The last post. As anticipated from my spare room.
We arrived at our motel near the airport last night to discover......it had been shut down?! There was a strange message on the gate about being fully booked for the foreseeable future?! It was all very odd. It also meant we had to find somewhere else to stay! Being near the airport meant there were lots of motels about and the first one we tried could take us - brilliant. We booked in and had some time to kill before meeting to eat. Perfect - time for a shower!
Jack and I went down for a drink before dinner. Some of the team had had the same idea, gradually in dribs and drabs everyone arrived. There was a chilled feel to the evening, we were done. You know a team has gelled well together when they are able to laugh at themselves, and each other - we did plenty of that!. We ordered our food and some time later went in to eat. The meal became a comedy of errors - they were clearly not geared up for the unexpected 15 English! They brought food we'd ordered and food we hadn't! They brought the wrong combinations of food on the plate and some food they simply never brought! Some food arrived 3 hours late - suffice to say we paid half the bill. It wasn't quite the 'last supper' we'd intended but it was fun and good to all be together. It was also an early farewell to Kev and Jess who, unlike us, weren't getting up at 5.30am because they were flying later on a flight bound for Tanzania. Nice.
If there were Awards for the team, this is what they'd get:
Rob - Unassuming Leader Award + Best Ugandan Accent Award!
Denise - 'Behind every great man there has to be a great woman' Award. She is that woman.
Alice - Sweetest Nicest Girl Award - she could join my family any day.
Sim - Memory Maker Award - songs in the bar, in the bus & at Bula - priceless
Jess P - Compassionate Carer Award - demonstrates such love for the children we met
Mike - Hard Grafter Award - don't mention the fence....
Jess F - Works Hard, Plays Hard Award - every team should have a Jess - such fun!
Kev - Bit of a Softie really Award - despite the rumours he's not scary + Eat for England Award!
John - Anchor Man Award - this man is a rock, I've known him 2 weeks and trust him implicitly.
Julie - Mary Poppins Award - whatever you need she has it in her bag!
Josh - Most likely to be Famous Award - creative and ever so slightly enigmatic!
Jacob - Happy Snapper Award - his camera is like a third hand
Jack - Barefooted, Hat wearing, Footballer Award - often with sunglasses too!
Zoe - Sleepy Giver Award - she didn't bring home any of the shoes she took. Needed more sleep though!
Me? I'm just the blogger!
It's been a fabulous team to be part of.
Our flight was late taking off so we finally arrived back home at 8.15 tonight. We were all separated on the flight so lots of time for book reading and film watching. I watched 'Water for Elephants' the final line of which said "I'm not running away, I'm coming home" ...... and Arthur. The two characters from Naomi's book say 'We walk a little taller and shine a little brighter because we have shared the adventure together'. I get that.
So that's it then. I'm all blogged out. I have loved writing of our adventure and getting it down in words for myself but I have loved sharing it with you too and have been overwhelmed by the number of people reading it. Thank you for sharing our journey - it really has meant a lot to me. Sharing the experience with Jack and Zoe has been brilliant. At the craft market yesterday I bought each of us an elephant - a reminder of this adventure we had together. So will we return? Jack & Zoe think so, I'd love to because I left something behind........ a piece of my heart.
Helen hopes and dreams. xx
For me the experience was more than I had hoped and dreamed off
