Last Post?

I thought that my last post was the last one before we come back.... if you see what I mean?!! But CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in Kampala means we have a 2 day public holiday and travel anywhere in the city is almost impossible as they keep closing roads and the place is crawling with security 'police'. As the college is on one of the main roads to the main conference centre we are probably going to stay at home!! Hence I thought you might be interested in the college Music Dance and Drama House Competitions. They took place on Saturday on the theme of 'HIV/AIDS Prevention through Behaviour Change'. Each of the four houses (named after the Uganda martyrs - St. Joseph, St. Lwanga, St. Andrew and St. Kizito) took part in choral singing, traditional dance and folk songs, drama, poetry and a speech. Each item was adjudicated and marks given and St. Kizito house won( the first time ever!). My house, St Andrew sadly, only managed third place overall but I was happy as the poem and the speech, which I had helped to write and coach the performers in, both won their sections! It was very 'Ugandan' in that the students left all rehearsals and writing until the week before and we had to give every afternoon over to practises not lectures! However our play which was written the evening before also managed a second place! It was a very colourful and energetic affair with lots of drumming and bright costumes and much teasing amongst tutors and students as to which house was the best!

Rob was invited to present the prizes with the college Principal and they were mobbed by excited students as the final marks were announced! It was another very different experience for us compared to the somewhat serious and restrained music/ballet festivals we are used to.

Exams and teaching practice

We are looking forward to our trip back to the UK for Christmas and hope to catch up with everyone and all the news!!

I have just finished marking 79 exam scripts for one of our two year one pre-service classes. I thought you might like some of the answers given to a question on the Professional Education Studies paper in the special needs section......

'Briefly explain the causes of physical disability'

Answers included the following:-

'Witchcraft whereby one may be bewitched.'

'That family planning is also another cause.'

'Mistreating, especially by the step-mother.'

'Going to small gods because they can give medicine to a woman who is pregnant to produce a boy or girl according to her choice and end up producing a disabled baby.'

'Natural calamities such as mountain erruptions when the hot magma comes out.'

'Some people get a disability because they were cursed.'

Rather sadly the following are correct answers that show the difference between being born here and the first world........

'Poor nutrition - children end up suffering from Kwashiorkor, Marasmus or Rickets.'

'Diseases like Polio or bad Malaria.'

This is a school near the college where I supervised the students on Teaching Practice. It is run by a church charity for disadvantaged children and orphans and unusually has very few puplis at the moment. I was told it was because it is built on rented land and the owners have given the school notice to vacate the land. It is called 'Rivers of Joy Primary School' and here are a couple of photos.

Jinja

We spent a very lazy weekend staying at a camp 'The Haven' near Jinja - the source of the Nile. The waterfalls and rapids are wonderful to watch as is the daily fun of watching the whitewater rafting boats capsize! The rescue canoes then dash about collectng tourists and paddles from the river before they right the raft and continue to the next run of rapids and falls to do it all again. We chickened out and just took a sunset trip on a small boat - very peaceful! The photos show the view from our banda during a tropical storm and again the following morning!

Floods!

We hear that the news of the floods in Uganda have reached the BBC news!! There have been reports of floods in the districts in the North in the papers here for a couple of weeks and as the photos posted last week show we have had some pretty torrential downpours! One day the newspaper was reporting on the very dry conditions in Karamoja and the problems with the crops and in the same paper two pages later, a report on the rainstorms washing away a bridge and destroying crops in ..yes you guessed it...Karamoja! There has certainly been some extreme weather. The main roundabout in Kampala floods regularly but as these photos show we are lucky to live in one of the 'up-market' and 'up the hill' suburbs. Here is the view of Lake Victoria from the bar at the hotel just up the road where we very occasionally enjoy a cold 'Nile Special' beer!?!! The others show the road leading to the house (you can just see our black gate at the end) and one of me and Alice walking down from the house when she and Ed were here (thanks to Ed for the photos). The wooden structures at the bottom are the little shops where we buy fruit and vegetables and practice our Luganda. Even after being here this long the ladies still burst into fits of laughter at our attempts.

