Tee double hee - this is an email doing the rounds of expats in Uganda, that you read and think, yep, yep, oh yes definitely! Very funny.
I will probably need to explain a couple of things:

- 'Flashing' or 'Beeping' refers to one of the habits I find most frustrating in Uganda - people want to talk to you on the phone, but they don't want to actually pay for this privilege. So they call you, let the phone ring once and then hang up, so you see a missed call. You are then supposed to call them back and pay for the conversation they want to have with you. It is standard practice here, even amongst staff, and drives me nuts, because I think it's so rude. Also pointless - if everyone just paid for their own calls to start with, it would all even out in the wash!

- Airtime, is credit on your phone (called Load in the Philippines).
- CHOGM - the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting - held bi-annually and the last one was in Uganda, at the end of 2007. There was a frenzy of preparation for it, including building many hotels that specialise in empty rooms, beautifying the city and indulging in some serious Queen love. Kampala was full of ads with the tag line "Uganda is Ready for CHOGM" and it became a catchphrase.
- Marabou storks are massive and incredibly ugly birds that live in Kampala and eat rubbish (literally - they eat trash). They are disgusting
- Umeme is the power company
boda bodas are the taxis that drive around towns with passengers, generally piloted by kamikaze riders with no regard for anyone else on the road. They have quite a high death rate.


Without further ado...You know you are been in Uganda too long when...



…driving, you find yourself using your turn signals as means of communication....'the road is too thin', 'don't overtake (pass me) there is a BUS coming', 'No I'm NOT going to turn here', 'whoopee, we won the football!'

…you no longer get annoyed when people lie to you and make promises they can't possibly keep

…seeing someone speeding towards you in the wrong lane seems completely normal

…Your phone rings and it is a wrong number and you can keep the Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello's going back and forth like a tennis match until eventually the caller realises you are the wrong number and abruptly hangs up, after spending at least 2 minutes worth of airtime!

…You find yourself pointing with your lips and saying "yes" by raising both eyebrows.

…You can masterfully employ a variety of "Eh!" and "Eh eh!" noises to convey a range of meanings

…You know "Come back tomorrow at 10:00 a.m." means whatever you're trying to get done is NEVER going to happen

…You start using the words "even" and "ever" in places you never would have ("Even me, I'm feeling hungry," or "I have ever done that")

…You start referring to people as "this one" or "that one"

…You know you've what? been in Uganda a long time....when you what? Start each sentence as a question and proceed to what? Answer it yourself!

…You've figured out the Ugandan difference between food and snacks

…someone asks you "How is there?" You reply "It is there...

…You willingly drive into oncoming traffic just to avoid the potholes

…A car isn't full unless it has at least 7 people in it

…you can speak Uganglish so well that - you talk with a Ugandan accent; use words like 'shocked,' 'fearing,' 'extend,' 'balance,' ''somehow,' 'even me,' and 'can you imagine' and 'are you sure?' far too often...

…someone "flashes" your phone you just flash them back and wait for them to flash you back and then you flash them back and then they flash you back and....

…you know the load shedding schedule by heart

…you keep a jerry can full of water around, just in case…

…you feel exposed without bars on your windows

…When you come back from being out of the country and conversations go as:
Them: "you have been lost!!" and your response: "I have been found!"
Them: "how is there?" and you: "there is fine!"
Them: "you have gone fat!!!" and you are lost for words because you are not used to be told so with such frankness!!

…You emphasize how you like something and they say: "Are you sure?"

…you are asked how you are and your response is: "Me I am fine, how are you?"

…someone calls out your name and your reply is: "I am the one!"

…you end the conversation with "ok please!"

…your knees ache from squatting over a long drop 4 times a day as a result of a parasite living in your intestines

…it's 28 degrees outside and there are people wearing parkas ("jumpers"?) and stocking caps

…You ask for someone, and you know the answer "He's within" means everything from "He's within the building" to "He's within the city" or even "He's within the country".

….you refer to others as 'you people' and don't intend to be rude

…you start sentences with 'As for me, I ….'

…you stop using those little 'off' or 'up' bits of verbs. You pick people. And you drop them.

…you get 'Fine' as a reply to your 'hello'.

…'nownow' means sometime soon, possibly in the next day or two, whereas 'now' means anytime in the next month.

….'moving' becomes 'shifting' (but you move with people rather than hang out with them)

…you stand in a line and feel something is very wrong because it is orderly and the person behind you respects your personal space...

…"ok" punctuates, modifies, tags and answers almost every sentence.

…"Bambi", said with that humble look, becomes your standard expression of sympathy.

…you use the term "just there" to mean on the other side of the city

…"first let me come" or "first wait" makes perfect sense to you

…at the end of a meeting, people say, "Ok Please" as opposed to good bye or have a nice one.

…your stories always have an "eh?" to make sure the people are listening

…you say SORRY! when someone hurts themselves through no fault of yours

…you call white people "muzungu" and forget that you yourself are white....

…you go to a restaurant and order something off the menu and the waiter/waitress looks you right in the eye and says "We don't have that one

…walking by a uniformed officer carrying an assault rifle is completely normal

…you are Ready For CHOGM

…Clothes becomes a two-syllable word. Clo - thes.

…You know the man asking for Lose actually refers to Rose. And when
someone says "let's play" you should stay seated.

…you don't get confused even though the person you're talking to keeps mixing up 'he' and 'she' in the same sentence talking about the same person.

…you are reluctant to let go of a new, CLEAN 1000 shilling note.

…your home does not have an address.

…your handshakes last an entire conversation

…next to a public phone at the bottom of the call cost there is a charge for beeping

…marriage proposals become a normal and almost expected thing from strangers.

…you have time to grab lunch while the bank teller cashes your check.

…you stop noticing how ugly marabou storks actually are

…you think the taxi you're about to enter is too full but the conductor will squeeze you in and let you sit where he was sitting but then he will be standing over you with his bad body odor.

…You have 9 x 10,000UGX bills and you wrap the 10th one around it and put it in your wallet.

…being given a "push" has nothing to do with "push and shove", but being escorted to your car after a visit....

…You lie on the phone that you are about to arrive for a meeting…yet you've not yet left you're home, forgetting that someone can do the mathematics and be able to tell that you lied!

…You have constant power supply at your house for a week. It leaves you thinking Umeme is not doing its work right. Supplying darkness instead of light.

…people walk into your house and you say "You are all most welcome!"

…you are making a verbal list and trail off saying "what, what.."

…you start calling inanimate objects "stubborn" when they don't work well

…you always use your big notes despite the fact that you have the exact change.

