During the twenty-one years I’ve been living in Uganda and Rwanda I cannot recall that I’ve said anything bad about the local people. Moreover, I’ve never tried to hide my fascination with their customs and the dedication and love with which I was greeted and followed by my parishioners in the realization of numerous projects.

Uganda and Rwanda became my other homeland. And I tried hard to show the most beautiful parts of the region, which was dubbed “The Pearl of Africa” by Winston Churchill in his time, to everyone who would come to visit me from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Germany, Sweden or France.

However, several weeks ago I was greatly disappointed. And it was in the Kisoro Tourist Hotel which I have visited quite often when passing through Kisoro at the junction of the borderlines of Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo. Theft as theft is not a big deal – or so I thought in the beginning and kept silent. But the headache increased with daily reports from the hotel about their suspicions that the perpetrator had been one of their employees. At the same time they kept promising a swift solution of the problem, a punishment for the thief, and the return of stolen documents and some cash that had been taken.

I rang the hotel management every day, and they also rang me. They told me that the thief would probably keep the cash and throw away the documents from the wallet, so that they would probably be able to find them near the hotel. And once again – nothing. No news to me. The documents were gone for good. I asked around a bit and I found out that, unfortunately, theft in the Kisoro Tourist Hotel is commonplace.

The one thing I can do is to write this – to let you know about the theft and to warn all those who find themselves in Uganda not to stay in the Kisoro Tourist Hotel in Kisoro. I personally am very certain that I will never again set foot in there, because I don’t want my dear friends who come to visit me to experience anything similar and leave Uganda and Rwanda with bad memories.

Translated by Branimir Mlakić
Edited by Valerie Kae Ken