Monday 26th July

After a wonderful meal and a good sleep at Lawrence's house, we woke up at 5.55am to try and miss the heavy traffic into Kampala. As we drove through the dark, wet streets of Mukono we were all wondering if the day will live up to the past week's experiences and what we had achieved. As we arrived at the Fairway Hotel (the venue for our end event) we were all a little quiet, which could have been due to the projecting finishing or the fact that we would normally have run 25km by that time of the morning.

After some initial discussions and "positive challenges" in ensuring the arrangements were in place for the end event we realised that a 10am start would be very hard to achieve and that our final 5km run in to the venue may not even happen. In the end the event started at 11.15am and due to the time of day/ heat and the fact that we needed to ensure the arrangements were in place, the final 5km didn't take place... This was disappointing as it would have ended the event but we had reached Kampala the previous day and along the route we had run many more Km's in and out of towns with the local volunteers. As the tent went up, the PA system was unpacked and the soda's arrived, we had time to share the thoughts on the project with the volunteers, Red Cross staff and some of the sponsors. It was good to have Godfrey with us again (from Inside Uganda tours) and Joseph (from GEOlodges), who had run with us as we left the Rainforest Lodge in Mabira Forest to Lugazi.  Joseph explained that he could now see why we were doing the project and how it was making such a positive impact.

The event was a low key with a few of our sponsors attending and sharing their views on the project.  It was nice to hear people's feedback and have a closing event but it was a little disappointment that we didn't have more volunteers, branches, supporters and community members at the event. In hindsight, maybe we should have had more ownership in the final event but the ownership has to be with the community and the partner organisation. At the event we heard how much the communities and volunteers value the project and we also wanted to thank everyone who had supported the project back home.

The event finished and we said farewell to Eirya and Michael who returned to Budaka and as we sat down with a cold drink we missed our friends already. We had a meeting with Lawrence to discuss the project this year and evaluate the successes and positive challenges. Sometimes in Uganda things take too long to happen and this can affect the impact in the community but we need to support the improvement of these systems. We reflected on our feelings on the project and the impact on the communities but also would we do it again???

The time had drifted on and we had to dash to the markets to buy some gifts for our supporters and try and pack a few items. We decided to go for a meal up the road from the hotel and as we passed the army and security we met the Nigerian President's convoy going to an event at their Embassy. We sat down for dinner and started to reflect on the achievements and the adventures we had been through. Even though the meal was good we felt a little flat, which could have been due to the fact that the project had ended and we had low key closure or we were just so tired???