BACK TO THE FUTURE

Strangely, although two extremely busy weeks have passed since the last blog, for once I really don't have anything that I feel is worth sharing with you.  The 'busy-ness' has all been the usual new term stuff at school for me, and sadly rather depressing, but routine, South Sudan stuff for Ronnie.  There have been no major photogenic records to share, no amusing anecdotes to recall and no earth-shattering events to publish.  Of course I do have Kathy's request for more on Archie the cat, and I promise that I will endeavour to meet this at some time in the not too distant future, but just for the moment she has disappeared and is not available for interviews (the second dose of her worming tablet is due today and she is quite a smart cat so that may explain why I haven't seen hide nor hair of her for the last 24 hours!

So, in the absence of any great pictures, I thought I would take this opportunity instead to go public with our plans for the future. Of course I know that some of you are fully in the picture already and if that applies, well quite frankly you can return to surfing the web for more interesting news elsewhere.  Also there may be quite a few readers (I don't who I am kidding, I am well aware that I don't pull in a particularly wide readership these days) who are only here for the light entertainment value and they may also want to go back to whatever is playing on Radio 2.  However, for everyone else  I will tell you what is happening in our lives at the moment.

You may know that Ronnie was selected for promotion to Colonel just before we came out to Africa, but as with all these things in the Army, that didn't mean that it was ever going to happen straight away. In fact to ensure that her posting to South Sudan didn't get cancelled, and that all our plans for a final great African adventure didn't get scuppered, she asked to delay it and spend at least a year in Juba.  This meant that when we left UK last summer we really didn't know what would be coming next.  A little while ago now, however, we discovered that, much to our surprise, one of the top postings that Ronnie had asked to be considered for on promotion was being offered to her.  Now because of the nature of the way that these things are (they have to be agreed by umpteen boards, and then security clearances have to take place etc) we still can't make a definitive announcement of the actual job. However, what I can say is that before she takes up the post she has to undertake a year's full time course in Hebrew at the Defence School of Languages in Shrivenham.  You can use your imagination to fill in the blanks.

  So where does that leave me you may ask?  Well, in theory it leaves me here in Kampala finishing off the second year of my contract, before joining Ronnie in the summer of 2016 for three years of sun, shekels and shalom in that particular corner of the world that requires her unique talents.  Or at least it could do, unless I choose to give my notice in after a year. Now I have thought long and hard about this as I really do love living here in Uganda and I am not keen to leave in a hurry.  However, although the separation whilst Ronnie has been in Juba has been difficult, but tolerable with her getting to Kampala every couple of months or so, neither of us really want a year on separate continents.  So in the end I have made the decision to leave GEMS, and Uganda, at the end of this term - but, rather than see it as a disappointment, I have decided to seize it as an opportunity for something new.  I have successfully applied for a place at the Cranfield University, School of Defence and Security to read for a PhD back in my previous field of international relations. My primary research question will be "Could elements of the way in which Israel has organised its civil-military relations be usefully employed in post-conflict states undergoing Security Sector Reform?"  - (okay, well it interests me even if I can hear several of you yawning from here).    The real beauty of this plan is that the School of Defence and Security is also at Shrivenham, where Ronnie will be studying her language course, and they have agreed that I need only work out of the university for the first year, and then conduct the remainder of my research based abroad.  The down side of this is that it may well mean that my brief, but dazzling, career in education is about to come to an end.  

I am genuinely sad about this as I have loved being a primary school teacher for the last five years and will miss it hugely (well, most of it anyway; those of you who are, or have been teachers will know the bits I won't miss - and they are nothing to do with children!).  However, the prospect of spending a year doing some temporary job in England before then having to work in another international school abroad just didn't fill me with enthusiasm.  On the other hand, becoming a long-haired, chilled out, laid back research student for three years did!  In addition my time at Cambridge researching and writing my dissertation on civil-military relations in Afghanistan and Vietnam was one of the best periods of my time in the Army, and this new subject interests me even more.  Now, I do realise that I may need people to remind me of this when I am in the depths of despair, staring out across the Mediterranean wondering how on earth I am going to finish an 80,000 word doctoral thesis in a couple of years' time, but hopefully it will be worth it.

  So, there you go, very few pictures, nothing about Archie the cat (apart from a brief mention of worming) and rather too much text in proportion to pictures - but at least you now have a better idea of what is likely to be happening to the Westermans in the next few years.  Hopefully it is quite apparent that the plan has revolved around one main theme - as that great advert for some bank, whose name I now can't remember, said a few years ago - 'we want to be together'.

