Tihare?

Which means "Is it far?". Now there are two things that you can never trust a Ugandan with….time and distance. I don’t know how many times I have been in a car and someone has said that it is just near here. You can end up spending up to another hour driving. So you would think by now I would know that “just near” is “just a lie”. On Sunday I went to visit my friend’s family in a different district called Ibanda. I have been to Ibanda Town and know how much fuel it would take to get there so I asked how far past Ibanda Town it was. He said that it was 6 miles….ok no big deal 6 miles that’s about 10 km. So I fueled up with enough fuel to go there. After passing Ibanda Town we go 10 km and we aren’t there yet. My friend then asks if he can drive as we are now very close and he would love to drive into the village. I am reluctant but allow him to drive but allow him. So now he is driving. We go 20 km still no stop then 30 km and we stop…okay we must be here. Nope we are stopping at his grandmother’s house for a quick visit. We pile back into the car and drive for ANOTHER 20 km and we have finally reached his trading centre…ahhh we are here. No no he lives on a farm…another 2 km. Now you do the math he said 10 km and we have now gone 72 km. Now I am sure you are thinking no big deal an extra 60 km…an extra 40 minutes. Oh my dear friends how wrong you are. These roads are not Canadian roads they aren’t even dirt roads to a farm they are merely paths. An extra 60 km at 30 km/h (when times are good) adds at least 2 extra hours. By the time we arrived it was clear that we wouldn’t be returning that day so we spent the night. Now this family is 10 boys and 1 girl…there was some serious bed sharing going…even for me. I shared at best a single bed (it seemed a lot smaller) with my good friend Dan who is about the same size as me. There was some serious cramming going on and the sleep wasn’t that great. I woke up the next morning and I certainly wasn’t the world’s happiest camper…spent the night, and extra 60 km, and a very small bed for two grown men. After I had some really nice tea and had a little farm tour I was in my glory not to mention the fact that the family gave me a rooster

And a goat.

The rooster is yet to be named but the goat is affectionately named after me…Kenty (it’s how they say my name in local language). In the end I left the goat at their farm (much to their disappointment, but really…what am I going to do with a goat?) the rooster has taken up residence with my three other chickens (one rooster and two hens) and has caused quite a raucous in the hen house.

This week two more vets from Canada will join me so that should be fun to have some company. It makes me a little sad as I know that it means my time here is coming to an end much quicker than I can imagine.