What's good for Angoose is good for Uganda

Normally when flights are missed, the bad times roll and life needs to be reorganised. I came back to base, found a friend (Dutch from Hanoi) in Kampala, capital of Uganda and she invited me to meet the Irish community there. So after meeting in Bubbles O'Leary on Friday night, we went to Kyadondo Rugby Club on saturday afternoon. There we got the hurls out and hit a few sliotars around before playing a game of rounders. There were Ugandans, Irish, Dutch, English and even a man from Cork called Kevin. There were Maribou Storks flying around and if you hit the ball far enough you might find out what was growing in the field over yonder.

That night we went to International Music Festival of Uganda and danced like it was going out of fashion to an old man in a red pinstripe suit playing the electric guitar. Next up were a band with two dancing ladies whose moves would put anyone on MTV to shame. Bits that you didn't even know existed were being shaken and thrown about the floor. Those of us who tried to copy them had a good time it though we were but trying.

The next day it was back to Bubbles for the All-Ireland Final between Donegal and Mayo. Not the most tense of matches but all credit to Donegal for taking home Sam Maguire after so many years. Then a taxi-bus took me back to the UN Base and what with dinner, dancing, sleeping and a bit of work, I was on a UN flight to Kinshasa. I'm in Kinshasa now and I like it.

Greetings from Uganda

Patrick,

Greetings from Entebbe, Uganda. Home of both the international airport and the UN base that supports Peacekeeping missions in Congo, Darfur, Sudan and the newly formed South Sudan. I have been on this base for a week now and a bit like yourself starting school I have been registering for things, doing things, learning things, getting lost, trying different things in the canteen and trying to make friends.

It's fun but hard work, basically wandering around doing one thing after another. The base is super cool, with no end of trucks, jeeps, helicopters and planes flying in and out of it all the time. The base is roughly the same distance between these four conflicts in Africa and troops, supplies and humanitarian workers like myself fly in an out every day.

I did not fly out today. I was too cool for school and missed my flight. Don't tell Maimeo and Daideo, or Danny for that matter. So now I get to spend the weekend in Kampala. It's not so bad, rounders with hurling sticks tomorrow, some Irish person's leaving party on Saturday night, and then the All Ireland Football Final in the one and only Bubbles O'Leary's, the big Irish bar in the city.

See if your Dad will take you to watch it. Donegal will hopefully spread Mayo like butter.

I fly to Kinshasa, the Capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday.

on China's multiple republics

'Is Taiwan a part of China', the standard make or break question that a lot of Han Chinese in the People's Republic of China ask the foreigner. I gave the simple diplomatic answer to a young Communist Party member who asked. I said 'yes, but it's not part of the People's Republic, it's part of the Republic of China, A.K.A Taiwan. This works as the slogan '1 Nation, 2 systems' appears in huge skyscraper high letters in Xiamen, across the Baring Straights from a Taiwanese controlled island and elsewhere. It satisfies the nationalism, but accepts that the 'nation' is not unified in practice.

My response was quite unfair on the indigenous people of the island of Taiwan who suffered the 'invasion' of the island by Nationalist Republic of China forces in 1945 and the relocation of their government following defeat to Mao's Communist People's Liberation Army in 1949. The Republic of China felt that they were rightful rulers of the 'Chinese' nation and this contention was not removed from the constitution of the Republic of China until 1971. Many Han Chinese in Taiwan still feel part of a greater nation in spite of the disparate regimes. For those that don't my response was unfair to them too.

I don't know what the indigenous Taiwanese think, and wonder if they have ever been asked. It is cowardly of me to ignore them in the grand geo-political debates in which those of us with the luxury to do so indulge. But in the interests of good relations I did.

I ignore many minorities in this way.

on Hot Springs

Hot springs. Its nice not knowing what to expect. Having only been to one before the mind was open, but the hopes  for stream rising out of a naturally occurring pool were unlikely to be realized in the most populus part of the most populus country on earth. Instead at the end of a bumpy road, there were a series of concrete huts and a reservoir. I thought the huts were for changing in, but each contained a bath with a hot tap from the spring and a cold one. On the bath they put a plastic sheet. The bed wetting and the front roms of those that cherish the clerics sprang to mind but their purpose was to have the opposite effect. I was assured that mine was new as opposed to the second hand ones that hung about the place and once again the environment suffered at the expense of my cleanliness. Even without the smack hot baths trends to be fin and fun it was. Would have been nice if the swimming pool was open but altogether good steam.


Its the kind of place you look at and think with a but of investment this place would be minting it. It won't be long now I suppose.

on entering China from Vietnam

Crossing the Vietnam China border at Dong Dang – Pingxiang is straightforward and normal. People do it all the time.  But when your bus arrives 2 hours late and your driver tries to convince you that its closed and you should stay in a hotel by refusing to drive up it can all be made a bit less amenable that you would think. But convincing person after person that you really do want to get across that night can get you on a bit of a roll. The Vietnamese guard was even happy to see me leave, shaking my hand and pointing in the direction of pitch black sent me on my way.

The unlit 200m walk had a bit of time for doubts to enter, and these were realised when I walked into an empty immigration hall and climbed over 3 gates saying ‘Ni Hao’ loudly enough for people to hear and surely get that I was not attempting the crossing in secret. They were friendly as when they came out but were clearly on their way home and I was the last one to be let across. Again the darkness, and I got vague directions from a guard to go through the gate. The gate is old style Chinese like the one at Tiananmen and well impressive in the dark but eery enough for the wanderer. Next I startle a singing guard, and am living large enough to get a light in my face. Its a curious thing when trying to look like you know what your’e doing actually has that effect, and I am waved on into the dark.

By this stage my bus was halfway on its way to Guangzhou and I hadn’t a notion what would need to be done next. but two people were standing at the bottom of the lane. One a driver for hire, the other as it turned out a driver. The boy points to his BMW and says sure him and his wife will drive me to Nanning (300km) and I can get a train from there. Nae bother.

Highlights of this were a trad Chinese orchestral version of the Raggle Taggle Gypsy at 150 clicks per hour and being told they were going to sell me to the ‘bad’ people.

Lowlight was sitting in an internet cafe in Nanning from 11pm to 5am waiting for the slow train to Guangzhou.