Introduction

An introduction is like paying a 'bride price'. We were invited to be part of the grooms entourage to go to the brides village to persuade her family to let us bring her back. Actually the groom is the Dean of Students at the college and his bride is a tutor and they live down the road from us with their baby! The ceremony is however a big affair with many hours of negotiation between the spokesmen for each family and the handing over of many gifts....fruit, vegetables, tea, bread, soap, a calabash of the local brew,beer, soda, Blueband margarine, a live chicken and a cow!! Quite an experience for us. Here a photo of us in traditional costume of the West of Uganda (Suka for me and a Kanzu for Rob) and me carrying one of the many baskets of gifts.

We are now having a 'wet season' which didn't really come when it should in March but is now happening at the time of the second wet season (Sept. - Nov.). There is flooding in the north of the country and bits of Kampala flood because of terrible drainage and the awful roads. We are at the top of a hill which is good! These photos were taken from the front of the house.

Field Trip 2nd September

Rob's chance to be a biologist/environmentalist . This last weekend I spent in Ishahsha and Mweya, on a proper field trip reviewing the projects and viewing Queen Elizabeth National Park. This is one of the most threatened parks in Uganda, in the south round Ishasha, because the elephants and other large mammals come out of the park and raid the subsistence crops of the local farmers.The picture shows an unusual group of fifteen young bachelor males which we later heard had tried to raid crops in Kihihi parish, fortunately a few loud noises and a lot of running around and no real damage was done and no one and no animals were hurt.

Ishasha is well known for its tree climbing lions (they dont usually climb trees but these guys do) we came across four of them near a kill, one young male got down and chased away the vultures then possibly because we were there in the vehicle, stayed around for a bit to guard it.

Mweya is where the head quarters of the Uganda Wlidlife Authority were until moving to Kampala,they have most of their senior field offices there as well as the rescue boat we funded.

Mweya is at the northern end of Lake Edward on the Kazinga channel. Although it is a national park the whole of it is under threat because local people(including some rather important people) are using the park to graze their cattle about 50,000 of them(cattle that is) and are poisoning the animals in the park, there were 50+hyena in one group and there are now 4, the lion have almost been wiped out, as have the leopard. When we were there the rangers came across a 70kg male leopard which had been snared. The only way to protect them seems to be darting them and then taking them to the zoo in Entebbe. The only people who can do anything about this are fairly high up and dont want to.Cattle mean wealth and keeping on the right side of the pastoralists means votes.

Mweya has however at least at the moment got some herbivores and a very few Topi, animals that are such a lovely colour. They are very nervous however. The only thing we can do is bash on ,if you are interested see it now while its still there!

Six month report!

It seems amazing that we have been here six months already. I'm not sure what we have achieved in that time although Rob has organised all the paintings for the exhibition in London and may even have persuaded some people to become corporate members of UCU to help keep the funding coming in for more conservation projects.

As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching both pre-service students and in-service teachers and hope some of it will help them have the enthusiasm to teach in often very difficult situations. I have some images of the college and teaching which made me look twice and will perhaps highlight some of the differences in a teacher training college in a third world country! Here is the Teachers' Resource Centre and my office! In the background you can see the washing! The compound is always draped with washing and students with their bowls and buckets scrubbing busily!

Here I am teaching some in-sevice teachers in a classroom at the adjacent primary school. This is the school compound with the 'bell' hanging from the tree!

I have really enjoyed supervising the students on teaching practice. They co-teach, these two in a Primary one class.

Then, the accomodation........... students live in dormitories like this with all their belongings stored in trunks and suitcases in any space they can find. They fetch water in jerry cans from taps around the compound and there are latrines (long drop toilets) across the other side of the compound.

Here is one of the Lecture Theatres where I teach the second year students. This is the one that sometimes has a bat hanging in the roof! There can be 50-80 students in a class, the occasional interesting bird and sometimes chickens.

