THE CHRISTMAS SAFARI

Well, this has been a while in coming I know, but it has taken some doing, reducing over 700 photographs to a few chosen ones to illustrate our grand tour of several of the most stunning game parks in Uganda.  We started in a small, but superb, park at Lake Mburo, then made our way via the gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, the tree-climbing lions in Ishasha, many elephants and a more grounded pride of lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, chimp tracking in Kibale Forest, crocodiles and hippos and an amazing leopard sighting at Murchison Falls, and finally ending with a slightly nerve racking close encounter with a family of white rhino at the Ziwa reserve, returning home to Kampala late on Christmas Eve.   We have both agreed to let the pictures tell their own story; they are not in any particular order, but I have tried to group them so they make some sort of sense.  Remember, you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them to get the best from them ...

Sunrise over Kasenyi plains; plus two examples of our 'spartan' safari accommodation.

Clockwise from top left: Topi; Jackson's hartebeest; Waterbuck with calf; another Waterbuck;
Uganda kob; Impala.

The highlight of the trip - the gorillas.  We were briefed that we were to stay at least 7m away from any animal
at all times - fortunately our family didn't seem to have received the same briefing!

We observed a family of six, all of whom seemed more interested in their lunch than in us.
We were very privileged to spend an hour in their company, taking some great pictures.

The unusual tree-climbing lions of Ishasha didn't disappoint.
No one seems to know why they do it, but they looked amazing!

We nearly ran into one elephant on one of the safari tracks, literally, as the top two pictures show.
The others we saw from the relative safety of a boat on the Kazinga Channel.

We think it was an immature bataleur eagle that we saw; but we are pretty
certain of: a woodland kingfisher; a saddle billed stork; a spotted thicknee; two grey crowned cranes.

The Chimpanzee Guest House didn't have any primates resident but was very comfortable and had
great views over tea plantations.Chimp tracking in the nearby Kibale rain forest was a proper adventure.
We only saw one chimpanzee who gave us the slip after an exciting chase on foot through primary jungle.
On the way back we discovered why the rain forest is so called.

The Rothschild giraffe were a little camera shy but the zebra made up for it.

We stopped over in the town of Masindi on our way to Murchison Falls.
As it happened the President called in on the same day - the local cattle were unimpressed.

Murchison Falls, where the Nile drops down the escarpment of the Western Rift Valley.

We saw lots of hippo from our 2 boat trips and were lucky to see one on land in Lake Mburo.

Viewing from the river was a great way to spot elephant, hippo, buffalo and at least one very large Nile crocodile.

Buffalo (one of the big five) abounded.  The one in the river didn't seem to mind sharing his wallow with a croc.

More birds: a yellow billed ox-pecker; the huge, ubiquitous marabou stork; a brown snake eagle.
However, despite much searching with the help of our guide, Jimmy, no sign of the shy shoebill.

The most adventurous day of all - tracking a leopard cross-country in the Landcruiser.  Sadly because of the all
the bumping around the only picture Ronnie managed to get is in the top left (you can see a leopard there if
you really look hard!).  Unfortunately the adventure ended abruptly when Ian grounded Lucy with all 4 wheels
almost in the air (bottom left).  The photo on the right shows Ronnie and our guide waiting to be rescued - I think she
may be wondering if things might have turned out better if the photographer and driver had swapped roles that day!

Some random photos: Relaxing after our river trip along the Kazinga Channel; Ronnie discussing the merits
of various deployment options with a local Ugandan soldier (the DRC border in Queen Elizabeth National Park
versus Somalia for example!); an extremely long example of a giant amphibian, the monitor lizard.

Sadly there are no rhinos left in the wild in Uganda any more as they were all poached to extinction a while ago.
However, they are being successfully re-introduced in a 70 sq Km reserve in Ziwa which we called into for
some rhino tracking on the way home.  We were amazed how close we were able to get to a family of 3
- closer than we were comfortable with at times if the truth be told!

A random selection of photos that couldn't be missed out.  The satnav records the exact moment we cross the
equator; school children getting off the cross-Nile ferry clearly getting into the Christmas spirit; Bajja may
not be spelled in the usual way, but Mark couldn't miss the photo opportunity; a superb caterpillar at our last
safari lodge - no idea which moth it belongs to, any ideas welcome.

