Weeks 44 - 46 (20 May – 9 June 2007)

Going to Arua airstrip has become something of a habit recently. After leaving our car at the Asiki’s house on Sunday 20th and sharing in Charles’ pleasure that Chelsea won the FA cup, Cathy took us to check in. The flight was a bit late having gone to Moyo before Arua again so we didn’t collect our luggage at Entebbe until around midday. A taxi took us to the “Lake Vic”, an upmarket hotel about 10 min drive from the airport. We met Lyn in reception and put our cases into storage. We chatted for a couple of hours over a good lunch and collected our tickets from Lyn. She returned to Zana while we booked into the swimming area and spent some time with Greg, Karen and their sons and Amber. It was good to cool down in the pool and have some exercise before our evening flight. When we left there to get some tea we met Molly & Isobel who were staying for a few nights before their flight to UK on Monday. They had taken some of our letters before we knew we were going back, but now we will arrive before our letters! We returned to the airport in the early evening to avoid the check-in rush. The word “rush” is not used much in Uganda; it probably means “queue” when translated. But there was neither a rush nor a queue and we had the fastest check-in ever. While waiting by the gate we met the sister of a lady who was working with the children displaced by the LRA in Gulu and the technical director of a US film crew who had been involved in the recent Benny Hinns mission. No, we hadn’t heard of him either until we saw the posters and paper articles! He was demonstrating his new iPod video system to his fellow travellers. The plane took off on time around 10.30pm.

On Monday we landed at Heathrow on time (8am) after an early morning stop over in Amsterdam. Peter Thomas met us and after making a few phone calls we decided to go directly to Southampton General Hospital where we met Libby (my sister) and Brian. It’s hard to believe that yesterday morning we got up in Arua and this morning we were in the hospital.

For the present, the entries for these weeks will not be published although I have written my own experiences. My (James’) Dad died on Monday 28th May and the cremation and funeral were on Friday 8th June. The family have been together during this period and this has been helpful and supportive. We were very glad that we were able to join them. We would like to thank all who have sent messages of support and encouragement during this time. We will be in the UK until 19th June.