JUBA AT LAST

So, I guess the title gives it away - I finally made it to Juba after all.  It was just less than two years ago that Ronnie and I started our planning for the posting to Juba, and just over one year ago when we finally reconciled ourselves to the fact that she would be going unaccompanied.  Pretty much ever since then I have been planning ways to get to South Sudan, but nothing about this was easy.  To start with I am not actually allowed to visit my wife in Juba as in its infinite wisdom the FCO will not permit any member of staff to have a visit by a spouse whilst the post remains unaccompanied.  

My very smart, but extremely hard to obtain, visa.

This made even getting a visa tricky as you have to have a letter of invitation from someone in South Sudan to obtain one. Fortunately I remembered that sometime ago, when it was thought that I would be going anyway, someone I knew through the Military Missions International charity, Richard Dean, had asked if I would be prepared to visit a secondary school in Juba.  Richard chairs a team from Salisbury Diocese in UK who sponsor the school and they wanted me to carry out an investigation into how they could start to teach ICT there.  When I emailed Richard and asked if they would still like me to go he was delighted. It was agreed that he would get me a letter of invitation from Juba Diocese and I would sort out travel and  accommodation. Although I couldn't stay with Ronnie, I thought I would at least be able to spend some time with her during the day.  She sorted me some accommodation in the CCC guest house - a children's charity she works with.  
Even so, the mechanics of getting the visa involved several trips to the South Sudanese embassy in Kampala, during school time, and it was only through Ronnie's help whilst she was here for a week, and the forbearance and generosity of my colleagues at school, that I finally managed to get everything in place just before I was due to go.

I think Habs was pleased
to discover the gorilla was
on a different flight from us.

The trip started very early last Saturday morning my flight was due to depart from Entebbe at 0830 and I need to be there 2 hours before.  Given the traffic on the notorious Kampala-Entebbe road I booked Peter the taxi driver to collect Habakkuk and myself at 5am.  Inevitably the road was free of jams and accidents and we arrived at the airport just before 6am!  Still it allowed me to have a coffee and watch some world cup cricket in the departure lounge (that is the last time that particular sporting competition will be mentioned in this blog).  Whilst I was enjoying the rest (and coincidentally meeting one of my students and his parents who were travelling to Cape Town for half-term) Habs was making friends elsewhere!  The flight with Rwandair left on time and less than an hour later I was getting out at a very much more chaotic terminal in Juba than the orderly one I had left in Uganda.  In fact one thing that this whole trip has done for me is made me very much more appreciative of just how relatively well-organised Uganda actually is, and also how friendly and helpful the people are.  Whilst I would not say that the South Sudanese are particularly unfriendly or unhelpful, the fact is that there is a very different atmosphere there which makes you feel much more uncomfortable the whole time.  That is probably inevitable given all that they have put up with for the last 30 plus years, but it is true nonetheless.  Two other things that struck me as I landed in Juba were the difference in temperature - it is several degrees hotter and stickier, and therefore browner - and how low-rise it is.  It has a real frontier town look about it.

After the inevitable delays, including the somewhat random and haphazard Ebola check, I was met outside the terminal building by Ronnie and swept off in her armoured Land Cruiser.  This is a very cumbersome beast that is full of an extraordinary array of communications gear (some of which actually worked she assured me) and includes two buttons that I was dying to press the whole time I was there.  One was entitled 'siren' and the other operated the public address system with which you could communicate with the outside world beyond the bulletproof glass!  Knowing my inclination towards 'naughty' behaviour I was strictly forbidden from touching anything vaguely interesting.  In fact as we rumbled around town and after I had nearly wrenched a shoulder muscle for the umpteenth time trying to close the world's heaviest door, I was really beginning to miss Lucy's powerful, yet responsive touch.  

Ronnie at the controls of her heavyweight 'AV'

The plan for the day all revolved around preparing for a joint house-warming BBQ being hosted that evening by Ronnie and her next door neighbour Rich, the deputy head of mission.  They have both only recently moved from their old accommodation in the UK plot elsewhere in town, to new houses in the compound housing the Canadian and Dutch embassies.  In fact her house is actually owned by the Dutch, which in general makes little difference to anything - although I did scratch my head a little later in the week when I discovered both the microwave and the washing machine issued their instructions in Dutch!  So our first stop was to collect Rich and then head off to what appeared to be about six different markets (including one which was actually just a giant rubbish heap as far as I could see) in search of beer, meat, veg and bread.  I can only imagine that life in Juba is such that shopping is an entertainment in its own right, to be enjoyed and drawn out for as long as possible, as I was fairly convinced that we could have obtained all we required in a single stop - but heh ho, it was a good way to see town, driving backwards and forwards across it in search of the perfect green bean.

The first of many stalls which were rejected

Ronnie and Rich begin the shopping quest.  That is Rich in the striped
shirt - I know he looks like a teenager back on holiday from boarding
school, but I was assured that he really is the deputy head of mission.

Good - but not good enough apparently

Ah, at last an item of veg is deemed to
have passed the test and money changes hands -
a whole South Sudanese pound I think (about 20p)

Pleasing to see that the butchery in Juba is keeping its
meat fresh - just need to work on the spelling now

The chicken on this stall was definitely fresh
- but didn't seem too keen to come to the BBQ!