And finally ... of course the statutory badger photos.  Only the 3 came with us - Exodus, Levi and Mark.

The day after we got back to Kampala we enjoyed a characteristically enthusiastic Christmas service at All Saints Cathedral in the morning and a barbecue with school colleagues and their families in the afternoon.  We were relaxing after an intensive 10 days behind the camera lens so didn't manage to get any good pictures of either event!  Below is the best we could manage (it is of the barbecue not the service).

Our thoughts now turn to work after a holiday of a lifetime.  We are looking forward to the challenges of the year ahead and wish you all a happy and fruitful new year too.

THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS OF TERM

Well, the title should pretty much tell you all you need to know about this particular blog - it is school-based, and it covers the run up to the end of the term.  An end of term that was same as ends of terms all around the world - that is to say, crammed with assemblies, concerts and Christmas parties.  The picture on the left shows me in my last day of term get up - certainly cooler and more relaxing than my usual collar and tie.

The Friday of the week before the end of term was taken up with 'Parent-Teacher Conferences' - what would be known elsewhere as parents' evening but this time, refreshingly, held during the day.  It was a good way to see parents, especially as Year 5 had held their 'fly-on-the-wall' assembly the day before in which we gave a rarely seen glimpse of what really goes on in our classroom.  It involved a recital of The Highwayman, video clips from lessons, students impersonating Mr Ian taking badger maths, live sandwich making and a music and dance version of the water-cycle.  As the parents loved the assembly they seemed more inclined to be positive and complimentary in the meetings the next day.  A risky strategy I admit, but one I got away with!  As I was heavily involved in technical support I didn't get much of a chance to take photos, but here are a few taken in the run up to the performance.

Some of the girls relax before the big production

The boys are more intense

Rohit and Sammy warm up - and Pauline just poses

Smartly dressed parents, herds of reindeer, smouldering children
and slightly squeaky recorders - could be a primary school carol concern
anywhere in the world!

Other events of note have been the GEMS Christmas Carol Concert and the whole school disco.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that, since we are a UK-focused international school, everything to do with Christmas should mirror what happens in UK - but I am!  In fact, it is not just at school, but also at church and in the community in general.  As we swelter away in 30 degrees of sticky heat, everywhere you look are gaudily decorated fir trees, heavily robed Father Christmases and snow flakes galore.  The only thing that seems to differ is that almost without exception every child at school, when presented with a specially obtained Christmas cracker on their plate, picked it up by one end and stared quizzically at it.  None of them had seen a cracker before and they hadn't a clue what to do with it - one Christmas tradition that clearly hasn't made it out to Uganda!

Year 5 are ready to go for the GEMS school disco.  The children enjoy the dancing
whilst the staff get stuck into the pizza - before heading off down to our
local bar for a few cold beers and karaoke afterwards!

I have two unrelated and random non-school based stories to relate before I close.  The first is to tell you of snail day.  Last week, after a very heavy thunderstorm the night before, I came out to find the most enormous snail residing on the wing of the Landcruiser.  After a quick chat, during which I suggested that if he (??) wanted to stay safe now would be a good time to get off, I set off for the short, but very bumpy trip to school.  When I got there he was still firmly attached.  I then stepped out into the car park to be greeted by his older, and even bigger, brother.  I rushed inside to tell the support staff the exciting news that I had just found a monster snail and several came out to look - only to snort in disgust and to tell me that my snail was a tiddler compared to a proper Ugandan snail!  

The big Yin!

I have not seen another snail before or since that day, but just so you can judge for yourself I have enclosed a picture of the big chap next to my mobile phone! 

