Kampala, Uganda, November 2004

Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2004-2005

as life's hectic non-stop party threatens to get out of control and really exhausting

And straight from Montréal, a quick look in on Uganda

. . . just to make sure that the Ugandans are all okay down there, and getting ready for our COP.

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

The 9th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP9) is scheduled to be held in Kampala, Uganda, in November 2005, and a day after returning from frigid Montréal in November 2004, Mr Peck joined his colleagues Mireille and Valerie as the "Ramsar logistics team" in a week's visit to check out the proposed facilities.

Here Mireille and a Green Bay Packers fan check out the National Conference Centre in Kampala (soon to be renovated -- will it be ready in time?).

Settling in for a few days of facilities-checking, Mireille and Valerie stock up on bottled water with the welcome advice of our bodyguard.

A courtesy visit with the Minister of the Environment, Odongo Jeje (centre, in a business suit instead of his military uniform). From left: our friend Paul Mafabi, head of Uganda's Wetlands Inspection Division, Valerie, JJ, Mireille, and Dwight. [General Odongo Jeje is presently the Minister of Defense (2013).]

A meeting with the multisectoral COP9 National Organizing Committee (NOC)

chaired by the Permanent Secretary for Environment, Engineer B. K. Kabanda, at the head of the table (and Chris Gordon peering over heads in the background).

The artisans' bazaar in the centre of Kampala, on a 40C degree day.

Taking leave of the Wetlands Inspection Division after several days of talks: from left, Dwight, Paul, Mireille, and Valerie

Downtown Kampala (or rather uptown Kampala, the government and commercial sector on one of the Seven Hills)

The continuously populated road from Kampala to Entebbe

We're here to view the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe, on the shores of Lake Victoria, as a potential Plan B in case the Kampala centre is not ready in time.

[That's subsequently been answered, we're not going here at all -- we're booked into the Speke Resort in Munyonyo. Wish us luck.]

The tacky, but lovely, reception area in the Imperial Resort in Entebbe, November 2004

Local schoolkids visiting the swimming pool and playground at the Imperial Resort

Negotiations on the beach, Entebbe, on Lake Victoria

Schoolkids in uniform at the local wildlife park in Entebbe

Every group in its distinctive school uniform

Bye kids. See you soon.

Now we're back to Switzerland, to take up being in winter again!

Kampala, Uganda, in 2005