Farewells
on Hoggs in Uganda (Uganda), 13/Sep/2010 18:00, 34 days ago
We spent last night in Entebbe and two hours ago we took off on our journey home. We are excited about returning home but are subdued after the farewells over the last few days. Last Thursday we had a great send off from the staff at Reach Out Mbuya, our employer over the last year.After the usual morning yoga and religious reflection we had a pictorial (slide show) of a selection of our photographs, testimonials from some of the staff we worked with, some Scots and Ugandan tunes on fiddle and guitar, community singing, and a cake.The Ugandans know how to party and this was all before 10 am.On Friday and Saturday evenings we said our farewells to some of our VSO friends although we expect to see a few in Edinburgh before too long.On Sunday morning we passed on the car to a VSO couple. It was with some relief that I had avoided damaging the car since selling it and that in the past year we have avoided serious accidents and further incidents with the police.On Sunday afternoon we said our goodbyes to our landlord, his children and the two maids, Florence and Maria.Florence and Maria made such a difference to our stay in Uganda. Each of them came in once a week to clean the house and do the laundry but it was the extra care they took of us and Florence popping in for a chat with the children that made such a difference.At 3pm we set off for Entebbe. We couldn’t quite believe that our year in Uganda had come to an end. Rhona and I were quiet and reflective on the journey as we watched the now familiar street scenes and realised how different it was going to be back home.