Walking around Parliament Avenue

I wanted to be able to show you a bit more about Kampala... and how Kampala looks like and feels! So in the first of these, I am showing you some photos of when I took a walk around Parliament Avenue... I was doing some errands in town and I made the most to take some photos of the Uganda Parliament building and a couple of other things.

Let me introduce a couple of facts about the city and the Parliament.

Kampala's population is around 1.5 million according to my book (my source is the Lonely Planet guide to East Africa, edition of June 2009). Like Rome, Kampala is known as the city of the seven hills, although it has since engulfed many more, and that rolling topography is where the comparison starts and ends!



Apparently, according to the same book still, the Parliament House is open to visitors (I didn't check it that time). If you want to see the government in action you need to make a written request to the public relations department which should decide by the next business day if you are worthy of acceptance.



And on this note a bit of history regarding Uganda's independence: 'Unlike Kenya, and to a lesser extent Tanzania, Uganda never experienced a large influx of European colonisers and the associated expropriation of land. Instead, farmers were encouraged to grow cash crops for export through their own cooperative groups. Consequently, Ugandan nationalist organisations sprouted much later than those in neighbouring countries, and when they did, it happened along tribal lines. So exclusive were some of these, that when Ugandan independence was discussed, the Baganda people considered secession.

By the mid 1950s, however, a Lango school tracher, Dr Milton Obote, managed to put together a loose coalition headed by the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) which lead Uganda to independence in 1962 on the promise that the Buganda kingdom would have autonomy. The kabaka (king), Edward Mutesa II, became the President of the new nation and Milton Obote became Uganda's first Prime Minister.

And from that moment, the story goes like this: it soon became obvious that Obote was not keen to share power. In 1966 he moved arresting several cabinet ministers and ordering his army chief of staff, Idi Amin, to storm the kabaka's palace, who exiled to London. Following the coup, Obote self-proclaimed himself President and the Buganda monarchy was abolished along with other kingdoms.

Idi Amin's star was on the rise, and he eventually ended up staging a coup himself in January 1971. But we will leave that story for another time.

By the way, check this out, I loved to find this, I couldn't believe that there was a Parliament Souvenir Shop! Interesting...

And coming back to the present, on the other side of Parliament Avenue you can find one of the nicest cafes in town: Cafe Pap, there is one cafe here and another one in Garden City Shopping Mall, but this one is the original. According to my book 'this stylish cafe may be the place to meet some movers and shakers. The house coffee comes from the slopes of Mount Elgon, and many will tell you it is the best in town. There is also a full menu with breakfasts, sandwiches, salads, fajitas and pastas'.



I have to agree on the point around the coffee... It is one of the best in town, in fact, there is only 3 places where, if you are a coffee lover, you will like the coffee in Kampala: Cafe Pap, Cafe Javas and Serena Hotel... humm, not too much point to try it outside these places.

As many tourists these days, I had seen before the Cafe Pap in Garden City than this one, so it was nice to see this one as it is definitely picturesque, and it is definitely one of the places to meet people (leisure and business) in town.

And the vuvuzelas stopped too early

This is such a bittersweet moment for all the Spanish living in Kampala. On one side, we are celebrating that Spain has won its first World Cup, which is a dream come true; on the other side, we are saddened after the bombs that exploded in two bars in the capital, targeting innocent people who were watching football.

It's difficult to explain how one feels about this, because this is as much about the facts as it is about the feelings. I remember when we were living in London and the tube bombings happened... I felt quite intimidated back then, mainly because you realise that you are vulnerable: all of a sudden somebody targets your usual public transport, what you use to go to work and back every day, and it is so hard to protect all those millions of people from crazy people. So you realise that you are vulnerable but ultimately you cannot avoid taking the tube every day, so you just come to the conclusion that only God knows when we are going to be called... after all, you could also be in a 'safer' environment and be involved in a freak accident...

This time round I have felt more sadness and a bit angry probably. I feel sad because Kampala is such a safe environment... Ugandans have worked really hard at stopping lots of the issues that they had back in the 1980s, when people feared leaving the house after 2pm and crime and danger where an everyday problem.

Kampalas enjoy the social live, and the safe environment has been so conducive to supporting this, people enjoy meeting in places like the rugby club and enjoying the World Cup final together, with a quiet drink, and I think why not, why shouldn't they. During each game we have heard the vuvuzelas out there, and the party going on until late into the night...

I feel angry because they were innocent people, lots of them suppoting my country in a highly expected final... While millions of Spanish celebrate (and we should), in Uganda, and in other countries, more than 70 families are mourning the death of their loved ones.

