Apart, but not alone.

Malcolm has spent the past week working at Kisiizi Hospital again. (see blogs of 6 May and 8 July).

Although the distance to Kisiizi is only about 100 miles, it does take about 10 hours. He choices for travel to the town half way, Kabale, is:

1. By Private Hire car – expensive



2. By ‘taxi’ – meaning sharing a saloon car with 13 other people – much cheaper, but uncomfortable / dangerous?



3. By coach – cheapest, more comfortable, but leaves at 6am.

So Malcolm takes the coach. The only problem is that he then waits until the afternoon (in a local hotel having breakfast, lunc, Coffee, reading and watching the news on satellite tv) until a hospital vehicle has arrived, and the driver has completed his work in Kabale. Arrival Kisiizi, 5pm.

Poor, old Malcolm – all alone?

Don’t believe it. He is lucky to have borrowed the house of the Mission partner, Ann Moore, who is on furlough in England. This means

1. Ann’s house keeper does the cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. Peace has worked for staff at the Hospital for over 20 years. She is a very cheerful woman who speaks very good English, but most importantly, is an excellent cook! In addition to lunches she has also cooked Malcolm a chocolate cake, which has now ‘disappeared’ even though he claims he doesn't like chocolate cakes!.




2. Parsley and Heidi, who are Ann’s two cats. They really own the house and are not too sure about this strange man who keeps on coming back, sitting on their chairs, and sleeping in their bed!!! However, they have given Malcolm a good welcome, with gifts of a bird (dead) and a mouse (dead, and eaten)

The hospital is in a picturesque location, next to a local ‘tourist attraction’ of a tall waterfall – not that many tourists would come so far to see it. The Hospital is said to have the most reliable supply of electricity in Uganda, because it has its own hydro-electric generator. However, this does not mean there are no power cuts – water levels are low in the dry season and power has to be conserved, so there have been about one ‘outage’ each day, but for no more than 5 minutes each time. We understand a previous use of the waterfall used to be to throw pregnant, unmarried women off the top - a practice which happily has stopped

And what about Irene? She continues to be busy in Kisoro at the Vocational Training Centre. She also has the company of our son, David and his wife, Sarah and has had one or two visits to our favourite café, the Coffee Pot.