Baggas’ Blog

Back in Uganda again. I still really love this country - the courteous chaos of Kampala’s streets, the green hills, the friendly people. After very long 24 hours of travelling to Uganda via Johannesburg, we finally arrived at our Hotel in Kampala around 9 o’clock on Sunday night, all exhausted from the trip. The 37km drive in from Entebbe was even slower and more congested than it was when I was here last year. There’s road and construction work everywhere, presumably in preparation for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) in November this year. At this stage I’m afraid the place actually looks worse for wear - they’ve got a lot of work to do if they want to spruce the place up in time for CHOGM. I’ll be interested to see how it compares when I come back again in October.

Monday morning, after a quick boda-boda ride into the CBD to get money and hiring ourselves a car and driver for the week, we headed off the the Sanyu Babies Home. Within minutes I was instantly captivated again by these beautiful Ugandan babies. How anyone could abandon such cute little things I cannot comprehend. Most of the babies that we remembered from our visit last year were still there, only a few had been fostered out, which is quite sad. And the overall number of babies there had grown from 37 to 50, straining their already stretched resources even further. Our two boys were even more engaged with the babies than they were last year, both actively playing with them. Owen was the recipient of some great big cuddles including one sleepy baby girl who wouldn’t leave him alone - but he loved it. Afterwards Owen gave us a list of about 6 of them that he wants us to adopt, but we had to explain that it’s just not that easy. Makes me even more frustrated that there are so many babies in need of love, and so many potential families for them in the Western world, yet due to a politically correct, under-resourced beaurocracy (both in these countries and especially back home) it’s just not a viable proposition. In Western Australia, for example, it takes over 12 months waiting just to be able to attend an information seminar about adoption, and this is before the rigorous application process begins. Very frustrating indeed, to hold these little ones in your arms and think of how much more we could be doing to give them a better life if it weren’t for this sort of restrictive red tape.

Later on in the afernoon we took a dip in the hotel pool and then went over to Kampala’s main shopping mall, Garden City, to pick up a few things. Whilst there we visited the Aristoc bookshop (a really world class shop) and I found an excellent looking textbook on African Medicine that I couldn’t resist picking up, despite it adding an extra couple of kilos to our luggage. One of the advantages of our trip passing through the USA though is that we each get 32kg instead of the usual miserly 20kg so weight is not a big issue for us. As well as hanging out in the hotel, watching movies and swimming some more, we took a walk up the road to a pharmacy where I bought a big garbage bag full of medications to take to the babies home.

Yesterday Jenni and her mother went back to help in the babies home again whilst I stayed with the boys. Although it was good taking them to the orphanage yesterday and they enjoyed it (Owen is begging to go back) I don’t want to overexpose them, especially since some of the babies are quite sick. Even just a brief visit there has to be a good lesson for two spoilt little boys from Australia. In the late afternoon we visited the local craft market here in Kampala to pick up a few nick-knacks, and the boys got to play some local instruments.

Today I am heading with Jennifer to the Bulrushes babies home, which just opened earlier this year and is operated by Watoto. Not entirely sure what to expect there, as it was only late last week that our visit there was confirmed, but it may be that this visit will be more medical in nature.

As always , internet access here is patchy, but I’ll endeavour to update again before the week is out.

John Hanning Speke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Hanning Speke (May 4, 1827 – September 15, 1864) was an officer in the British Indian army, who made three voyages of exploration to Africa.In 1844 he joined the British Indian Army where he served in the Sikh War under Sir Colin Campbell. He spent his leave exploring the Himalaya Mountains and once crossed into Tibet.

In 1854 he made his first voyage, joining the already famous Richard Francis Burton on an expedition to Somalia. The expedition did not go well. The party was attacked and Burton and Speke were both severely wounded. Speke was captured and stabbed several times with spears before he was able to free himself and escape. Burton escaped with a javelin impaling both cheeks. Speke returned to England to recover and then served in the Crimea War.

In 1856, Speke and Burton made a voyage to East Africa to find the great lakes which were rumoured to exist in the center of the country. Both men clearly hoped that their expedition would locate the source of the Nile. The journey was extremely strenuous and both men fell ill from a variety of tropical diseases. Speke suffered severely when he became temporarily deaf after a beetle crawled into his ear and he had to remove it with a knife. He also later went temporarily blind. After an arduous journey the two became the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika (although Speke was still blind at this point and could not properly see the lake). They heard of a second lake in the area, but Burton was too sick to make the voyage. Speke thus went alone, and found the lake, which he christened Lake Victoria. It was this lake which eventually proved to be the source of the river Nile. However, much of the expedition’s survey equipment had been lost at this point and thus vital questions about the height and extent of the lake could not be answered. [..read more..]