sometimes, i am told, people have the same recurring bad dream.....over and over. kind of like 'groundhog day' but minus bill murray and pauxatawny phil. (as you can probably tell, i did not google the correct spelling!).....since tony reid is here and i am heading back to the good ole God Bless America, USA, we all decided a trip to kiganda was in order. it was time to check on the progress of the piping, water tank, faucets, showers, etc now that an abundantly flowing well is capable of providing all the water needs. as you know, if you have followed this blog at all, we have had problems in the past with our van breaking down 3 out of 3 times we have driven it to kiganda. today, because it has a tire that prefers being flat, and i am sort of hesitant, because our track record is abysmal, we rdecided to pay the $40 and get a rental car. we left kampala at 9am, ready for our uneventful journey. we reached highway secondary school about 10:45 and as we were pulling into the driveway, tony and i looked at each other and said "what's that noise"? andrew said that it was a normal car sound....ok, i am not a mechanic, but that didn't seem 'normal'.
we had a nice visit with the kids.....who were so happy to see tony...especially, i might add, the girls. i'm not sure they understood one thing he said because they are used to my accent, but not his, it didn't matter, because they were just excited to see him and to know he would be visiting them often. we walked around the property and saw the platform where the water tank will be installed. also saw all the piping being laid on the school grounds, the faucets and the really DEEP septic fields they were digging by hand....my gosh they were deep. digging them by hand! awesome. ssenyonga john was happy that we finally remembered to bring the trash bags we had been promising for 6 months... fortunately, he is a man with much patience. as we walked, my usual entourage of little beautiful children took my hands and were determined to stay with us wherever we went. we stopped by the house where i always visit the 7 children under age 7 and posed for pics. 
the parents told andrew that i could take the baby with me. WHAT? ARE THEY KIDDING ME? andrew said he didn't know, but the mother has no breast milk and the child has been drinking from a cup almost since she was newborn and she needs better nutrition. BUT ARE THEY KIDDING? probably not he said.....i have never been offered a child before....i told them i would be back in 2 months and would see them then. the dad had kind of a strange look on his face and i am wondering if he was disappointed that i refused the offer of the child.
we went to visit john's mom and jajaa...they are my favorite women on the planet. as you might recall, last visit they gave me a rooster, foghorn. this time i got a puppy....a very sweet, dirty, flea infested, likeable pup whom i have named bobembwa.....bob-the-dog, after my son, Josh's, beloved dog who died several years ago. bob had to ride in the trunk in a cardboard box. tony and i worried about that, thinking of him back there in the stiffling heat. we stopped half way home and bought him some chicken on a stick people food and he seemed quite delighted with it.andrew talked about a woman and child we saw yesterday....andrew thought the woman was mentally unstable. the child was filthy. they were sititng by the side of the road. we gave them bread and coke and fruit....the only things we had in the car. andrew said he should have taken the child. i asked him if the mother would have allowed that and he said probably yes. he said he would have raised the child as his and i suddenly realized why he is the desana uganda director. i hope we see the mother and child again, i think we will go back to where we saw them tomorrow.
we were within the kampala city limits when....yep, you guessed it, the rental car came to a screeching halt....something underneath had broken and once again, even in a rental car, we were broke down on the side of the road coming from kiganda. track record 4 trips, 4 breakdowns! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? this is absolutely not possible! how could this be? no one actually lives these recurring bad dreams.....but us! poor bobembwa in the cardboard box in the trunk! we took him out, tony gave him some water and we looked at each other shellshocked! tony and bobembwa and i got in a car for hire and headed home. we abandoned andrew knowing we could not be of any use as he waited for assistance. i think we had the slowest cab driver in the city......hurry up i'm thinking because the clouds are rolling in. i have not had a blanket for 2 days because of the rain showers but today was bright and sunny....surely we will get home before the rain. then turtle driver stops for petro and the sprinkles start......by the time we reached the compound, the sky broke open and it was pouring and once again i am thinking ARE YOU KIDDING ME....
oh well, at least our van is ok, and bobembwa is ok and tony and i have rice and beans for dinner...the microwave is broke and the power is off, so we have cold rice and beans.....but we are very thankful for it and I AM NOT KIDDING! see all y'all soon......love ya.
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