More visits, with a lot of meals.
In the afternoon, I visited the home of Nathan and his extended family. Their small farm grows grapes, eggplant, strawberries, coffee, bananas........in fact, they grow a huge variety of crops, and I sampled just about every one of them. The land is fertile for such diverse crops and it's a vegetarian's heaven.
Several more visits ensued, including my dear friend Kenneth's parents, who seem to have adopted me into their family. Each visit involved sharing testimony of what God had done and was doing in our lives. People were very keen to hear about GAFCON, for they are praying intensely for the Anglican Communion.
In the evening it was off to a secondary school for an assembly. We were late arriving, but the young people were waiting for us. I gave a talk on 'The freedom of the children of God', complete with an invitation to them to join in a Braveheart-style shout of, 'Freedom!', which they joined in with enthusiastically. Medad then shared on the same theme, and a strong response was given, as many young people came forward for prayer. One teacher even came forward and committed his life to Christ.
We enjoyed some soda and boiled eggs at the very jolly headteacher's home, then it was time to be heading home.... to yet another meal. It had been another encouraging day.
In the morning there was time to visit the dean of the North Kigezi diocese, who showed me around and introduced me to the staff of the Compassion International office. This organisation is doing some stunning work all over the world, sponsoring the development of children, and their operation in Rukungiri seemed very well organised.
Medad and I missed our bus to Kampala, so we took a cramped minibus to Mbarara, which stopped anywhere and everywhere. It took four+ hours to get there. We then had to wait for the 'right' bus. there were several buses heading to Kampala, with several of them touting for our business. However it seemed that some of them took forever to reach the capital city (adopting the methodology of the aforementioned minibus and stopping everywhere). Afetr some trial and error, we found where we should wait for the right bus and booked two seats.
Our wait took two hours, then a bus arrived and we got on board. Medad got a seat and I prepared to stand for the rest of the journey. The bus conductor had other ideas, and insisted on moving a young man with no ticket and making me take his seat. Despite my protestations, I was made to sit down. The young man protested to the conductor in Lugandan and I shook his hand apologetically. I guess it e=was the mzungu and dog-collar factors at work.
The lady next of me turned out to a diocesan treasurer's wife, and she told me much about the work of the Mother's Union in Uganda. She wasn't going far and got off at Masaka, which allowed the young man to sit down. We began talking and it was clear he was unwell with a cold and malaria, which made me feel even worse about not giving him a seat. I gave him my apple to eat as a peace-offering, and he proceeded to quiz me about the 'mark of the beast' in the book of Revelation, and whether it would preclude him from trading if he didn't have it on him! Not a question I get every day in Glasgow.
We got to Kampala about 10.30pm and we were met and taken to my hosts at Kyambogo University, Daoudi and Regina. I liked them instantly and we laughed together a lot. After another late night feast and an African wash, I fell into bed exhausted.
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