I didn't feel vulnerable this time round. Although I have read comments in a couple of places on internet suggesting that the places were usual 'expats hunts', I think that those places were very popular with the locals, I was discussing this with another friend here (Colombian) and she was saying the same. In fact, so far we have only heard about 1 foreigner (US citizen) among the dead. I have seen the list of dead and of the admitted to hospital in yesterday's newspaper and all the names are local except for 6 US citizens admitted to hospital. I think those places unfortunately were targeted because they were just popular... I think that probably only the rugby club must have had easily over a 100 or more people watching the game, they wanted to hit as many people as possible, not particularly locals or foreigners.

Apparently we know now that Al-Shabaab has claimed the bombs, further to previous threats to Uganda and Burundi following Uganda sending peacekeeping forces to Somalia. Today I was watching CNN Back Story, they were talking about Nate, the US citizen who has died; he was a fulltime volunteer for 'Invisible Children', who had moved to Uganda quite recently. As the representative of 'Invisible Children' was explaining to CNN, it is quite ironic that a person who was working to end children being victims of war (and LRA terrorism), has himself been taken by terrorism.

It is almost metaphoric or even paradoxic, how Nate's death has made his organisation and the children's cause more visible... so often suffering is invisible to all of us, may this help us see the suffering around us and help us bring hope where there is despair, and courage where there is fear.

The vuvuzelas stopped too early on Sunday... let's keep them playing to show that we are not intimidated, not fearful, not invisible.

And the octopus was right!

We had been making so much fun about the German octopus guessing that Spain would win the semi-final... it is incredible, apparently he is on 100% right guessing... bookies' dream!

I am so excited that Spain will be going to the final. Surprisingly I was by far less nervous that I had imagined watching the game last night. I thought that Germany would be even more dangerous, and although you could feel the intensity of the game, I felt that Spain was calm and collected, and that they were in control. So I was not scared, we were playing very well, it was a matter of scoring to make sure that the game was not going in the wrong direction.

So now on to the next step, the final. I will be hosting a small Spanish party to celebrate the landing of Spain in the World Cup final, with some tapas and sangria. It is interesting how nobody knows about the concept of tapas around here, or not much about Spanish cuisine for that matter! So I am sure it will all sound very exotic to them.

We are also hosting my husband's boos and wife, and another colleague of my husband and wife for dinner tomorrow. They also don't know much about Spanish cuisine, so I hope they like it! Entertaining in Kampala is a whole challenge, not only because of putting everything together for the actual dinner, but also because as I have mentioned before in my blogs, it does take a while to get all the ingredients together, and one always needs to have some options, just in case any of the ingredients is out of stock!

The very first time I entertained at home, I remember asking my guests if there was anything that they would not eat/are allergic to, just to take it into account. One of the Ugandans responded that they eat everything except monkey's brains. Wow, I was shocked... is there anybody who eats that?! Of course, the response is yes, although I think it is one of those traditional but nowadays illegal things around here and some countries in West Africa. I was a bit shaken at imagining myself preparing some monkey's brain... I wouldn't even know where to get it in the first place. And it was not a joke, my guest was very serious in case you are wondering.

Anyway, so I managed to sail through that... I prepared pannacotta for dessert that day... and I had to change the recipe completely because the texture of the cream here is just different... the normal cream is extremely liquid, and the double cream is as thick as a stone almost... the gelatine was also interesting... And later on when baking cakes, the main problem is that the flour here is not very strong and it just doesn't raise... It is all new for me in this field, but after some trial and error I have managed to produce (I hope) good quality food.

Anyway, it will all be easy on Sunday as I prepare some crowd pleasers like Spanish omelette, every African I have cooked Spanish omelette for just loved it, and they all find it funny that my version of Spanish omelette (egg, potato and onion) is not similar at all to what you get around here in restaurants, which tends to include most times egg, tomato, peppers, onion... but no trace of potato.

It all boils down to the fact that we are not many Spanish in Kampala (or Uganda)! We are around 35 in the whole country, with around 15 of them only in Kampala. I must say this is the first time that I live in a country where Spaniards are under 50 ;)

In any case, wherever we are, I know all Spanish around the world will be together in one place on Sunday: our eyes will be on the World Cup Final in Johannesburg: Spain vs Netherlands! VIVA ESPANYA!!!

Change is in the air

Wow, Brazil and Argentina are out of the World Cup. These are the two teams that I was reckoning would make it to the final! Everybody is in shock about this World Cup... it has been really exceptional with some of the traditionally big teams going out (read the France and Englands of this world...). Spain managed to scratch a goal in a heartbreaking game on Saturday, hey at least it is good to go ahead, not everybody goes ahead playing their best always, so we shouldn't be criticised for doing it once in a while.

I was reading that there are is no clear favourite for the game Spain vs Germany. Well, Germany did go ahead playing their very best... 4-0 against Argentina can only be read as the very best I think.