…you think "eh" in a high pitch tone is the correct way to respond when a boda drivers price suggestion is too high.

…umbrellas are not for rain but for the shunshine



Q: why do boda boda drivers wear helmets?

A: because of the passengers whacking them on the head to slow them down.

This is very easy - I am writing a logframe at the moment (fellow POs, feel free to groan in sympathy with me) and I keep distracting myself with posting photos - makes the time go more quickly, although unfortunately the wretched thing is still waiting for me when I get back... Without further ado, I present more photos (these are really random at this point - I am looking through my pictures and thinking "cool - I'll post that" - I will try to be more thematic in the future...)


This photo is actually just a couple of days ago in Capetown - a bunch of us went out to dinner at this quite fancy restaurant, where we paid the staggering amount of approximately US$15 per head for amazing food and drinks (another thing to add to the 'Reasons-Why-I-Love-Capetown list - incredibly cheap!) Needless to say, we were not actually dressed for the occasion (as Ash said, we were in a very upscale place, dressed for MacDonalds) but we had a hoot regardless, and probably entertained the rest of the restaurant with our discussions of heroics from the training ("remember when those terrorists made you dance the Conga Line?")



L-R Judy (Aussie, based in Cyprus), Ana (Bosnian, based in Georgia), Ash (Kiwi based in Australia - old buddy), me, Angel (Indonesian based in Singapore) and Patrick (Ugandan, based in Nairobi) with our pretty scrumptious food



Okay - I already posted this picture and am trying to re-post in the hopes that it is a little larger and you can actually make out the faces. I think I will fail in this hope though - it is just a darn small picture. It's strange to look at this photo, taken a year ago, and realise how many changes we have had in our team since then. I'll have to get a new team photo soon and we can put them side by side.



L-R; Isaac, Wycliffee, Julius, Ekra, Me, Bob, Godfrey, Simba (behind), Bettina and Wise, with Amos seated and looking like the King that he is!



This is from my birthday in February- I took my camera and took a photo of the table when we arrived, because it looked so beautiful (all formal place settings for 25 with wonderful flowers) then forgot about it until the end of the night, so have no actual pictures of the dinner!! But someone took this at the cake moment and although it's a lousy shot, I think it shows how long my hair is getting...





With Kim, one of my very best friends here, at a Christmas party last December. Kim lived in Russia for six years, so is a vodka afficionado (!) She was also a Godsend when we went to St Petersburg last year - not only did she give extensive lists of which restaurants to go to, she gave us lists of what to order! Everyone has those people with whom they immediately click and become so close to - Kim is one of those for me and I will miss her greatly when we no longer live in the same city.



Just wait until your Father sees you!! (family in-joke!) My car in Karamoja last year. It takes beatings for me again and again and keeps coming up roses (well - until someone else took it to Karamoja a few months ago and blew up the engine - it is currently still in for extensive surgery). This trip was amazing - it poured with rain as we drove in and we passed so many cars stuck in the mud...I was nervous because we only had my Prado, not one of the Landcruisers, fitted with mud tyres and an electric winch, and many prayers were said as we drove through bogs. Returning, we left on the Friday night as Bob's father was very ill and he needed to get back to Nairobi...we drove out through insane pouring rain and even continued on to Kampala that night (I was driving whilst the driver napped in the passenger seat and Bob kept commenting how much tiring it was sitting in the backseat than driving - although he declined my frequent suggestions that we swap places to alleviate his fatigue - I had a hard time exercising a modicum of restraint!) We arrive around midnight (greatly violating security protocols, but I was so glad not to have to sleep in Mbale) and I collapsed into bed exhausted, then got a phone call from our Security Manger the next morning - we had about six cars trying to also get out and just getting perpetually stuck in the mud - they kept driving and finally arrived in Kampala over 24 hours later, on Sunday morning. I was SO grateful that we had left the Friday night - those 12 fewer hours of rain really saved us!

That mud is so thick it totally obscured our logo on the door (for security reasons, all NGO cars have their logos on their doors, as evidenced by the UN car behind us) - it demonstrated the point that Louis had made a week before about larger logos on the doors aptly!!

Well - pictures don't require much effort and as I am working on a proposal, this is my default right now!! I have just come back from a week of Security Training in Capetown and am in love with Capetown and want to move to South Africa right now - it was like being at home (the shopping! drinking tap water! good roads!!!). The training was intense but incredibly valuable - I will be writing about that at a later point. But for now - on with the pictures...


At a food distribution - true to form, the women do all the heavy lifting while the men stand around supervising...



Bob putting on a bullet proof vest for the first time ever - whilst IN a moving car in convoy. We didn't know he had never put one on - they are murder to get into and you really need someone to put you into it whilst standing up. Anyway, his efforts provided much hilarity to the rest of us in the car (and took him about ten minutes) - I have a sequence of photos that are increasingly funny (including Walter, next to him, theoretically helping him, but really laughing too much to be anything more than a hindrance) but due to the difficulties of uploading, you only get the final one, with his look of triumph. He then proceeded to take the remaining vests and build a little wall of Babylon all around him as well...




The thriving metropolis of Pader ... seriously folks, this is it. This street.
I'm not leaving anything out. What you see is what you get...




Bettina and I (in local dress) with Dez at his Traditional Wedding, in his wife's village. That day was an amazing saga - I should try to write the story sometime as it was surreal...

So - I thought I'd have another stab at showing some pictures from every day life here, the work etc. Internet seems to be cooperating a little more (nervous to say that in case it blinks out again!) so I will have a shot...


This is Denba, who used to drive for us - Driver Extraordinaire and pretty much the coolest man on the planet. He's sitting on a traditional little stool which cracks me up as he is about eight feet tall. I still see him, but no longer with work with him. I miss Denba...



This is at Landmine Awareness Day last year in Pader - I am with my landmine team and VERY dear friends, L-R Susan, Me, Monica and Walter (who appears fascinated by the happenings!!)




A day in the life - digging a car out of the mud in the East




Geoffrey (our Water Engineer) and myself distributing relief supplies during the flood response, Soroti, 2007 (no comments about stupid hats, please - it is hot and I burn too easily!)

Well - I was supposed to be travelling to northern Uganda today for the week, but was held up with issues with the EU and another food aid project, and then suddenly we have four days to write a WFP (World Food Program) Proposal, and I think I will be lucky to go to bed this week, let alone go to the north!! The field teams will just have to survive without me for another week! That's not too bad - it is dry season here now and sooooooooo hot up north...makes it really hard to sleep at night. Although I am really excited - up in Pader, which was nothing but a refugee camp a couple of years ago, they now have RUNNING WATER!! It's still insanely cold, but it's running out of taps (sometimes) and makes hair washing soooo much easier!!