We are both looking forward to catching up with everyone during the year that we are back in UK and if all goes according to plan then we should be moving into an Army quarter in Shrivenham some time around the end of August  - so stand by for visits.


STOP PRESS:  Archie has just been discovered, fast asleep, in the 'sock cupboard' of the husband of one of my colleagues who lives in an upstairs apartment.  So mysteries abound.  Apart from the intriguing question of why Charlie might need an entire cupboard for his socks, there is also the question of how long she has been there without them noticing.  Ah well, at least I know she's safe - and well hosed. Now where did I put that worming tablet ...

EASTER ADVENTURES

First of all I must apologise for the delay in the publishing of this particular blog. My only excuse is that having had visitors with us I have been rather pre-occupied and time just got away from me. In fact it has been great fun having Ronnie down from Juba for a full two weeks (she doesn't actually go back until Monday morning) and having her parents with us for a week in the middle of the Easter holidays. I have really enjoyed being able to show off my adopted country and we both had a really wonderful time re-visiting some of the national park areas that we saw last December.  During our trip around Uganda we took in Lake Mburo, Ishasha and the rest of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Jinja, Entebbe and of course Kampala. In the course of these travels we had quite a number of adventures and, rather than regale you all with yet another series of stunning wildlife photos, we thought we would concentrate on these.

However, before we get down to the trip, there was another event that took place which needs to be recorded (if only for its sartorial aspects). Our friends from church, Moses and Victoria, very kindly invited us to the wedding introduction ceremony of one of Moses' good friends which took place near Mbale in Eastern Uganda.  A very traditional event, it demanded traditional dress.  For some reason the Ugandans have (relatively recently (according to some sources within the last 70 years or so)) adopted a rather Asian form of traditional dress to replace the previous bark cloth coverings and cotton wraps used for special events.  I already had a Kanzu and Victoria kindly kitted Ronnie out in the obligatory Gomesi. The ceremony itself was very interesting but somewhat lengthy and we left before the end.  All in all it was great fun though, and we really enjoyed getting to know Moses and Victoria better, especially visiting both of their mothers, and looking around Moses' ancestral land.

Moses doesn't seem to be quite so impressed with my
wearing of the Kanzu I fear.

On the other hand, Victoria (centre) seems much more
positive about Ronnie in her Gomesi!

So, to the main event - Nick and Sue's trip to Uganda. They came to us from Ethiopia where they had arranged a whistle-stop tour of all of the sights - apparently you can have too many churches on one trip! However, there was no rest for them as despite arriving late at night on the Tuesday before Easter, we whisked them off to Lake Mburo national park early the next day.  During the whole time they were with us the weather was some of the coolest I have experienced since arriving in Uganda - 23 or 24 degrees Celsius most days. In fact that is about normal for the start of the rainy season and proved to be very pleasant for touring around.  Even the rain kept off for all of the critical moments and we were very well blessed by the weather generally.  However, Sue found the funniest thing though was the fact that we were at our coldest when we stopped for coffee at the Equator and that I even needed to put a top on whilst we were waiting to be served (something one does a great deal of in Uganda - waiting to be served that is!).

Now I promised not to run through every fabulous animal encounter but just to restrict myself to a few of our little adventures.  Well, on that basis, I will skim over the zebra, impala, eland, water buck, bush buck and hippo at Lake Mburo and just focus on just two wildlife events - the sandwich-eating warthog and the very cross herd of buffalo. 

Three handsome adventurers at Lake Mburo national park

We met the first when we stopped to have our packed lunch down by the lake.  This particular warthog took a special interest in Nick's sandwich and actually decided to charge him head on in order to get it. Whilst I think that in normal circumstances Nick might well have taken evasive action, in fact he had nowhere to go and just sat it out.  The warthog was so surprised that it came to a skidding halt just like something out of a Wile E Coyote cartoon and stomped off looking very disgruntled.  It then spent the next half an hour or so just patrolling round us not really sure what to do! This resulted in what I think was the photo of the trip in which NIck and I posed for a simple lunchtime sandwich-eating picture, whilst unbeknown to us the grumpy warthog had crept up behind us and put itself squarely in the frame!

The message from Mum and Dad seemed to be that if we didn't get out
of there pretty quickly then we might end up in the same state as the picnic table!

