Typical Ugandan Xmas

What do you typically do for xmas in Uganda?
Well, you do the usual christmassy baking stuff....




...and then - of course - you go and chase some Rhinos :-)

I wanna be rich

A worrying picture: A recent survey amongst the rural Ugandan population has shown that out of all possible things, 62% of young Ugandans have named "Being rich" as "most important thing in life". While there's nothing wrong with being rich, it is the pronounced gap between "being rich" and anything else.

Aehm, I don't mean to be a know-it-all, but money should come in return for some valuable job done or some valuable product delivered... not just by itself. So, just wanting to be rich and not caring how, why or with what sounds like someone's looking for a shortcut. Being promoted and awarded benefits for looking smart, being smart or talking smart... but not actually performing and producing. Unfortunately, I already had too many opportunities to witness this attitude - and it is this attitude which opens the doors to bribery, corruption and theft. Multiply this with Uganda's steep population growth (800,000 new Ugandans every year)... this is not a good mix. I'm starting to think that besides all the technical work we do here, population growth and attitudes are key to development...

I've made it into the news...

Finally, 3 years of hard work have come to culminate in a press coverage of my sacrificial work here in Africa ;-)

Daily Monitor: KADS exude attention to detail in Xmas fairytale Snow White

Lost and Found

The world is full of horror and wonders! On Sunday 9/11 I had my laptops stolen. Both of them, business and private! And the external backup drives. Horror! I was devastated. As if someone had snatched my past life away. Don't want anyone to ever experience that. I walked around like an empty shell, a hollow something, executing activities and initiating actions, but feeling totally numb inside... When I detected the theft I called the police. Ehh? What's their number again? Don't have it. Doesn't matter.. they wouldn't come anyway ("...but sir, we don't have fuel for the vehicle... you come and pick us..."). Fine, so I drive to the police station and tell some officer what happened. Aha! First, we have to sit and write it down. After a lengthy protocol where all types of totally irrelevant data have been scribbled down into a crumpled book with a pen which is hardly working. Then, the officer tells me with a grave expression on his face: "So the theft has just taken place?" - "Yes!" - "So we shall investigate the place."

Wow! And in fact shortly afterwards I find myself in the car packed with police officers: The SOCO person (Site Of Crime Officer). The officer who wrote the protocol in the crumpled book, then a specialist we collected from the Nsambia Police Canine Unit, his assistant and a German Sheperd in the trunk! Off we go!

Reaching the site of crime the Site Of Crime Officer wiggles with his brush creating little clouds of silver finger print powder while the dog sniffs around for stray cats, bones and she-dogs on heat. Though I have to admit that their efforts were somehow sincere the outcome was of course nil. After driving everyone back home to their respective police stations I am advised that now I should talk to the IO (Investigations Officer) who will now investigate the case. Another police man (and his assistant / girl-friend / whatever) sits in my car, we drive back again. The scene is viewed with a critical eye and the notes scribbled by his predecessors are studied in length. Conclusion: A theft has taken place and the thieves cannot be identified. But: not all is lost! Because I get a reference card with which I can pick up my police report in a week or two. If I pay the 65,000 Ugandan Shilling in the police bank account and if I facilitate my IO with some little money so he can get the report typed etc. :-(


Slowly my numbness gives way to pain and my mind starts revolting; no, it can't be true, it can't be... all my data lost, lost...!? Monday morning I start talking to the first persons about it and while I listen to myself talking I somehow regain my spirits. Some also encourage me to look around on second hand markets, stories are being told where stolen laptops have surfaced somewhere again... So I quickly create a WANTED Poster "LOST: Dell XPS M1530, blue cover, German keyboard, pls call 077945xyz" with a pretty pic attached

And off I go, diving into the depth of Kampala's underworld. Starting on Kampala Road with all those shiny shops owned by Indians and only selling brand new laptops...

...I'm slowly drifting off into narrow, dark and smelly side-alleys, talking in a dodgy way to dubious people. I'm climbing up staircases to the 5th floor where all of a sudden half a dozen Ugandans stop talking as they see me entering... small shops on corners that look like they've just been put up there and that they'll disappear in the next minute again. As it is getting dark I'm ending up in one of those shops where you wonder how they make money because they just sell ragged cables and broken adapters. But on the counter I spot a laptop I know inside out: this is my work laptop! For the last 2 years I've been staring at it every day for several hours, I know every corner, every scratch, every mark on it. With a trembling voice I ask if I can have a look at it, but somehow I must have appeared too interested. Someone from behind me closes it with a bang, snatches it and disappears with it in the labyrinthine alleys and stairs. Ahhhrgh!!!

But I remain calm as if it didn't bother me at all.. If they maybe had another Dell? For example an XPS, because those Dell XPS are really cool machines...? The guy behind the counter reaches somewhere behind him into a safe and pulls out the corner of a laptop but someone else shouts something in Luganda and he puts it back again quickly. But I know my laptop. That's my laptop. I try to remain calm while sweat is running down my back and front. I keep chatting in a very casual way. A lot of evasive statements, no clear answers, people come and leave and many eyes rest on me. They know that I am looking for my stolen goods... Am I trustworthy? Or is there a police unit around the corner. I guess they're scouting the surroundings to find out. Finally, I seem to have talked my way up to the manager. He tells me that they actually don't know where they get their laptops from... they just buy and sell... people just bring their laptops and they claim they are theirs... so they don't know where the laptops come from. I tell them a story about me forgetting my laptops somewhere and I was hoping that maybe someone has found them and brought them here for sale...? After another half hour of chatting and probing, they finally produce my sweet blue laptop: "Is it maybe this one? But you know, we had to buy it from the person who brought it here... So you'll have to pay for it." I happily do so and even for my business laptop which is brought back into the shop another half hour later. I'm booting both of them and while they already have a new Windows installed, almost all data is still on them.

I'm walking out of the shop with both of my laptops under my arm, I feel like I'm walking on air... Can't believe what has happened. It's like a nightmare and I'm slowly waking up. Someone rushes up behind me and hands me the bosses business card, just in case I need anything else - I can't help but to laugh out loud.

Red Riding Hood (Rotkäppchen) in Uganda

Forced home office

Basically, the home office concept does not exist in Uganda. Nobody believes that anybody could possible get some work done while at home. Home basically consists of dinner, fighting for the remote control and finally TV and bed.

AMFIU get's its power from the main power line running somewhere along the road. So in order to connect to this main line, there's a smaller supply line from our office building spanning a few other premises until it reaches the road and the main power line there. Recently, our neighbour decided that he didn't want our power supply line crossing his premises anymore. In fact, common regulations require us to be in possession of a letter by each premise owner expressing his/her agreement to pass our power supply line above his premises. Of course we don't have such letter, so one day one of our neighbours must have had a quarrel with his wife, was bitten by an ant or found a cockroach in his breakfast... He called the UMEME guys and had our power supply cable removed. You can see our cable hanging down from the pole (red circle):

AMFIU kept on running for 2 days on backup power and everybody thought it was a regular power cut, but once our backup was empty that was the end of it. Nothing was working anymore. No phones could be charged anymore, no computer was working, no lights, no hot water for tea (!!), no servers, no internet and no emails. It almost felt like the end of AMFIU. No communication coming in, no communication going out, we were deaf, dumb and blind.
While a family in a home with no power would bring the existing kids to bed and get busy producing new babies - well, that's not quite what happens at the office. Still it is nice, because you spend some time chatting with your colleagues, what you might not have done otherwise. But after knowing all the details of each cousin second grade, I'm itching to get some work done. And in fact - home is the place to go: There's power, internet, email, water, tables, chairs, a terrace and even sodas, gnuts and some chocolate. Eh - don't forget to get some work done!!

Kampala Hash House Harriers (KH3)

I wish I was there every Monday - I'd be so much fitter! But at least once in a while I manage to join in to have fun and verify that I'm still ok to run 10k straight.

Last Saturday we ran a relay from Kampala to Jinja - the source of the river Nile. 26 teams, each with 9 persons plus cheering crowd. Each person running approx. 10k up and down and left and right through Lugazi's sugar plantations and Mabira forest. Check out Timothy's cool clip about or team, the "No Hopers" ;-)

Only in Africa

Ah, time for some news - this time no kids, no work, no vacation. Life in full and fun.

Those of my age (OMG) will still remember those old Coke and Fanta cans. At some time in the 80s (?) they changed the opening clip of those cans from "pull it off" to "push it in", didn't they? Obviously for environmental reasons, since those clips had become an inherent and yucky part of any street, park or picnic area. I thought they had died out - but not at all! They are still around and growing strong. Actually, there is no real meaning to what I am writing here, but it just filled my heart with so much nostalgia... do you remember when we took them apart and used to shoot the ring with the small clip? Haha, what a ball!


And on another, a somewhat more serious note... Did you ever have a high voltage power line in your garden? It's one of the many goodies you may get 4 free. A recent storm took it down, sparks were flying and staff reported "there is fire coming out of the cable!". Unfortunately, the cable also came down in front of the entrance gate of the compound so there was no way the metal gate could be opened and hence, no car could neither enter nor leave the compound. One of the many absolutely unexpected obstacles you can encounter here ;-)

The braids are off, but...

Time to go! After 2 months with braids and without washing the hair, its now time for them to go! What took 5 hours to twist and roll, took only one hour and eight hands to get undone.

The scrubby look is purposely, since Leona features the next day as...

...queen Boudicca of the Celtic Iceni tribe. It's Rainbow School's Roman Day and everybody comes in togas, armour, sandals, brings roman food, or comes as one of the Celts who challenged the Romans!

BIG lies - largely promoted

Money transfer is definitively a great service - important and very convenient... but isn't this association going a bit far?

"Bell" is a Ugandan beer. What the poster actually says is: get drunk and you'll do just fine. Unfortunately, experience has taught us quite the opposite. We had to dismiss already three staff because they came to work after having taken several bottles of confidence...

Just can't help it... but this defies any basic business logic.

Ahhh, I've seen too many joints like this. The pretty signpost consumed all the money that should have been invested in new kitchen tools, a clean utility sink and proper water supply. Nope, rather some muchomo from Kabalagala - the exhaust fumes have most certainly killed any potential germs and bacteria on the meat ;-)

In between times: a quick surgery

A simple routine check revealed what I had been suspecting for a year already. Adrian sometimes not only doesn't want to hear what I'm saying, he also cannot hear what I am saying unless I almost shout at him. The E.N.T. specialist confirmed that his ears are again congested with thickened mucus behind the ear drum (otitis media). Hooray, and off we go for a spontaneous surgery during our home leave. Fortunately, Adrian doesn't feel sick. But soon I realise there's nothing worse than being hospitalised with a kid which is not really sick ;-)


Next morning, the surgery waits for him... It is heart-breaking to see your child with an infusion being rolled away on a bed to the operating theatre. Finally, it all goes well and though he feels weary after the anesthesia he recovers quickly and the ensuing skiing holiday is not endangered. Double phew!!

Back home - or stranger in a strange land?

Heading home with the kids! The usual hectic to finish everything just before we go... but I manage to pack everything just a minute before the special hire hoots outside the gate. Reaching the airport around midnight with two kids who are just as excited as they are tired. After dinner at 2 a.m. they "only" watch for an hour until my two sweet ones finally close their eyes... just to be woken up only five hours later :-/

But they are just great! No whining, lamenting or fighting, even after changing at Amsterdam and reaching our final destination at 11 a.m. - really great kids.

Then, one of the first things we see: a big, yellow "M". What's cool? Nope, it's not only the weather...

But the weather is definitively also cool - even very cool. Even down to -8°C. What a killer! The kids are excited, Leona still recalls all the details regarding how to deal with snow and cold weather...

...for Adrian it seems to be a bit more difficult to adapt. A cap and a warm jacket should do, shouldn't they? Well, maybe not. He was back inside in less than 5 minutes ;-)

Last night I asked the kids what they liked most in their first week back home and both of them said: IT SNOWED! ...with a beaming smile on their face.

And for everyone else? Everybody is curious about life in the "wilderness" and it is certainly not me telling all the stories.


However, I have to apologise to my African friends... I had always trivialised their stories when they told me how they were freezing and their skin was aching when visiting Europe during winter. Ridiculous, I thought. But boy! How my skin is aching! And I haven't even been skiing in the sun! Just walking through town a bit. My feet are cold, my lips are dried up, and my skin is itching and peeling. Good heavens, how much European is still left in me?

Erections in Uganda

Ugandans sometimes mix up the 'l' and the 'r'. So, from time to time you hear someone saying he likes 'lice' instead of 'rice' and on the radio someone talks about the upcoming Presidential erections on Feb. 18th. Hilarious.

Mr. Musevini (shortcut M7) is standing again for another term, after having adjusted the constitution accordingly. Also hilarious?

Anyway, Presidential elections are taking place on the 18th, results will be announced on Sunday 20th and subsequently most of the other key offices will be elected (e.g. Members of Parliament, district and local administration, mayor, etc.). The town is full of posters of all those candidates' smiling, promising and friendly faces.


Some efforts are being made to make voters aware of the fact that a candidate's programme should be one of the key elements to give your vote - not only his/her promises, family ties, and tribal affiliation. Very nice: "Wolokoso" means palaver in the local language :-)

However, putting up beautified portrays of candidates is rampant in town, and rallies with deafening reggae music and a cheering and sometimes drunken crowd infest the city - I've even heard an airplane flying low over the streets while shouting slogans promoting a candidate to pedestrians.


Whoever wins, I believe it won't make a huge change to the country, I only hope that the threats to disregard the election results and to "claim our victory by force if necessary" will not come true and thrust the country into turmoil. Keep your fingers crossed!

Ready for the white stuff

Finally, after more than 1.5 years, I'm heading home again, and after - oh my dear, is it 3 years now? - we're going skiing. Of course the kids have outgrown any cloths related to cold weather so we're borrowing some stuff from friends. A surreal activity to pick tights, thick gloves, caps and jackets on a sunny and humid 30°C afternoon...

Rainbow wins Primary gala 3RD YEAR RUNNING!!!

Here are a couple of good pictures of the winners!

Well done all our kids: it was such a team effort to win by that tight margin on the very last race!

Parents and kids are hoarse and nerves ragged, but the whole thing was exhilarating.

Superglue (Sekundenkleber)

The phone is ringing and I see it's the school's number. Isn't that one of the most terrifying moments in life?
And then it's that usual random noise in the line since I am still one of those silly MTN users. At least the lady spared me the Hello-how-are-you-fine-thank-you and got straight to the point: Adrian had an accident. He hit his ...fffshhcrkr... he was bleeding quite ...zzzzfkrrrr... and the nurse recommends he should be ...kkkrchhhh... in a hospital. Oh my god! I'm out of the office in less than a minute and at the school in just 15 more, rushing to the nurse's room, it is closed so I bang on it since this is a life and death situation. Someone yells from the inside "WAAIIT!" Ok, that's not my boy, so I rush up to his classroom and there I see him - sitting and peacefully gluing little snippets of the alphabet on a sheet of paper. Just a plaster on his eyebrow. That's it??? The whole story was bad but then again not so bad. While washing his hands in the bathroom he dodged a move of his friend and hit his head on the edge of the sink. The cut was long and deep enough to have it stitched.


At the Surgey they recommended me not to stitch the wound as it will make it bigger and the stitches will remain visible. Glueing would be much better. Wow, how advanced they are here... they have some super-modern-state-of-the-art-medical-skin-glue. Alright then, let's do it.
When they bring the glue, it looks oddly familiar to me. And yes, it is plain superglue, the type you get for a few thousand Shillings in any second class supermarket down the street. The nurse confirms "yes, we always use this stuff as it is the same like the medical glue, but it is ten times cheaper." They squeeze Adrian's wound together, a few drops of superglue and a a minute later he is out with a new plaster on top of it. That's it?! Amazing, what modern medicine can do these days.

DED is no more...

I used to work for DED. Now DED is no more. Am I unemployed? Fortunately not ;-) ! But my organisation has been merged in to its bigger brother: GTZ. We’re all one big family now, we’re the GIZ („Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit“ which unofficially translates somehow into “German Organisation for International cooperation”).

Before this merger, there were three German government organisations busy with providing technical cooperation to developing countries:

GTZ, by far the largest organisation, worked in a business-like style, receiving concrete work assignments from the German Ministry for International Cooperation with strict and contractual obligation to be fulfilled. GTZ usually funded large projects in cooperation with local governments (e.g. rural electrification, water and sanitation infrastructure, or financial sector development projects). I.e. they usually came with lots of money and few expatriate staff, setting up offices in the capital, hiring local administration staff and experts, and worked towards reaching their indicators and achieving their project goals.


DED provided almost nothing but German (and European) technical experts relocating abroad and supporting a very wide variety of local organisations, associations, ministries, companies, etc. DED also funded the salary of local (e.g. Ugandan) experts. DED also worked mostly at “grassroots level”, i.e. outside of the large cities in rural areas, trying to create a direct impact and working with individuals or through organisations that directly impact on individuals’ livelihood.


INWENT has an extensive network of branch offices in Germany where they deliver all kinds of intercultural, preparatory and introductory trainings. They also have offices in developing countries focussing mainly on training related issues and projects.


And now, all of us have merged into one singular and large body of organisation called GIZ. Cool thing! It was hard enough to grasp this thicket of organisations myself - explaining it to someone else without extensive background in international cooperation and development was next to impossible ;-)

So, now what? On Monday I'm reporting back to work... what will change? Hehe, of course the first thing to change are the business cards and the email address, the rest is yet to come, but I'm excited about this merger and I am convinced we'll all do a better job if we act in concert. Stay tuned!