The second story is a little more bizarre and cannot be related here in its entirety, however, it is worth telling as it helps to give some colour to my picture of life in Kampala. As regular readers will know I live in a fairly large, fairly luxurious apartment within a larger condominium in Luzira, a small outer suburb of Kampala.  The area is 'up and coming' but, as with most of Kampala, smart housing is mixed in with some areas of extreme poverty.  This means that security is an issue and we have armed guards on the compound at night.  Now, when I say guards, that depends if you consider poorly paid, badly trained personnel whose main duty seems to be to sleep all night to be guards!  We had a break-in to the flat above mine within a week of my arrival, and then earlier this week we had another, more worrying incident.  I was woken at 4am to the sound of shouting and got up to discover that several flats, including the one above mine again, had been burgled but that the intruders had been disturbed by one tenant who had got a 9mm pistol and loosed off a shot at him.  A mob soon formed and started searching the area.  When they discovered a young lad about 18, (whom I had taken to church with me the Sunday before) was flat-sitting the apartment opposite mine they decided he must be to blame.  He was dragged out onto the grass and at one point had the loaded pistol put to his head. I genuinely thought they were going to shoot him!  It took a lot of shouting and gesticulation to persuade them to hand him over to the police without a beating or worse.  Fortunately he was released the following day, but it just goes to show how mob rule is still very prevalent here.  I guess I should finish this off by saying that I visited him twice in the local lock up whilst he was being interrogated and he was treated very well by the police, who seemed to be conducting their enquiries very professionally throughout.

So, as this goes to press, Ronnie is here in Kampala and we are preparing to hit the road for our 10 day, 1500 Km safari extravaganza, returning on Christmas Eve.  Lucy has been fully serviced and is raring to go - so please pray that she makes it all the way without any mishaps.  When we get back we should have plenty of exciting photos and stories of tree climbing lions, amazing gorillas, cute chimps etc etc.  That should be a blog worth reading.  In the meantime I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and get a chance to unwind.

RANDOM SELECTION

The more astute of you may have noticed that the star of this week's blog is neither Ronnie, nor myself.  That is because I have been so busy rushing around organising field trips and writing reports that I have completely forgotten to take any photos for the blog!  I suddenly realised this as I sat down to write it this evening.  So I have trawled all of my memory cards and school folders and managed to find a ragbag of pictures around which to construct this particular blog - and I felt that Tino should have the place of honour.

A visitor to my garden
(no idea precisely what he is!)

Sunset over Kampala from the top flat (not mine sadly -
I am on the ground floor and can only see the wall of the next door block)

Life at school is tough for me at the moment for a variety of reasons, but contrary to what I originally anticipated, very little of that is to do with my class whom I am really enjoying teaching.  As for the rest ... well best left unsaid in a blog such as this.  Suffice to say that the people who are making this time enjoyable for me are the locals that I meet (and most of my British teaching colleagues well).

Doing some science with my class (Sun, Moon and Earth)

So what can I share with you which might interest such a varied set of discerning readers?  How about the fun that was taking my class to the Entebbe Meteorological Station as part of our Weather and Climate study?  Our guide was a retired meteorologist who takes the schools' visits.  He was very keen, but unfortunately was a soldier under Idi Amin and had been shot in the jaw fighting the Tanzanians, leaving him with only 10 teeth - which made him a little hard to understand.  He told us that the Army had sent him to Russia for a year to train as a meteorologist, but when he got there they discovered he couldn't speak Russian so he had to stay for 5 five years until he learned enough to complete the course.  When he got back Amin had been deposed and the people who met him told him that they were worried that he might be badly treated as he had been part of the old regime, so they kept him in a safe place - a jail.  After a year and a half they let him out at which point he started working as a meteorologist at Entebbe!

The girls stick together as usual

The dentally-challenged meteorologist at work

The other vaguely exciting event was my first foray back onto a golf course in 7 years last weekend.  I was persuaded by a colleague to go up to Jinja and have a 'lads' night out' followed by a game of golf at the Jinja Club.  I actually surprised myself that I could still hit a ball in a straight line and, since I was still walking upright the next day, I think I might venture out again occasionally. The course is only 9 holes, but it is quite long and very well kept.  The fact that my caddy played off single figures and kept handing me ridiculous clubs for the distance I was supposed hit the ball was a little embarrassing, but we got used to one another by the end of the round.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the course was full of wildlife - and you can actually see the official source of the Nile from one of the tees!  Sadly I forgot to take my camera and was soundly ticked off by Ronnie that evening when we spoke.  So I went out the next morning before I drove back to Kampala to try to get some shots. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse and a massive thunderstorm was just starting.  I got a couple of photos just before it closed in, but not surprisingly they are pretty poor given the near darkness. 

