christmas shopping

The Centre closed its doors on Wednesday, so its just me, the security guard and our ‘landlord’ the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Health Centre’s skeleton team. After a day and half of DIY I decide to head to the ‘city’, Arua, for a pre-Christmas break.  It’s not a city as you would know one, but round here it qualifies.  Incidentally the BBC website has Arua located in Democratic Republic of Congo.  Sure, it is only 30 minutes to the border, but disappointing from our National Broadcaster.

Anyway, that aside I make the most of the shopping opportunities as I have 3 million Uganda Shillings in my pocket, all in 10k notes, so I needed my backpack with the weight and volume! 

Arua, I have to caveat, is more sleepy village corner shop than city.  I’m not interested in Christmas gifts, per se.  But I have a long list of practical items which are hard, or impossible, to find in the nearby town (Yumbe).  So footballs and netballs for the school we support, footballs also for one of our guys in South Sudan who coaches a youth team.  Plastic chopping boards (in red and green, for meat and vegetables) will hugely improve food hygiene (they just use the table).  See why I am virtually vegetarian out here?  Wall brackets, screws and wall plugs (not sexy, but so hard to get) to make shelves in our clinic in South Sudan.  Some keyboards and a mouse, a UPS for our precious $3,000 USD ‘CBC’ analyser for the laboratory.  Some resources for our OT and (just to prove I’m not so selfless) food for me!

I think you get the gist of how things are out here, with Christmas Dinner looking like something to do with tinned Tuna Fish or Corned Beef.  But my visit to Arua officially changed the game… pork sausages, bacon, potatoes, carrots.  The plan is still evolving, but as I also snagged a bona-fide bottle of French red wine, it’s going to be surprisingly good.

On the road out of town (sorry, city) I followed the pick-up truck you see in the picture.  It is difficult to see but if you look carefully, you can see a (black) tail and a brown head.  As I passed it, I realised there were actually 3 cows in in the back. 

My key question is(was) how did he get them in there…?