Day 5 - 25/06/2009

After a restful night in Lugazi we will begin the day with some tea and Lugazi sugar to get us through a warm run to Seta.
From Lugazi we pass through Namagunga, Namataba, Mbalaala before arriving at Mukono (the gateway to Eastern Uganda). After a welcome break in Mukono we will continue to Seta and to reduce the amount of kilometers we need to run on the final day... As we leave Mukono we pass the famous drum makers and hope they are willing to play a few rythams to encourage us on our way.
Once we arrive at Seta, we will retrace our steps in the jeep to Mukono for accommodation and the local Red Cross fundraising activities..

News update:

The day started with a lie in untill 5.30am and then a quick drive to Lugazi to begin day five of the run. Patrick (BFC for Mukono) had arranged lots of first aid and road safety training session on the entire route today. Even though we couldn't stop at all 16 venues, we did our best to greet the community and say thank you for all their interest and support.

In Africa Uganda is the second worst country for road deaths and it is humbling that we can support the local teams to try and save lives. The local volunteers had positioned themselves next to the trading centres and local hot spots for road accidents and began the awareness sessions. We have supported these activities to take place and the volunteers are amazing!!!

One of the local runners asked the team why they enjoyed Uganda so much... The reply was simple "the people are so friendly, welcoming and want to help others so much"..

On todays run we had many new runners join the team on the route up to Seta. As we ran through the hills we greeted the local commuities, shook hands with the children and even ran to the local tea seller at the plantation to buy some tea leaves without even breaking a stride!!!

It is hard to understand what a difference we have made to the communities but we were told later that all the local villagers came to the trading centre to get advice and hear about the run!! One of the first aid trainers added that he had reached over 150 people today and it has had a massive impact on communities that really need the support.

The run was great fun today and most of the team didn't want to stop!!! At one point someone shouted "don't run all the way to Entebbe today... but maybe tomorrow"!!! The runners continued through Mukono and then ran up to the Coco cola factory before stopping for the day. As we drank our water sat on a rock, we looked at kampala ahead of ourself and in the distance the Mandela stadium and tomorrows run!!!

Later we attended an awareness session at Mukono branch that included road safety awareness by the police, presentation of first aid certificates and discussions with the community. At the event it was highlighted that we had reached over 8000 people in first aid & road safety. We were also told that one of our supporters Moonberg had been so impressed with our efforts that they had decided to donate the profits of their events for a month to the Red Cross for more trainings.

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