The end of the desk odyssey

Things that shouldn't happen, happen - and more so in Africa. Yes, all the parts of my Karamoja project should have been finished a long time ago. And they were, just with one tiiiiny exception: delivery of pupils' desks to the three schools we were working with. The company which was initially contracted to supply those desks brought a few of them and then kind of stopped - in the African way of course, assuring us during three months that the remaining desks are coming "next week".

Obviously, the correct "next week" never came, and when we tried to pressure the supplier, creepy hints involving firearms were given to our local staff. By that time the project was ending and someone else from the office was supposed to follow up, get a new supplier and have the delivery completed. But before anything could get done, this person left; and after a time (in what might seem like a desk-curse) this person's replacement left as well before much was done. Eventually, it came back to me.

When after this long hibernation we actually finished the whole process of getting a new supplier to do the job and the new desks were ready to be delivered, someone of course had to travel to Kaabong to organise and check the delivery. Which sounded like the perfect excuse for another northern-Uganda staff get-together. And so there we were, all (three) of us - Martina, Michele and I - on a trip to Karamoja.

On the road

Yes, this is a functioning petrol station

Admittedly, the thought of returning to "my" schools made me slightly nervous. A year and half after we had gone, I was wondering what was left from all the project work (impressions from the visit possibly coming in another post). At the end I didn't have all that much time to think about it, spending the whole day counting the multiple pieces of over 500 desks.

Having successfully accomplished the desk mission, and being so close, the following day we continued to Kidepo national park.

We had all been there before, and what we really wanted most was to feel "on holiday", even if just for a day or two. It might seem inappropriate in a national park, but it was so good just to relax, chat and play cards.

Not all was playing cards though. We drove out to the neighbouring valley of the Kidepo river...

... in the search of ostriches. 

The ostrich adaptation of the Swan Lake

And as a bonus, also found elephants.

And here are the members of the expedition.

But national parks are not the only place to come across interesting fauna. Wild(or-not-so-wild)life can be found just about anywhere. Like on the way back to Lira.