News Archive
Uganda Escort - Latima Kivumbi, 1st August 2008
Latima was booked for a cardiac procedure on Monday 4th August and expected to arrive in UK on Friday 1st August. Uganda was unknown territory for me and I was looking forward to the trip - and the enforced rest (BA only flies 3 times a week between Heathrow and Entebbe and consequently I had to stay, soaking up the sun, for 2 days!)This time, the "excitement" started prior to the trip. I obtained my tickets in the usual manner and one week before my intended departure date I decided to check the flights (as one does in these circumstances...). To my utter surprise - and horror - I found most of the flights had few seats to spare. By Thursday 24th July the Entebbe/Heathrow flight of August 1st was completely full. There was only one solution and that was to buy a confirmed seat for myself (we could not even bring the trip forward as the Sunday flight to Uganda was full by Friday 25th July). Eventually I was issued with a seat in the World Traveller Plus section as it was the only availability at the time: a lot of explaining would have to be done on Friday morning in order to be seated with my charge!
I am glad to report, though, that from then on it went very smoothly. Grace, the mother of Shane, the first Ugandan child to be brought to London for heart surgery, was waiting for me at Entebbe airport with her husband Moses AND little Shane. He is a delightful child, full of joy and mischief.They took me to the Metropole Hotel on the outskirts of Kampala where a room had been booked for me by Chain of Hope. There we parted company.
I was unfortunately unable to meet Dr Lwabi, but I was taken to Mulago hospital where I met Dr Omagino, Deputy Director of the Uganda Heart Institute. I also saw Latima who had come from his village to spend some time familiarising himself with me before our trip and making plans for our meeting at the airport on the Friday. He was a very engaging youth, spoke English fluently and was terribly excited at the prospect of the journey to come and, more importantly, getting healthier.
Latima was accompanied to the airport on Friday morning by his mother, sister and uncle. There was not much time for long goodbyes and we were soon on our way to the British Airways counter. There, we met a couple of extremely nice attendants who, when I explained who we were and the reason we were going to UK, did everything they could to make sure we were seated together - they even put the two of us in World Traveller Plus!
The journey was uneventful. Latima enjoyed the food and drinks but, after the initial interest, did not seem too bothered by the audiovisual delights on offer. When we finally landed he had a huge grin on his face and kept on saying "I am so happy!" We met the Captain and co-pilot and I "snapped" Latima at the controls of the plane - he looked so serious I wondered if he thought that an unwanted movement on his part would start the plane rolling !
We were soon through the formalities (immigration procedure was fine, the officer was so interested in the reason for Latima's visit and AWB's escorting that I left him my card and a brochure and told him he should really become a volunteer!) and met the host family as well as a nice Ugandan couple and Ketty, one of our Trustees.
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