The Bomah Hotel home for the next 5 nights

Today was travelling day as me (Lee) and Rich left Lira to move further North to Gulu and Ed returned home to London via a meeting with Justine from the UCA in Kampala. In typically British fashion we arrived at the bus terminal at 9.45 ready for the 10am Gaaga bus, plans had to be quickly rearranged as we were informed that the bus would be running but there was no indication of when this might happen. A taxi bus (Mutatu) was spotted with a Gulu sign in the window, confidence was high as only 4 of the 14 seats were unoccupied so with the African style of waiting until all the seats are filled we sat down hoping for a half hour wait at best. Two and a half hours later and the bus finally departed the depot with an incredible 19 people on board and an impressive array of luggage strapped to the roof.

A rather cramped and hot two and a quarter hour journey was then endured without much to pass the time, the only highlight being the brief stop by the traffic police to ensure that we didn’t have too many passengers on board, the officers exaggerated show of counting three people per row when there was in fact four was a joy to behold.

The good news on arrival is that all of the new cricket kit is here to be used throughout the course and then delivered to the 9 schools that are participating. The hotel is clean and friendly and it is a treat to see a more extended menu than we have been used to in Lira. Whether all of these mouth watering possibilities will be available is yet to be discovered but a Beefburger and fries is on it’s way so all is good.

After the exertions of the past 5 days and last nights leaving bash for Ed I think it is unlikely that we will be venturing too far from the hotel today so I will report back tomorrow with news from downtown Gulu. 32 teachers await in the morning and if they are as enthusiastic and willing to learn as their Lira counterparts it should be another successful few days.