Written Tuesday, I enjoy the great majority of my time her In Uganda but as everywhere, there are a few people and situations that spoil it!

Yesterday I took four of my Ugandan family into Jinja, the tourist capital of Uganda, to celebrate Paul’s A -level results. I ‘borrowed‘ a car, a great big Land Cruiser! I was told of its particular mechanical problems and knew I could cope with them but, it was the hidden one that almost ended in tragedy! The steering wheel suddenly locked and the car stopped dead! Fortunately I had slowed down to turn off the busy fast road otherwise I hate to think what could have happened!

As usual the boys, actually I should be calling them young men by now, rallied round, made plans to ‘dispose ‘ of the death trap, and sorted me out emotionally! I was OK at first but then a quivering mess once the thought of what might have been hit me!

Despite all this we managed to have a good time at the resort swimming or drowning in the case of Innocent and Mike who can’t swim but love trying! Having a pizza, lots of chatting and catching up as they don’t see each other very often.

After a couple of hours though the boys started urgently collecting all our belongings together and when I looked towards the Nile I could see why! The sky was black and extremely threatening! Within minutes the resort was being hammered by a tropical storm! Fortunately there weren’t many tourists about so we took over the hotels’ open air lounge and spent the hours happily chatting and playing dominoes!! As it got late and darker I kept saying to the Mike, Bosco and Paul (all Alex’s brothers who many of you know from my years of blogs!) that they should go. Innocent and I had picked them up at points along the route and they would be going in the opposite direction, and travelling at night here is so risky, but they insisted they stayed until Innocent and I were safely on our way. I’m so lucky to have these wonderful young people in my life, it truly warms my heart. Soppy I know but that’s how it feels. We might have helped them along the way but their deep friendship, love and care now is one of the main reason I come to Uganda, they are my family!

I’m writing this in the middle of the night listening and watching through the window bars (no curtains) as another big storm hits us! These are really helping to cool the temperature down! And to top it all I have an upset tummy!

I shall be rushing towards my biodegradable bucket bag very soon, I can feel ‘it’ coming!! I might not be able to go to school later as was planned!!

PS no school today for me! Just a day of R&R x