To finish..... my overall thoughts about this adventure which I know proved to some that I was mad and needed my 'bumps felt' (!!!) is one of continued surprise, enjoyment and some frustrations. I love the way people here always greet you with a smile and ask, 'how are you?' It still brings a smile when I see what can be carried on a bicycle...this week it was at least 6 folded foam mattresses stacked high above the man pedalling and another with a wardrobe and of course at least 4 crates of beer! The frustrations of having so few resources and that so many of the students struggle to pay fees or buy books or stationery, the intermittent electricity,water or internet. The fact that a 10 o'clock meeting starts a 11.30 if you are lucky! The daily diet of matooke, rice, beans and posho.......but it is all worth it when the students give me a round of applause for a lesson they enjoy, the fact they are so keen to learn and will take part and try out different ways of teaching and learning. The last photo of the college students dancing at the graduation represents the colourful, enthusiasm and fun which has made this first six months an incredible, unforgettable experience!

Photos of Gorilla Trek at last!

We have at last found a way to upload some photos before this very slow internet connection goes down. Not sure how good the resolution is but at least it gives an idea of how amazingly close we were ! It was an amazing feeling being so close to such wonderful creatures in the wild.

Art and Artists in Uganda

Francois Gordon the British High Commissioner and his wife

plus Roni Madvhani (Chairman Uganda Tourist Board) and his wife came to our house to choose the pictures (by Ugandan artists) for the Uganda Conservation Foundation exhibition at Collier Bristow Gallery (4, Jockeys Field, London W.C.1) from 10th-29th September.

The artists are donating half the money from sales to UCF.

They are (left to right) Taga Nugabawa, Pualo Akiiki, Henry Mzili, and in front, Margaret Nagawa, Enoch Mukiibi and Fred Mutebi.

They also chose two watercolours by Rob including this Ellie. So he will be exhibited in the same place as work by David Shepherd also of Elephant fame.

If you would like to go to the exhibition please let Rob know and he will arrange to send you an invitation.

grillers

didnt realise how long it was since we last posted anything.Alice and Edward have been with us and things got a bit eventful. first off we went on a gorilla safari.about 450 of the worlds remaining mountain gorillas are in Bwindi impenetrable forest in the south west of Uganda and only 24 people a day are allowed to visit them.Its quite an event apart from the cost of the permits which is frightening enough ;you are also only 30k from the Congo border and their home grown rebels, so you trek with two or three armed guards as well as porters and guides.We went for two days the first to see the R or rushorosa group which tends to be nearer than the others,it was after passing the long drop toilet there they were about five minutes from the Uganda Wildlife Authority HQ.



We watched them amble around ignoring us for a good hour,it was just as well ,a lovely but not small lady from the Express was researching an article on Uganda and I doubt if she would have enjoyed the next day when we sought the H group.this took three and a half hours up two mountains and was seriously knackering.



The astonishing thing was watching the four hundred pound silverbacks totally ignoring us until Machati(the playful one) came alittle close and got admonished.apparently he likes cameras and will take them off to play with,although only five he weighs in at 180lbs and is as strong as at least three big men so not to be argued with.He mock charged us and then sort of studied us for several minutes until told off I think he was bored anyway by that time as we all hid our cameras except Ed who got a photo of him.



After that we went to South Africa for a few days with Des and Suzie and needing to 'follow that' as 'twere went Shark diving,all except Robert went in but he was seasick and spent the entire afternoon feeling lousy so forgot to take any photographs! We missed the Elgon cup and Uganda won 29-10 Kenya came second!Seems rather tame being back in Uganda but SA was very cold!Then nUganda beat Nigeria 2:1 in the Nations cup!

food glorious food?

