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 ...