Apac the northern frontier

The Akello hotel in Soroti was all mouth and no trousers! Very new and splonky looking but actually no practical design value at all. The room was either stiflingly hot or like sleeping in a freezer as the air-con unit turned out to be…well…African.
The basin on the side of the restaurant wall is a good example of the classic TIA (This is Africa). See also below: what to carry on a bicycle, African KwikFit and roadside food station.

The dining room was where we were presented with laminated menus showing pictures of the food a la 1970’s Wimpey approach. As we were getting a bit more street wise we asked the appropriate questions:-
Martin “is everything on the menu (maybe 20 dishes) available tonight.?
Naumi, our waitress “NO”.
Martin “OK is there fish”
Naumi “We don’t have”
Martin “Ok so what is there?”
Naumi. “Chicken”.
Martin “What kind of chicken”
Naumi  “It can be prepared according to your interest”.
So we went for chicken Curry with rice…some time later a chef emerged from the kitchen to say he only had one portion of rice left. No problem, we ordered some potatoes that would arrive when we had finished our meal.

The curry was fantastic, the best food we have had since we got here by far. We had a chat with the cook who was so chuffed with the fact we liked the food that he went to find the boss!
In the meantime, fed up with Nile Special and looking for a change I (Paul) ordered a “Castle Milk Stout”. Naumi duly arrived with said stout, poured it for me and announced “It looks like cock”.
Both of us were slightly surprised at how candid she was, and started to giggle like schoolboys until we realised that she meant “Coke”. 

Luckily we were able to compose ourselves before the potatoes finally arrived and we ate them as we chatted to the chef. They too were superb. This place is full of surprises.

The journey to Apac was something of an unknown. We had more answers to the how long and how far questions than ever. In the end it was great, Most of the way was very good tarmac through stunning scenery. We did a roadside stop at school break time and you can see from the photos how that went. 

 
The last 30 miles or so was classic red road. It was not too challenging and took us through remote scenery all the way to Apac which is…small and just as chaotic as every other small town in Uganda.   

 

 Paul is in the distance

We are definitely in the wilds now. Bishop Richard came to meet us and took us over to “The Cottages” which is very nice, clean and comfortable. Power is a challenge as is water but hey. This is Africa.

 Clandestine pant drying

We spent the afternoon in the bush visiting two very remote communities linked to St James and the PAG church in Uganda which are the locations for church-led communtiy transformation programmes called PEP which are proving to be very effective. 

 The levels of poverty and hopelessness are high and PEP does seem to be starting to make a difference. We heard and saw some powerful testimonies and received some fantastic welcomes.

 Welcome committee

Out in the sticks

 We dine with Bishop Richard tonight at his home where we also had a delicious lunch after we arrived. I have sent greetings from St James and especially the Bells as well as delivering gifts and good wishes.