We are managing to find our way around – and even travelled to Entebbe (about 35km) using public transport on our own. Last week we were driven north to Arua to visit the school. We went via Murchison Falls National Park and saw baboons on the road, giraffes and elephants along with buffalo, élan, etc. While waiting for the ferry, a hippo was ‘guarding’ the toilet block. It was grazing but we had to be careful when we make our way to and from the block. Not a problem we’ve had before! The roads were generally good; at least those that had tarmac. The dirt roads were not too bad except in a few places that had not dried out and other large vehicles were stuck in them. This had a tendency to cause a traffic jam and general chaos so we were glad that we were in a 4x4 with an experienced driver (Steve) who seemed to enjoy the challenge of avoiding the largest holes by driving up the banks.

On Thursday we were given a guided tour of Arua, pointing out the main shops, market, banks and churches. This was very helpful in finding out what is available in Arua and getting our bearings. By 11am we arrived at Ushindi Secondary School – our future home for a while. The school is about 5km from Arua, but the last 2km is on a narrow mud track. We both decided that we would need to have a vehicle even though we would be living on the school compound. After the formal introductions we were shown the house that we will be living in and were given the opportunity to take measurements and photographs. The windows will need to have netting attached to minimise the entry of mosquitoes and a ceiling will be added. At present there is no electricity either in the school or the houses apart from a few solar panels but there may be a possibility of being connected to the town power supply at some time in the near future, finance permitting. The picture in this section is of our future house – the one on the left end.

On Friday We left Arua at 7.30am to drive back to Kampala around rather than through Murchison Falls National Park using the recognised main road route. Unfortunately, many other drivers were also taking this road, particularly those with very large lorries. There weren’t any problems while on the tar roads, but as on the way to Arua, we had to divert off the road which was still being surfaced. The tracks we followed definitely did not have a surface and some of the lorries were exploring several layers below the surface and assisted by the pools of water from the heavy rain the previous evening. I would like to have taken some pictures of these but my mind was more on how we were going to get past the lorries and trying to keep the majority of my seat on the car seat while moving. We stopped for a short break around midday and arrived in Kampala around 5pm feeling very hot and tired. We do not recommend 10 hour road journeys but the trip was very worthwhile.