Back to NZ

We flew from Luxor to London and spent a week visiting Bri & Ross.  We then flew to Sweden for 10 days with Sam Bella & the kids.  8 days on the beach in Phuket just relaxing very cheap, very hot and great swimming.  A 10 day stopover in Melbourne with Zach, visiting family out East and then back to NZ.  Was great to see everyone and Sweden was certainly excited for the sun and summer, starting celebrations early May!

It was just unaffordable staying in Europe & UK even to escape the NZ winter.

We arrived back in Auckland late May and have been blessed by very generous people giving us a car & accommodation for the first 2 weeks before we secured 2 housesits.  One dog & housesit in Red Beach for 8 weeks and one dog & housesit in Orewa for 12 weeks.

Luxor - Valley of the Kings

We really had no intention of going to Luxor, but the flights out of there were heaps cheaper.   We could bus to Luxor, stay 4 nights, do sightseeing for 1/4 of the price of flying from Hurghada

It seemed worth seeing more of Egypt and the famous Valley of the Kings 

Heaps of history and amazing Ancient Egypt. 

Hurghada - Red Sea Coast

After Charlotte and Esme had flown back to NZ we caught a bus - worst bus trip of our life!! down the Coast to Hurghada on the Red Sea Coast. Beautiful place, we stayed 20 minutes by uber from the Marina, it was very local and enjoyed some great food. Did some swimming and relaxing and deciding where to next!!

leaving Cairo

Sightseeing in Cairo

Hotel View - Egypt

Hello Egypt

Always wanted to go to Egypt, but 2026 was definitely & totally unplanned.  

With a little bit of hassle (which Evelyn's friend the Travel Agent helped us get sorted) a few anxious moments and a few more $$$ we departed Entebbe and headed for the Pyramids of Egypt!   What a great experience - it was hot, mad traffic, derelict, run down and dusty but it was awesome to visit the pyramids and the girls got to do the Camel ride.

Accommodation had amazing views with Pyramids in the background, great food reviews which were unmet (the pizza ordered for lunch came after an hour from the Pizza place down the road and dished up on the hotel plate LOL)   Charlotte was the travel guide for the 4 day, she planned & directed us all over Cairo - it was great to be the backseat driver and not have to plan think or organise!

We had a great time - a great experience!!

Goodbye Mpigi

Sadly our time in Uganda came to an abrupt end.   Who would've thought aye!?!    not us that's for sure ... but God has His plans and we know there was a reason He wanted us in Lungala & Mpigi - even if it was only for a short time.

We couldn't remain longer because our accommodation costs were escalating, there were few real ministry opportunities & the constant demand for ministry & vehicle expenses was just unsustainable for us.

It was disappointing that Charlotte & Esme's Mission opportunities with the local ministry were cut short, but they thoroughly enjoyed the time they had there and the things they experienced.  They were both very understanding that things don't always go the way we plan, so lets get on with it and make another plan.

Kubamitwe Village Visit

For sure a visit to Kubamitwe Village in Luewro has to be the HIGHLIGHT of our trip to Uganda.

We couldn't find the "mud hut" we had lived in back in 2008, it had been demolished and the entire village was unrecognisable, many new buildings, a huge church, flash entrance, a boda boda stand and even a small village of shops has been created ...... no longer the jungle!

It was funny, the security guards came down to the car and said "what are you doing .... who are you looking for"   Deane said hey mate I was here before you were probably even born LOL!!!

Back in 2008 we lived and worked here and I built this fence.  We later found out that Christopher one of the original 12 workers in 2008 was the Property Manager and he had replicated Deanes fence around many other houses on land purchased since 2008.

Deane saw a fence and knew he hadnt done it because one of the "fence stays" was around the wrong way!!

We walked up the track to the main entrance and Cowboy came out and welcomed us. So did Sied and then we met Christopher as he was racing back from sports with school kids so he could see Uncle Deane - Cowboy had phoned him to say Uncle Deane is here so he came back.

