Don't Wait Until You're Thirsty!!

Hello All,

Slightly shorter time between updates this time so I can write a little more.

Last time I had just arrived in Hoima to spend two days helping with a mission group from the States. Wednesday afternoon was spent lazing around the pool and chatting with the group. Although the first thing we did was have a shower as there were no showers in Kiziranfumbi so me and Ben had gone 4 days without showering. The shower in the hotel was pretty poor by our normal standards but by that point it felt awesome. Even if there was no holder for the showerhead. A few members of the mission group had arrived a few days earlier and the rest had arrived in Entebbe that morning and were driving over. As we were standing around talking we heard a brass band playing. It turned out to be the rest of the group being led along the Hoima streets by this band. They entered the hotel compound and proceeded to play whilst everyone was saying hello. It was quite a welcome and reminded me and Ben of our welcome to Kibbuse a few weeks before. After our lazing round the pool and me Ben went and met with the well drilling team to introduce ourselves and get an idea of the process involved following that was dinner. Following dinner there was a entire group meeting where we met more people. We then spent the evening at the hotel bar. Was a pretty relaxed and luxurious day which felt a little odd after the last few weeks but was a good laugh. It took some of the younger members of the mission only around 3 hours to come up with nicknames. I was Willy Wonka because of my apparent resemblance to Gene Wilder in the film, which led to Ben being called Charlie (predictably) although I preferred those nicknames to Brit 1 and Brit 2 which is what we were called by the well drilling team (I was Brit 2).

Thursday started at the unpleasant hour of 6.30. We were slightly lucky cause one of the older guys on the mission tends to knock on everyone's doors at 6 to wake them up. We were saved from that because the guy didn't know which room me and Ben were in. We then had our final breakfast with Bob. Following a few delays with transport we were off for our first experience of well drilling. We arrived at the site and started to set up the drill at around 10. The drill rig consists of a wide base to which a vertical bar with the section for the drill bit is attached. The base has to be anchored into the ground using these long metal poles with two bits of screwed threads attached. However as we discovered there was a large rock about a foot under the topsoil. Me and one other guy succeeded in breaking one of these things (they're about 1.5 inches in diameter and made from steel). Eventually we started drilling. The drill bit is attached to the mechanism by a series of 5 ft metal pipes. So you drill down 5 feet then disconnect the mechanism and put another pipe on. After drilling down to about 45 feet we hit a rock and couldn't continue so packed up (I managed to get hit in the head during this process the first of many times) and went back to the hotel. Had dinner, a team meeting and then played cards at the pool.

Friday was much the same as Thursday. We drilled two sites before hitting rock, neither times reaching water, so fairly successful. The afternoon was made interesting by a large rainstorm which at first had us hiding under trees to try and kept dry then under a hut in a nearby village. I also got accidentally got punched in the face, A pump had cut out and we were trying to start it up again. The guy trying to start it was having trouble so I reached over and put the choke on. He then tried again (the pump was started by a pull string like an old lawnmower) and resulted in his hand colliding with my nose (the third time in two days I'd been hit in the head). By the end of the day we ended up so dirty that people were taking photos of us when we arrived back.

Both days we had audiences of up to 50 children watching us. We had taken so much water with us (one of the team leaders kept on saying that we have to keep drinking "Don't wait until you're thirsty, because you're already a quart low on water by then") so we had loads of empty bottles. We ended up throwing these into the crowd of kids which almost resulted in a riot. I actually saw a kid crawl over another one to get to a bottle. I was quite an interesting sight. During the team meeting that evening I spoke to the group and thanked them for having us. We apparently really impressed the well drillers with how hard we worked especially after being hit in the head so often. We spend the rest of the evening chatting people from the group. Me and Ben were a little sad to be leaving cause we really enjoyed the company and the experience of drilling wells. But we were heading to Kampala to start our tour (the holiday part of the trip now that the work section had finished).

Saturday morning was spent travelling to Kampala via taxi. The trip in total took a little over three hours. We checked into our hotel, said goodbye to Rev. James who had accompanied us and then went to Garden City (a shopping centre). However as we were going into Garden City we ran into Spencer and Mandy again (the Peace Corps worker and her boyfriend from Karaguza). Slightly amazed at this chance encounter we had lunch with them at this amazing Thai restaurant before saying goodbye and heading back to Garden City to write this blog entry.

Well despite only having two days of things to write about I've still managed to write far too much. Tomorrow we leave for Queen Elizabeth park in the south of the country (over 500 kms away so it's gonna be a long day)

Till next time,