Page 3, November 6 2009

My last day in Kampala (Incoming) started out a little late, as my host Emmanuel had stayed up after 3:00 A.M. reading the Five Year Plan for Akup Padoc and slept in about a half hour, but that didn’t deter us much from getting everything done I wanted to do in Kampala before I left.
Things moved right along after we had a quick breakfast at the hotel, with our first visit to an East Indian-managed supply company that we found could not supply us with the equipment we needed. Funny, I thought, I had contacted this company before coming, and they had assured me through E-mail that they had everything I needed. Not the case, so we moved on to the next location. This company, Multiple Industries, was perfect for all the piping and roofwater harvesting equipment we needed to find out about. They had everything and in addition, were suppliers, they said, to all the bore-hole contractors in South Sudan which were drilling wells and installing hand pumps for remote villages in the South. They even had all the information I was after for getting thing shipped and meeting Customs requirements. A third company we visited bombed out. While they were suppliers and even said they were manufacturers of pipe, I was not convinced they had the moxy to supply us with what we needed. Plus they had not rainwater harvesting equipment (gutters and tanks).
That finished our morning out with two hours to go before I had to be at the airport. Guessing that we would have a little time after our meetings at the hardware suppliers, Emmanuel called his aunt who lives in the city and with whom he stays sometimes when he is on holiday from school. He said she wanted us to come over and she would fix a lunch of traditional village food for me. We went over and were greeted by several of Emmanuel’s cousins and his aunt and in a short time we were all standing around the table while this aunt gave a touching prayer in my behalf and for all that we are planning to do for her village people. The lunch was a simple large bowl of cooked pumpkin mixed half and half with peanut butter and smothered with honey. It was very good, and of course, I got the recipe to try it out on my family with our leftover Halloween pumpkins.
With little more than the expected hassle at the airport I was on my way on time to Juba, arriving there about 4:00 P.M. local time. Waiting there for me were two grinning boys, Gabriel Gum and Daniel (I didn’t get his last name right then). After a long delay getting my bags, we made out way by taxi a short distance to the accommodations they had planned for me. The temperature in Juba was about 92 degrees, but worse, the humidity was well near 100%--much different from the more mild temperature at Kampala. After considering their offer to stay with them in their shared rather primitive home near the airport, just a few doors away was a hotel with air conditioning and hot shower I thought I would take instead for $100 a night. I was promised I would also have good internet connections which I had not had for several days, so I took the room at the hotel.
Tomorrow the two boys plan to keep me busy seeing things around the city regarding my data collection mission in Juba. I shall report on that tomorrow.