Many friends here are off on adventures soon - Sam, Kenny and Julia are going to climb Kilimanjaro on Saturday (I could have gone, but can't really afford a week away from the office at this point, plus...a week without washing? Not really me?!?!) And Charlie is heading to Antigua for a fortnight (me? jealous? Not in the slightest - what makes you ask that!!) I guess I am (hopefully) going to Sth Africa in six weeks for Level Two Security Training (the one where they practice abducting you and holding you hostage etc...should be oodles of fun) so who am I to be jealous?

As part of my attempt to "do stuff other than work" I have started doing personal training with Remmy (the husband of Bettina, my fellow Program Officer and general saving grace). He has succesfully killed me twice now (amazing revival, hey?!) but it's good. He is such a sweetie and very encouraging as he is dragging me up and down hills. I will keep plugging away at this and see if I can't regain some of my former fitness (running 8km kills me about now, and that used to be my standard morning run).

One fun thing...we are now working longer hours on Monday to Thursday, then supposed to leave the office at 2.00 p.m. on Fridays. I have not yet managed this, of course, but it is a wonderfully tantalising prospect, and am hoping to do it this Friday, as it is my birthday - Bettina and I are going to go for Devonshire Tea at the tearoom run by the British wife of the Doctor here - I cannot WAIT!!

Okay...back to it...

Well, it's a hot Sunday in Kampala and I am ploughing through emails, trying to clear up a fraction of the hanging work before heading north again tomorrow. This is my least favourite time of year here - in the middle of the dry season the weather is hot and the air is dusty, in the north they are burning the grass and it is brown. This usually lush and green country is far less attractive, although just one or two rainstorms also makes an amazing difference.

I am well into the year again - Christmas seems like a distant memory. I think I will subtitle my trip home over Christmas the "you have to join facebook" promotional tour, as I was extolled the facebook virtues by just about everyone (John even giving me a demonstration of their excellent facilities, which I think was an excuse for "look at all my holiday pictures from America"!) The only dissenting voice is Mum who read an article about it being co-owned by a senior CIA official and thinks it is being used for information gathering purposes (she is probably right, although I do pity the poor person who has to wade through all of that to try to ascertain any useful intelligence!!) I think the masses have prevailed and it is jut a matter of time (and me being willing to allocate a few hours to this) and then I will really join the noughties (is that what they're called?)

Apart from that, Christmas holiday was awesome, but unremarkable. There was home. It rocked. End of story really!! Lots of Mum-cooking, dog-walking, sleeping, catching up, adoring the wonderful Melbourne roads (and my zoomy little car!) and the ease of life in Melbourne. Spending time with friends reminded me how lucky I am to have so many great ones, and made me feel guilty that work has superceded contact with them so much in the last year...but no more! I will do better...

Travelling back delivered a nice surprise - I was upgraded to First Class (I feel that deserves capital letters) for the Melbourne-Dubai leg, which rocked the house fairly sublimely. My own little bed (that they made up with sheets and pillows and a doona!) and pyjamas, a full wine list, with Moet & Chandon Dom Perignon Champagne (!), a la carte dining, a massaging chair, the list goes on and on. I was totally in love with First Class, and then had to shuttle back to economy (undeserving of capital letters) for the Dubai-Entebbe leg, which just about killed me. Also, I ran out of time at the airport and all my planned Duty Free shopping wound up producing one tall latte with an extra shot :( Not quite what I was looking for (and then we sat at the gate for an hour and a half...I was tempted to ask if I could just duck back into the terminal to finish my shopping, while they sorted out whatever problem they had - after all, they could page me, right?!?!) Anyway...

So - back to work, back to real life. We have a new Department Director (finally - after a year of waiting) so are all waiting to see what life is like under the new regime. Apart from that, I am vaguely attempting to get a life, instead of working 24/7 - I'll keep you posted on the progress...

I have been trying to upload more pictures but the internet here is not so interested in cooperating - I will keep trying. Seems to be unable to even load one picture lately... Guess them's the breaks...

This is just killing me right now – I am approving a list of patients for medical treatment – they are all former child soldiers, or else children who were “born in captivity” – this means that their mothers were abducted and gave birth whilst child soldiers themselves. Reading this list of injuries, looking at the ages of the patients and wondering about their lives in order to have survived, but be living with these injuries. The suffering of the people of northern Uganda, and their continued perseverance with life and hope, in the face of a situation that would just cause me to crawl into a corner and give up hope, totally amazes me. I will give a couple of examples:

· An 18 year old boy paralysed in one arm due to gun shot
· A 20 year old boy paralysed from the waist down due to gun shot
· A 16 year old boy with his jaw blown off – artificial jaw
· Two 9 year old girls, born in captivity, one with HIV/AIDS and the other paralysed due to a bomb splinter in the brain
· A girl totally paralysed and wheelchair-bound due to bullet in the spine, has returned with two children born in captivity
· A 15 year old boy, totally blind because of backfire of a gun
· A 17 year old boy with a bullet lodged between his two lungs – inoperable

This is just an extract of this list, which is just a tiny, miniscule fraction of the number of war-wounded in northern Uganda – and these are just the physical wounds. Forget the fact that the entire region is traumatised and psychologically wounded. The mental trauma these kids have gone through is indescribable.

Think of some kids you know – imagine them living like this? For the rest of their lives. It is such evil. And now the LRA (the rebel army fighting the insurgency in northern Uganda) has turned its attention to Sudan and DRC – they are wreaking untold destruction in Congo right now – hundreds of killed and heavens knows how many children abducted.

At least some small piece of hope – we are bringing some of these kids down to Kampala to the main hospital here where, we hope, they will have some of their problems fixed. Such a tiny little drop in the ocean though…

So that’s my morning…how’s yours???

Originally posted 12 December, 2008


...This is my time of the year.

Well - being a total Christmas nut, I am in heaven right now - Christmas is only a couple of weeks away and I leave for home in a week...home! With family and friends and good coffee and my DOG! Of course, I just have to survive long enough to make it there - the work has certainly not abated since I came back from Europe - if possible, it is even greater. I am desperately longing for home - and holidays.

I am still intending to post about my Europe trip - other holidays this year (skiing in Europe in Feb, Zanzibar at Easter, Safari in Tanzania) have not ever made it onto this blog, but this last trip was amazing and I really want to post about it. Sadly, I have realised that it will probably have to wait until Christmas and holidays in order to be posted - I just do not have the time to do it right now.

