Day 2 - 22/06/2009

The second morning aches and pains will provide the team with a real understanding of the task ahead and the concern about “did I really train enough”!!. The run will continue along the main Mbale to Iganga tarmack road for 35 kms. This leg of the run provides us with a straight route through sparse training centres and villages. After visiting training sessions in Busembatia, Namalemba, Bukona, and Nakalam, we finally make the noisy trading road from Uganda to Kenya. This will now be the main road we travel on until we arrive on the outskirts of Kampala, but for day two we will be on it for only 6 kms.

This road is one of the most dangerous roads in Uganda and road safety is one of the biggest killers in Africa. This is why we are here… “to help people gain a greater understanding of road safety, teach communities life saving skills, reduce poverty and increase resilience”. The road is bumpy and full of potholes, which highlights the amount of commercial traffic that uses Uganda as a main route through East Africa from Mombasa. The team will arrive in Iganga (Originally known as South Busoga until 1982 when it was renamed Iganga) and a warm welcome at the Iganga Red Cross office.

News update:

The team woke up at 5am to wash and prepare for the days adventures.After a breakfast that didn't appear apart from some buscuits and banana's we had left over from the day before!! We began the run at 6.40am and covered the first 10km in under an hour and even though it is cooler the heat is still intense!! The support from the local villages along the way was amazing and helped us feel very motivated. During the first 18km of the run, the road decided to not be as supportive and turn in to a few "knee challanging" hills.

The runners were joined by some enthusiastic locals and Red Cross volunteers during the run, which was fantastic and showed great teamwork. The running team did a very good job and managed to cover the distance in a good time today!! The team will now have to re-evaluate the running program for the next few days as the run will be tougher (gentle inclines!!!) and we need to careful of the heat.

During the run the local Red Cross volunteers provided first aid training sessions and awareness on road safety at the various trading centres. After the run and a brief rest the team joined the Iganga branch of the Red Cross and their first aid/ road safety awareness with officials and community members.

After the offical duties for the day we visited the orphanage run by the sisiters in Iganga. It was lovely to catch up with some old friends and meet some new little friends!! The children loved the footballs we gave them and could wait to show us around their gardens... It was a great end to the day and now we need to get some rest as tomorrow will be a long tough run!!!!

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