Offtoseethewizard

Hello everyone, You haven't heard from me in a while, since my last entry detailing that I was sick, to be precise. I didn't topple over dead from that infection, but I've kind of been fighting one or the other infection since then and have been to busy/lazy to write. But what happened yesterday when we went out makes me so mad that I have to write about it, lest I burst like an overcooked egg. Last night I went out Lulu to grab a beer, maybe dinner. This being Uganda, we of course immediately met another friend in a bar, who in turn was hanging out with some of his oldest friends (don't try and untangle the web here - in Uganda everyone knows everyone, Ugandans are the strongest networkers I've ever met). Anyhow, next ... read more

I'm usually not a big fan of expressions a la 'you haven't lived when you haven't done this or you haven't done that...'. 'You haven't lived if you haven't hurtled yourself down a mountain at breakneck speed, killing a few innocent passersby on the way'. 'You haven't lived if haven't gone hitchhiking around the planet and almost killed by some Congolese soldiers high on heroin'. And you think: 'I lived plenty, thank you very much, just last week I engaged all of my Facebook-friends in a gigantic vampire battle!'. But, guys, I have to admit, YOU HAVEN'T LIVED IF YOU HAVEN'T HURLED YOURSELF DOWN A WATERFALL ON THE RIVER NILE, half-drowned in the process and brought back various unaccountable injuries from it. But back to the beginning ('if I could turn...' - why does my writing ... read more

Ok, so I know Ugandans are polite. So much so that I usually feel like a badly dressed potato around them. But the amount of messages I got after arriving me to Kabale, asking if I was alright, seemed kind of extreme, even for Ugandan standards. But then my colleague Paul told that people weren't just polite, they were asking quite literally if I had survived the trip. Looking at Ugandan road statistics, actually not a surprising question. I know I'm a spoiled European and all that, and that I cannot expect the same level of comfort than at home, blablabla. But that hasn't really mattered so far, as I've actually been quite comfy in Kampala, snug as a bug to be precise. Not so on the way to Kabale. In a way, I thanked the ... read more

Here we are now, 2 weeks in. I’ve started to settle in, and got over some of the first time hurdle that await you in this city - find a room, drive a boda, get anywhere within a certain frame of time... My room is in Munyenga-Bukassa, which I’ve learned since moving there is not considered Kampala anymore. But at least it’s close to work, and I value my sleep in the morning! It’s a nice place, although it’s the first kitchen with an earth-floor I’ve ever had! The place is locked up like Fort Knox, even though there aren’t any valuable there (I keep my stuff at the office, and my landlady doesn’t really have any technical gadgets!). There’s chicken everywhere, which have an upsetting tendency of communicating loudly in front of my window at ... read more

Well, the good news is, I'm alive and well. The bad, that I did get to put a single step out of my hotel room this weekend, seeing as I had developed a close personal relationship with the toilet bowl. Of course, every rookie newcomer has to go through this, and it actually happens every time I go to a hot country - but it doesn't make it any more fun. Actually, the only fun connected to me this weekend would have been watching me Sunday night, crouching under the sink, trying to hold it up with my head while disassembling the plumbing, on the lookout for a tiny piece of bluish glass - to put it back into my eye! Of course, the eternal contact lens drama, always and issue between the heat and the ... read more