Food is one of those central things here,people eat a lot,and fairly regularly.
breakfast is usually a light affair eggs, sausages, bread and jam and tea or instant coffee,there is always some fruit.In the middle of the morning there is tea or coffee or porridge(maize meal soup) and toasties or chapatis or fried cassava,and groundnuts. Lunch is a monster meal matooke(mashed up steamed green bananas) which has the consistency of mashed spud but less, if possible, nutritional value! rice boiled to extinction,beans , generally excellent, mashed spud(irish), and soup probably originally meat. There is also a pink sauce which is made from ground nuts.Meat is usually cooked to death so tapeworms are avoided,and pork(or goat) served up crispy as a muchomo,or kebab.The evening meal is usually much as that at midday only slightly smaller quantities.The volunteers all tried cooking yesterday and actually it wasn't at all bad,if for no other reason than Ugandans traditionally dont use oil and we also had a Phillipino and an Indian who did their own culinary thing with fish and eggplants.Ugandans also eat lots of fruit which is fabulously fresh and cheap.
What was missing was the occasional insect,not just visiting but deliberately included;at road junctions and rugby matches men and others wander round with tupperware boxes with odd things in them,Grasshoppers,a great treat!(and now you know what happened to all that Tupperware)
When it rains and you leave a light on so arrive vast numbers of flying ants which in the morning have all shed their wings and expired. Eva our lady what 'does'collects them up and hands them to Joseph the factotum ,guard and everything else who washes them ,fries them and they then tuck in . There are several different types of ant, some ants ,some termites, some just things that fly,Eva tells me that they are all very tasty and recommended, as are grasshoppers and if I buy some would I bring some for her? I tell her that people in some parts of Africa eat locusts.
"OOH," she says," locusts,oh no urgh.!"

I'm not sure about grasshoppers!

And here are the hippos and buffalo. Rob says I must mention that this very exciting and luxurious trip was only possible using his hard earned savings, not my meagre VSO allowance. They do say however, that I married well!!

Boat trip in Queen Elizabeth National park on the Kazinga Channel between Lake Edward and Lake George (all sounds so African??). It was a great trip and we saw hippo, buffalo and this elephant!

Easter break

The albertine rift, extending from the north of Uganda through Rwanda and all sorts of other bits.The drive from Kampala is about six hours, four to Fort Portal (General Portal not a gateway) then two down the escarpment ;186 hairpin bends, ok as long as you don't meet a lorry coming the other way.What you do meet are Toyota Corrolla's with twelve passengers and pickups loaded with stuff and stacked high with people,or is it loaded with people and stacked high with stuff (matooke grain goats water fuel all at once). In the far distance you can see the Ssemliki Plateau and rainforest, where we are heading. Lovely walk but sadly the chimps had left their nests, probably because it was raining!

Ggaba Demonstration Primary School

This is Primary Five Class (P5) children of around 10+ years old as some have joined late or not passed end of term exams to move up to P6. On this day there were 107 children present all squashed 5 or 6 to each bench. They stand to greet each visitor "This is P5 class, welcome to our visitor, please feel at home!" They then wait for a response. When I say, "thank you please sit" they giggle and sit! On the following day I returned to observe teaching practice students to find many children heading away from school. The class size had shrunk to a mere 68!! On making enquiries I was told that it was time to pay school fees and they were on their way home! There is Universal Primary Education here but they still have to pay fees. This school at least has buildings with roofs and concrete floors, no glass in the windows though and a play area which would not pass health and safety back home!