I thought, however, that in the meantime I could post some pictures and give a bit more of a glimpse of everyday life here in Kampala for me, and include some of my coworkers - put a face to the names I mention to many people in emails/phone calls etc...

So - without further ado:





Hmm - it's pretty small - hope I can identify everyone!! This is most of our key team at the team retreat about six months ago. Some of these guys have gone and we have some new ones, but it's a start

L-R Isaac (Finance), Wycliffee (Operations), Julius (at back - Security), Ekra (Commodities), Me, Bob (Grants Manager), Godfrey (Monitoring and Evaluation), Simba (at far back - Commodities), Bettina (mostly hidden - Program Officer like me), Wise (Finance) and seated - Amos (Operations Manager)

It has taken a couple of hours to load one picture, so that's all you're getting for now. I'm sick of this and want to go home! Will post more later...

Original posted 25 October, 2008

Yes – there were many, many adventures following Cesky Krumlov, but not much time to write blog entries. Sad, when you are too busy having fun to write about it, hey?! I am determined that this long Europe trip will NOT join all the other adventures that are never recorded here (this year alone: France/Germany skiing in February, Zanzibar at Easter, Tanzania safari in June) – I really want to write about it all, complete with pictures – as much for my own memories as to share the experience (mite selfish, I know!) However, since returning to Uganda a month ago, I have pretty much done nothing but work – unfortunately the work situation seems to be worse than before I left, so time for blog-writing has been severely restricted. However, I will be working on this – although the posts may consist more of pictures than text. Keep watching this space…

In other news – Uganda is pretty much same old. I’ve been in Kampala exclusively since returning, working on our response to the food crisis that has gripped East Africa. We are heading into Karamoja in our new programming, where the situation is absolutely dire – it is a drought stricken area bordering Kenya, traditionally very insecure and dangerous and poverty stricken to the max – the numbers of people dying of starvation are terrifying and the stories that come out are heart-breaking. I am really glad that we are starting programming there as the need is overwhelming – I am sure I will be back with pictures and stories as well…

One wonderful little thing – our team was meeting early this morning to plan how to get through everything that needed to be done this week. And apparently they had decided to call in reinforcements for a week to help with a proposal for the north. And there is a knock on Bob’s office door, it opens….and Admir is standing there!!! A good friend from Melbourne who I haven’t seen in yonks and yonks, just standing in our office – I couldn’t believe it! He is here for a week and I intend to maximise the catching up (and persuade him to shave off his Damir Dokic beard as well – I have a task ahead of me!)

On that note – they are kicking me out of the office, so I must post and run…

Will be back with tales of Europe

Originally posted 25 August 2008


Well - my tour of Europe continues apace. I only have a few minutes so am copying the majority of this text from an email to my parents!! I cannot remember the last post but after Gothenburg, and going up the Swedish coast, I went to Stockholm, which I just ADORED. Met up with my cousin Clyde and his family, and my friend Nina showed me the sights. Awesome time. Then went to Copenhagen which was also beautiful, but rainy (a constant feature of this trip). Then on to Berlin, which I just loved so so so much - great city. Then to Friedrichsdorf to Brett and Belinda's (great to catch up with them) and then to Vienna to start an Intrepid Tour of Eastern Europe.


I am now in Cesky Krumlow (with a lot of accents over letters in that name!!) in the south of the Czech Republic and we leave tomorrow for Prague (yipee!) You should try to look this place up on google - it is out of a fairy tale - all cobblestone streets, buildings going back 600 years, a castle on a hill, river running through - it is too beautiful for words! I really love it here.


So far we have done Vienna, which was beautiful - did the walking tour - the Opera was closed for the summer but I took a photo outside. Went to Schoenbrunn Palace in the afternoon which is just stunning - I really liked that. Then that night we went to a concert of Viennese music which was great (Strauss, Mozart and Beethoven, which I think might be stretching the truth a bit, but who lets the truth get in the way of a good concert!!) There were also Opera Singers which I liked, and ballet dancers, who didn't have enough room to move and I found a bit twee!


Next day we went to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, which was a very small area of old buildings and cobblestones etc., but reasonably underwhelming and I feel no need for a return visit. Four hours were plenty to see the sights!! Then we came here for two days and it has been beautiful. We had a walking historical tour of the town yesterday which was really, really interesting, and then went up to the castle, which is about 800 years old or something!

Then this morning we went mountain biking through the forest (so beautiful except for the downhill on loose gravel/sand which was wet - a bit slippery!!) and the others went rafting this afternoon, but my elbos is still really sore so I skipped that.


So will try to write again later Will eventually hopefully post photos and more details, but at least you know where I am. Hope all are well...


P.S. Hugs to my fave barista!!

Okay - I'm going to catch up on old posts, because I do know some people read this instead of my main blog... So - old time posts (not that many - all I basically do nowadays is work, which makes for lack of posting :( )


Originally posted 1 August 2008

Am currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, for Erik (our former exchange student)'s wedding tomorrow to Elin. This event has been the focus point of a very loooooong trip from my family, in which I have joined for a few weeks. They first came to Africa and I met them in Tanzania. This was oodles of fun - I flew there the night before them and went to Dar Es Salaam to stay with my former boss and his wife and son. I was close to the family in Uganda and have missed them since they moved to Dar, so it was great to see them all again. After dinner we went to have drink on the ocean, and they made me jealous with all the great shopping (I couldn't believe how much stuff was just on the shelves in the supermarket!) and I had to send a message to Bettina to make her jealous too... The next day we all caught the ferry over to Zanzibar and had a great day wandering around Stonetown before they went to their hotel and I went to meet Mum, Dad and Alex. It was great to see them and welcome them to their first visit to East Africa (and Alex' first time in Africa).

After four days in Zanzibar, with the highlight of scuba diving and swimming with dolpins, we headed to the mainland and a week of safari that was absolutely awesome. We drove through Lake Manyara and down to the Olduvai plain, seeing where the Leakeys found the oldest skull in the world. Then on to the Serengeti National Park where we saw all the game, including a leopard and cheetah (which I was most excited about) and finally heading back to Uganda. We had a few days in the north (I think they were pretty alarmed at the trip up there as I drove on the Uganda roads surrounded by Ugandan drivers!) and the family were able to see some of my project work and go to a camp to talk to the IPDs. Then we finished with a weekend at Murchison Falls, where the Nile passes through a thin waterfall before continuing on to Sudan. All fabulous and sad to finish when they left.