We watched the Paraguay vs Spain game at a friend's place, it was his goodbye party. Just before leaving for the World Cup in mid June we had heard that a couple of people were thinking of leaving Uganda... but it has been quite shocking to come back and realise that things had developed so quickly and they were moving out NOW! One of our friends, a lovely woman entrepreneur is returning to Nairobi after years living in US and then 2 years in Kampala; another friend, senior person at a local Bank is leaving Kampala after around 6 years to go back to Kenya too... and our friend, the host of Saturday's party, is leaving Kampala after 2 years too to go to a new position with his company in Indonesia.

Just before going to the World Cup a couple of my Latino ladies friends also left... One, Argentinian, moving from here to Vietnam, the other one, Mexican, leaving Kampala after 3 years to go back to Denmark.

Well, I suppose it is what happens when lots of your friends are from outside Uganda, although this was never so acute in London because thinking about it lots of our friends were international but their span of time in London was longer.

Somebody told me that it is a good time of the year to move out of Uganda, as the tax/legal year ends now so companies do a lot of restructuring now. For others their children finish school around now so it is also a good time to leave and enrol in the new country.

Even our citizenship is changing. We met one of our friends in South Africa, a Kenyan who is currently based in Dubai. He was telling us about his son being asked in Dubai by other kids where he is from; the dad paid attention as he was curious about what the son was going to say... the dad is Kenyan, the mum half Ugandan/half British; the kid was born in London and the family have lived in London since the kid was born until they moved a year ago to Dubai. The kid said to the other kids that he is from London. The dad couldn't avoid realising that, actually, on reflection, he has now himself spend more time of his live outside Kenya than in Kenya... It's interesting, less and less we feel attached to one place and we are just more global citizens.

And talking about global entrepreneurs... This morning as I was leaving Garden City shopping mall after my grocery shopping I saw one of these adventure-like trucks I see around Kampala from time to time. We don't see so many tourists around Kampala, only these trucks which tend to start the trip in a country like say Kenya/Tanzania and take the tourists from country to country around East Africa and then going South towards Zimbabwe or SA most likely. What was interesting about this one is that the name was RatPanat! I knew this must be a Spanish company, and alas it is! I have checked http://www.ratpanat.com, it is exciting to see Spanish companies operating in Africa.

Even the weather has changed since we are back from South Africa... it is a bit 'fresher' (I can't say 'colder' really as it is not cold really). This morning I woke up very early and there was a quite cold breeze coming in through the window. It is definitely the 'coldest' that it has been here, although I am not complaining.

My brother sent me an email from Spain end of last week... his cat had just disappeared, but without time to mourn too much, his partner came back home with a new one...

As said, change is in the air!

Wold Cup: I can believe again!

Wow, that game Spain vs Portugal was very important for us in the World Cup. It was not only about going to the next stage, but it was also about giving us the confidence that we can indeed score, and even score a team which had not conceded a goal in the whole competition, even when they played the almighty Brazil.

A whole difference to the Spain we saw playing against Switzerland... I must say that first game of Spain was a bit concerning and made us wonder how are we going to continue to the later stages, but Spain has managed to improve with each game and the team we saw for Spain vs Chile and then against Portugal has made us reminisce the team that won the Eurocup two years ago.

We had the immense luck of seeing Spain vs Honduras live at the World Cup. We had been trying to get tickets to that game for months and they were always coming up as sold out. The same morning of the game a South African friend called us to let us know that they could get tickets... it was like a dream come true. This was my first Spain game (well, it was my first World Cup for that matter!) so my heart was coming out of my chest when we got to Ellis Park for that game. We also needed to win at all cost as we had lost the first game. Although we did win, there was still something that was not quite coming together... but after the Portugal game, I can believe again that we could possibly go far.

Ok, building up to the new stage...

I have been following the official World Cup blog for the Spanish team:

http://spain.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/spain-vs-paraguay-quarterfinal-preview.html

Some quick summary for those who don't have time to read the article

'I hate to say this, although it comes up all the time in club football, but this is surely a case of a team “parking the bus” and looking to nick one through its excellent striker force.(...) Its hard to see Paraguay doing much with the ball when they have it, given their poor passing ability and tactical rigidity. They will probably be very defensive in their approach and hope to wear Spain’s patience down in a similar fashion to Switzerland. It has been encouraging that Spain has been able to break down some stubborn defenses in Chile and Portugal, both of which had not conceded before playing Spain. I cant foresee Paraguay offering much in this game, and as we know they are solid penalty takers, it seems they may try to draw the game out in order to wear down the Spanish and hope for penalties.'

Lovely, seems like the game could be quite similar to the Spain vs Switzerland, which we lost, but I think we learned something out of that...