The Bishop's Thunderbox

Those familiar with you correspondent will be aware that he may no be the world's most openly religious individual,so you will forgive a degree of irreverence in this post.Janice works at Ggaba Primary Teachers training college.This is a catholic Church owned college which has fought hard to maintain its independence,and has at last been able to offer teaching diplomas recognised by two prestigious Ugandan Universities ,and not just church aided ones. So I was honoured and not a little surprised to find myself invited to attend the second graduation in four years, at which some 2,000 students past and present under and post graduate were awarded their diplomas and certificates. This ceremony was to take place in the presence of the Bishop of Kampala ,who was unfortunately otherwise engaged so the "ordinary"took his place( I am by no means sure what an ordinary was but it seems he is some form of deputy.
There was great discussion amongst the staff that that Bishop was to be provided with a personal thunderbox (it arrived on the back of a decent sized lorry), no great surprise as the alternative was the long drop toilets around the campus, awful is not enough and awesome probably sums it up.TK was moved to comment that it was bigger than most peoples houses.
The day commenced with a mass no bells or anything just every time the ordinary raised the host the crowd applauded, they applauded the sermon, the offertory,and when everyone wishing to do so had taken communion, again a somewhat random affair with the various clergy present wandering around with chalices and donating the contents to whoever came next ,they applauded again. the whole thing was done with an enormous exuberance which I think only Ugandans can match.
At the end the graduation took another two hours with lists of students being read out and applauded, a few more hymns and anthems, one for Buganda, one for Uganda and one for the college,and more applause we went off to dinner.
the Ordinary said grace to more applause and we ate a celebratory Ugandan feast at which for some reason I was not allowed any meat, it was a Friday (several of the crowd, students etc had called me "Father" which may have explained it). More prayers and applause and the ordinary went home. Inevitably someone asked whether or not he had used the thunderbox,which he had not.TK had the key and gave evidence to this example of religious continence, remarking that he might as well take it home as he needed another bedroom.

mutatus boda bodas and privates

Public transport is fun,here.basically there are boda bodas, cheap quick and lethal,mutatus slower cheap and uncomfortable,and privates or specials quicker more comfortable and ok.
A boda is a semiretired Honda 50 or similar usually driven by a helmetless bloke who scoots along the road looking back at anyone walking along shouting 'boda sebo' over his shoulder,roughly thats a request for you to act as his passenger.Now VSO realise that these are dangerous so no volunteers are allowed to use them,so of course none of us do ever ever(really!).
the down side of it is that today we came across one on its side with apssenger looking rather sad but in one piece, the driver definitely looking poorly.It was just outside theUganda Red Cross clinic which was open, so of course no one stopped. "ooh" said Henry who was our special driver "ver dangerous boda bodas ,always come second"
A special is a private cab,they are a bit more expensive,actually a lot more save that the maths mean that a 80k round trip to the Entebbe Botanical gardens beautiful place only cost 20 quid return for two of us, plus a soda for Henry.A taxi from home to the station cost us 10.00 the day before we left UK.
mutatus are superannuated Toyota Hi ace minibuses which the Japanese would have dumped in Japan but they recondition them and dump them here instead, they vary hugely although recently many of them have new seat covers and a few newish ones have appeared.The fares are cheap but the fare structure a little random,you pay more to go home from Kampala in the evening than to get in in the morning.Gaba where Janice works is 500 or 300 or 700 (first time only Muzungu price) depending on the Kondikator (say it quickly) or whether the Dereva (say that quickly as well) is having a bad day or its raining.
Today I got into a mutatu with the message on its windscreen "Guided by God" as it wove around the potholes horn blaring and kondikator waving at potential customers it was followed by another called "Fear God" third in the queue was another called "Inshallah" which sums up transport in Kampala. Happy Easter to all, and no Alan I don't think I would want that particular ref doing that to me with ten seconds to go in any case I would have taken the three and settled for a draw.

lake vic and Kyadodo Kobs12 heathens 8 good top national 2 standardat least

A truly African Few days. first of all the electric went down teice a day ,then the water then the net,gradully it all came back,the water by some mysterious means best known to itself we rang the man about the phone he knew just where we were but would not fix it until today.which he did.then unplugged the modem out of spite!no power+no work then my project manager got malaria!.
Janice is preparing for Graduation day they all have to start at 0700 and stand around for hours ewaiting for the bishop to chat and then present to 2,000 students some of whom may or may not be there.
Its now chucking it down but not heavily I am told as I can see the end of the garden.Just up the road is the Hotel International and the view from the terrace is of Lake Victoria.
The Rugby club is abit away but a good game was played although the ref left a bit to be desired.