The second dose of excitement at Lake Mburo occurred when we decided to drive up to the top of small hill which was marked as a vantage point on our map.  It was quite a hairy ascent involving definite engagement of the four-wheel drive, but when we finally made it it was well worth the effort and we briefly considered getting out to admire the view at the picnic site that was indicated there.  However, it was then that we noticed that there was not one but two herds of buffalo, both with very young calves with them.  Now in photos buffaloes might look just like any other old cattle, but believe me there is a reason that that they make up one of the 'Big Five' animals whose heads big game hunters of old wanted to put on their walls. On a good day they can often be quite cantankerous individually, but when you manage to corner  a couple of herds of them with very recently born youngsters they have a very persuasive way of making you feel unwanted!  Ronnie was in the driving seat at the time and she wasted no time in finding reverse and then taking us back down the hill in record time. 

Complex equations help Nick to unwind!

That night was spent at the Eagle's Nest lodge just outside the back gate of Lake Mburo and, although it was our second time there, both Ronnie and I were just as bowled over by the accommodation, the food and most of all the view as we were back in December. I think Nick and Sue were equally impressed.  We were the only ones staying that night and it was a tremendous end to a brilliant first day's safari, even if the beer was only cool, not chilled!  It was a great opportunity to sit and reflect on what we had seen, for getting out the binos and surveying the land we had travelled across - and of course settling down to some peaceful high-level maths problems.  As it turned out, it was just as well that we all had a chance to re-charge our batteries as the next day was to prove to be quite a challenge.

On lookout at the Eagle's Nest lodge - appropriately named being on the top of a very high ridge.

The rest of the safari was spent in Queen Elizabeth national park, firstly looking for tree-climbing lions in Ishasha and secondly in the north of the park chasing down Uganda kobs , forest hogs and elephants amongst other animals on land and hippos, crocodiles and birds on the river.  In fact, whilst we were successful in finding all of these creatures, and many others, the most memorable aspects of the trip were probably Ronnie putting the Land Cruiser head on into a hidden ditch, and then our having two punctures within the space of an hour.  The first was as the result of an enormous piece of metal being driven into the top of one of the rear tires, and which we could not have done much to have avoided.  However, after changing the wheel, and just as dusk was approaching, we set off again for the lodge that we were spending two nights at.  After a short distance we had another blow out out, this time when something penetrated the side wall of our brand new tire.  This caused some alarm and despondency as Lucy only carries the one spare wheel. After some help from our Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) guide, Robert,  we managed to get rescued by the wonderful UWA mechanics who lent us a spare from one of their vehicles (albeit not quite the right size!).  In the end, other than proving to be rather costly, the only loss was a morning's game drive whist we waited to find a more permanent solution, which involved bringing in a new tire on the bus from Kampala!  The afternoon boat trip on the Kazinga Channel was not interrupted and proved to be the huge success that we had been hoping for.   

The Ishasha tree-climbing lions put on a great show for us.

Sue and Ronnie in dispute over who is in charge of map reading!

All hands to the pumps (well jack really) - that is Sue's pink suitcase in the foreground obviously!

I do not believe it!

The second puncture strikes!

The intrepid team disembark from the Kazinga Channel cruise

As you can see, the boat was well named!

After a much needed relaxing few days back in Kampala, including a brilliant Easter service at All Saints', the second part of the adventure took place at the source of the Nile in Jinja.  We enjoyed paddling across the top of the Ssezibwa Falls on our way and then paddling (this time in kayaks) on the Victoria Nile - yes I have now done this same kayaking trip 3 times but it was great once again and gave Nick his very first taste of kayaking (yes really, 35 years in the Army and he has never before been in a canoe).  Our trusty guide Abraham did not disappoint and we had a super (if somewhat physical) time seeing the birdlife of the Nile close up as the sun set.  We  all felt that we had earned our 3 course meal at the end of it.  We also enjoyed (well Sue and I did) some souvenir shopping in the plethora of identical shops on Jinja's Main Street.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery and the actual Source of the Nile were the other sights ticked off.

Negotiating the top of Ssezibwa Falls

Nick adds kayaking to his list of skills

A call in at Wild Waters Lodge on the way back from Jinja and a dip in their amazing plunge pool next to the rapids was just what we needed to ease aching limbs.

After returning to Kampala for the unenviable task of packing we had one last day to fill before departing that evening. Sadly, despite Abraham's promises we had not seen any otters on the Nile, but we made up for this (and other species not spotted during our journeys) with a trip to Entebbe Wildlife Centre on the way to the airport on the final day of what was a fantastic holiday.

A real African otter

Giraffes at Entebbe Wildlife Centre

And finally ...

... as I write this Ronnie prepares to return to Juba and I am getting ready for school tomorrow morning.  After a dismal weekend of sport (oh Cambridge how low have you fallen!) on the bright side I do seem to have adopted another cat (or is it the other way around?).  Say hello to Archie -

Archie, my new best friend.  More on her to follow I suspect!