Tuesday 26th October – Rukingiri to Kampala

Tuesday 26th October – Rukingiri to Kampala




We all met at 5am in the courtyard of the Guest House, with cases already packed and ready to load onto the bus. A breakfast of toast and drinks had been prepared for us, which was very welcome. Sharon and Liz, two young girls who worked at the Guest House, came to say goodbye. We also said goodbye to Steve and Dennis (Tom was still fast asleep – sensible young man)who would be staying at Rukingiri to continue with the building work.



By 6.30 we were all on the bus and on our way back to Kampala. Rachel’s voice clear for all to hear “Aren’t we privileged to be seeing so many African sunrises and sunsets.”

By 7am the children were already out and walking to school along the roadside. School starts at 8am and this showed that many children walk for an hour or more to get to their school. How many children do we know who would do that?

As we drove along we passed a bad road traffic accident, help from local people was already arriving to tend to the injured, but it brought it home to me that we are in an environment where there is no 999, no paramedics and no ambulances. The group prayed for the victims as we continued. We also realised the debt of gratitude we owe to our driver, Charles, for his skill and knowledge.

Late morning Steve from the building team called to let us know the progress he was making. It sounds like they will have a working water harvesting system by the end of the week.





We arrived in Kampala at about 4pm, a very good time for the 400Kms from Rukingiri, so having checked in at the Guest House, we all had some relaxation time until 6pm when we would meet before dinner. Gertrude would be joining us for the evening meal.



Gertrude is a remarkable woman, she runs the Guiding Star School in the poorest district of Kampala. There are 485 pupils in her school, of which just over 80 are sponsored by Global Care.

Gertrude looks after the neediest of the needy. In her district large families live in a single room; there is no water, no toilet and no electricity. Several of these families will share a single pit latrine.

Gertrude also visits the Women’s prison every week, taking clothes and food in for the mothers and their children. In Uganda if a woman is sent to prison her children have to go with her. If the woman is still in prison when the child turned three then the child may be sent to a remand centre, often though they remained with the mother, serving the same sentence as the mother. So Gertrude visits these women taking food clothes, nappies etc, whatever she can find, afford or is given.

In Uganda Hospital treatment is very very expensive, Gertrude says that “Money has eaten up their minds”.

Over dinner Gertrude told us that she was able to help some children using funds from the Global Care 2009 Christmas Appeal; specifically Derek who is very sick but his mother is in denial about it. Derek has many sores on his skin and has lost all his hair, his mother says it is just an allergy, Gertrude thinks the boy has HIV. A second boy was hit by a ‘Bud Buda’ (a motor bike taxi) and hit his head. He became ill and was taken to hospital by his family. The hospital diagnosed a fever and put the boy on a drip. The boy got worse. Gertrude got involved and was able to use the fund to pay the 120,000 schillings (£40)for the boy to have a scan, which showed that he had a small brain clot. Once the correct treatment was given the boy recovered but without that £40 the boy would have died.

On the positive side she told us about:

The girl whose parents had died of aids, she and her siblings went to live with the very elderly (80+) grandparents. The children of the grandparents had also died of aids, so there were no Aunts or Uncles to turn to. The girl was sponsored and that gave the grandparents sufficient support for the girl to attend school. The girl is now in Senior 6 (Year 11 in the UK)and is happy and well behaved.

Two children who had nothing, their father had died, they were selling maize on the streets of Kampala. Global Care sponsored these children and they now go to Guiding Star school. One has been treated for TB and has recovered and they are both doing well.

What a remarkable woman Gertrude is, what an example she is to us all. Tomorrow morning we will visit Gertrude at her school to deliver the educational equipment and clothes that we have brought for her, to see the pupils, especially the class P7 that sits its exams next Tuesday (the equivalent of our 11+). After this school visit we start off on the long bus ride from Kampala to Soroti.

We finished dinner at 8.30pm and we all retired to bed, exhausted both physically and emotionally.