Tuesday 23rd October

There was very heavy rain last night. It makes a huge noise on the corrugated metal roofs which are common to most buildings, including the Church and my room. The monkeys were also very noisy last night, chattering away in the trees outside my bedroom.

I went to 7.30 a.m. Mass this morning. It was said by Father James with assistance from Fr Stephen, his curate, Father Paul and George, the seminarian. There were about twenty small school children there (aged I guess from four to seven) and ten or so secondary school children. They were all in their school uniforms and without their parents. There were about another twenty to thirty adults in the congregation. At one point I thought a cockerel was going to join us by the side door, but he thought better of it. The music was provided by the Sisters.

After breakfast Adrian and I worked on the computer equipment we had bought with us and are leaving here. Adrian had started to install the laptop PC and printer the previous day. I was installing a printer for the existing PC (it previously had none) and had rather a frustrating time looking for printer drivers on the internet until the relevant CD disk turned up in the office! It was then all plain sailing. While I was doing it, George (the seminarian) brought me a very touching letter for us all. I am sure you will get to see it and the various other letters of thanks we have received when we return but I will just quote a little bit. "Bring my appreciation and greetings to everyone back home. Thank them indeed for the big sacrifice made in the interest of helping other people. May God bring to fulfilment the words of St. Paul 2 Corinthians 9:6 in the lives of all of you and your families. Amen." Looking up the relevant piece in the Bible it reads "He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." He also gave me his straw hat (he gave me two to choose from!), so I gave him my cloth sun hat in return.

We had a final review meeting with Father Stephen and Father Paul to discuss whether we had done what they expected and wanted during our visit (we had been continually checking this as we went along), what they wanted from us now and what ideas we ourselves had for next steps. I am not going to share the discussion on the blog as we still need to formulate our ideas as a group and can do so both when we have left Irundu but are still in Uganda and when we are home.

We had lunch and said sad farewells to everyone before setting off to Sipi, east of Irundu and close to Mount Elgon on the Kenyan border. We are staying there for two nights.

I forgot to mention that Father Stephen's aunt runs a restaurant in London serving African food. Father Stephen has not seen his aunt since 1993 although he is in touch with her. It would be nice to look her up (when he can find her address for us!).

You might have been wondering what happened to Father James's chickens! We were served them both for breakfast today. I think Father James was relieved not to have to take them in his luggage!