Visit to Mbarara...

Children at a road-side stall

We escaped for a weekend to Mbarara, a city 80 miles away.  We drove a hospital land-cruiser and it proved to be the best journey ever to Mbarara – the murram road (gravel that has been graded) to Rubaale was quite reasonable without significant potholes and took only about 50 minutes.  We then joined the main Kabale – Mbarara tarmac road which is now being upgraded properly and is completed past Ntungamo as far as Itojo government hospital.  It is being actively worked on from there to Mbarara which has always been the worst section of road … someone had even attempted to partly fill the very big potholes.  The road is still challenging as it has eroded and crumbled away on either side but is much better now the holes are easier to negotiate.  

 

 Ian then had a meeting with the team from Rimpscom, an IT company with whom he is working on Stre@mline, a database programme he had developed in Macclesfield (which is still used every day in the paediatric department there).  The hope is to adapt it to work in Kisiizi and to start with a pilot in Out-Patients.

 

Esther demonstrating grinding technique

We then enjoyed meeting up with Esther Kobusingye, our friend who had previously served many years in Kisiizi as Principal Nursing Officer.  On Saturday we went out with her to a new Culture Museum and Centre which was interesting and Esther was pleased to find details of her own family and tribal group ancestry.

 

We then went and visited Reverend and Mrs Katombozi who had also served in Kisiizi in the past.  It was good to be together again.

Rev. Zabuloni Katombozi, Ian, Mrs. Katombozi, Sister Esther Kobusingye

On Sunday we attended the morning service at St. Luke’s Chapel in Mbarara University with a large number of enthusiastic medical students and healthcare workers before going on to meet up with Amos and Mabel Twinamasiko who had also served in Kisiizi when we were first there – in fact Amos was Medical Superintendent when we first arrived in 1987.  We then went on for a short visit to Esther's home out in the rural area south-east from Mbarara and we drove on down to the border with Tanzania then turned westwards for home.

As we look back all those years we are grateful for the friends we made along the way and for blessing us with the chance to meet up again now.