Bob had picked up from Chipper’s the night before.
In the Evening we ate dinner at the Landmark. The Landmark has changed a lot since I first ate there in June. The old owner Shameek (sp?) left for India and the new owners along with a new cook have also bought a pool table, DSTV, and are trying to cater to a more diverse group of people. the food Monday night was incredible. best food I have ever had at the landmark. The Wrights invited an Indian family I have never meet before but have been friends of the mission for years. They were a really interesting couple.
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