Why are all these really boring defensive teams making it so far in the World Cup? Why do we have so many teams now playing this new 'pragmatic' football??

Interesting....

On my way to the World Cup

Africa has gone crazy with the World Cup. Ugandans are very excited about it, they are avid followers of global football, probably specially the UK Premier League, and we have seen advertisements and comments everywhere about the World Cup. One of the companies who has spent the most is MTN... I have seen lots of cars around Kampala branded with the 'Let's go 2010' for months; well they are one of the big sponsors of the tournament, so it makes sense.

But in any case Africans are definitely proud of the World Cup taking place in the Continent for the first time. And although Ugandans don't have their national team playing there, they are supporting other African teams. We watched the inauguration game (South Africa vs Mexico) in the bar of Protea Hotel, which may I say, is THE place to watch football for Kampalans, and everybody was screaming, clapping and cheering in summary for South Africa. There was only one lady, one of my friends in fact, enthusiastically supporting Mexico for some reason... we all felt it was a bit strange as she is Zimbabwean, but then, maybe it is not so strange not to support the neighbours... read British people not being particularly supportive of French and German or even Spaniards not being supportive of French!

In any case, we decided to join the football fever and we are actually heading down to South Africa to watch three games. We will watch some of the big guns like Argentina and Italy, and actually also Cameroon. I have been before to South Africa, although only to Durban, so it will be interesting to go now again, this time after spending some time in Kampala... people keep on telling me that I will just feel like I am in Europe again.

Then there is the thing of the robberies and so on that we have started to hear since the beginning of the World Cup, specially my family in Spain have been paying a lot of attention to it since they know that we were heading down to Johannesburg. What can I say, I hope that everything will be fine, we all know though that it is better to be safe than sorry so my beautiful marriage rings which are perfectly safe in Kampala have gone into the safe and I have replaced them with a nice $2 bone ring... very African!

Of course I will be cheering for Spain, and I have bet on them being the winners... let's hope they make us very happy like in the last Eurocup! Viva España!!


Some related links to enjoy some reading about Spain in the World Cup

http://spain.worldcupblog.org/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hqML_DoJb4Tb05ik4ujEroOUXWLA

http://www.elpais.com/deportes/futbol/mundial/seleccion/espana/

Only in Uganda!

This week, with our trip to Europe still fresh at the back of my mind, I was going around town and reflecting about things that I have only found or seen here in Uganda/Kampala since living here in the last few months.

- Boda-bodas
Well, not only they are unique, the name is quite unique too. These are the motorbikes that fill Kampala's landscape, often carrying one, two, three clients... besides the driver! Whole families can get on board of these motorbikes sometimes, the funny thing is that they are not so different to the vespas and the motorbikes anywhere else, so one really wonders how can they get on so many people. One also wonders how they survive the traffic... drivers in Kampala are often not looking out for others, specially when trying to avoid potholes! I just feel it must be pretty daring to ride one, let alone to drive it all day long.

- Police dressed in white
Can you believe it? Policemen/policewomen are dressed in white here... humm, that has to be a highly impractical colour for a a country with bad roads and lots of dust. My husband told me at the beginning that apparently they changed from dark uniform to white because the Kampalan drivers were complaining about not been able to see them. Maybe it's because of the chaotic traffic...

- An ice latte without ice
This is an interesting one... I remember the first time that I asked for an 'ice latte' at Cafe Pap. What they brought was a latte at room temperature... when I enquired the waitress regarding where was the ice in the 'ice latte', she reassured me that this was an ice latte, and that this ws the way it was served normally. I told her, ok, let's forget about that definition of ice latte for a moment and bring me a big glass, filled with ice, and to pour the 'room temperature latte' into that glass to make a real 'ice latte'. My ice latte was then refreshingly cold and fantastic.

- Sweet bread
Can you imagine the concept of sweet bread... and I don't mean bread which doesn't have a lot of contents in salt... I mean really SWEET bread, with sugar, properly! This was a new concept that my taste buds were not quite ready for... so I was so happy that I decided to bring a bread-making machine from Europe, as the quality of the bread is not too great here, and the sweet business was not my thing.

- Items sold in traffic
It is no secret that traffic in Kampala can get really hectic... well, that is not too unique or only happening here as other cities are also quite known for that, however what I think it is interesting is the amount of salesmen that will come around offering sometimes the most bizarre items, like for instance tea towels. Humm, why would I want to buy tea towels on the queue up to my house... Let me think, maybe I don't have enough tea towels in my kitchen and actually the best is to buy them there and then... Other items can be more useful or interesting, for instance mobile chargers to plug in your car (now, this makes a lot more sense: traffic, battery getting used...), but to be honest there is a whole lot of other stuff that will be offered like maps of Uganda and East Africa, other car accessories, sugar cane for a snack, chewing gum, cards to load your pay-as-you-go mobile phone, etc.

- 'Gorillas in the mist'
Of course, this is not totally unique to Uganda as you can also see the mountain gorillas from the Democratic Republic of Congo and from Rwuanda, but I do feel that in the overall worldwide picture gorillas are pretty unique, so they make it to my list of unique things in Uganda. If you want to see the gorillas you need to get yourself to the West side of Uganda, along the border with the two mentioned countries. You will also end up spending a pretty unique amount of money in this expedition as rumour has it that one has to pay up to USD 500 per day to enter the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park in the first place, without accommodation, transporting yourself there etc... But those who have done it say that this is once in a lifetime experience, so maybe I should consider it seriously.

Easter holiday in Nairobi Part 2 - The 'metropolis'

When I first arrived in Kampala it was funny to hear how Ugandans were talking a bit, even in an infatuated way, about Nairobi, referring to it almost as the big metropolis in East Africa.

I have been going to Nairobi for a while now, exactly since 2002 at least once per year, and I always looked at it in comparison to London mainly, so from that perspective it was smaller and not particularly glamorous. This time round, however, comparing it to Kampala the picture was much more exciting!

Nairobi has also changed anyway. One of the things that friends and family commented the most about was new places, my husband and I were even reading about this in a local newspaper too. A couple told us to go to Zen Gardens, I must admit I was very impressed with the place and the menu. The place is set in quite a big compound, and you can find a Japanese restaurant and a cafe. The gardens are lovely and the menu at the cafe (I didn't manage to see the one for the restaurant) could well be a menu out of a trendy modern cafe in London with 'new' salads including bulgur wheat which is still unheard of around here.

We also went to Brew Bistro, this time for drinks, it has been there for longer but it was my first time and I liked it, again a good combination of trendy and modern design with a reasonable offering of drinks/food.

Although we didn't go to Sierra Lounge (in Yaya centre) or Onami (Japanese sushi restaurant in Westgate), we also heard very good things about them. In fact the local article I was referring to was talking about Sierra Lounge, and how his owner had looked to set up a new place that was different to what was there before, but also a place that somehow reflects his favourite places in other big global cities, like New York, London, etc.

We went to a couple of my other favourite places in Nairobi, like Arts Cafe (Westgate shopping mall) which has some of the most fantastic desserts I have tried anywhere around the world, even the actual Westgate Shopping Mall, with the many shops and diversity of offering is very refreshing coming out of Kampala.

With all these new places and new trends going on, I must admit that it did feel like Nairobi has definitely become the new 'metropolis' of East Africa. But what I find most interesting is the capacity of the new generations of Kenyans of liking both the very new, trendy and modern places, and the traditional 'Gipsies' and 'nyama choma' (barbecued meats) joints, they do feel at ease in both scenarios without any problem. I suppose it is not a dichotomy after all, but the result of the union of tradition and perhaps, let's call it like that, globalisation.

In general I was very excited to go around the supermarket too, can you believe it? Of course in Nairobi I could see all the brands that I had been missing in the previous two months in Kampala, like my Helmann's mayonnaise and some items like Italian pesto etc... I suppose that my realisation here is how attached we are to brands, when in reality, bottom line, what matters really in live is not if the mayonnaise is Hellmann's or even if mayonnaise is so essential, but there you go, I suppose marketing directors around the world make a good job selling us more than brands, a way of living.

Maybe the final measure of a city becoming a world metropolis is how globalised it is... maybe after all Kampala is not too bad, in spite of not finding Hellmann's mayonnaise here, I still like the local flavour in many other ways.

Easter Holiday in Nairobi - Part 1 Immigration Issues

Well you must have been wondering if the earth had swallowed me or if like many other enthusiastic new bloggers, I posted some thoughts out there and then run out of steam or time to post more...

Ok, I am back, it is just that we have been on holidays and then have been organising major celebrations for my son's 1st birthday and my birthday too, as they are very close to each other.

Our holiday was a trip to see friends and family in Nairobi. At this point you must also be wondering why is this entitled 'Easter Holiday in Nairobi - Part 1', of course because there will be a part 2 as well, today I want to focus on the first part of the trip, when we had to do some work around town too.

As I have explained before my husband is African, concretely from Kenya. Given that we do come to Kenya a few times a year, it is always very interesting that, as Spanish passport holder, I need to pay the blessed entry visa every single time... So we figured out that we ask for a so called 'Dependant's pass', which as spouse to a Kenyan, will allow me to avoid paying this visa every single time I come in.

So we went to the famous Nyayo House (home of the Immigration Department of Kenya) already back in December, when we were planning our impending move to Uganda. I say famous because among Kenyans this department seems to be known as one of the most inefficient and potentially corrupt of the Kenyan Government. As always I was keeping an open mind. So there we went, and the first interesting thing that I find is the name that has been given to one of the Department's section: 'Aliens section'.

I have mixed feelings about this one... Being a Spanish speaker and having studied Latin for a while I knew immediately that 'alien' comes from Latin and means 'foreigner', so probably should not take it personally; however I think these days we find that word more often associated to some form of extraterrestrial being... Indeed, if you go the Oxford Dictionary it confirms this 'Noun. 1 a foreigner, 2 an alien plant or foreigner species, 3 a being from another world', however let's imagine for a second saying the 'Department for Alien Affairs', or saying in UK terms the 'Secretary of State for Alien & Commonwealth Affairs'... humm, I don't think it works, even if some politicians seem like taken from another world sometimes!

Anyway, we filled in the application and then took it to the windows for help. Well, to start more than half the windows very completely empty... it was definitely not lunch time, as they do close for lunch time for around 2 hours (and then people talk about Spanish 'siesta')... maybe it was tea time... Right!

An initially helpful civil servant took our application, and when my husband enquired regarding when could we come back to collect the pass expecting to hear some time in one week or so... the gentleman just said very briefly 'In two months'. Both my husband and I exhaled very quickly, a mix of shock and surprise... my husband wondered how a single sheet of paper can take two months to process, but the gentleman just responded again 'Two months' so we thought it was better to stop the argument at that point.

So with that precedent, this time round we were heading back to pick the named Dependant's pass up. It took a while to find the place, mainly because it was not where we had submitted the application originally, but somewhere else on the 5th floor. When we finally found the right room after going through a maze of rooms, we found these two ladies having tea (again!), so clearly we were now interrupting their break...

My husband explained the situation and one of the ladies said that she could help us in 15 mins. We went back to a very very tatty looking reception (for that matter most of the building was pretty tatty looking) and waited for well over 30 minutes before going back in to ask as she was clearly not coming out for us.

What was our surprise when we go into the room again and we find the other lady who had been there earlier was literally sleeping on the other desk! My husband, who almost told me off when I was taking the photo of the 'Aliens section' banner outside saying that it was most likely not allowed to take photos there, was now almost cheekily keen to take a photo of the lady sleeping, I thought that I should share the evidence of the dedicated customer attention, so here it is.


When the other lady eventually returned, she didn't pay any attention to the sleeping beauty by the way, who carried on sleeping throughout the rest of the time that we were there; anyway, she explained that my file had been lost - apparently as we had applied for our son's Kenyan passport at the same time as we had applied for my spouse Dependant's pass, they had taken the file for the baby's passport and had not completed the work on my pass. Disappointing to say the least, as this was already 4 months after we submitted the application and we had to start now the whole process again.

Maybe it was just a plot to ensure that I continue paying visas every time... who knows, maybe I should just be happy that I am contributing to the Kenyan economy like that...

On the way back to our car, which was parked right next to Nyayo House, I saw the most amazing clamps for cars... with huge nails... Definitely quite distinctively different to the European ones... I couldn't avoid thinking that at least they must be very effective, surely as a driver you will not try to move your car a single centimetre!

The 'economy pack' phenomenon

One of the things that shocked me as soon as I came in was the whole thing around supermarket shopping here. Well, to start, Uganda is plainly very expensive. I know that somebody challenged me when I said this recently, however she doesn't really live in Kampala (she was visiting from Nairobi), and most of the Kenyans I know, for instance, agree with me, they say that they thought Nairobi was expensive until they got here!

The reason why is so expensive is that because everything is pretty much imported. Ok, I am not referring to the vegetables which are grown here, which are obviously cheap because they are grown here... I am referring to everything else really, from shower gel to dairy products... just daily basics. Of course most times there is an option to go for a local brand, so if that is the case you are in business, but other times it is not so easy. I have only found pesto in 1 delicatessen shop in the whole of Kampala, and of course the price tag reflects the (lack of) availability in this market.

This is obviously a bit more shocking for me than to others probably because of where I am coming from before getting here. Yes, we were coming from London, where it does not matter if you want to get Spanish food, with Spanish labels, it is very widely available. Here though, I have found more Italian than Spanish food, at least let me say thank God for the Italians here, so I get a few exciting products!

The second interesting fact around shopping here is that you DO need to go to ALL supermarkets to complete your shopping list. I know, I know, I am not talking about I like more the cheese from Waitrose than from Tesco... It is literally the case of this product can ONLY be found at Nakumatt or Uchumi, like I have only found white flour for baking bread at Shoprite. Well, it is fun anyway to go around (is it?!), but this takes us on to the next issue...

The third issue is that even when you know that a supermarket has a particular product, sometimes you may come round and it will, invariably, be out of stock. I remember going to Shoprite (again) and not finding up to 4 different items that I needed on the same day. Brrrrr... as Leonardo di Caprio was saying in that movie 'This is Africa!'.

And to Africa they must send the brands that nobody has ever heard of... Were you aware of this 'continent placement', apparently some brands must be produced to be sent only here. There are wines here (I checked the Spanish section at Nakumatt) that I have never, let me repeat that, NEVER heard of in my life... I have still managed to find some decent Chianti (thank God for the Italians, again!) but nothing like very presentable Rioja... probably because it would be even more expensive... South Africa has almost the monopoly of wines here.

But the thing that has topped everything else has been the so-called 'economy pack', and I say so-called because it didn't have anything to do with saving any money! I think Game is the supermarket where I have seen this phenomenon take place more often. I will offer an example, 1 pack of baby wipes (52 pieces) was going for 9,500 Ugandan Schillings, (let me say here too how really expensive are all baby items by the way) whereas the 'economy pack' of the same baby wipes, 2 packs of 52 each, was going for 27,500 Ugandan Schillings!! I couldn't avoid wondering who on earth would want to buy the 'economy pack' and then when discussing this with my husband he was saying that probably there are still people buying them! Incredible... I just think you need to know your maths well to survive in this country... or probably in Africa for that matter ;)

Well, so although people think that we can have a very cheap life in Africa... let me destroy that myth right now, well of course we could, if we were only ever eating sukuma (a local vegetable similar to spinach) and rice 100% of the time... unfortunately we like other things too, and most of the times they are imported or coming in 'non-economic packs'. Now I understand why people go back to UK with empty suitcases, I will be doing the same next time!

Jinja and the source of the Nile

I am not sure many people have heard of Jinja... I have no problem in admitting that I had never heard about it until I got here and started wondering what is there to see in Uganda, and Jinja was one of the places that came up most of the times. It is probably because Jinja is, after all, quite close to Kampala (approx 1 hour and a half on the way out, much longer on the way back because of Kampala's traffic!).

But of course, a lot more people have heard about the Nile... we know that it is one of the longest and largest rivers around the world. I have come to realise that there is apparently a bit of controversy around where is the source of the Nile... People have either never wondered about it or were never too concerned about it... we know much more about the part of the Nile which flows across Egypt.

So we started our trip to Jinja with the promise of seeing the source of the Nile. On our way out we stopped at Mabira Forest for breakfast. Mabira Forest is a pretty big rainforest in the middle of the land on your way from Kampala to Jinja. A friend of ours who was acting as a bit of a guide on the day tends to join a group who comes once a month to do walks across Mabira Forest with one of the national guides. It was very nice to see the forest, apparently it is full of some little animals like tree snakes, and our friend has seen monkeys and baboons also during the walks... although we didn't see any of all those, I was quite happy not to see any of the snakes specially. We had breakfast at The Rainforest Lodge Mabira, which was beautifully built and decorated, nice African style, check http://www.geolodgesafrica.com/the_rainforest_lodge.htm, it was peaceful and very relaxing, would be lovely to stay there to disconnect from the world. I loved the reception, very cool, and the swimming pool against the backdrop of the forest.

Our friend was telling us how Mabira Forest is a bit under pressure by some companies and people to gain land from the forest to convert it into agricultural land. That would be a shame as this is a wonderful rainforest with invaluable biodiversity.

So after our big (and expensive) breakfast we continued our way to Jinja. I had read that Jinja has become somehow a weekend retreat for expats, aid workers and missionaries, resulting in some pockets of sophistication. Well, that's what my guide was saying... I am not sure I would have called it 'sophisticated' but was nice enough. The town is very 'flat' in the sense that there are no high buildings at all, I was impressed by some of the colonial style houses and buildings which are well preserved.













We immediately set off to go and discover the source of the Nile. This was an interesting one, because I had read beforehand that this was not, how should we say... it is not spectacular... but my husband and our friend I think were expecting something different. Basically you need to take a boat to take you to the place where Lake Victoria finishes and the Nile starts, of course it is highly advisable to negotiate harshly down the initial price that the guys give you... we ended up reducing the price around 60% of what the guy had suggested initially. As you go into the river, they take you to a place in between two small islands, where the only thing that you can see nowadays is actually some currents flowing strongly from underground and then towards the river.














So of course, my husband and friend were so disappointed... I think they were expecting to see some kind of beautiful spring or waterfall from where the river would then flow... I was not too disappointed, for me it was the first time on Lake Victoria and Nile waters, so still a nice experience. I have found out later that the problem is that the Ripon Falls now lie under the river, buried behind the Owen Falls Dam. In fact, going up river, you can see the Bujagali Falls, and somebody told me that there is a new dam being built towards that side, which is likely to end up covering those falls too... Never a better example of how man is changing the landscape... on one side it is good to be able to retain all that water for human consumption, but at the expense of covering some beautiful natural spots.


The anecdote of the day, and something that I didn't know previously, is that close to the Source of the Nile, at the Ripon Falls Leisure Centre, there is a statue of Gandhi. When Gandhi died his wish was that his ashes were divided to be scattered in several of the world's great rivers, including the Nile in Uganda.






Later on we then went up river to see some of the rapids and the place where you can do bungee jumping. Our friend is from Zimbabwe and she has done both rafting here and the bungee jumping too... but she said that compared to Zimbabwe these rapids here were really small... well, I suppose if one takes into account some places down there like Victoria Falls ;)

So in summary for me highlights of the day... some beautiful places, which could be somehow organised a bit better from a touristy perspective, a great biodiversity that not many people would pay attention to and which is coming under pressure by human action... But all in all a charming visit to one of the greatest lakes and one of the greatest rivers in the world.

International Women

Yesterday I attended an event organised by the International Women Association here in Kampala. This got me thinking... why international women, not expat women... as it happens most of the members are expats, in fact lots of them are the wifes to this or that ambassador in town. In any case I do prefer the term international women, or at least I do identify with that one more than 'expat wife', after all my husband is not really a 'full-on' expat here.

Most of the women I met are truly accomplished, but not in the sense of how Mr Darcy was talking about 'accomplished' ladies in Pride and Prejudice, but in the more contemporary sense of professional women, with solid careers behind them, probably ladies who are taking a career break like me or who have moved following their husbands and are not working for any given reason while being here.

In any case, I like more 'international women' because it encompasses a wider proportion of our population... I think that more than international women we are truly global citizens... like this lady who is British by origin but was raised in India, met her husband in India and then they have lived in many countries in the last years including Kenya, Congo, Nigeria, Uganda 3 times across 3 decades. She has come back to Africa following her husband, who had already retired, but decided was missing work too much... she is not the only one in that scenario by the way.

That got me thinking too about how would this be if the situation was reversed... I know often men say that they would be more than happy to stay at home while their wives progressed in their careers. Well, I have lived in UK for almost 10 years and have only seen a handful of such men. And then, coming to Africa, what I see is even less of it! Of course there will be men like that, but at the moment, in the circle where I move, there is none. I have nothing against though, believe me...

Later on we went for a lunch of Spanish ladies at the Serena Kampala and we were talking about this with the other ladies; about how we as women 'measure' ourselves by our careers, but also around our families, our roles in society... we think men value themselves more strongly around work. I don't mean to say that family and society are not important to men, but work is often a very strong priority in their lives.

In any case, I actually thought that it is very lucky that a whole bunch of women of such talent and potential have come together to create organisations like the International Women Association (IWA), because this is not only about meeting other ladies for coffee (which would be good and valid enough by itself), but also about going out and taking an active role in a country that we are all calling 'home' even if for a few months or a few years.

And it is great to see women taking action... women are the core of family and by extension society... I am not the only one to say that, especially in Africa!

Have a nice weekend.

New life in Kampala

View of Kampala from my balcony

Here we are, week 4 in Kampala and at least the heat is giving us a break. The locals (or people who have been around for a while), say that it hasn't been raining like it normally rains... they mean by that long grey days (similar to the ones we have often had in the UK), instead of the intense fast and furious tropical storms that then lead to sun immediately afterwards.

To be honest since I arrived here everybody has been telling me that the weather has changed... they either say that there is no difference of seasons any more, or that it is hot(ter) all the time, or that they just don't know what to expect any more of the weather. Well, must be another product of climate change, but we will leave that discussion for another day.

Life in Kampala is good so far. I sent an email to friends this week explaining some details about our life here and some of the 'cultural shocks' when you arrive and I was saying that so far for me driving here has been like driving in the South of Italy but with lots more portholes and bumps. If you have driven in South of Italy you will know what I mean, in fact the more South you go, the worst it gets... It is really similar here anyway.

But in general we are settling into a satisfactory, quite pleasant life here. I have lots of help, well of course that means much more than what I had in UK, as we have a lady working fulltime for us, and although I was a bit expectant to see how I would adapt to that, I must say that it hasn't felt too difficult or invasive... It helps that it allows me to have a bit more time for myself, which quite frankly feels very good by now.

Anyway, I shall be posting some stories of cultural understanding and potentially misunderstanding sometimes... hope that it is fun to follow from time to time.

Cheers