Quite an exciting day in a number of ways, not all necessarily good. We started off with the group splitting up, with Jamie and Churchill carrying on the basketball coaching with the kids from the Lilly Orphanage while Dan and Paul headed across with Patrick to Kazo for another football training session, despite Dan coming down with some nasty bug the day before and feeling pretty grim. Both training sessions went very well with Jamie and Paul leading devotionals, which the kids really engaged with.
In the afternoon we visited the Compassion office and were shown around by Chris, the Tours and Visits Specialist. Compassion do fantastic work in Uganda and the staff are inspirational guys. If you would like to sponsor a child in Uganda we can highly recommend Compassion so check out their website at www.compassionuk.org.
On the way back to base our vehicle was involved in a collision with another car. Quite a nasty situation but all was eventually resolved thanks to Patrick. The collision itself wasn't that bad but a policeman arrived pretty quickly on the scene and, after being given some money by the driver of the other car, decided that everything was Patrick's fault. He demanded that we pay for the damage to the other car, which drove into us, and threatened to take Patrick's driving permit unless more money changed hands. Interestingly at this point Churchill thought he would jump out and chat to the policeman to help him sort the situation out but almost got himself arrested due to some kind of communication breakdown! Oddly enough Onside hadn't prepared a contingency plan for bailing people out of jail - have to add that to the pre-trip planning from now on! We did end up having to pay a small amount to the policeman (about £20) before he let us go but it was all pretty depressing and a small insight into the corruption that goes on here. Life is difficult enough for people in Uganda without having to deal with this kind of thing but it just seems to be a day-to-day occurrence for the local police and a way of making a few quid on the side.
Prayer points
- That Dan and Paul will both be feeling 100% better tomorrow and able to participate fully in the planned programme.
- For a very busy training session tomorrow to go smoothly and for a trouble free day.
- That the kids hearing the talks today will respond positively and read the tracts that were given to them.
In the afternoon we visited the Compassion office and were shown around by Chris, the Tours and Visits Specialist. Compassion do fantastic work in Uganda and the staff are inspirational guys. If you would like to sponsor a child in Uganda we can highly recommend Compassion so check out their website at www.compassionuk.org.
On the way back to base our vehicle was involved in a collision with another car. Quite a nasty situation but all was eventually resolved thanks to Patrick. The collision itself wasn't that bad but a policeman arrived pretty quickly on the scene and, after being given some money by the driver of the other car, decided that everything was Patrick's fault. He demanded that we pay for the damage to the other car, which drove into us, and threatened to take Patrick's driving permit unless more money changed hands. Interestingly at this point Churchill thought he would jump out and chat to the policeman to help him sort the situation out but almost got himself arrested due to some kind of communication breakdown! Oddly enough Onside hadn't prepared a contingency plan for bailing people out of jail - have to add that to the pre-trip planning from now on! We did end up having to pay a small amount to the policeman (about £20) before he let us go but it was all pretty depressing and a small insight into the corruption that goes on here. Life is difficult enough for people in Uganda without having to deal with this kind of thing but it just seems to be a day-to-day occurrence for the local police and a way of making a few quid on the side.
Prayer points
- That Dan and Paul will both be feeling 100% better tomorrow and able to participate fully in the planned programme.
- For a very busy training session tomorrow to go smoothly and for a trouble free day.
- That the kids hearing the talks today will respond positively and read the tracts that were given to them.
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