Work, a new car, birds and that election

Since the last post I have been to work a couple of days and done some work at home.  We are still waiting for work permits and inspectors have been visiting workplaces (not ours yet) so we can't be too careful.  We have no idea how this will resolve itself and no indication that our permits are likely any time soon.  Jenny goes every day as she is assured the catholic church have a special arrangement and she is legal.  I'm not convinced.

I've been working on reviewing failed funding applications with an eye to improving ECHO's success rate.  I also have been preparing a talk for a workshop on conservation agriculture coming up next month.  It will present a project I led on conserving biodiverse native grasslands on farms on the Victorian Volcanic Plains over 15 years ago.  I hope I can make it interesting and relevant.

Tree nursery at ECHO.

ECHO - Main office

ECHO - My office (door on far right)

In the meantime we have bought a car!  Another RAV4 wagon - a few years younger than the the one we had in Uganda.  It appears mechanically sound and went well on its first decent run - to the airport and back yesterday - although it is not possible to get much above 80 km/h on the roads here.

Our new car.  So far we are very happy with it.

Last weekend we visited a new friend - Per Holmen - an expat Norwegian birder who now lives in semi-retirement on a golfing estate south of Usa River.  We went on a lovely walk through the acacia woodland which surrounds the golf course and saw some great birds: Knob-billed Duck, Black-winged Kite, Gabar Goshawk, White-bellied Go-away-bird, Jacobin Cuckoo, Grey-headed Kingfisher, African Hoopoe, Greater Honeyguide, Yellow-collared Lovebird, Magpie Shrike, Superb Starling, Vitelline Masked Weaver, Chestnut Weaver, Purple Grenadier and Reichenow's Seedeater (lifer).

Vitelline Masked Weaver, Chestnut Weaver and a House Sparrow

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Per knows the birding scene here well and is keen to take us to some of the best spots he knows in the district.

The rain has continued and while welcome, makes it difficult to get things done for everyone.  It was about six weeks late this year so we hope it will continue well into June but normally June is the beginning of a four month rain-free period.  We are just missing the sunshine and a bit more warmth.

Stephanie and Jenny playing Cribbage.

Yesterday I drove to Kilimanjaro Airport to collect Stephanie - one of our friends from our 2010-11 Bukoba time.  Stephanie is having a holiday and will stay with us for a few days before and after a visit back to Bukoba to the school she taught in.  Today we went into Arusha for shopping and a nice lunch.  Tomorrow we are hoping to go to Lake Manyara National Park but we have conflicting advice on whether we can enter with tourist visas and our private car.  We will see.

While having a long lunch at a nice outdoor restaurant in Arusha today we followed the election count on the ABC.  We are so disappointed in the result and cannot comprehend how this result came about.  Can we now expect the Adani mine to go ahead, the asylum seekers to continue to languish on Nauru and Manus Island, the banks to get their promised tax cuts, no action on climate change or encouragement of electric cars, more dodgy deals for mates, support for the next US war (looming in Iran it seems), continuing degredation of the Murray-Darling basin ... ?  The thought of another three years of this is soul-destroying.

Thank the gods that Essendon had a win to keep our slim season hopes alive.