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 ...