I then finished up at work (am taking two months off as am totally burned out right now) and flew to Europe to meet them a week ago (they had been with Jan in Italy). We then went to St Petersburg, which is something I have dreamed about since Mrs Fergus first talked about Russian History to me in 1993. Not much opportunity to give details here as the internet cafe is about to run out of time, but I will be back with details and photos. Suffice to say, it was awesome beyond words - we went to The Hermitage, ballet at the Mariinksy, Tsarskoye Selo, the Peter and Paul fortress (where all the Tsars were buried) and I was in heaven. Four days was not nearly enough - will have to go back. We then caught the train to Helsinki and had a day there, before coming on to Sweden.


And now time's up. More details and photos later...

Okay - I'm going to catch up on old posts, because I do know some people read this instead of my main blog... So - old time posts (not that many - all I basically do nowadays is work, which makes for lack of posting :( )


Originally posted 1 August 2008

Am currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, for Erik (our former exchange student)'s wedding tomorrow to Elin. This event has been the focus point of a very loooooong trip from my family, in which I have joined for a few weeks. They first came to Africa and I met them in Tanzania. This was oodles of fun - I flew there the night before them and went to Dar Es Salaam to stay with my former boss and his wife and son. I was close to the family in Uganda and have missed them since they moved to Dar, so it was great to see them all again. After dinner we went to have drink on the ocean, and they made me jealous with all the great shopping (I couldn't believe how much stuff was just on the shelves in the supermarket!) and I had to send a message to Bettina to make her jealous too... The next day we all caught the ferry over to Zanzibar and had a great day wandering around Stonetown before they went to their hotel and I went to meet Mum, Dad and Alex. It was great to see them and welcome them to their first visit to East Africa (and Alex' first time in Africa).

After four days in Zanzibar, with the highlight of scuba diving and swimming with dolpins, we headed to the mainland and a week of safari that was absolutely awesome. We drove through Lake Manyara and down to the Olduvai plain, seeing where the Leakeys found the oldest skull in the world. Then on to the Serengeti National Park where we saw all the game, including a leopard and cheetah (which I was most excited about) and finally heading back to Uganda. We had a few days in the north (I think they were pretty alarmed at the trip up there as I drove on the Uganda roads surrounded by Ugandan drivers!) and the family were able to see some of my project work and go to a camp to talk to the IPDs. Then we finished with a weekend at Murchison Falls, where the Nile passes through a thin waterfall before continuing on to Sudan. All fabulous and sad to finish when they left.


I then finished up at work (am taking two months off as am totally burned out right now) and flew to Europe to meet them a week ago (they had been with Jan in Italy). We then went to St Petersburg, which is something I have dreamed about since Mrs Fergus first talked about Russian History to me in 1993. Not much opportunity to give details here as the internet cafe is about to run out of time, but I will be back with details and photos. Suffice to say, it was awesome beyond words - we went to The Hermitage, ballet at the Mariinksy, Tsarskoye Selo, the Peter and Paul fortress (where all the Tsars were buried) and I was in heaven. Four days was not nearly enough - will have to go back. We then caught the train to Helsinki and had a day there, before coming on to Sweden.


And now time's up. More details and photos later...

I have been meaning to post an update of the situation in northern Uganda for a while now, for people's information, but am just working so so so hard that I don't get much time for anything else. I'm not sure how much people know, but there was supposed to be a big signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the LRA in April this year in Juba (southern Sudan) that failed - Kony (LRA leader) never showed and it turned out that the LRA negotiator in the mediations had never actually met or spoken with Kony, and was not speaking for him, as he had claimed.

Although there has been no resumption of open conflict in the north following this, small skirmishes have been reported, as have isolated LRA sightings. Additionally, it has had a profound impact upon the IDP (Internally Displaced People - most people in the north fit into this category - IDPs are refugees who have not crossed an international border - they are displaced within their own country - like the Sudanese living in camps in Darfur). People are more fearful - there has been a slow but steady transition of people from the large mother camps to smaller resettlement/return camps which still offer the safety of an army presence, but are closer to original homestead and thus allow some access to their land to farm. These movements are creating a whole new situation on the ground (which is a whole different posting topic!) but people are now reluctant to move from the return camps all the way home, and those that have gone home, or are at the return camps are constantly prepared to flee back to the mother camps. I have noticed slightly more (not much, but a bit) troop movement in the north in the past few months. Another tragic thing is the impact this development has on the psychological recovery of former child soldiers - they are now more fearful with a potential return to conflict - those that have escaped the LRA are at greater danger or reprisal from the rebels.

Anyway - the Secretary General of the UN released a report on Children in Armed Conflict in Uganda - I thought I would post an excerpt here so you can read. Long story short: it aint over yet - all the abducted children are out of reach in Sudan and Congo and they're not being released. We still need your thoughts/hopes/efforts/prayers:



25 June 2008 – Although the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) does not seem to be recruiting children in Uganda, women and children are still present in its ranks, and the rebel group is allegedly enlisting young people from neighbouring countries, according to a United Nations report released today.


The LRA, which has fought a civil war with the Ugandan Government since the mid-1980s, became notorious during the conflict for abducting as many as 25,000 children and using them as fighters and porters. The children were often subject to extreme violence shortly after
abduction, with many girls allocated to officers in a form of institutional rape.


“Owing to the apparent absence of LRA from Ugandan territory, there have been no recent cases of recruitment and use of Ugandan children, or other grave violations against children
attributable to LRA,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a new report to the Security
Council.

“However, children and women are still present in the LRA ranks, and there has been no movement on their release,” he adds.

In addition, he notes there are reports alleging that the group has been recruiting children
from southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR).


In one case, three boys from the Sudan and the CAR who escaped from the LRA reported that they had been forced to work for the group as porters. They also reported that girls were present in the ranks, and that they were regularly subjected to gender-based violence, including rape.

On 23 April, authorities in Dungu in eastern DRC reported that 13 people, including four students, were abducted from a primary school following LRA attacks.


“These allegations are being reported while the peace talks between LRA and the Government of Uganda are stalled, notably because of the refusal by the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, to sign the final peace agreement,” Mr. Ban writes.


Last July the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict called on the LRA
to unconditionally release children used in their ranks, and underlined the absence of any
concrete signs in this regard.


The Group also noted the International Criminal Court indictments against five senior members of the LRA – the leader Joseph Kony, and the commanders Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Raska Lukwiya – on a number of charges, including the enlistment of children through abduction.

The rebel group has maintained that it had released all children and women abducted or
forcibly conscripted some time ago and that those who remained in the bush were women and
children related to LRA members.
Mr. Ban says that this information cannot be independently verified because of the absence of
any direct contacts between the UN and the LRA leadership.

