Dodie visit report #2 October 2026

This week I visited Grace to find out that the thief was the son of the cleaner – she lent him the keys and he took all her cutlery, all her crockery and so I thought I came off quite lightly. And best of all I found the bible in another suitcase, so I shall be able to prepare for Sunday. Not much notice – usually ten minutes before the service begins. But at least I have a bible from which I can read the text.

The third lay reader we visited from the western part of the diocese was moved two weeks ago so we could call on him on the way back into Mityana. His name was Alex. He is a very good gardener, has a wife and two little girls. However, the church does not have any land at all and his house is rented and the owner of the house hasn’t any land for him so how is he going to grow any food to feed his family? Three women came to join us when we met Alex and he told us they have been providing food for them. We left him money for a hoe and a jerry can – he didn’t have either.

We arrived back on Monday to hear that Wilberforce’s mother had died, aged 97. The funeral was on Tuesday so that meant we cancelled the afternoon’s teaching. We did manage to get out to Kyankowe, Kingsclere’s partnership school in the morning. When there is a death, a funeral takes place here usually 48 hours after the person has died. Word must get around very fast. The funeral and burial take place at the home of the deceased. So we arrived, Fred called someone to stay in the car so robbers didn’t steal the tyres, lights wipers etc. We arrived around 12.30pm and people were already there. I was able to greet three of Wilberforce’s children, and his wife who lives now in another diocese. They are not divorced but not sure if they are officially separated either. Anyway people kept arriving until 2pm when they began to serve lunch. By the time they got to my section I think they ran out of food… But we sat there and then the RC priest began the service (the mum was RC). Two bible readings, no poems or eulogy and after the priest had sprinkled holy water of the coffin there were speeches – probably 8 of them. That took us to about 5 pm.

What I loved was I was able to see so many people I knew – head teachers, retired teachers, Lay Readers I have taught, a couple of bishops (now retired) and lots of clergy. I didn’t speak to them all but I loved seeing them and chatting to as many as I could.

Wednesday morning, I had a meeting with the Bishop at 7am! Fred had booked the time at 9.30am, but the Bishop’s chaplain forgot or just cruised over the time we had planned. Anyway, I was there about 1 ½ hours and that was OK. I hope to meet him again before I leave. I began teaching that afternoon and am loving it! The students (so far 23 of 32) are great, reasonable English and today again we meet and had a really good session. I just love their harmony singing it is so beautiful.

This time I have grabbed the nettle about arriving on time, switching off their mobile phones and writing notes down rather than just listening and falling asleep. So far so good. During the break they had bread (no butter or jam), watermelon and bananas. They loved it! More next week.

Friday saw us out at our first clinic, Butoloogo. There were huge numbers of ladies either pregnant or with babies. It was an immunization programme and nurses arrive on a motor bike with all the vaccines. They immunize for four hours before disappearing. We were planning to stay a night at the clinic but a couple of women had gone into labour and they needed the beds. So we drove back to the hotel in Mubende to stay the night.

The clinic is near a really lovely school in a village called Kasozi. We spent some time there. Remarkably many of the children speak tribal languages not common in the area and the teachers had no idea what they were or where they were from! All a bit tricky.

That’s it for now!