Revisiting my home - Uganda
Sarah Bourne
Open Door - August 2005 pages 6-7
It all started after Christmas 2002 when my parents said that they would like to take the family on holiday to Uganda, where we had lived as children, and where I was born. My brothers and I had never been back since we left at the height of Idi Amin's time, 29 years ago. There would be 12 of us travelling in total.
Planning the holiday in some respects was quite easy. Do we want to go? YES! But with me having MS and using an injectable disease modifying drug, we had to think and plan a little more than usual.
The first thing was to check with my MS nurse and neurologist that this was an OK adventure to take on. My neurologist provided me with a letter to say that I was on injectable medication and therefore needed to carry needles with me and that both the medication and the needles needed to be with me in the cabin and not in the hold.
I then got to thinking about the logistics of keeping the medication refrigerated on the holiday, bearing in mind that only one venue was what you call luxury accommodation, and that was Mweya Lodge in the middle of the Queen Elizabeth Safari Park. One of the venues was for two nights on Bushara Island with no electricity! I contacted the company that supplies the drugs to me and found out how long my medication can stay unrefrigerated before it is of no use. I also arranged to have a double delivery before leaving, as I would be away for the next delivery date. We needed to ask if British Airways would be able to keep my freezy packs in with the ice so that I had fresh freezy packs on arrival in Uganda. With all this set in place we were ready for the off.
Travelling was no problem at all. We set off from Devon by coach to Heathrow where we met with my brothers and their families and began our adventure: what excitement for the children who had never been abroad other than to France.
The staff were wonderful and very helpful. Bearing in mind how vast Heathrow is we had booked a wheelchair in advance in case I needed it. We had been told that I would be pre-boarded with one of our party, but when it came to it, they wouldn't separate us, so all 12 of us were pre-boarded. This meant that at the other end we were the last to get off, which the children thought was great as they got to go up to the cockpit and meet the pilot. The family have all decided that if they travel they should take me, so they can be pre-boarded again!
We arrived at Entebbe airport at 6am and I did my first injection of the holiday on the floor of the baggage reclaim hall! I had my injection mat, which was clean, and I had antiseptic air-dry soap so this was no problem. Nobody took any notice of me and I wasn't bothered; it's a fact of my life, so why worry?
The travelling we did initially, and from venue to venue, did take it out of me a bit, but then it took it out of all of us. I just made sure I rested enough. Some Ugandan roads are pretty much like farm tracks, VERY rutted and very dusty! Enough to take it out of the fittest of the lot! Amazingly my 14 year old son slept whilst going over these bumps at quite a rate of knots.
The heat of Uganda didn't really affect me. It is a high country and therefore not as hot as some places, despite our location being about 60 miles from the equator. It was hotter in the UK than where we were!
There were a few days when I didn't feel able to join in with everything, but this was mainly when a lot of climbing and trekking was involved, such as when we were booked to go trekking to see chimps or the day we went to the hot springs. I managed to get to the springs before lunch, which was just as well as our lunch was cooked in them! The heat was so much that day that the second location in the afternoon was out of the question so I went back to the rangers' lodge.
Everywhere we went people were so accommodating about keeping my medication cold. The longest time it was out of a fridge was during the days of travelling and then it was no longer than eight hours, even on Bushara Island, where they had a paraffin fridge like the one we had had when we lived in Uganda.
The whole holiday was wonderful for us all, my parents (who had returned several times: on the last occasion the idea of a family visit taking root), my brothers and myself to be there again, and for the partners and children to experience the wonderful country with its warm and friendly population; they now understand and have the same deep love for the country and people. My children would dearly love to live there now and my son talks of moving there!
Sarah Bourne (in sunglasses) with her family, tour guide and driver
The only health issues that slightly marred the holiday were my father's problem with his feet, which are a problem in England and were no worse out there, and my mother going down with malaria on our last day. Both were sorted out very quickly and efficiently by the medical people we saw. Full marks to their medical staff! The malaria was diagnosed within ten minutes of the blood test being done, and the medication took all of a few hours to start making her better! Of course they are used to dealing with this illness every day!
Abiding memories - my sister-in-law teaching first some school children to sing 'A Sailor Went To Sea', and then pygmy children (and adults) 'Ten Green Bottles' - also, the sight of two elephants chasing a couple of buffalos at the water's edge, trumpeting at them. It had been my daughter's wish to hear elephants trumpeting! What an experience for the children (and the rest of us) also to attend the services at Kabarole Cathedral in Fort Portal and All Saints in Kampala; to experience the lively worship and to see such large numbers of people attending a 'normal' service and to be made so welcome by all.
Another memory that sticks in my mind is when my father and I visited the hospital where I had been born and to realise just how lucky we are in this country. Patients there have to bring in a member of the family with them to cook their meals, as they are not provided. So many patients leave before treatment is finished, not because hospitals don't have the drugs but because people cannot afford the drugs to make them better! And we moan about the NHS! A very humbling experience.
On returning to England I did have a relapse which was treated with steroids, but so what, I may have had that relapse anyway! I still had a wonderful holiday and have great memories to treasure and share with my children. You couldn't ask for more.
I hope you have a great holiday too.
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