The Secretary-General urges the LRA to provide a complete list of names and ages of the women
and children remaining in its ranks for verification and to carry out their immediate release.

In addition, he says the UN Task Forces on Monitoring and Reporting in Uganda, the CAR, the
DRC and the Sudan, in cooperation with the UN missions in the DRC and Sudan, should develop a strategy to increase monitoring and reporting on cross-border recruitment and use of children by the LRA.

I’m just full of the sadness right now…

There’s a BBC News Documentary about the current election violence in Zimbabwe, which just makes me crazy – how can anyone in the world think that this could possibly be okay – how can other African leaders not be screaming and jumping up and down? How can Mugabe look at himself in the mirror? Such evil. And to stop all the NGO work – my NGO was supposed to distribute food to 400,000 people this month – what are those 400,000 people eating right now? Aurgh – shouldn’t dwell on it – I’ll just become more furious.

I went to the burial of a nine-month old girl last week. Shalom was adorable – with chubby, chubby cheeks and curly hair. She would grab my little finger and hang on so tightly – I last saw her a week before she died and had to prise her little fingers off mine – I now wish I had just kept hanging on forever. She was the daughter of a colleague – a wonderful man who was shot by the LRA rebels in 2002 (I met him the first time I came here, just after he was released from hospital) whilst driving for us, and yet still does his work. Richard has a gentle heart, a fabulous work ethic and a wicked sense of humour. He and his wife also have a four year old boy – a rambunctious little fellow called Solomon. Since Shalom was born, every time I would ask after her, Richard’s eyes would light up and he would tell me her latest development – she was smiling, rolling over, sitting up – all those wonderful things babies do as they grow. But then, when I was in Gulu last December (for the burial of another colleague’s 29 year old wife), Richard was at the hospital with Shalom. She was having problems with her liver. For the next six months, Shalom was in and out of doctors and hospitals – she eventually came down to Kampala for treatment, and then we managed to get her to Nairobi to try to help. So many people fought to save this little girl, but eventually, she died in her mothers arms last Tuesday…"waiting for the doctor”. I wonder how many people in Africa die while waiting for the doctor?

I drove to Gulu (the biggest town in northern Uganda – the base of northern operations for most NGOs, as well as the army’s base for its war against the rebels – about six hours drive north of Kampala) for the burial with Peter, another driver who used to be based in Gulu. He has children of similar ages to Richards’, and was telling me that there have been times when he and Richard have both been in hospital with their children near death. I was thinking about this during the burial service and realising what a tremendous accomplishment it is for all the adults in this country – just to have made it to adulthood. It is something we would never even think about at home, but to even just stay alive is a great accomplishment.

Of course, once you hit adulthood, you aren’t necessarily going to have smooth sailing. The ravage of AIDS here, let alone other diseases, is staggering – what we read about as abstract facts in newspapers, is real flesh and blood. I have a friend who has already buried three siblings from AIDS and is caring for their children now (all but one is completely orphaned – one boy still has his mother). He was telling me that he went back his village a few weeks ago for the burial of another brother, only to arrive and find him still breathing. He packed him in the car, brought him to Kampala and got him treatment, back on the anti-retrovirals and the brother is now walking again.

The constant presence of death overshadows life in Africa. Staff are constantly going to burials – most staff would bury a relative (taking into consideration the much larger size of the families here) every month or two, and then when you consider friends and colleagues, much of one’s time is spent at burials. I have only been to two in my time in Uganda (although that is two more than the number of weddings I have made it to) and have been harshly reminded of how less sanitised death is here – the services are conducted under trees in the village (in both cases, next to the burned-out remnants of houses destroyed by the rebels) right next to the coffins. When we buried Joyce, her mother started screaming and throwing herself onto the coffin – she had to be carried away and passed out. And then after the service, everyone gives speeches, and the local dignitaries decided this would be a good opportunity to do some campaigning!! Blew my mind a little.

I apologise for the excessive absence – I have just been working and working – almost all I do nowadays is work and sleep, with the occasional self-indulgent window for eating and personal hygiene. Okay – I exaggerate a little – I did make time to see the Sex and the City Movie twice (I have my priorities in order) which was lots of fun. All this is about to change however – I’m about to embark on a fair bit of travel, in Africa and then in Europe.

So in an effort to catch up - I'm cross posting a post or two from my skiing trip in February...

Yes - as I cruised down a beautiful run today at Chamonix, I wondered why on earth I choose to spend my life running around the most miserable spots on earth, rather than doing more of this kind of thing? ;-) Answer?.....to be provided once I figure it out myself!

I'm here with a group of Aussie friends, ostensibly to celebrate my 30th birthday, really just to ski... It is so bizarre to fly out of Uganda and eventually (after a journey that took me Uganda--Kenya--Netherlands--northern Ireland--Switzerland--France in less than 24 hours) land up in the snow, surrounded by mountains (still my favourite landscape in the world!) I had four hours in Amsterdam with Mike, who's heading off to Afghanistan (spare him a thought occasionally!!) and drinking disappointing coffee before baffling the poor people at Belfast airport by only transferring ("but...nobody does that here. Why are you just transiting through Belfast?"...."because it was the cheapest route from Amsterdam to Geneva")

Anyway - I'm pretty exhausted now - first day out - murder on the legs and all of that. Time for shower and bed, but thought I should check in.

Many thanks to all those who sent me birthday wishes last week - you all rock tremendously *big hugs*

So much to say, but so little reader-attention-span to not abuse!! I must be succinct (you can all stop rolling your eyes now!) here and see if I can fit it all in.

So – it’s February already, which is truly terrifying – where is the year going? Where is my life going? I turn 30 in a couple of weeks and as far as I’m concerned, that is officially OLD. So I’m bracing myself. My plan was to be skiing on my birthday, but due to our organization being audited, and my presence being required (my project is one of those being audited) I have to stick around and will have my birthday in Kampala. However, a few days later I am heading to Chamonix to ski and then spend another week rocking around Europe so I’m pretty excited about that. I just booked my flights and am making arrangements – can’t wait. Mum and Dad are currently skiing (well – Dad is skiing, Mum is nursing a broken arm) in Aspen with a bunch of friends. They have terrible weather and I think they are only getting to ski half the days, but the thought of them out on the slopes has given me itchy feet and I can’t wait to get back onto skis.

In the meantime though, I have plenty of work to occupy my time! I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions any more, but I did vow to try to work less this year. However – I think we can put that under the heading of ‘pipe dream’ at this stage.