Uganda

We got here despite rumours to the contrary,managing to con customs with70kg of rubbish including two ukuleles!
First impressions - a beautiful country with lots of superficial wealth a lot more poverty and a fair bit of real money.Very green,rains on and off,the rains are late this year ,or so some people say.
Kampala is completely barmy; random taxi drivers minibuses by the thousand,and awesomely awful roads,thin tarmac if any no shoulders and potholes that could be explored by any one with a head lamp and breathing gear,amongst this speed bumps that would put Everest to shame. Driving is hairy to say the least,taxis(mutatus) fly all over the place as the private drivers try to avoid serious collisions,lorries sort of clamber over the bumps whilst their passengers cling to the piles of tat on the top. Occasionally a policeman contributes to it as they do anywhere with the difference that in Kampala they strategically add to the chaos by directing drivers into the gaps in the traffic! The final nail in the coffin is the boda boda or motorcycle taxi which you ride at your pertil the wrong way up one way streets and lanes pass on the inside, outside over the top and carry anything from the family to a nile perch ,which is a very big fish indeed!or indeeed a three foot circular saw!There is no road rage the Matatu conductors lean out of their windows and fend people off,noone gets cross its not bad or inconsiderate driving its just what you do.

Most of the vehicles are several years old exported test failures from Japan so Toyota and Suzuki predominate,they would universally fail an MOT,so stopping can be interesting,
As Kampal has about 2.8 million people in a space the size of Plymouth you get the picture.Hotels are appearing all over the place and roads are getting mended, as the Queen is here in November,local feeling is not a lot will change. Life here is certainly exciting but I dont think I will drive in Kampala!
Sorry about the phone call Ed and Al,J put phone numbers in phone but wrong so was a bit iffy about the lack of repliesto her texts.
No pics yet as havent quite worked out how to do it here.

last post

actually last post in UK now1926 zulu we are sat at Heathrow dying of boredom .Thought we would get herre erly because of the security bit and got through checkin and security in ten minutes!

Met a couple of guys going to Uganda to see the Gorillas in Lake Elizabeth National Park, lucky them.

Good two days in London in a posh hotel,R flooded the bathroom ,cant complain really there was enough water to do that.Itas raining in London and according to the World service its raining in Kampala,so no change there! Its just a little hotter- 28 degrees!A bit apprehensive and tired now still tomorrow is another day.

Latest update

Ten Days to go.
Rob now has a job with the Ugandan Conservation Foundation .ugandacf.org.
with their Uganda partners Uganda Conservation(U) in Kampala.
A totally new thing for him quite daunting.
Please check out their website and consider financial support for this organisation which is concerned with ALL Ugandan species not just Gorillas. hippos are almost entirely wiped out in Uganda which despite being the pearl of Africa is one of the worlds bottom thirty in terms of wealth.
This means we will be living in a house in the south west of Kampala about 6 k from Janices work Rob just has to fall out of bed and stumble acoss the hall way as the UCU office is in the house!

Brunel's bridge(1860) and Tamar road bridge(1961) from the house

our house from the garden

Not a good picture of a Martin type0 uke from about 1945 like playing silk amazing sound.will miss this one for two years

Seamoon an Anderson 22. Probably the best 22 ever and a very well kept secret,about 180 built Seamoon is number 108

Just a quick startup note
The last months have been spent clearing the house( amazing what junk you accumulate and can probably do without) flogging cars ukuleles and pens to make space,and generally doing VSO training. with about a month to go we just want to get there and get on with life.
Sold my lovely little boat(see pic) and kept my Martin ukulele(see pic). The real problem at the moment is working out what to take with us(23kg) and finding a case big enough to take 23kg anyway!
We are due to fly from Heathrow to Entebbe on 22nd Feb(BA staff willing). VSO then arrange 2 weeks briefing and in country training in Kampala.Janice will be teacher training at St John the Baptist Primary Training College in Ggaba just outside Kampala.

SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA I THINK NEAR MOZAMBIQUE BORDER

Us in Perth two years ago.

Should be in Uganda at the end of February

Wohoo, a blog for you!

Blog created. Have fun!

Jon