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:

HALF TERM!

So the blog has been left to me this time after a very full half term in which the best intentions to produce a joint blog were overtaken by the time warp that is holiday time.  As I wait to get my taxi to Entebbe airport to return to Juba, there's just time to put some photos up to give you a glimpse of a great week exploring some of Eastern Uganda.   This is the first time that I've been let loose on the blog and it's a little awkward to operate.  So please forgive the clumsy formatting and the time it's taken to download the myriad pictures.

Rather than give you a blow by blow chronological account of our trip to Kalagala Falls, Jinja and Sipi Falls (Mount Elgon), here are some snaps to give you an overall impression of a fantastic week in some lovely lodges (the first of which was very very luxurious!):

24 hours at Wild Waters Lodge (we didn't get to keep the bath robes!)

All of them had amazing views:

Our Banda at Nile Porch Hotel

Lacam Lodge on the cliff top at Sipi Falls

We managed to enjoy lots of good food and drink in some spectacular settings:

Gin and Tonic as a storm approaches at Wild Waters Lodge

Breakfast at Lacam Lodge

We enjoyed walking, kayaking and chilling:

And seeing lots of wildlife:

We followed the story of coffee making:

Left to right, top to bottom: growing, pulping, drying, dehusking, roasting, grinding

And of course enjoyed the results of our hard work:

The Landcruiser had a great trip on some very good roads and some very poor ones:

We had a very warm welcome from Hans-Dieter and Inge at the Galilee Prayer Mountain when we called in on our way home - this was where Ian's Ugandan adventure began when he went to the AMCF East African Prayer Conference there in April.  

Finally we returned in time to attend the Poppy Ball organised by the British High Commission at the Kampala Sheraton raising money for both the Royal British Legion and the Ugandan Ex Servicemen's League.

Church on Sunday and catching up with friends was a great end to a wonderful week.  We are now fully recharged and ready for work!

Ian will be back with a slicker blog in a fortnight's time (school reports will prevent an earlier episode!).