                                    Christopher

                                    Cowboy

                                    Sied

It was a great reunion, Anne was still with us - she is from Germany.   She was so emotional when Cowboy, Sied and Christopher came & were so excited to see us.   They told her that working for Uncle Deane had changed their lives, they had work, got paid money that helped their families tremendously and more importantly accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour.  Today they are still working in different jobs on the property.

Murchison Falls Safari

No visit to Africa would be completed without being a Safari tourist 

We left early to afford traffic between Mpigi & Kampala, unfortunately we hit jams from Kampala to Bombo (an area we know well from our time in Uganda in 2008) Again cant believe the amount of extra people, traffic & infrastructure that has been happening over the last  5 - 10 years when we were last up this way!

We headed for Murchison Falls, we had met Anne at the Mpigi Hotel and invited her to come along for the ride, she was very grateful to get out & about and see some different parts of Uganda and certainly go on Safari.

We did a NIle River Cruise and a couple of trips into the Savannah hoping to see all our favourite animals.   We got to see a good range of animals, big numbers of elephants, giraffes, antelope, water buffalo, crocodiles and slightly less of some others, unfortunately no lions!

We stayed at a "new" Safari lodge on the other side of the National Park on the River and had a great swimming pool.  Food was pretty good too.

Watoto Church - Easter Performance

We were invited to go with Evelyn & Peter to Watoto Church which is only 15 minutes down the road from their Mpigi Hotel.

The Church was putting on an Easter performance, Friday night was about the betrayal & killing of Jesus and Sunday was celebrating Christs Resurrection!

The performance was very professionally done, the music was great and it was good to see where the Church was located, together with all the childrens homes too.

Interestingly enough, the Chef at the Mpigi Hotel was "a Watoto Orphan" so we got to chat with him and hear his story about his life and family struggles before he was taken into Watoto & then his life, education and employment as an adult, living outside of Watoto.

Jinja daytrip - Source of the Nile & Farmers Market

We went for a "local" boat ride on Lake Victoria to the "source of the White Nile", which was a third of the price of the tourist operators just down the river edge.

We visited Jinja town for brunch at a local cafe, good food and walked down the streets checking out the local street vendors.  Also a visit to the Farmers Market.

There is a new motorway that we hadn't been on before but we were surprised by the terrible traffic jams between Mukono & Kampala, the traffic certainly makes every trip a much longer day!  Certainly not as easy to travel around as it has been in the past.

With our daytrip to the Equator ending badly and being left with no transport we had to make other arrangements.   Evelyn & Peter at the Hotel & Air BNB were amazing.  Peter became our new driver and we took him and showed him place sin Jinja that he didn't know about.  Evelyn was so pleased because it meant they could arrange tourist visits to Jinja with future Hotel guests.

So out of trials come blessings .... we were able to help Peter & Evelyn with future business opportunities, Peter was a very experienced driver, the vehicle was 100 times more comfortable and the van & fuel charges were significantly cheaper!! 

Visit to the Equator

INTERESTING FACT

Water spins into the bucket one way on the North side of the Equator

and

Water spins into the bucket the opposite way of the South side of the Equator.

It was good to go & visit this iconic Tourist destination and the Equator. unfortunately the day didn't end so well because of a dispute with our driver regarding overinflated fuel charges.  Leaving us stranded for all future travel & ministry.

Bush Walk

The best local native bush walk in the Mpigi region of Uganda is found in the

Mpanga Central Forest Reserve.

Key Highlights - we didnt get to see that much to be honest

Wildlife: Opportunity to spot various monkeys (such as red-tailed monkeys), hundreds of colorful butterfly species, and over 50 bird species.
Vegetation: Walk past ancient, large trees and unique botanical formations.

farm visit

Made a visit to the farm one afternoon

• had a look at the fish ponds
• met the workers
• met Christine & new baby 
• stayed for some local food for dinner

Cataloguing Books

After hauling 5 suitcases (approximately 150kgs) of Christian books & resources half way around the world for the Lungala Bible Ministry proposed Resource Centre, we spent an afternoon cataloguing a large proportion on a mobile APP.  

It was very easy with the books that had the barcodes on, some of the older resources we had to add manually.  Great team effort.   Now there's a list of the resources which is exportable on to an XL spreadsheet for future use in the centre.