Narrowly avoiding arrest!!

We stopped at the Ugandan equator on our way to our session at Masaka in the West of the country.  It was a long journey, made more gruelling for me as I had an upset tummy and toilets (such as they are!) are few and far between.  I felt poorly all day but was determined not to let it stop me doing anything! 

Always be nice to a man with a gun!  This was a friendly guard at the equator not the mean one who hassled us at the Nile.

On our way to Jinja we drove across the River Nile and although the sign on the bridge said no photography we still took a couple of pictures and thought it would be ok.  How wrong we were!  As we got to the other side of the bridge, some men in uniform with very large guns stopped our car and started to shout at us about our photographs.  They demanded we hand over my camera and I was worried they would either delete all my precious photos or worse, confiscate my camera completely.  The men made Lazarus get out of the front seat and a man with a large gun got in the front and told our driver to take us to their station.  They said we could either go to the police or pay a fine. 

It was a bit scary as they were all speaking Luganda and we didn’t know what was going on.  We all prayed fervently that God would intervene for us.  Mark said he wanted them to take us to their boss to explain our mistake, but they didn’t want to do that and we realised that by ‘fine’ they actually meant ‘bribe’ and we had to pay the ‘fine’ of about £7 and delete the photos of the river to be allowed to move on.  There was of course no receipt and no paperwork and I guess that this is a nice little earner when foreign visitors pass over the bridge.  It was a little unnerving but we were thankful to God that we didn’t get into big trouble or lose my camera.  An important lesson learned to obey signs in Africa! 

After our visit to the church in Jinja we went to visit the source of the Nile – it begins from Lake Victoria and it was awesome to see where such a great river actually begins.  We thought they were missing a trick there as there was no decent road to it and it could be a real tourist magnet with a bit of investment.  It was so beautiful and peaceful there and the scene looked as though nothing had changed for centuries…men in wooden fishing boats and women washing and drying clothes by the edge of the water.  We felt privileged to see this as it is probably something not many have seen.  On the way home we stopped and Lazarus bought us some ‘rolex’ – not the watch but chapattis rolled up with omelette in the middle – as we hadn’t been given any lunch at Jinja these were most welcome and very tasty!

The locals drying their washing in the sun.

The source of the Nile...a beautiful spot at the edge of Lake Victoria.

Men fishing as they probably have for centuries.

Josiah having his first paddle - we renamed him Josiah Moses!

On our final day, on the way to the airport we stopped at a zoo close to Entebbe.  We had to laugh when we saw the admission prices…1000 shillings for Ugandans, 2000 shillings for foreigners residing in Uganda and 3000 shillings for foreigners visiting!  We explained to Lazarus that this would never be allowed in the UK as it would be racist to discriminate against foreigners. 

The zoo was reasonably well kept though we did worry about some of the animals which were in small crates apparently waiting to be taken to an exhibition but with no sign of how long they had been sitting there already or how much longer they would have to wait.  I guess in a country where many people live in unpleasant or unsanitary conditions, the fate of the animals is not a great concern. 

An ostrich in a crate ready for transportation.

There were several large groups of school children in the zoo stampeding around and it sounded like we were about to be trampled by herds of buffalo!   Just before we left we had a little photo shoot by Lake Victoria and Mark asked one of the teachers if he could speak a few words to the group of kids there which he gladly allowed.  After that all the kids wanted their photos taken with us and we nearly got trampled again!!

By Lake Victoria.

It was with heavy hearts that we said goodbye to Lazarus and Alice at the airport and we are sure that it won’t be the last time we see them.  We were invited to Uganda to give the people the word of God and some teaching and although they think we have given them so much, we have actually received so much more.  We pray that the enthusiasm, faith and commitment of our African brothers and sisters will stay in our own hearts and that we might bring some of their zest for life, passion for Jesus and joyful celebration back with us to our own churches.