THE END OF AN ERA - ALMOST

I know that this blog is a week late - again - but I am afraid that the pressure of the manic last few weeks of term, coupled with trying to keep up with my studies, is proving too much for me.  I haven't even taken any good photographs recently.  This one of Ronnie outside the British Embassy entrance in Juba was taken to go on the photo-map that we are having compiled to remember our time in East Africa (in fact we bid for it at a charity auction at the British High Commission last November).  I fear that the era of regular blogging, just like our adventure, is coming to an end.  I will probably manage at least one more blog to cover our final great drive around Lake Victoria (taking in South West Uganda, Rwanda, Northern Tanzania - including the Serengeti National Park - and South East Kenya) in July, but that may be it.

The current plan is for me to head back to Shrivenham after we return from our trip, perhaps after a final few days studying by the Nile in my favourite spot in Jinja .  Ronnie will go back to Juba for a few more weeks and then join me in the UK in late August.  Between now and the end of term I am busy with all the usual stuff (Key Stage 2 performances, report writing, class handovers etc) plus I am trying to get to grips with all of the research work I have to do.  Fortunately Habbakuk (the designated PhD badger) has been giving me a hand - although even he is getting a bit swamped ...

I am already getting very emotional about leaving Uganda.  In case I haven't made it clear before I do love living here and I will miss it hugely.  Of course it may also prove to be my last teaching position so that is making the move even more poignant. However, with time together, time with family and then some Middle Eastern excitement to come, I am also looking forward to the future.  So, just to whet the appetite (and to fill out this blog) I will finish with a picture of Cranfield University, Shrivenham Campus.

KIDEPO TRIP

Sorry to bore you all with yet another safari blog, but our trip to Kidepo this week was just brilliant.  This particular national park is right up in the far north of Uganda on the South Sudanese border and is probably the least visited in the country.  This is partly because it is so remote and hard to get to, but also because it is only in the last few years that it has been safe to travel there because of the threat from the now vanquished Lord's Resistance Army (well, they have been driven into DRC if not actually defeated).  In fact it still remains on the US and UK 'do not travel' list, which frankly is daft - come on guys get up with the times.

At the moment Kidepo is in the middle of their wet season, which is not an ideal time to visit, but we had no choice and we felt we were seasoned enough travellers by now to cope with all that it could throw at us.  In fact we proved to be right and so with a fairly dry 'wet' and Lucy's 4x4 capabilities we had no real difficulties.  In fact the only time we almost got into to trouble was whilst having a coffee in down town Kampala yesterday after we got back!  But more of that later.

We had a reasonably straightforward trip up there, breaking the journey with an overnight stop in Gulu on the way. The only real trouble was on the road from Kitgum up to the national park when a truck went off one side of the road and a bus then tried to get past and went off the other side, causing a blockage for a couple of hours.  In the end they managed to release the truck fairly easily but the bus was still there when we left!

As I say, we had a fabulous time in Kidepo, probably the best so far, and managed to see quite a number of animals we haven't seen before including rock hyrax, striped hyena, ostrich, secretary bird, bustard, ground hornbill and oribi amongst others.  We also saw a lot more lions, giraffes and elephants very close up, having an amazing game walk where we were right amongst the giraffe.  Once again I think I will just let the photographs do the talking for me.  I have included a couple of short video clips and I apologise if your system doesn't let you view them, or they slow down the loading of the page. However, they were so good I couldn't resist!

Why do buffalo always seem to look cross?

These guys were just amazing - so beautiful!

We got closer to lions this trip than ever before - too close almost!

This chap was determined not to get out of our way without an argument!

These rock hyrax are actually most closely related to elephants apparently!

This is a look inside our home from home at Nga Moro lodge

Our early morning 'game walk' allowed us to get closer to the giraffe than ever before

The way the giraffe move is really quite extraordinary.  This was a youngster with her mother who was pregnant.

The vultures hadn't quite woken up when I took this photo

Zebra and Jackson's Hartebeest mix together for protection

Nothing like a good mud wallow to get rid of the ticks!

The view from our balcony across the park as our boots dried out from the walk!

Ronnie and Patrick our guide at the Kidepo sand river

An Abyssinian Roller at close quarters

A snoozing lion spotted on our way home one evening

Even Luke and John were in on the wildlife action this trip!

And finally ...

... on our return to Kampala after washing the car (which was very much required!) we went to one of our favourite coffee places - the Dancing Cup in Bugulobi.  Whilst we were there one of the heaviest tropical downpours that I have experienced hit us and within 20 minutes the place was awash.  Just outside the entrance it was particularly bad, with a couple of vehicles abandoned to the flood!

So I am about to set off for Shrivenham for a week now to attend the induction course at Cranfield University for my PhD and will then return for the last few weeks of term.  We have one more adventure planned before we leave Africa once and for all in July, and I am busy making plans for our circumnavigation of Lake Victoria, taking in Southern Uganda, Rwanda, Northern Tanzania and Kenya.  However, before then I am sure there will be more Kampala based events to report.

ARCHIE - IN MEMORIAM

This will be a short, but poignant blog.  I had intended it to be focused on my adopted feline friend Archie (named before I actually realised that she was a girl).  I took a series of photos of her last weekend (oops, I've just noticed that I should have posted them then as I am week behind) and was going to add to them during the week, presenting a light-hearted look at Archie's antics.  Sadly, the day after the photo shoot she failed to turn up for breakfast and I haven't seen her since. 

Whilst she has disappeared for the odd day or two before (and of course was absent for three days during the 'Charlie's Sock Cupboard Incident' as it became known at school) she has never been missing for this long.  The mean streets of Kampala is a tough environment for a small cat, especially one as trusting as Archie, so I fear she is no longer with us.  I am obviously very sad about this as she was very sweet and we had grown quite close, however, as I pointed out to Ronnie yesterday, it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.  Now I have to say, I was left with the impression that whilst she sympathised with my loss, she felt that I was over dramatising it.  Well, I will leave it to all you true cat lovers out there to decide for yourselves.

So, below is a series of shots of Archie, well, just being Archie.  She rarely stayed still for more than a few seconds so a lot of them are blurred, but hopefully you will get an idea of what she was like ...

Always curious :-)

Very loving :-(

And finally ...

On a lighter note, there is a railway line that runs from Uganda to Kenya, which when it was built around a century ago was a marvellous feat of engineering.  However, like many other things in the country, in the seventies and eighties it was allowed to fall into disrepair and is now a sorry shadow of its former self.  It hasn't carried passengers for many years and even the freight traffic is very infrequent.  In fact it is so infrequent that, despite travelling over it almost every day I have only twice seen a train!  Most of the time is is a very busy pedestrian thoroughfare as it is straight and flat and hence good for walking on.  However, on Friday I actually spotted an enormous train that extended out of sight in both directions.  Admittedly it was only doing about 5 KPH, but it was there.  Although I was driving I managed to get my camera out and take a fleeting photo (this is Kampala so my curiously erratic driving was barely noticed).  Below is the result - not a great photo, but a rare one nonetheless:

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.