Tuesday 20th August

We were very much on ‘African time’ in the morning. Despite a scheduled departure time of 9am, the running of various errands in town (Rukungiri) meant we left about an hour later than anticipated.

Our destination was Kisiizi Hospital, a bumpy and dusty hour and a half’s drive away.

On arrival we met Henry, the Hospital Director, one of nearly 300 members of staff. He gave us a tour of parts of the hospital, including the Chapel, the post-op ward and the mental health ward. We’d made some bracelets for the children that we gave out and chatted with a number of the patients.

UK medics come over to the hospital for a short period (usually a week) three times a year to train Ugandan doctors and also carry out operations themselves. Three urologists from Reading Hospital will be there at the beginning of September. Henry said they will carry out between 30-50 surgeries over the week.

We then walked to Kisizzi waterfall, which is just above the hospital. There, we learnt from a guide that before British missionaries arrived in the area in the 1920s, unmarried girls who became pregnant were thrown to their deaths by their own families from the top of the falls.

After Kazizi, we travelled to Bwanga Hill Secondary School, where we were first treated to lunch and then a traditional Ugandan reception from the pupils, which included some amazing singing and dancing. The school has two 30,000 litre water tanks, multiple latrines and bathrooms, and a spring that were all built by WATSAN.

Our last stop was at Rumbugu school and Rumbugu church. Another WATSAN group from the UK carried out a project there in 2017, so Ian, James, Sam and Lydia were able to see their hard work from seven years ago still bearing fruit.

When we returned to the House of Good Hope, the Mother’s Union had brought some of their creations to sell. Everyone enjoyed browsing and purchasing, with traditional Ugandan shirts, dresses and sarongs proving popular.

After supper, James called Eric, the owner of the House of Good Hope (who is currently visiting England) and put him on speaker phone so that we could all thank him for letting us stay at his lovely home.

Thanks Henry for writing the blog today. Due to a lack of signal we’re unfortunately unable to upload any photos, but we’ll try to rectify that tomorrow!