Bat on the Balcony

This afternoon at the end of lesson I noticed something tiny on the ground just outside my classroom door. I almost mistook it for a piece of rubbish. Then a student pointed out it was a bat. I thought the creature was dead but it wasn’t. I carefully picked it up by a leg and put it on a ledge fearing it would be crushed in the lesson changeover. 

I could see it’s chest beating but it lay motionless playing dead perhaps. It was on it’s back so I thought itmight be better on it’s front – you never know with bats?  

 After the lesson changeover and as I had no lesson myself,  I decided that it might be better on some foliage so using paper transferred it to a nearby tree. It remained motionless but breathing throughout.  When I looked two minutes later it was gone. Flown, dropped, alive, dead. I will never know but it was interesting to get up close to this unusual mammal if only for a few minutes.  

“We’re goin’ to the Zoo Zoo Zoo”

Why would you go to a zoo in the middle of Africa? Seems a bit strange! Nevertheless that is exactly what we’ve done this morning. 

The “zoo” is actually the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) and it’s main purpose is to educate Ugandans about the wildlife around them; animals that many of them would never otherwise see. Game parks such as Murchison Falls are rarely visited by ordinary Ugandans, so this place fills a much needed gap and by educating Ugandans it makes it easier to protect the wildlife in the longer term.

We have just Ben to Murchison Falls and have already been to the Serengeti, so why did we need to go? For us the attraction is the hence to see Chimpanzees, Shoebill Stork and, above all, White Rhino. Time and budget have not allowed us to see these creatures in the wild whilst here and so it is a good opportunity to see them.

   
    

   

Other than these creatures there are animals that you would also usually see in a game park. Each of these had either been recovered from people’s homes or from illegal traders, or have been born in captivity.  The two white rhino are two of only seventeen in Uganda (all in captivity).

Hot Runnings

I must be mad and though I’m not a dog I’m definitely English, furthermore although it wasn’t the midday sun, here on the equator it was strong enough. So why did I go running?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement

A submission to this week’s photo challenge – achievement

These pictures represent the achievement of running  – for me  5k was the distance and whilst in the UK I did the Park Run Challenge for a time. Running here has been harder (heat, hills and hours of daylight!) but I’m gradually getting into it again.

In the Long Run

Tonight was the running club at school. I am one of the staff involved and tonight I foolishly accepted the challenge of running with the 5K students. After all I have run lots of 5K runs over the past two years and was regularly running up to 10K by myself in the UK. Big mistake!

Back Running

This morning I went for my first run in Africa; my first run in over three months. To be honest a pulled calf muscle back in June was a main reason for the lack of running back in the UK – but since I’ve been here I think I have been daunted by the challenge.

The Altitude

As I have mentioned here before the town of Mwanza is higher than any place in England and Wales – just above that of Mount Snowdon. It’s not immensely high but in the early days you could feel it when you walked. I think I have got used to it (at walking pace at least).

The Terrain

It’s not particularly flat here – running involves the inevitable uphill part and unlike my runs in the UK these are prolonged (several minutes of uphill). I will get used to it – but the thought of a prolonged uphill run at the start was a little off-putting. A work colleague (Head of PE) takes the students here up an even steeper ascent – although we both went running this morning, this particular element will need to wait for another occasion.
Furthermore the roads aren’t particularly flat here – there are a lot of ruts in the road. This make running more tiring as you dodge potholes and avoid rocks in the road.

 

Part of the Route

The Heat

Not surprisingly it’s hot here. The sun is baking and this saps your strength. Even the walk to school can leave you feeling sweaty. So the idea of running in the heat left me a little ‘cold’ :-).  The only way to contemplate running was to get up at the crack of dawn before the sun was really able to exert it’s furnace on the world. So it was up at 6:15am on a Saturday to meet up with a colleague and head out of the compound and uphill.

As usual I probably started out too fast but eventually got into a rhythm – the uphill bit wasn’t to bad – though at the end of it I was glad to turn onto a more level path. The only issue was that this meant leaving tarmac and heading over rough ground (the road). This road lead to the school around which we did a loop, before heading back along my familiar route to and from work.

All in all I felt OK given the length of time since my last run – but I know I can do a lot better.

I hope to run more often but it might only be possible at weekends.

The other barrier to running here is the daylight.

Daylight

Sun rise here is about 6:30am all year. Sunset is about 6:30pm all year. This makes it tricky to fit tuns in during the working week as work is from 7:55am to 4:15pm (including meetings and clubs).  Given the heat of the afternoon, at least to begin with I am not going to find it easy to run after work and will have no time to run before work. Maybe this will change.

Today was a start and hopefully I will continue – I’d love to join with the school running around Kilimanjaro next year – they do 5K, 10K and a half marathon. The views of Kilimanjaro can be spectacular apparently – so it’s definitely something to aim for.