Advertisement
Published: March 6th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Friday 5th March
I think that we all knew that Thursday afternoon coaching would be a no go when the heat and humidity of the morning turned to torrential rain mid afternoon. The weather has been hindering rescue and aid work following the mudslides in the Buganda district and has caused flooding in other areas leading to more families being displaced. The rain did eventually stop allowing Mark to beat Clare by one shot in the mini golf which came as a surprise to some as Clare was keeping her own score. Tom came last by some distance when a 28 handicap on a crazy golf course still could not help him against two ‘scratch’ players.
Today sees us travelling from Mbale to Mbarara with a press conference in Kampala to break up the 8 hour journey. Loading up the coach with all of the kit and luggage is always a challenge, especially trying to fit Parry’s bag of hair products through the back window. Incidentally, his Ugandan accent is coming on quite well as he sits up front next to Joseph, our driver for the duration. As I write this on the coach, Scott ‘I’ve got an announcement’ Keown is
trying to remember all of the names of the newly elected officials of the Ugandan Cricket Association. Richard, who has finally caught up with some sleep after his late night out and some disturbed nights sharing with ‘express train’ snorer William, is busy putting the world to rights with Mark. I have just spent two and a half hours editing Tom Rich’s blog. This trip is Tom’s first time out of England (and we expect Yorkshire), so I have had to amend such words and phrases such as ‘tinternet’ to ‘the internet’. Jo has just had her first text message for three days which caused her great excitement. It was from Matthew asking her to call him. ‘It must be a wrong number, I don’t know a Matthew’ she vainly tried to convince us.
As we leave Mbale on the first leg of the journey, it only takes a very short time to pass by mud huts where the mother is either digging on her plot of land or keeping the immediate area to her home clean and tidy watched by small children who wave as we go by. This is in stark contrast to other areas where rubbish is
routinely dropped and left. We then pass by fields and plots of sweet potato, cassava, rice, papyrus, tea, banana and sugar cane. The break at the Lugogo cricket ground was very welcome. We were greeted by Justin Ligyalingi, the newly elected CEO of Ugandan cricket. On behalf of CWB, our esteemed leader, Scott, replied giving an overview of the aims of CWB and a report on our activities to date while our wonderful lunch got cold. Scott then gave various press and TV interviews promoting Ugandan cricket. Martin, the administrative officer, got the generator fired up so that we could get internet connection to publish four days’ blogs. The connection was down at the Mount Elgon Hotel because of changes in the weather, which roughly translated, means that when it rains - the connection goes, and when the sun comes out - the connection fails.
Back on the road, we crossed the Equator (which only goes through 10 countries) and posed for photos with one foot in each hemisphere. We then watched water flowing clockwise in the northern and then anticlockwise in the southern hemisphere, and yes it did flow straight down on the equator itself. The ladies were very
excited when informed that they are 3% lighter when they stand on the equator.
We arrived at Mbarara after 8pm because the poor state of the roads slowed us up. Our destination was the Hotel Classic which must have been selected because it sounded good - it does not live up to its name. It is situated in the middle of town adjacent to the main through fare where lorries thunder past 23 ½ hours a day. Water trickles out of the shower and there is no toilet seat in our bathroom. We have been spoilt by the facilities in Mbale - this is the real Uganda. We had one last treat - Scott is now a television star. He appeared in the sports section at the end of the national news. Autograph hunters are being kept at bay.
Mike Reeves
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0629s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb