I spent last Saturday evening sitting on the balcony of the Aero Club in Entebbe, watching the setting sun gradually change the colors in the sky. It's a fabulous place to spend a few hours watching the planes coming in to land at the International Airport, flying over Lake Victoria. Jenn was excited to go sit with the other ex-pats here, since the lovely scenery seems to brighten everyones mood - a rare social outing where no one was negative or complaining about something or other. It seems that the typical conversation always comes around to some negative comment about the people, the food, or the traffic - it's easy to get frustrated with the way things work (or don't work). But an evening at the Aero Club tends to wash all those complaints away, if only for a few hours.



I'm now at the end of week two of this three month trip, and the majority of the last week we've been at Entebbe. The house here is very comfortable, and well protected by the four vicious dogs in the photo! They're actually quite sweet but would certainly not hesitate to bite an unfamiliar intruder to the compound. They can certainly make quite a mess of their food, which is a home-cooked mixture of small dried fish and pasho, a ground maize powder that is cooked like rice to make a thick paste. The dried fish boiling on the stove certainly add a unique aroma to the house...



While daily life around Entebbe is quite tranquil and relaxed, other parts of Uganda have been considerably more volatile lately. There have been protests and demonstrations taking place over the last few weeks, mostly centered in the capital city of Kampala. The government opposition leader has been heading up a series of 'Walk to Work' demonstrations, ostensibly to protest rising fuel and food prices. The inflation rate has been steadily climbing, and is currently around 14%. It's certainly made life difficult for a lot of people, but prices are rising everywhere in the world, not just here in Uganda. Anyway, the opposition leader has been arrested several times now for causing trouble, but the police response has been quite heavy-handed and people have responded by protesting even more. Yesterday most of Kampala ground to a halt as some people erected barricades on the roads with burning tyres and branches. There were multiple security forces dispersing the crowds with teargas, guns and rubber bullets... anyway, all this is information I picked up from news reports, as Entebbe was business as usual. I spent Friday afternoon sitting in a garden cafe working on the computer and listening to the Royal Wedding in the background. Uganda is a Commonwealth nation, and there's a lot of interest in the big ceremony.



It's certainly a lovely place to work, with lots of interesting flowers and lush plantlife around. I've been going through a crash-course in small project management, doing my best to fill in the gaps and help Jenn and Jonny keep the mine project moving forward. There's a lot of pieces to consider, and like most everything in Africa progress happens 'slowly slowly', polepole. It looks like there's still a lot of administration and paperwork to get finished here in Entebbe, so I'll be here for a little while yet. One of the next big challenges is getting some sort of solar power set up at the mine camp, so that we'll be able to run computers and basic equipment there and continue to work. Luckily there are several options readily available in Kampala, and it seems like a solar electricity system will be fairly straightforward to setup. Lots to learn, lots to do, and of course lots of fun to be had!

Time to feast!

My first week in Uganda has certainly been interesting... I've been told that people's first three months here is like a roller coaster ride of loving this country and hating this country. Some times you swing from one extreme to the other multiple times in a single day! After a very long day in the car, I got to see the view above that I'll be enjoying for the next three months.



This very exhausted pig was brought to the mine camp site from the local village. I arrived at the camp with Jenn and Jonny after driving across the country from Entebbe the day before. It was Jenn's first time back to the mine in quite some time, and they were having a party to celebrate all the work that had been done so far, and in anticipation of the rapid progress on the horizon now that there is an investor in the project. The workers now number about 10, down from 15 a few months ago, but those still committed to the project are very loyal and great workers. The pig was part of their reward for working so hard under some rather challenging conditions, remaining committed even when things weren't ideal.



Unlike the goat feast I enjoyed on our last trip to Africa, I didn't watch the slaughter of the animal on this day. Not because I didn't want to, but rather the guys did it so fast I didn't even know it was happening! Before I knew it there were skewers of meat being put over the fire. In this picture there's pieces of pork along with beef sausages that we brought from town. The sausages were what we used to cool the beer from warm to lukewarm... I'm learning that warm beer is something I'll have to get used to here.



Only a few of the guys speak english, so we have to rely on other forms of communication but I get the sense that they are all very friendly and happy to have me there. I was especially popular when I brought out my portable iPod speakers to provide some music, though my Canadian indie rock and pop music didn't really translate. At least I have some Bob Marley and an African Groove mix cd, along with an album of traditional Zimbabwean mbira music that I bought for Barb before I left.



Since this weekend is Easter weekend, we only spent one day at the mine site before driving back to Entebbe. The workers also had the weekend off, so we travelled back with a vehicle full of people and three chickens in the back. The chickens were for Easter dinner... it seemed a bit cramped, but I was told not to worry, these are African chickens, they are very hardy. They crapped all over the trunk, including my bags! Ah well...



We stopped for some refreshment along the way at the equator, and of course had to snap a photo at the centre of the globe! I think I'll be crossing the equator many times in the coming months, but the first time was very exciting.

Africa bound...again

Well here I am waiting at the departure gate in Vancouver, minutes away from getting on a plane for Uganda. I never dreamed I would get the opportunity to go to visit Africa once, and now here I am about to make my second visit. It's been a fast and furious scramble these last few weeks getting ready, but somehow it's all worked out and I'm ready to go. I'm not sure just what to expect, except for the guarantee of adventure and new opportunities to learn and grow. Never a bad thing.

The last posts on this blog were from 2007, when Barb and I visited our friends and family in Kenya and Uganda. Looking at those posts now for the first time in several years brings the whole trip flooding back into my mind, and I'm ready for another wonderful experience.

Well, there's the boarding announcement...time to boogie! Lots more to come...