The first US Ambassador to Somalia since the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident got his start in world affairs by staring at a map of Africa in a classroom at Williamsville South High School.

“In ninth grade, I had a class in Afro-Asian cultures, taught by Karen Willyoung,” recalled Stephen M. Schwartz, a career diplomat who took the oath of office Monday as the first U.S. ambassador since 1991 to serve in Somalia, one of Africa’s most volatile countries. “There was something about it that really inspired me, and I was quite interested in learning about all these parts of the world.”

So he did it, in person, first in the Peace Corps and then in a 24-year career with the US Foreign Service that has largely found Schwartz toggling between Washington and various African countries.

And next month, Schwartz, 58, leaves for the challenge of his career: representing US interests in a country that spent the better part of two decades without a government, a country best known in America for a book and movie that told the story of the deaths of 18 American service members there in 1993, a country where the terrorist group Al-Shabaab killed 15 people in an attack in the capital only last weekend.

It’s a challenge that Steve Schwartz is most certainly up for, said two very disparate sources: Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, and Karen Willyoung.

Blinken heaped praise on Schwartz during Monday’s swearing-in ceremony, saying he was chosen for the post in Somalia after excelling at every position he has held at the State Department and its embassies around the world.

“Steve makes people feel listened to, looked at and lifted up,” Blinken said.

In the meantime, Willyoung – now 73, retired and living in Clarence – recalled Schwartz as ‘a very good student’ who dutifully memorized that map of Africa and who showed an unusual curiosity about the world beyond Buffalo.

Now, though Schwartz will have to work through a thicket of difficulties as he re-establishes an American presence in a country where the last US Embassy closed – and its diplomats fled by helicopter – amid a civil war in 1991. By late 1992, the civil war combined with a drought to cause mass starvation, which prompted then-President George H W Bush to provide military security and logistical support for the UN humanitarian aid mission.

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South Sudan has cancelled its Independence Day celebrations as it struggles to end a civil war that has left thousands dead and ravaged the economy.

“We decided not to celebrate the July 9 Independence Day, because we don’t want to spend that much,” Michael Makuei, the minister of information, told reporters, adding: “We need to spend the little that we have on other issues.”

In past years, even at the height of a civil war, the government organised military parades and other celebrations. But Makuei said this year the party would not happen.

President Salva Kiir is still expected to address the nation on July 9, five years after South Sudan broke away from Sudan after decades of conflict.

South Sudan is struggling to stem soaring inflation caused by the war, rampant corruption and the near collapse of the oil industry, which accounts for 98 percentage of government revenues.

The International Monetary Fund  has warned that the economy is in ruins with inflation at almost 300 percent and the currency falling by 90 percent this year.

Civil war erupted in South Sudan in December 2013 but rebel chief Riek Machar returned to the capital in April as part of a peace deal that saw him become vice president, forging a unity government with Kiir. But fighting continues between numerous militia forces, which now pay no heed to either Kiir or Machar

“These are the bodies that have been found so far but the cleaning continues,” Makuei said. “Probably the number may rise.”

All sides have been accused of perpetrating ethnic massacres, recruiting and killing children and carrying out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to “cleanse” areas of their opponents.

Tens of thousands have died since war broke out forcing two million from their homes and leaving five million in need of help.

More than 160,000 civilians are now in UN-guarded camps across the country, down from a peak of more than 200,000 last year.

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Think back to the first day you saw monkeys when you were a child or the first time they let you wander off alone when you went to visit your grandparents.

Children’s minds are filled with wonder; they do not just see things and move on, they see how they work and why they were there in the first place.

This very mind is what retains all the information we learn as children and carry it on throughout our lifetime because our brains were devouring everything taught to us. Imagine teaching your child about what our environment is and why it is important to protect it no matter what we do.

Training children from a tender age to appreciate nature is a big step into our efforts to save the environment with the severe pollution going on. Most children think that if they are told to sweep the compound or pick trash along the walkways in their schools, they are being punished. So when you ask them to do so, they will feel the same sense of dread they get when they are at school.

As a parent, you would like to see your child grow into someone responsible and you try your best to foster them into seeing nature the way you did when you were a child.

We spend so much time on television, phones and computers; there is no way a child will appreciate nature if they do not go outside to see it. Try as much as you can to put time in your schedule for outdoor activities with the children; it’s not only healthy for them to take walks, run around in the compound or go sight seeing somewhere, but it also helps them learn to see nature and notice the many things they miss while watching TV all day; at the same time strengthening your bond with them.

Teach them about the different creatures that depend on our environment and how we all depend on nature to stay alive. Make the lessons interesting and not much like a lecture or they will get bored with it; you can use your house pets or home gardens to show them some of the visual examples that they can easily understand.

Children notice the smallest things around them, making some of their questions harder to answer. But slowly they pick up especially if you show them what nature has provided, with several examples in the environs around them.

Do not forget to lead by example; children copy most of our habits and mannerism, then turn them into their own as they grow. If you want them to appreciate their environment, let them see you do it everyday and they will do the same. You throwing plastics and littering will make your children think that it is ok to do the same.

Every once in awhile, it is good to travel and see new things; you do not have to leave the country to learn. There is so much that Uganda offers that our children do not study about in school or see on television. It is always up to us to fill in those gaps and sometimes seeing what they didn’t know or used to just hear about helps gain more interest in nature and encourage their friends to do the same.

Incorporating nature studies into their education is very important especially during their classes. Schools should provide time for children to be involved in gardening activities, petting and farming that is not very heavy for them to do. Such activities are always very fun for children. They learn better when they see the examples around them.

• Evelyn Masaba is the Public Relations Manager at Jovago Uganda an online hotel booking service with offices in Kampala (Uganda) Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya) and Dakar (Senegal).

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