De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

Well, here we are again. After my 2 weeks in France (which I'll fill you in on later) and the preparations for our new school year which started 3 days ago, it's time I got back to our Uganda blog, so here we go... ***************** Monday, July 21st saw us have a relaxing morning after a hectic, fun-filled weekend. Time to do some washing, go for some walks around the massive grounds of the school, etc... I was feeling a little better after my problems of the day before, but still very low on energy. Bro. Francis invited me to go for a walk with him around the grounds of the farm attached to the school. It was then that we realised just how big their property really was. We got nowhere near to finding the edge of it after 45mins. But the walk did me a power of good. Francis was very interested in their tractor and how they used it. He has experience of using one himself from his early years of training to be a Brother, so I asked him to pose on it for a souvenir photo. Team Wi...

This isn't footage taken during our own trip, but it is rather incredible. Watch right to the end to see a herd of buffalo defending one of their own against a pride of lions. We did actually see 2 buffalo ourselves during our trip to Lake Mburo Park. More about that later.

By this stage, Sophie was the only person to have had any health problems, being laid up in bed for a day with a bad stomach upset. The chlorine (as opposed to iodine) tablets that most people this year were using to filter their water seemed to be more palatable and the food was good and plentiful. Though after a while the relative lack of variety from one day to the next did become noticeable, making us realise how lucky we are to be able to select from such a wide variety of food in our supermarkets. It is to the great credit of the team, however, that not once did we hear anyone complain about such things as the food. Day 6 was to prove a testing one for myself health-wise. During the night I was forced to make frequent toilet visits and also vomited. By the next morning I felt rather weak. However, we had prepared the music for the school's Sunday Mass with the local choir and I was leading a few things with my guitar. So I drank lots of water and said a few prayers.... It was...

Sat. 19th, day 5, saw us have some welcome time to chill out and relax after 4 very hectic and busy days. The Black Jack club did get into full swing. Though we did end up being invited to have an 11-a-side football match with some of the pupils, including members of their 1st XI. And after having had a long chat with a couple of budding musicians in the school, I offered our services with the preparation of Sunday's school Mass, which led to us being invited to the school choir rehearsal that evening. Our young friend and potential visitor to Liverpool, Allan Kazinda, had come to visit us for the weekend, so he joined in these activities with us. As he proved to be a very good footballer, he was certainly a welcome addition to Team Win! Paddy wondering whether he should risk passing to Jack. Yours truly got the opening goal and hit the woodwork, whilst Jack and Paddy also hit the woodwork and Simon made many superb, Reina-like saves in goal. Though in the end we lost on penalties,...

Another thing we did on Day 3, once we'd settled into our rooms in the Kasasa Noviciate, was to empty our extra luggage onto the lawn outside so as to sort out the audio-visual equipment and especially the football kits and other sports equipment into 2 sets, so that we could more easily share them out between Kasasa and the school in Ibanda that we were going to for the second week. This took us a while, but in true Team Win! teamwork fashion it was done efficiently and with plenty of good banter. Meeting Bro. Charles as we sort the gear out. Francis coming up with a masterplan. Showing off what has to be the smallest football top I have ever seen, donated by a pupil from our school in Liverpool. Bro. Charles, an avid Arsenal fan. We also brought with us Liverpool and Man. Utd flags. I had been reliably informed that these were the 3 most popular football clubs in Uganda. Chris R. with our faithful driver John helping us out, as usual. Francis tells a tale and has Sophie rather wo...