Dear friends, well Friday and my final 😢 trip to Uganda is fast approaching! I still can’t believe I’m saying that but I know in my heart, (and a few other bits of my body!) that this is the right time to call it a day.
I’ve been so so lucky with the amazing support I’ve received from you all over the years, 23 years in total, and you’ve not let me down on this occasion either!
Mosquito nets
I was hoping that we would supply 600 more mosquito 🦟 nets to the most vulnerable members of the communities I visit, but no, you have donated almost enough for me to order another 400, so I have! Yes, we will provide 1000, one thousand, more mosquito nets to 1000 more people! And 1000 more will be protected from the bite of the dreaded Malarian mosquito as they sleep! Phew! 🫶😅😀😇🤗😵‍💫😘🙃🙏🫂⭐️ 👍 not sure which emoji is appropriate to the way I feel!

Now other news!
I have a driver! Yes, a wonderful young lady called Abi who I first met when I was living and working at Maria’s Care children’s home in Kamuli. She was 3 years old! Her dad Godfrey had a little cafe not far away called, if I remember correctly, Home From Home! He wasn’t open in the evenings but would still cook meals just for us and deliver them! One memory stands out particularly when we were having the heaviest of tropical rains and we thought there was no way we were eating that night! But against all the odds, freshly cooked pizzas and bottles of ice cold Nile Beer were delivered, and more or less on time! Godfrey was on foot and the walk from his cafe was down a steep unmade muddy track which would have been very very slippery! The dear man was soaked through but the food was hot and delicious! We persuaded him to stay a while hoping the weather would improve, which it didn’t! He wouldn’t let us share our food with him, but did sit and help with preparation for school the following day, cutting out shapes I think! What a man, and what a wonderful friend he became and continues to be right up to the present day. He is the one who has guided me in so many ways over the years, from helping find schools for children we have sponsored, including Paul who recently left uni. He searches out and orders books and educational charts amongst other things, for the schools I get involved with, and he even sources the mosquito nets at cost for me!! I’m looking forward to spending time with Godfrey and his lovely family during my stay and of course delivering some of the nets with him.
Abi, as well as being a delightful young lady, is a fully qualified driver! She is just completing a course which will enable her to work at Entebbe airport. The only possible spanner in the works is that she doesn’t quite know when she will be free from uni, but her cousin Peter who is also a qualified driver is able to help out if there is a problem. Hopefully this will all be sorted before I arrive in Uganda! X

Good Luck Junior School – I’m looking forward to spending a few days at the school. It will look very different to the last time I was there!! It now has classrooms, latrines, a ‘kitchen’, an office and a library! And of course many happy children! Can’t wait to meet them all! The school had nothing in January 2020 when I was there before Covid. Well done everyone!
We will again be basing one of our mosquito net deliveries at the school, giving to many families of the children who attend.

Assistance!
I am being provided with wheelchair assistance throughout my journey to and from Uganda! With the pain and being unable to lift my left arm very well (due to a tear in my the shoulders’ rotator cuff!) I asked Brussels Airlines if I could have assistance with my luggage, including hand luggage. A wheelchair, and I assume a ‘pusher’, was what they’re giving me! I feel a bit of a fraud but have accepted gratefully, though I will be walking most of the time for exercise with the a long-haul flight ahead of me, the luggage can use the wheelchair! 🙃

And lastly my schedule. I’m not sure yet what my schedule is to be once I get to Uganda, except that Charles the taxi 🚖 man, will pick me up from Entebbe at midnight and take me to Banana Village for an overnight stay. After that is still to be decided! It will either be going to Godfrey’s where I will visit Nurse Bosco at his clinic, or straight to Innocents. I’ll let you know when I know! 🤗
Thank you once again for being beside me on my ‘adventures’ in Africa since I turned 50. I’m looking forward to having you ‘with me’ in Uganda this one last time.
Love to you all 🤗