We received an assignment to audit and train, as necessary, all of the branches and districts in the Uganda Kampala Mission. The mission president of the Uganda Kampala Mission specifically asked that an Area Auditor (us) fulfill this assignment, and since we are responsible for Uganda and Rwanda, we began to plan our trip. There was a lot of logistical details to work out and it was a real challenge to work out the details of who we would travel with, setting up times for us to meet with clerks and branch presidents, hotel and air travel reservations, and a host of other details to work out. The travel and visa people in the office were off for some training and we waited until the last minute to finally get our visa’s to get us in and out of both countries. The itinerary was as follows: We flew from Joburg to Kampala, Uganda where the Mission office is located. Godfrey, a church employee in the mission office met us at the airport and was our driver for the first day we were there. We spent a night in Kampala, the largest city and capital of Uganda. The next day, Godfrey took us to Jinja, a small city about 50 km. from Kampala. During our stay there, we audited the Jinja district and the four branches in the district. Our host couple was The Harris's, a senior couple serving in Jinja. They did a great job, driving us to the meeting houses where the audits were done, to their home for lunches and dinners and to and from our hotel. Our hotel 'room' was a part of a cottage duplex located maybe a hundred meters from the Nile River, with an excellent view. After we were finished in Jinja, we traveled to Gulu, where there is a branch. Gulu is about 350 km. from Jinja, an all day drive along narrow roads, paved, but with lots of potholes, speed bumps, buses, large lorry’s (big rigs), and many people walking and riding bicycles along side of the road. Typically, because of the narrow roads, potholes cannot be dodged for fear of hitting another vehicle or hitting a pedestrian along the road. Mr Harris is a very good driver but a little aggressive at times and kept us on the edge of our seats as he worked his way through the heavy traffic. On one occasion, we came upon two very large speed bumps that we didn’t see in time. When he finally saw them, he hit the brakes and slowed to about 50 km/hr when we hit them. Fortunately, we were all belted in, but the cheese and crackers we were munching on went flying. The little 4 door, 4 wheel drive Nissan truck that the church furnishes the missionaries there, did the job and got us everywhere we needed to go. Our hotel in Gulu was like a motel 6 in the U.S., which was fine, except the rooms didn't have hot water (it was almost but not quite luke warm). The air conditioning worked well as long as the electricity was on. It was off when we checked in but by the time we went to bed it was back on and the A/C was running.
On the Sunday that we were there, we went to church with the Harris’s at the Jinja Branch. Then, that evening we had a meeting with the Shipley's (he is a counselor in the Mission Presidency) and with all the young missionaries serving in that area. Mrs Shipley and Mrs Harris prepared a delicious dinner. Most of the young missionaries serving there are African, the rest being from the U.S. After a discussion of scriptures, hymns were sung by the young missionaries.
The next day, it was back to work and we were up at about 4:00 AM to catch a plane to Kigali, Rwanda, to audit a branch over there. At the airport in Kigali, we met the Andrus's, another Missionary couple, who were our hosts there. They took us to the meeting house, which is a big, very nice home. We met with the Branch President and two new branch clerks who were both recent converts to the church. They were in need of training because of being so new in the church. So after I completed the audit, Sharon and I spent some time with them for training, regarding membership records, setting up a filing system, and some financial issues. The Andrus's then showed us around Kigali, which is quite nice and cleaner than most African cities that we have visited. The city is on gentle rolling hills with lots of trees. It was cooler there than in Uganda and a thunder storm with some heavy rain came in while we were there. After dinner with the Andrus’s they took us to the airport and we headed back to Kampala.
The following day, we spent some time with the Thayn's, still another Senior missionary couple, talking about some church membership issues. Then we went to the mission office where Sharon provided some training to one of the senior missionaries in the office. Then, we had a meeting with President Jackson, the Uganda Kampala Mission President, regarding the audits.
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