Saturday 31 October 2009

Patrick's Guest House

Ok, I know it has a real name, like Bridge Africa Guest House, but Patrick runs it, and to us it is Patrick's Guest House. First of all, Patrick runs more than one guest house, apparently. But we stayed at the one where anyone adopting an child or traveling in a very small group might stay. It was a three bedroom, two bath home. There is one room with a private, attached bath, and two rooms that share a bath in the hallway. The shared bathroom has a shower, while the private bath has a tub with a handle attachment that you can spray over yourself while you sit in the tub. Both bathrooms have hot water- glorious. Trust me, you want to have hot water. You will be covered in red dirt or red mud (depending on the season) so having a place to shower is oh so important.

The guest house also has a shared living/dining room, a kitchen, a nice front porch, a back patio, and a good piece of lawn. The extra space was invaluable when attempting to entertain an active little one. Tommy loved playing on the patio or in the yard, and Alfred was even kind enough to lend us a wash basin for a pool. On rainy days the extra living space inside made a huge difference, and we also enjoyed having a TV with a DVD player to watch a movie now and then. Having a kitchen (oven, stovetop, toaster, coffee pot, and refrigerator- no microwave) saved us a great deal of money because we could cook our own meals if we were around, and that was especially nice because we could make "American" food the way we liked it.

We cannot say enough about Alfred, the caretaker of the guest house. He is an incredible man who loves the Lord and has a servant's heart. He never once complained about the HUGE messes Tommy made on the tablecloths or the floor. He did mountains of dishes and laundry, and even taught me the basics of Ugandan cooking. He and the other guys who work around the house were eager to talk about Ugandan culture and to direct us on the important things to teach Tommy.

The guest house is outside of the city center, which means you will spend more time driving, but you will also be away from the worst of the heat and smog. The air quality in Uganda is poor because there are no exhaust standards for the vehicles and because everyone burns their trash. You can't escape the smoke from trash anywhere, but the guest house is situated on a hill that gets a nice breeze so the air is much cleaner there than in the city center. You will not need to be in the city everyday, and the guest house is a really pleasant place to spend your downtime. Also, it is quite close to the American embassy, and you will be spending plenty of time there.

We paid $25 a night per adult (so $50 a night), and had the large front bedroom with the attached bath. The rate included breakfast. We paid Alfred to do our laundry each week, but it was very reasonable. We also tipped him for all his hard work keeping the house and our room/bathroom clean, so you would want to plan on taking some extra money for that too.

Patrick also had vans and a car available for rent. If you can, ask for Eddie to drive you. He really knows where he is going and he hates traffic. You will not be late for court with Eddie. We had more than one driver while we were there because Eddie had to do some long distance driving, and they were all fine, but Eddie was the best.

When, God willing, we return to Uganda, we will want to stay there again...hopefully it won't be all booked up!

Contact info: http://bridgeafricainternational.org/services.html

We included a few pictures of the guest house in an earlier post.

2 comments:

Emily said...

you're going to convince people to book up Patrick's guest house before Alexis and I can nail it down!!! :)

jena said...

I am in full agreement! We too enjoyed each and every day of our 6 week stay at Patrick's guest house. Alfred, David and Amos were wonderful! It made the stress of the experience so much better. All four men will drop whatever they are doing and pray for you. There were many days where we got discouraged. We needed these wonderful men to point us back to His faithfulness!