Thursday 10th May – Ascension Day 2018

Today is Ascension Day, we have not climbed a mountain but we are living at approximately 1800 metres (around 6000 ft) above sea-level and the two villages we visited today with Bishop Cranmer and Hope are much higher. Hopefully that counts!

In the morning we travelled to Nyakimanga a small highland village right on the border with Rwanda, I guess it is about 2000 metres above sea level. Our parishes in the UK funded a water tank for this village at harvest-time 4 years ago. Jo and I visited in October 2013 to see the village and to see where the tank would be built (it was the dry season). Children were walking long distances to collect water and so were unable to attend school.

I visited again in April 2015, when the tank was under construction. It was the wet season and the scenery was much greener.

In July 2015, Bishop Cranmer sent a photograph of the inauguration ceremony for the new tank.

Today we have been able to see the tank completed and see just how important it is to local people.

Nyakimanga is in the south of the diocese. Our afternoon/evening visit took us to the northwest of the diocese and meant travelling out of the diocese on the main road to Kabale and into Kigezi Diocese, before turning off onto murram road and heading back into Muhabura Diocese. This was another visit to a family in mourning.