my return to Africa – travelling

It’s been about one and a half year since I travelled to Uganda for the last time. Back then I had the pleasure to attend the opening of our orphanage in Masindi. We started with six children that we brought from their old home. Honestly, they were not in a very good condition. They all suffered from skin and other health problems, malnutrition and had not been taken care well. This was mainly the reason for establishing that new project. Even though I had spent so much time finding the right place, meeting people, discussing, developing ideas, calculating and thinking all through before I sent in my proposal I couldn’t be sure if my plan would really be successful.

However, since my last visit the renovation works were completed and another 12 children have joined our family, so we were now responsible for the welfare of 18 children. As we get regular reports from the local project manager we knew that the project was on track and that the children were in a good condition. Claudia, our President’s sister, reported also once in a while as well as our volunteer Ellen, who stayed at the orphanage for a couple of months during the last year. A few issues came up that needed to be discussed with the Bishop and the project manager. It turned out a bit difficult to do so only using e-mail. So Stefan and I planned to travel to Masindi for a couple of days.

After a busy work day I set off from my office to Stephans home where I parked my car. We soon left to catch our flight to Dubai. The baggage was perfectly packed with many things to bring to the orphanage and to Claudia at the Eco Farm.

The red eye flight with an A380 was very comfortable. As I cannot sleep on planes I watched a few movies that I had missed out during the last months. After a few hours at Dubai Airport we hopped on a A340 to Entebbe. Unfortunately they only had an old-school entertainment system with movies at fixed hours. Anyways, we landed in Entebbe in the early afternoon with a bit of delay and had to queue for quite a while before we reached the immigration officer. One is not required to apply fro a visa before departure, instead one can apply directly at the airport which is very comfortable and saves one-self filling out all the necessary forms. Again, everything went quick and easy except for the fee that had been doubled since my last trip to Uganda. While Stefan picked up our luggage, I changed a few Dollars as one cannot exchange Uganda Shillings outside of the country.

At the exit Sam, our driver, was already waiting for us to pick-up. As usual he brought a colleague as it had already been a long drive for him to reach the airport. We soon stopped at a gas station to buy some snacks, water and sodas. We then continued our trip and soon entered Kampala, which is always a bit messy. Actually our driver chose the route wisely so we didn’t get stuck in the usual traffic jam. We stopped again in Luwero as the driver wanted to buy a couple of pineapples. He even asked us to stow a few of them on the back seat but then realised that it might not be a good idea to do so as we were the ones to pay for that ride. Later we stopped again to say goodbye to the extra driver who lived half an hour away from Masindi. We then soon arrived at the New Court View Hotel in Masindi where I had spent many nights during my stay in 2014. They serve nice food and – most importantly – offer a WiFi which allows me to check mails and read the news. Claudia was already waiting for us. We hugged and brought our luggage to our rooms, washed our hands and put on mosquito spray and then we met outside in a banda where we used to hold meetings in the past. Stefan and I ordered chicken fajitas and a Nile. We ate and chatted a bit and ended in preparing next days meeting with the Bishop. Then we went to bed were we fell asleep almost instantly.

leaving the airport in Entebbe

after a long travel we arrived at the hotel in Masindi where we had supper and
prepared the next day’s meeting with the Bishop