SUNDAY 13th APRIL 2014

Yesterday I went to Kampala!
Originally I planned to go to check out cameras, so I phoned Dorothy Mugenyi and asked her to meet me at the Bus Park and then I went and bought my single ticket for sh.13.000  (less than £4) and came home and found my camera hiding in a trainer!Then that evening Janine decided to come with me, not knowing that I'd contacted Dorothy. I said that I'd meet her at 7:30 am at the bus.
Imagine how Impressed I was when Janine arrived at the hotel at 7:10am  as I was finishing my breakfast of fruit(mango,pineapple and banana) and boiled egg!  She suggested we walk to the bus so I gulped my tea and off we went without me going back to my room.
Just as it became the time for the bus to depart (we'd secured 2 very comfortable seats and paid extra for the middle one so that no-one would join and squash us!!!!) I realised that I didn't have my mobile - how was I to link up with Dorothy? I had left the mobile on my table so J. tried phoning Sallie to ask one of the staff to retrieve my phone and send  D's number. But we couldn't get through and then When I did so I inadvertantly shut off J's phone so Courtview couldn't phone us back . At this point we were in Kampala and waiting outside the gates of the Bus Park.
You have to imagine the Kampala Bus Park: it is a teeming mass of humanity with huge coaches trying to enter and depart in a seeming noisy chaos compounded by pickpockets and porters and vendors dodging and running between buses and up inside buses, behind buses and in front of buses. The skill of the drivers has to be seen to be believed and all the time klaxons blowing and people shouting , laughing, crying............
We did eventually get Dorothy's number and eventually after standing in the boiling sun met up.She had brought her "special" driver (saloon car taxi) and we walked through the heat, dust and noise to find the Taxi - the "jams" around the bus park are famous  so he had parked some distance away - and I hadn't put on any suncream since I'D NOT GONE BACK TO MY ROOM and the anti malaria drug I take makes one susceptible to sunstroke........
Once in the taxi, we went to a shop dealing in computers and printers. I found one that fulfilled the criteria but he wanted cash so I said we'd go the Garden City Shopping Mall, have some lunch, talk  buy J's vine leaves (she would keep on about GRAPE leaves  for her dolmades (the diet out here is restricted and we're always looking for variety)and find an ATM. Also a decent loo!
We managed all that : J. ate Lebanese food, D. the African favourite Chicken and Chips and I chose a Chinese noodle thing1 Told you we crave variety!!! I also popped in to Uchumi supermarket and bought wax crayons for the Easter Egg Hunt I am planning for the Handicapped children.
A bit of a kerfuffle choosing a "special" taxi to take us back to get the printer  only to find the Moslem shopkeeper had gone for Friday Prayers............. All is not lost as term is about to end and so I shall go and spend a few days with Doctor Margaret and meeting up with Princess Bagaya before I fly home.
We persuaded the special to push through the jams and get us to the Bus Park, not daring to do any more shopping as the bus was due to leave at 4pm back to Masindi. Janine is a missionary and has a mini farm around her home and daren;t leave her animals for long especially as her pig is about to farrow!Well, we  got to sit inside the bus by 3:20pm and found 2 seats in a  two seater if you see what I mean (everyone gets hot and sweaty  out here) .....and to cut a long story short we left the bus park at 5:45pm. It was hot and noisy (they had turned the radio on  and in the middle of all the ranting and raving we heard the Sunderland v Everton  match in Runyoro! We had plenty of time to see the coming and going the hustle and bustle. the  playfighting and the thief being publicly humiliated! And all the time people were squeezing on to the bus and more and more parcels and packages and bundles were being loaded underneath.
We travelled most of the way home in the dark and to his credit the driver did not exceed the speed limit.We got in at 9:45pm. I made Janine walk back to the hotel where she had parked her motorcycle ( the bodaboda men couldn't understand but  we had our torches and not only were our backs aching but our bums were numb......again!We were really too tired to eat but chose a little fish             - and then A SHOWER and BED!