Oops, it is Tuesday and I have just remembered that I started this blog at the weekend but for got to finish it!  I am desperately busy right now so I think the thing to do is publish where I have got to and put out Part II next weekend. See you again soon ...

LEVI ON LEAVE

Finally a badger (the silent and repressed majority in the Westerman household) has been given the keyboard for a Uganda blog.  I’m normally resident on the desk of the British Defence Attaché in Juba but this week I’ve been enjoying some R&R in Kampala.  The change of scene has been most refreshing but I haven’t just had my paws up all week – I’ve been taking advantage of the freedom of movement that is denied me in Juba and enjoying spending time with some of Ian’s friends too.  I managed to get a few photos along the way although sadly Ronnie wasn’t switched on enough to think of taking pictures everywhere I went – simply not blog savvy.  

After another busy week in Juba we left Amule in the office and packed our bags to catch the evening Rwandair flight to Entebbe – it was absolutely packed as there are many Ugandans and other internationals and even some South Sudanese who weekly commute on this 50 minute flight.  The views over the city and the Nile make Juba look more orderly than it is at ground level!

Ian’s focus has been on the school inspection and he had to work particularly hard at the beginning of the week.  All seemed to go well and in the end he was a little disappointed to only get visited for 10 minutes or so by the visiting team.  But you hear about his exploits every fortnight, instead here’s what I've been up to (note change of sweater when I arrived in Kampala – the sand coloured one is uniform):

Ronnie has enjoyed the quality of the Bible teaching and the fervour of the corporate worship at All Saints Kampala – they took me along this week but I didn't hear much as I was stuffed in Ian’s bag for most of the time.   It seems to be a place that inspires and equips people to live authentic Christian lives despite hard circumstances.  There is a striking acknowledgement of God’s consistent goodness and provision that we seem to have forgotten in our self-sufficient western setting.

In Juba Ronnie and I aren't allowed to go on foot for more than 600m from our compounds.  So this week we went for a couple of little jogs which was great (although neither of us did very well as we haven’t been for a run for so long).  It’s about 8-10 degrees Celsius cooler here in Kampala but we still got pretty warm!  Just a short distance from Ian’s apartment, the views over Murchison Bay are lovely.  Ronnie also enjoyed joining Ian for the GEMS staff badminton club one evening but I didn't join in as they didn't have a racquet my size.

We dropped Ian off at school each day (at 0710) and then ran a few errands – topping up the internet, changing money, shopping for exciting ingredients that you can’t get in Juba, taking Ian to the South Sudanese Embassy to apply for a visa (more on that next blog (all being well)),  and doing some cooking.  It was good to be able to keep in touch with what’s going on in South Sudan with a bit of gentle work and I helped Ronnie with a couple of reports that were due this week.  We also enjoyed catching up on some reading, doing some mental reasoning (thanks E&S) and watching England get thrashed at cricket (okay so that last bit was less enjoyable but at least we won’t have our hopes up for the World Cup).

Ian’s colleagues were very welcoming and sociable (in my experience primary school teachers are usually pretty badger friendly) and it was fun to join them for on Ian’s birthday after work and for a quiz night.  We also enjoyed having a mini supper party with some other friends (goat stew followed by lemon tart).

I would have gladly joined the GEMS staff for their delayed staff Christmas do which was seeing a performance of Hamlet by the Globe Theatre Company.  Sadly they didn't include me on that but Ronnie was allowed to go.  I understand that it was a somewhat chaotic but very enjoyable performance outside Uganda’s National Theatre.  The Company is trying to perform their (thankfully pared down) production of Hamlet in every nation of the world over 2 years (see http://globetoglobe.shakespearesglobe.com/hamlet/about-the-project ).  I probably won’t get to see it as the tour dates for South Sudan have yet to be announced…  Apparently the project ‘was created with the aim of performing Hamlet to as many people as possible, in as diverse a range of places as possible. The central principle of the tour is that Shakespeare can entertain and speak to anyone, no matter where they are on earth; and that no country or people are not better off for the lively presence of Hamlet.’  The large audience in Kampala was about 95% expat so I'm not sure that the aim was achieved in this case but it was a good night out!

Food has dominated I&R’s week (as it often does) and they enjoyed a birthday curry, a birthday Italian and a birthday brunch out.  Ronnie and I also had to keep our energy levels up with breakfast out one morning.  

On our journeys about town it was good to see that Chad has entered into the entrepreneurial spirit of East Africa.  We knew that the reports of him settling down to bucolic life in Staffordshire were far fetched.

So I’m ready to change my sweater and engage with the challenges of Juba once again – lots of prayers required for that country please where lack of political compromise continues to make the lives of many thousands of people dangerous and miserable.  Low oil prices also mean that the economy is in very serious trouble which is only making life worse for ordinary people.  High level peace talks start again on 19^th February but it’s at the community level too that peace talks are required and a great deal more mutual trust and understanding.  At least it doesn’t rain so much in Juba (I thought that this was one of Uganda’s dry seasons).