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!

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Just a short blog this week as I have been kept very busy this weekend not only with end of term preparations (one week to go!) but also with work in preparation for the future, more of which in a week or two I hope.  Our theme this half term in Year 5 has been politics and government, which is tricky enough at the best of times with a class of 10 year olds.  However, when you are living somewhere like Uganda and your class has one child very closely linked to the President, two linked to the prime minister he just sacked, one is the son of a minister in the government and several others with connections to the judiciary, then it is akin to walking on egg shells.  I guess that is the reason that I have enjoyed it so much - an opportunity to use my carefully honed skills of tact and diplomacy!  In fact we have had a fantastic time, looking at the meaning of democracy and totalitarian regimes, discussing Idi Amin and his contribution to Ugandan history, visiting Parliament (you have to use those connections!), holding our own elections and, just to add to the challenge, studying Julius Caesar to look at the concept of a republic versus a monarchy.  So, 'cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!' have been our watch words in Year 5 at GEMS this last few weeks.  I don't intend to say much more, but will let the photos do the talking once again.

The class on the steps of the Parliament building with our own tame minister the Honourable David Bahati MP

The start of our guided tour

Pauline's reaction when told that she was constantly under
surveillance from CCTV cameras when near the Mace!

The debating chamber itself where we were lucky
enough to witness an actual session in progress

The trip was a huge success with the children and I was immensely proud of how mature their questions were.  When one of them asked if Uganda had ever been ruled by a dictator (a bit naughty since she already knew the answer but just wanted to see what our guide would say I think!) he rather condescendingly asked if anyone knew what a dictatorship was.  He was then visibly shocked when he was given a word perfect definition that would not have been out of place in the mouth of a first year politics student at Cambridge!

The election campaign that the class ran throughout the primary school during their study of politics was also quite an exciting affair.  They formed four separate parties, canvassed their electorate for their views on what they wanted to see changed in the school, grilled the Principal to see what was feasible, wrote their manifestos, produced campaign posters and slogans and finally made speeches and took questions from the voters on the election day.  I have never seen 130 primary school children get so worked up about anything! They wanted to know all the details of how they were going meet their promises, and one of the parties (who rather presumptuously I think called themselves the 'super-intelligent party') was completely stumped when a Year 3 student demanded to know how they were going to finance their promise of a tuck shop selling sweets and drinks - not so smart after all I fear!  Anyway, in the end when all the voting slips were counted the Equality Supporters Party won a fairly convincing victory.  When they asked me what their prize was I told them that they now had to give up their breaks next term to work to deliver their promises.  From the look on their faces, I suspect that, just like politicians everywhere, they weren't expecting to actually have to earn their victory!

The Talent party make their speech

The voters were keen to have their say too

Even Year 6 were on their feet

Et tu brute?  Then fall Caesar!     JC was a great hit with the class in English.

The only other thing that I want to mention this week is a local matter, but has a tangential connection to politics.  You may remember several months ago now I blogged about my locality of Luzira and the extraordinary mix of people who live close to my apartments.   In particular I was impressed by the resilience and friendliness of people I met who had virtually nothing and were living in tin shacks and what looked like old railway carriages, and I posted a few pictures of them.  Well a couple of weeks ago as I drove in to school I was horrified to see that much of their community was gone.  It was now just a pile of rubble, with the odd possession lying scattered around. One old man was sitting on a sofa in what was once a brick shed looking totally bemused.  I later asked someone who was working on the site what had happened and it seems that they were all squatters and the land is wanted for development, so they simply sent in the bulldozers and cleared it.  When I asked where the people had gone he just shrugged his shoulders.  The trouble is in a country like Uganda there is no social safety net to catch people like these.  Next time any of you feel like complaining about welfare scroungers, just stop and think about what the alternative to a welfare state is ...  

The night before there had been about 5 or 6 families living in these brick sheds

This is where previously I had met lady with a young boy who was living in an
old railway carriage.  When I told her I was a teacher she smiled at me and said that
I should teach her son because he was clever but couldn't afford to go to school.
The rest of the huts are waiting to be cleared.  You can see the development going on in the background.

JUBA AT LAST PART II

Okay, I will now finish what I started last time, with an addition to cover world book day yesterday.  I thought I would open with this photo of four of the most famous people in Juba, well three anyway - as we don't know who the bloke behind Ronnie actually is.  The others are obviously His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, Dr John Garang, hero of the struggle for independence, and the Defence Attaché in the British Embassy.

Now what I failed to cover in my half a blog last time was the official reason that I was in Juba in the first place.  The more observant of you will have noticed that the section entitled 'Purpose of visit' on my visa does not say to see wife, but Advise to school - which in itself suggests that such a visit was clearly very necessary, albeit that I was there to provide advice on ICT not English.