Home leave continued to be brilliant. My parents had a party for my 30th while I was still home which was totally awesome and I got to go to the first day of the Australia Open (love me some tennis) which rocked (thank you Mike!) Other than that, the time was filled with usual things – lots of eating out, seeing friends, trying to stay cool in the heat. I seem to have improved at poker – I won a few games (pity we don’t play for money, hey?) and adored getting quality time with Phoebe, who has to be the naughtiest dog alive (Mum is making noises about boot camp – if only there were such a thing for recalcitrant dogs!) I also got up to Queensland for a week – a few days in Brisbane, running around madly seeing people, then Noosa for a few days, to say a final farewell to the house as my parents are planning to sell it. Sadly, the weather in Brisbane was insanely hot and humid – real Brisbane summer, and then there were storms and rain the whole time at Noosa – I got one quick run on the beach in between the rain and enough of a break for Kara and I to check out Hastings St., but it wasn’t a great goodbye to a house that I have adored for over ten years. There are so many happy memories in that house, so many people have visited, so many great times – it has been a haven many times, for me to escape to when everything was too much. So I am really sad to part with it…

Emirates put on its usual production of debacles (which reminds me that I haven’t written my nasty letter yet – I need to get on to that!) for my return, so it was delayed by a couple of days while they tried to get their act into gear. When I finally did get away, my flight from Melbourne was delayed by three hours (gave me time to buy a watch in duty free, which was a birthday pressie from the paternal family) so by the time we landed in Dubai, my connection to Entebbe had already left. More lack of customer service ensued, and finally, I was rebooked onto a flight leaving Dubai that night at 18.00 and going via Nairobi (there’s only one flight per day to Uganda). Luckily, before I got on the flight, eventually some bright spark at the airport noticed that they had scheduled me to arrive in Nairobi twenty minutes AFTER the connecting flight to Entebbe took off. Not such a good plan after all. So I wound up spending the night in Dubai and flying out to Entebbe the following morning. That was okay – I got to see Gabriele (known to us all as Mama) from the Afghanistan office, who was in Dubai (and meet the new National Director too). I haven’t seen Mama since I left so that was all kinds of awesome and I loved catching up on the news. And then I finally made it back to Kampala – two days late!

So now I’m up in the north again – Kitgum today (up close to the Sudanese border). I have a week or so traveling around monitoring the landmines project (plus a little School Feeding in Pader) before heading to Soroti to check on the flood response. I can’t wait to get to Soroti – my friend Eli has relocated there from Gulu so she has a house I can stay in, and I can’t wait to see her. No more Soroti Hotel and two hours wait for dinner for me!

And on that note – I think it’s lunchtime….

...and I don't feel any different

(just quoting Death Cab for Cutie at you there...because I have to, really!)


Anyway - Happy 2008 to all - hope it is a ripper year. My New Year's Eve was relatively quiet, due to the insane heat (it was still 41C at 6.30p.m. on NYE - and if still felt pretty darn hot at midnight too) - so just hung with some friends in air conditioning ;)


Being at home is all the awesomeness that I expected, and I am also as tired as I expected - I am cranky that I am sleeping away too much of my vacation, although I am still having enormous trouble getting to sleep at night - wretched insomnia/jet lag (my sister gave me an anti-insomnia CD for Christmas...hee!)


After the never ending journey back home (getting to Entebbe airport via ridiculous traffic, Entebbe to Addis Ababa to Dubai to Singapore to Melbourne to mix-up-with-rides-home at 3.00a.m.) I made it back here (and didn't even get slapped into quarantine, as my boss and I were vaguely concerned about with the Ebola outbreaks in Uganda). Home is just as good as I remembered it, Mum is still an awesome cook, my family still rock and Phoebe is still adorable (and now minus the broken leg from the last time I saw her). Much of the holiday has been taken up with catching up, eating, sleeping and a bit of sales shopping. We have had to contend with killer weather - incredibly hot, but on the plus side, whilst sheltering in people's air conditiong, my poker skills seem to have vastly improved and I have one two games (pity we don't play for money!!)


Not much real news, but just trying to post more this year. I don't do New Year's resoultions any more - I have the (probably quite usual) record of never keeping them, so I just don't bother any more. But I will try to post more regularly...


And so...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So – a few events recently have conspired to make me realize that it’s a frightfully long time since I updated…once again. In the interim, Australia elected a new PM – about whom I know extremely little, except that he speaks Mandarin and has a suspiciously full head of hair. But he seems to have started well by signing Kyoto and making moves to close the offshore asylum seeker centers – we’ll see how it continues…

Amusing side note – during the election coverage, the BBC International news referred to Kevin Rudd as both Jim Rudd and Kenneth Rudd – gave me a few chuckles, and made me wonder how long he would have to be in power before they got his name right! Last night at dinner, we were discussing politics, and a Spanish Red Cross chap was noting that Australian elections don’t really get much coverage in the international news. I suppose I never really thought about it, mostly because I’m used to Australia not getting much coverage in international news (only in the Sport news, and then mostly related to cricket!) but I did think for a minute about why this was – as I said to Lorenzo, I think it’s usually because our elections are fairly undramatic affairs – there’s a winner and the loser normally accepts the results pretty equably. Plus, honestly – nobody really cares about politics in Australia – our events don’t usually have great dramatic impact upon world events (despite what Johnny Howard kept trying to convince himself, and us) and I think we like it like that – we are the land of sea, sun and sport and that doesn’t make for great headlines…

During the election, I was online with a Zimbabwean friend, and said “oh, by the way – looks like we have a new PM” (this was about an hour before Howard’s concession). And I realized that he probably hasn’t seen an event like that for most of his life. It’s things like this that make me so passionate about voting – I don’t just think it’s a right, I also think it’s a responsibility – I think I owe it to the millions of people around the world who have no rights to chose their leaders to exercise my democratic rights and march down to the polls. Sadly, I was thwarted in this desire this election. Uganda has no Australian consular presence – the closest in Nairobi (I really should try to not ever do anything whereby I require consular assistance, hey?!) which makes voting a wee challenge. It was also not helped by my current residence out in Soroti, which could politely be termed ‘the middle of nowhere’. So – I arranged with the High Commission in Nairobi for them to courier me my ballot papers, and gave them the street address of the office out here in Soroti, and the address of the office in Kampala, as a back-up (in case DHL don’t deliver to the middle of nowhere!)


