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

It was time to say goodbye to Kasasa and move on to our next port of call in Ibanda, a few hours drive to the north-west. The proposed route gave us the chance to drive through one of the smaller National Parks in Uganda (Lake Mburo Park) and hopefully have a chance to see some wild animals that would normally be too afraid of humans (who would kill them for meat) to come anywhere near villages or towns. But before showing you some of the wild animals we encountered, here are some "Bro. James' Nature Watch" photos from our week in St. Charles Lwanga School, Kasasa. Moo! The school has its own large herd of cattle, as well as pigs, poultry and goats. Chickens and cocks resting in the shade at Kankobe Orphanage. One of the many lizards, this one a baby. Not exactly a "nature watch" shot, but I missed this out from a previous day's diary entry and I rather like it. Sean sharing a joke with Sophie. Bro. Francis and a dormant termite colony. On a walk around the ...

Day 8 was our last full day at Kasasa. Their football team asked us if we would like a football rematch. Team Win, led by Simon T., team mascot and talismanic goalkeeper certainly didn't need a second invitation. Revenge was in the air after having lost the first match on penalties. I told the local lads that we had 2 full team kits to donate to the school, one being a gift from Liverpool F.C. of training kits, the other a set I had bought back in Liverpool. They were keen that the 2 teams wear them. They were also going to provide a referee to whom we gave a new whistle. This was getting very serious. I was only going to come on if needed in the 2nd half as I still felt half dead and totally lacking in energy. Although I did come on, it was more to help keep us organised as we fought another tightly contested match that again went to extra-time. Giving out the new kits. The team handshakes. Team Win photo. On the right is Bro. Charles from the Noviciate community. Driver John also...

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...