The Juba Diocese Model Secondary School (JDMSS) was established by Salisbury Diocese in UK who are closely linked with Juba Diocese.  It has been running for a number of years and is very successful (and there is much competition for places).  However, one of the things that they don't currently teach is ICT (computing to non-educators) and Richard Deans, who I met in UK through the Military Missions International charity, and who chairs the Salisbury committee, asked me if I would go and make a report of what would need to be done.  This was a perfect combination as they needed my expertise and, in order to get a visa, I needed an official invitation to South Sudan that the Juba Diocese could provide!  It was appropriate then that the day after the house-warming BBQ (see last blog for details) we went to All Saints' Cathedral (Juba, not Kampala - keep up) and who was preaching but the Archbishop himself.  I like to think that, since his office initiated my invitation to come to Juba, he felt duty bound to come and welcome me in person. However, it may simply be that he wanted to share his experiences of travelling up country to try to generate some peace and reconciliation, and certainly that is what he did. His message was pretty simple: you are all supposed to be Christians so stop hating one another and stop killing one another, because scripture tells we are all equal and that we should love one another.  I was impressed and quite hopeful that the message would filter through and all the violence would over by now - but sadly the DA there tells me otherwise.  Anyway, the service was okay, but a little too Anglican for me, and nowhere near as lively as ASCK, even though it was full and we had to squeeze ourselves onto the balcony with all the hip youth.  Oh yes, and just to confuse me, rather than having coffee after church as is usual, instead we went across the road before the service to the 'Confident Children out of Conflict' (CCC) school to have coffee with some of Ronnie's friends who had been to the earlier service (which is even less lively apparently).  For some reason we had our coffee in a cage.  I presumed this was because the girls who the charity looked after were particularly dangerous, so I was understandably nervous when we went to meet a few of them.  In fact they were very pleasant, if a little shy, and I can only imagine the cage serves some other arcane purpose. 

The church service at the Cathedral from the 'yoof' balcony

The kind Archbishop who, unbeknown to him I suspect, invited me to Juba

Coffee in a cage after 'early' church, but before our service

One other noteworthy thing occurred on Sunday morning which has caused me to become a huge fan of the Dutch. When Ronnie came to collect me from the CCC guest house where I was staying (those of you following this rambling story will remember that I was not allowed to stay in the British Embassy accommodation for security reasons beyond anyone's control it would seem) she found me locked in, and no guard in sight. After much plaintive conversation through both a locked door and a huge metal gate, I eventually found the key to the front door hanging up on a hook and let myself into the compound.  I then pointed out to Ronnie the little door beside the massive gate, that was actually swinging free!  Having gained my freedom she told me that after I had left the party the night before, the Dutch ambassador, who had been one of the guests along with his girlfriend who was staying with him for a few days, had enquired why I was leaving.  The UK Foreign Office ruling was explained to him and apparently he had apoplexy, declared that Ronnie's new accommodation was on his turf not the British Ambassador's and that he would decide who could and couldn't stay - and apparently, I could! So for the rest of my time in Juba I moved into Ronnie's house on the Dutch Embassy compound.  Aren't the Dutch wonderful!

The next morning I was dropped off at the JDMSS, hoping that someone would be expecting me.  In fact it was a little chaotic to start with as it was their first day back of the new school year (for some reason their official first day back which was supposed to have been the previous week hadn't really happened).  It was clear that whilst they had sort of heard that someone like me might be coming, they didn't actually know who I was, and there certainly wasn't any programme prepared for me.  However, the deputy headmaster (an extremely sought after man that day) eventually managed to find Dollar Robert, the member of staff I was hoping to see, and after that things went along swimmingly.  

Dollar Robert - showing why he is in charge of ICT

The children catch up on holiday gossip on the first day back to school

All the students were very friendly.
I suspect that I just happened to catch this chap at an unfortunate moment
- I don't think he was actually gesturing to me!

My time at the school was a real blessing and I was pleased to be able to offer some useful advice.  In the end I managed to put together quite a detailed report and, providing Salisbury Diocese can raise the money needed (over US$ 50,000 I suspect), then I am confident that JDMSS should be able to get a working vocational ICT curriculum up and running by this time next year.  

By the end of that day I had had a wonderful tour around the facilities and met some marvellous people.  Dollar Robert's optimism and enthusiasm was such a inspiration.  He showed me the new building work that is going on, including several new classrooms already in progress and the area that they have acquired for a boarding facility. He is hoping that they will get the money to construct a purpose-built ICT room in the next few months, and certainly that was part of my proposal.

The new classroom block under way.  It was extraordinary to see serious building work going on as children
walked through the site on their way to their next class!  No H&S concerns here!

I was shown around the library, which was surprisingly well-stocked - better than GEMS's library in fact,
but the less said about that the better I suspect.

Before I left I met the Headmaster to discuss my recommendations.  He is very impressive man,
and it was a pleasure to pray with him before I left his office.

These children are the fortunate ones in South Sudan, and they never forget where their fortune comes from.
Here they are queuing for their lunch from the 'God Given School Canteen' - brilliant!

The rest of my time in Juba was spent typing up my report and meeting various of Ronnie's friends and colleagues.  I am very glad that I went, but on the whole I found the place very depressing.  Despite the appearance of normality, there is an underlying tension everywhere.  This is hardly surprising I supose given the circumstances, but makes it an uncomfortable place to be.  What really rounded the trip off for me was my welcome back to Uganda.  On arrival at Entebbe airport the queue for immigration was amazingly short and in no time I was being greeted by the inevitable grim-faced immigration official asking for my visa.  When I said that I didn't have one as I had a work permit and was a resident, her face suddenly broke into a smile and she said "Oh I see. Then welcome home".  It really did feel like I was coming home - I think I've fallen in love with Uganda!



To finish this over-long and much delayed blog, I just wanted to bring it up to date and give it a truly international flavour.  Yesterday was 'World Book Day' which I have celebrated with great panache and flair (corporate not personal I mean) at Smallwood Manor for the last 3 years.  Well, I was delighted to see that World Book Day is exactly that, and we celebrated it here at GEMS in Kampala too.  I chose William Brown from 'Just William' as my character, which was easy to find the costume for and made quite an impact on pupils, staff and parents alike - although sadly almost no one except for a few of the more mature British staff had heard of the books (most of the children thought I was Oliver Twist or Harry Potter!).  I am pleased to say that Year 5 made a good effort to dress up and a fun time was had by all.  A few pictures below give the flavour of the day I hope - although a health warning probably should be issued though as one picture includes the frightening sight of me in shorts!

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 ...