Time to leave East Africa and return home. My final day started at 04.20. Our pickup would arrive just over an hour later so we had to be up, packed, breakfasted and ready to go for the long road journey back to Entebbe Airport.
Thankfully the traffic was not as bad as the journey out to Entebbe and we arrived at midday. At this point, Naggib left with our driver Simon for a meeting in Kampala. He would continue his journey home to Switzerland tomorrow.
The flight would take me from Entebbe Airport via Dubai to land at London Heathrow at 06.30 on Wednesday morning with the final leg of my journey by coach to Oxford where I am picked up by the newly elected Mayor of Chipping Norton, aka my wife!
Inevitably with long haul journeys like this with multiple forms of transport, there is a delay. This time it was the baggage that took too long, so having allowed over an hour and a half for the trip through UK arrivals to baggage collection to the bus station (this normally takes between 20 to 40 minutes) on this occasion it took two and a half hours, so I had to catch the later bus.
Having eventually arrived home at Noon, I have calculated that I've been up for more than 33 hours (taking into account time differences) and travelling for over 31 of them. I now have to try and keep myself awake for the next eleven hours before I sleep in order to reset my body clock to UK time. I also have to be awake enough to participate in the weekly Management Team meeting with the London Team. But it’s good to be home. The Mzungu returns. Which of course means that I am no longer a Mzungu, or wanderer.
Geoff Coleman
CEO, Mildmay Mission Hospital
Photo by Nick Fewings