And I begin waiting… and waiting…


And my boss orders me back to Kampala for R and R over the weekend of the election (think I was starting to fray around the edges!!) and my ballot papers still hadn’t arrive by the time we left on Friday lunch time. So I had a friend checking in with the office on Friday, and Saturday, to see if my papers arrived. Still nada. Saturday – the election is all over and I haven’t voted, for the first time since I turned 18. Monday morning – I get a call from DHL – “we have a parcel here for you – where can we deliver it?”


I was ready to scream down the phone, but being a well-brought up lady, I didn’t. I just politely gave them the address of the office in Kampala, and took delivery of my ballot papers – two days after the election!! I really think DHL should give the Australian Government a refund on that one… Somebody could have walked from Nairobi and delivered them more quickly than that…


Due to electioneering, the Australian Government also missed a truly significant event in the life of Uganda – one that has been a dominant feature since I arrived…I speak of course of CHOGM. What, wait – you haven’t heard of it? Hmmmm – don’t tell the Ugandan Government – they’ll be crushed!! The whole country went CHOGM mad (not sure how much of that was inspired by the two days of public holiday declared for the event thought?) I have no idea who represented Australia – the third deputy under-secretary of agriculture in DFAT?


For the non-Australian/British/Canadian etc readers out there, CHOGM is the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – it happens every two years or so, and is basically a talk-fest of all countries that are, or used to be part of the British Commonwealth (although if someone can explain to me the presence of Mozambique, I’d be awfully grateful!) I think the last one was in Australia, and this year, it was held in Uganda. Ever since I arrived, the city has been in the throes of preparations – filling potholes, fixing roads, planting flowers, building dozens of hotels that will never be full again. There were also campaigns of picking up undesirable people from the streets of Kampala and locking them up/shipping them away etc, in addition to massive clean-ups of the streets (very entertaining talking to people who came in to Uganda just during or immediately after CHOGM – they were commenting how clean the streets were. We just sighed and said “give it a week or two for the rubbish to accumulate again”!! – Ugandans don’t ever actually throw any trash in the bin – they just drop it in the street or throw it out of the window of their cars – it’s so sad).


Anyway, as always, CHOGM was presided over by the Queen, and the Ugandans went royalty-mad with a fervour I have never seen – rivaled only by our old next-door-neighbour in Brisbane, who had the most massive collection of royal memorabilia plates, wall hangings and china I have ever seen. As we drove back to Kampala on the Friday, most towns had big signs up saying “[insert town name] welcomes Your Majesty to Uganda” and then in teeny, tiny writing underneath “and the other CHOGM delegates” – it was pretty funny. Sometimes Prince Charles got a mention as well – but never the Duke of Edinborough or Camilla. And as we drove from Jinja (source of the Nile – famous for white water rafting – about two hours drive East of Kampala) to Kampala, people were lining the streets in their hundreds – I think they were expecting either the Queen or Charles to drive along there. Poor darlings…all they got was the Nigerian delegation, thundering along in blacked-out BMWs!!!


And boy do these Ugandans love them some Queen Elizabeth. They just went bananas about her – she was beautiful, she was elegant, she gave a fabulous speech (no point trying to tell them she didn’t actually write the speech herself!), she sat beautifully, she walked beautifully, she dressed beautifully, she spoke beautifully – they all wanted their wife/daughter/mother to be just like her. I saw one woman on BBC news saying she just wanted to give the Queen a great big hug – I couldn’t help thinking how utterly delighted Her Majesty would have been to be on the receiving end of that embrace!! And poor Museveni (Ugandan President) didn’t fare too well in comparison – he was looked down upon for his hat (which is rather absurd, I must confess), his smug air, his bad way of walking. It was quite amusing for about five minutes, but I had my driver raving about the Queen for literally an hour and a half as we drove on Friday!! Eventually I turned to him and said “Daniel – I think I’m going to have to tell your wife that you are in love with the Queen” – which dampened his spirits for a minute or two, but then he continued right on again. It was exhausting, I have to tell you!!!


Anyway – CHOGM is all over now, and the investigations into where all the CHOGM money vanished to have begun, with a sad inevitability. Glorious international conference, followed by corruption investigation. Rinse and repeat…


At least it keeps the Red Pepper tabloid in headlines.

So – I’m taking five minutes out of my day to attend to this sadly, sadly neglected little blog. I know it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I was here – my excuses include extended periods of time in the field, no internet access for weeks at a time, malaria, annual leave, travel to Nairobi and now…floods in Eastern Uganda!!

I am currently out in Soroti (you could get an atlas?) in Eastern Uganda, responding to the floods that you may or may not have seen on the news (if you live in America, I think we were bumped for OJ Simpson, if you live in Australia, apparently we were bumped for Shane Warne’s latest debacle, if you live in Germany, I think it was extensively covered, given the number of interviews my German colleague gave!!!) Anyway – point is – there are floods across the East (and a bit the north) of the country and we are doing an emergency response, which I am coordinating from the field.

It’s pretty full-on out here – I am really tired and looking forward so much to this weekend (my boss ordered me to return to Kampala and rest for the weekend, bless his cotton socks!) Plus – Thurza is coming from Australia with a care package from me, including a disc with the first three episodes of Season three of Prison Break (cue happy dance). Now that makes me happy…

I will probably be out for the flood response for a few more weeks – we are trying to bring in some staff on secondment, but until they arrive, I will still be residing in Soroti. There is a pretty massive NGO/UN presence out here now – the main hotel in town must think it’s Christmas (hasn’t made them speed up the restaurant service though – if you get your food in one hour, you are celebrating the amazing velocity of that performance – one and a half to two hours is the general wait for lunch/dinner!!) Most evenings, there is a pretty large contingent in the bar eating and drinking, so that’s pretty fun – they are good bunch (although an incredible number of both Italians and Germans – one Italian guy came with his espresso machine, which he just needs to get working, and he will become my new best friend!)

And amidst all of this, my heart has been broken by the news that Steve Hewitt, the Placebo drummer, has left the band *cry,wail,stamp foot* Steve, fyi, is the chap on the right in the picture below of the leaping lads (yes – those leaping lads are Placebo). The thought that they won’t make any more albums together, and I won’t see them together ever again is devastating. Plus – he’s a kick-ass drummer and…well…I really can’t think of words except that it sucks. And I have listening to Placebo on loop since Monday (when it was announced) L

So – a reasonably incoherent post (gives you a pretty good picture of my headspace right now – just sooo tired!) but will try to return soon with a little more info and a little less rambling…

In the meantime – stay dry…

So - the brilliant and awesome CG (who is responsible for many of my icons as well) made me this...





And some pics of my apartment:

The kitchen:



The dining and living room (accessories, including baby, sold separately!!)



Looking back to dining room and kitchen: