A NATION'S violent past was brought vividly to life when two Tavistock College teachers visited Uganda.

Principal John Simes and head of English Mike Beer were in the country to build on joint work by the college and one of its partner schools, Ndeeba Senior Secondary.

Said Mr Simes: 'We arrived in Entebbe and gazed up at a fabulous starlit African sky.

'We had travelled armed to the teeth against malaria, yellow fever, polio, dysentery, mosquitoes and whatever dark peril lay ahead.

'Our hosts gathered us into cars, and we fired off into the dark to Mukono — despite Foreign Office advice not to travel on the Entebbe-Kampala road at night because of robbers.'

Their driver was Grace Natangya, 32, who taught geography at Ndeeba school.

Mr Simes said: 'His story is the story of Uganda, a vibrant ebullient nation rising to its feet after years of monstrous oppression and unimaginable violence. Grace and his family are not heroes but survivors.

'He and wife Irene have been married for four years and have six children of which three are their own. The others are Grace's brother's — Robbers murdered the brother and his wife and the children automatically became Grace and Irene's. In Uganda your brother's children are your children,' said Mr Simes.

Grace was one of only three surviving children from a family of twelve. His brothers and sisters died from various causes including Aids, which is rampant in Uganda. Five million people out of 23 million are HIV.

The couple lived in a neat bungalow to the south of Kampala. They have a garden to grow sweet bananas, vast pineapples and watermelons and a Friesian cow grazes the front lawn.

'Grace's community is one where the Christian faith is as natural as breathing in a country whose people have had every cause to pray during the last 30 years.

'Two weeks before our visit, Grace's family woke in the night to find their home being entered. Twenty young men with masks entered their home, one carrying a gun he had "hired" from a corrupt policeman. They took anything of value, including the CD player he had bought when visiting Tavistock. No point in fighting, just let it happen or they will kill you. The injustice of it all is shocking,' said Mr Simes.

Grace had learned to hide as a young boy when former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's army ransacked his neighbourhood, stealing, raping and burning. His family hid in the plantation for three days, having placed their black and white TV in an earth-burrow for safekeeping.

Mr Simes said: 'Since 1986, President Museveni and the National Resistance Movement have restored peace and stability. The children are fed and go to primary school and look happy and well.

'There is still crime and the police are cheerfully corrupt — but their pay and conditions of work are poor.'

Mr Simes added that Grace hoped Museveni would stay in power — if not, 'would the British like to return?'

During the visit the two masters worked with students at Ndeeba Senior Secondary School — with its cheery motto 'No Pains, No Gains'.

It is situated in a beautiful rural area not far from the Nile. The students pay £60 a term from the meagre subsistence farm incomes of their dedicated parents.

'Their hunger for learning is intense and the greatest lesson we in the UK can learn,' said Mr Simes.

He and Mr Beer also trod the rain forest, were awestruck at the Nile's source, bounced through a game park in a rickety minibus, fought five-inch scarlet cockroaches in the shower, dined with the bishop,and saw the street children of Kampala.

The visit was funded by the British Council.