Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Shopping in Kampala and visit to Masaka

We took Steven and Justine to Kampala shopping for their missionary clothing and supplies. Steven is going to Ghana.  Justine is going to Zimbabwe.  They both leave in June, a week apart.   We also went to Masaka which is about 3 hours South of Kampala where we attended our Sunday meetings.  Steven's Dad is the branch president there and they hadn't seen each other for about a year.  We also met Steven's mother who lives in Kampala.  She is the supervisor of a toilet paper factory.  We had a great trip.  Here are some of our pictures.

Steven and his mother.

The toilet paper factory.

One of the workers.

The workers have a cup of glue and a paint brush.  They put labels on the toilet paper rolls.


Cutting apart the big rolls of paper.

Applying glue on the labels.

The Market.  Everything seems to be 2nd hand but clean and in good shape.

The guys found some hats.

Justine buying some slacks.  They were nice.



They found some sheets and blankets here.

Steven found a good suitcase.

We didn't find everything needed at the market but we did find a few things and a lot of good buys.
To get to Masaka, we passed through a town called Equator, which is right on the equator.  You can stand with one foot on the North side and the other foot on the South side.  This is Steven.


Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere

Justine

Sister Woods, Steven and Elder Woods.
Justine
Masaka is a beautiful tropical, and hilly town.

Masaka

A Danish cafe where the Jones's took us to dinner.  The food was very good.

Entrance to the cafe.

There was a pond where you could catch a fish (Tilapia) and then the kitchen would prepare it for your dinner.

These people were from Denmark.  They really freaked out when they caught a fish and didn't know what to do with it.

The waitress came and got the fish and took them to the kitchen.


The hotel where Steven's dad works.   He is the security manager there.  There used to be a golf course nearby but it is not there any more.  It has been gone at least 20 years.

We had a room on the third floor.  No elevator but we stayed in the room which is normally reserved for the president of the country when he is there visiting.  It was called the presidential suite.

Steven and his dad, George.  George stays in one of the rooms at the hotel.

Steven on the balcony outside of their hotel room.

Justine on the balcony.  They loved this place.

Justine and Steven eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
Elder and Sister Woods having breakfast too.


Justine and Steven on the balcony outside of the restaurant at the hotel.  
There are lots of storks there.  They are attracted by the meat scraps from the hotel.


Getting a drink from the fountain.


Steven with his dad, President George, on Sunday morning.  President George was the first baptized member in Masaka.  That was just over a year ago.

Elder and Sister Woods in front of the hotel on Sunday morning.

Lots of fresh vegetables for sale.  We like the way they present them.


We bought pineapples on the way home.

On the way back to Gulu, we stopped at the Rhino Sanctuary to see the rhino's.  We saw a mother rhino with a baby.  The dad was laying down not too far from them.  We got to see the mother stand up and let the baby nurse.  We would have had a great picture but our battery was exhausted just as we were about to snap it.
Elder Woods, Opio Raymond, our guide, Steven and Justine.

Hiking out to see the rhino's, we had instructions to climb a tree if a rhino were to charge.  Glad we didn't have to.  We did see a very poisonous snake though, right under the guide's feet.  He heard the hiss and moved away.   It was a puff udder.  We watched it for awhile until it found a hole to crawl into.  Didn't get a picture of the snake, either.
There were lots of oribi's at the rhino sanctuary.  They are used to being around people

We also drove the road to Murchison Falls game reserve on the way back to Gulu.    We saw a few animals, even though we didn't enter the park.  We saw monkeys,
a mother and baby giraffe,


some wart hogs, and

an impala.




When the busses stop in the little villages along the highway,  the food vendors take their food to the bus windows  to sell to the passengers.  And if the cars stop, they also surround your car and don't leave until you buy something.




WE'LL NEVER FORGET THIS 5 DAY TRIP.  WE HAD A LOT OF FUN WITH "OUR BOYS"