Globetrotting

We stayed in Kisiizi for our Staff Christmas Party on 23rd December - a significant event with around 1,500 people getting a hot meal and entertainment!  As we have around 350 Staff and Porters, the numbers are quite high when their families come - and amazingly the food was on-time, hot and very tasty!

The entertainment included not only the expected songs and musical items but also a demonstration by the staff Keep Fit group which made most of us breathless just watching!  

Hanna ran a Dutch game which caused major bouts of hysterical laughter as people tried to jump up and catch little cakes hanging from strings - but not being allowed to use their hands....  We also said goodbye to two members of Staff who were retiring, both after 16 years of service to Kisiizi.  One was a member of the portering team, the other our Primary School Headmaster who stands down but will work one more year as a teacher before fully retiring.  Ian gave a powerpoint presentation with various highlights from 2012.  The MC, one of our teachers, did a good job of continuity even though acts were not always quite ready when their slot on the programme arrived... but a good time was had by all and everyone left in good spirits and reminded about what Christmas is all about...

We then had to finalise packing, last-minute jobs in the office etc ready to leave the next morning at 8am in a hospital vehicle to Mbarara, 80 miles away, which took about 2.5 hours.  We then caught a bus to Kampala which took about 4.5 hours and then a friend collected us to go to Entebbe.  After a nice meal together we went on to the airport to collect the overnight flight to Amsterdam.  Unusually, we both managed to sleep on the plane so must have been pretty tired!

Hanna's dad with Joris

Arrived in around 6am and went to Hanna's sister Leonoor's home, had a nap then to her church for a Christmas service and lunch.  Another nap then the Dutch family gathered for a lovely meal and time together. Short but sweet.  Lovely to see everyone who could make it and to see the children growing up.

Then back to Schipol airport for the short hop to Manchester to enjoy being collected by Mark and Ruth... and so to Macclesfield, and still one day left before Christmas!

Ruth, Ian and Mark

It was lovely to be together with them and to catch up after many months apart.  Also a joy to see other friends and neighbours and to visit our church, TFW, for the Christmas eve and day services.  Amazing how quickly we tuned in to UK again and it all seemed very normal.

In the following month we spent about 75% of our time on  Kisiizi related activities including various talks to different groups and churches in UK and in Dublin where we received a very warm welcome from St. Paul's church who have generously supported the funding of our 2-storey ward block used for maternity and children.  More recently they provided the resources for our new operating theatre suite which is a real step forward, and are also sponsoring the training of our second specialist surgeon, Dr. Robert.

We also included a meeting of some core friends of Kisiizi at the home of Lionel and Mary Mills in Birmingham though not all were able to get there due to the snow and blizzards.  

Time flew by and it was time to head off to Manchester in the early morning [thanks Rhona again!] to fly to Amsterdam, then to Nairobi, then on to Entebbe.  En route met up with friends from University of Chester who have given a lot of support to our School of Nursing so that proved a useful extra meeting.

Arrived safely in Entebbe but our bags didn't!  So ended up with an extra 24 hours there waiting, then the next night picked up 3 out of 4 bags that had come on from Amsterdam where they had sojourned!  The final prodigal was delivered to Kisiizi a few days later!

Managed to get a place on the Postbus at 7am and that took us to Rubaale where Augustine Tusingwire picked us up for the final 18 miles of dirt road to Kisiizi.  And a very warm welcome as we arrived home once again...