A stork pottering along the fairway

Jinja Clubhouse

I also discovered that Jinja was the centre of the King's African Rifles in Uganda, before and just after WW2, and there is a very interesting Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery there.  However, the rain was chucking it down by then and I had to run for the car.  The drive back to Kampala took me under two hours - easily the quickest I have ever done it.  That was mainly because there was no other traffic on the road, or at least I don't think there was - I couldn't actually see more than about 5 yards!

The gates to the CWGC Cemetery at Jinja

An interesting headstone

The next two weeks will rush by I suspect as we go through all the usual pre-Christmas stuff at school and I spend the rest of the time getting ready for our grand safari trip that we are making over the break.  It includes tracking gorillas in the only place in the world that it is possible to do that, so it should be quite exciting.  Lucy has been fully serviced and is excited about the trip as we are.  No decision has yet been taken about which badgers will be coming.  The next blog will probably be the weekend before we depart so it can be a joint one.  There's something to look forward to!  And so to bed ...

DAY TO DAY LIFE

Now the last blog entry had a picture of me and was written by Ronnie, so this time I thought it was only right that as I was writing it it Ronnie should star as the opening photo.  This is actually a picture of her at the British Embassy Juba's Remembrance service which she organised last week.  


Obviously I wasn't there, but I gather it was well attended and the Archbishop of Juba was present.  

That is all I am allowed to  publish for security reasons, but for those of you who want to know more then you will have to follow UK Embassy South Sudan on Twitter where I gather all can be revealed.  If I am sounding a little less than than fully enthusiastic about the Foreign Office security system and their set up then that is only because they have decided that it is too much of a security risk to allow me to stay in the Embassy compound over Christmas whilst Ronnie is on duty - apparently the risk (to them presumably) is acceptable if I stay in a hotel down town, but not in the compound itself.  I make no further comment, other than to say that they are professionals in this business and must clearly know what they are talking about - whatever you or I might think.  So now I am looking for worthwhile things to occupy my me over the Christmas period whilst in Kampala on my own.  Not surprisingly, I have a sneaky suspicion that  something will turn up!

I am sorry that it has been a couple of weeks since the last blog, but life has been exceptionally busy and I suspect that my posts may become fortnightly now by default.  Most of the the last two weeks have been wrapped up in teaching, planning, marking and report writing.  However, on Friday we had a staff training day which meant that I was able to get away on time and attend a 4pm service at the Cathedral for the 25th wedding anniversary of the Reverends Diana and Solomon Nkesiga.  She is the 'vicar' of All Saints' Cathedral which, as far as I can see, is like the Dean in UK. By an extraordinary coincidence both Diana and Solomon were great friends of two very special people who were members of our homegroup in Stafford and I have been trying to catch up with them ever since I arrived.  The problem with All Saints is that it is so big that there is never any opportunity to meet with fellow worshippers after the service, let alone the clergy.  So I thought that I would attend the service in the hope of getting to speak to Diana properly.  In the end I still only managed a brief talk as they were like a wedding couple in the middle of their marriage and everyone wanted to speak with them.  However, I did get to meet a lot more of my fellow parishioners and to make a few more friends in the church.  Below are a few photos from the event.

As with everything at All Saints there was a queue. There had been several weddings taking place during the day and this one was still in progress when I arrived.










The ceremony was conducted by retired Bishop Eliaphaaz Maari, who as an ordinary vicar, had married them 25 years before.

Afterwards there was a 'cocktail' which seems to be Uganda speak for a party - only this time with tea and soda, not gin and vodka!

So, all in all, a great time, only marred from my perspective by spending nearly an hour stuck in traffic in central Kampala trying to get home.  For me, the highlight of the evening was getting to know the bass player in the band well enough to lend him a white shirt for a formal function on Sunday.  Now I feel I am really part of the church!

If you want to get a real feel for the ceremony, click on the picture below and see the happy couple leaving the Cathedral: