On the lighter side…
Mob Justice in Uganda
Boda Boda Headaches and Mob Justice
It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this blog. In my last post I was stuck on a freighter in Lake Victoria and after drifting around for a few months living off of fish and lake water I’m back to civilization.
Actually that didn’t happen but it would have made for a great blog post. I’ll probably hop a different freighter in a few weeks and head across the Lake to Mwanza, Tanzania to start making business contacts on that side.
I’ve really struggled with posting for the last few months. It’s hard to describe the massive culture shock I’ve experienced, even traveling as much as I have. I’ve been told that the first six months is the hardest and I would agree. It seemed like every time I wanted to write a blog post I was concerned that it would turn into a venting session over cultural and business frustrations. Living in a first world culture for my whole life didn’t really prepare me for the patience needed to live in East Africa. Not that I was a very patient person in the first place, my family can attest to that!
On the bright side, I am changing an becoming more accepting of things happening the way they will. Then just as I think I have adjusted, something happens which challenges me again.
Boda Bodas in Kampala
Something happened yesterday which really shook me up, not so much the event itself, but my complete inability to do anything about it.
It happened yesterday as I was driving home from a Child’s baptism celebration with a Ugandan friend. Coming up to one of the major intersections I rolled up my windows in preparation for the flood of beggars and street vendors which invariably surround your car. I used to leave the windows open, but after having a passenger get some unknown liquid dumped on them from a over pushy beggar, I now keep them closed tight.
When I stopped at the traffic light (more like a red, yellow and green light that everyone pretty much ignores) two beggar boys ran up to the car and started rapping on the windows for handouts. In all honestly as a white person in East Africa the request for handouts is constant and the best thing to do is ignore the person asking. If you say “sorry I don’t have anything for you” they just get more pushy and won’t leave you alone, which goes against my nature, but is pretty much the same in any big city worldwide.
After realizing that I wasn’t a tourist with handouts the kid ran right across the six lane street towards another car, without even looking and was promptly run over by one of the horrible boda boda drivers. The boda just kept on driving without looking back.
I’ve written in this blog before about Boda Bodas, the ubiquitous motorcycle form of transportation for Ugandans. While being an extremely efficient and fast form of transportation, they are also extremely careless, unsafe, reckless, horrible drivers who give no consideration to their passenger or other cars and people around them. Several other African nations have completely banned them, which I think is a bit extreme, Kampala alone has 145,000 bodas so a ban would have huge employment implications. I do think however that the over population of police in Kampala who spend most of their day waiting for political dissent to quash and watching dust fall should start a wholesale crackdown on bodas and their constant traffic violations. But I digress.
I must admit that I don’t blame the boda driver for driving off. The kid did not look and I don’t think there is much which could be done. Not to mention the fact that a flash mob was starting to form around the kid and if the driver valued his life he needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Mob justice is very real here and people tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Or perhaps they just stick a flaming tire over your head and watch you burn to death.
I drove off as well. Numerous people have told me to stay clear of anything that looks like a mob starting to form. If I’m ever involved in an accident with a boda or a pedestrian I’m told that the best thing to do is drive to the police as soon as possible. It’s just possible that the people there would have assumed that I hit the kid if I had stayed around to help.
Yet I feel so bad for the kid. I feel bad that there was nothing I could do or offer comfort with out the situation becoming dangerous. It is frustrating being in a situation where you are so helpless to do anything. Even the police, who were next to the incident probably had to waste time calming the mob down before they could check on the kid to see if he was OK.
Living in a foreign country presents one with frequent situations that leave you at a loss as to what to do. At home I would know how to deal with a situation like that, calling 911, helping to keep cars away from the injured person, etc. Living here I frequently feel that I’m just left standing there, looking through an impenetrable window at another horrible or frustrating situation, unable to do anything but helplessly watch the culture deal with things in it’s own broken way.
Many times when frustrations come my way it’s best to try and find the humor hidden in it and say as many people do here (including the Ugandans) TIA…this is Africa. However in situations like yesterdays there is no humor and I’m left wondering what I could or should have done.
Hop a (leaky, stalled) Freighter part 2
September 13th, 2011 N 00’00.509′ E 36’31.326 Lake Victoria, stalled. Apparently the trip home on the freighter isn’t looking to be a whole lot better than the trip out. Currently we are sitting directly on the equator, stalled. Now that we’ve unloaded it appears that Patricia does not like to travel light. So our trip up to this point has been plagued by vibrations, necessitating lower engine speed and therefore lower boat speed. Of course now that the engine has stopped the boat is left pleasantly without vibrations and with a crew who is wondering if we need to spend the night at anchor. At least with Patricia sitting high in the water the leak has stopped.
Unloading the boat at the Ssese Islands was quite the experience. Among the East African nations Uganda has the reputation of having a rather casual attitude towards work. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve known many, many hard working Ugandans. One of my friends here explained it to me this way, he felt that because Uganda was a country so rich in food resources, some of the locals had little motivation to work hard. If their job was lost they could simply head home and literally pick dinner off the tree. This attitude is magnified on the Islands where there is a rich abundance of fish and with a few hours labor one could make quite a bit of money. This topic turned into quite the campfire discussion last night with one of the locals from Bugala, with them lamenting the poor work ethic on the Islands.
When time came to unload Patricia, the local workers wanted almost twice as much as the experienced harbor loaders at Port Bell. We finally negotiated them down to 25% more, but the work progressed quite slowly. We called up the second shift and they tried to drive and even harder bargain, explaining that they had bad hangovers, or had played football (soccer) that morning and were feeling tired. One worker drunkenly came up to Nobert, my sales and manager and asked him what he thought the Island needed most. Nobert was think, jobs, industry, farming, etc when the guy tipsily answered “What we need most on this island is a Disco bar!”
At this point the shipper gave up on the locals and called up prisoners, who were more than happy for a little money and a chance to get some fresh air and exercise. It must have been a low security prison as there were only three guards for about thirty guys. Granted they did have machine guns, but the prisoners were everywhere. No one tried to escape so there was little drama, with the exception of the guards trying to increase their cut a little buy stalling this and that. Regardless the work got done in record time, leaving Patricia 75 metric tons lighter.
We unloaded 50 tons of concrete at the jetty and then beached Patricia at the resort as there was no truck on the island long enough to handle the 10 meter steel bars. Captain Richard said that it was his first time beaching a boat, so he hoped it went well, which it did. The boat had a rather gently curved “U” shaped bow which angles steeply backward to the water line, almost as If she was designed for beaching.
Even with all the boat drama, it’s been a great trip, it’s always relaxing to be out on the water. Guess we’ll have to see how tonight goes!
- AGS
Hop a (leaky) Freighter
September 10th 2011. N 00’07.026′ E 32’36.906′ Lake Victoria. So I’m riding our freighter out to the Ssese Islands today. After two days of cargo loading it’s good to finally be on the way. There’s only one minor problem, water is leaking into the engine room. Quite a bit of it actually. But I’ll get to that later, need to bail…kidding of course about the bailing…at least at this point. As long as we don’t run out of gas for the water pump, things should be fine.
The last two days have been crazy. Thursday the Port Officials randomly decided to drop a huge railroad tank car right in front of our jetty, not allowing us to load the boat from it’s normal location. Secondly the port was clogged with other ships unloading. We had three semi trucks waiting to unload so finally we arranged storage and unloaded the trucks. We were able to get our freighter Patricia into place by 6pm, but by then the port officials would not load, as it was too late. That evening our operations manager and I had dinner with and engineering firm we are looking to partner with and by the end of dinner he started visibly shaking. He headed off to hospital and sure enough, he had malaria and a bad chest infection.
Friday was quite the day for me, as I had to supervise all operations related to loading the freighter as boat the operations manger and out logistics guy were out sick. It was a very long day. Here it is customary for the shipper to find and hire labor to load the boat. One of his kids ended up sick, so he was not around most of the day leaving me to my own devices. Let’s just say that the language barrier between me and the workers did not end up in things happening so quickly. I finally got out of there at 8pm last night, with only ten tons of concrete left to load.
To be continued…
East Meets West
Istanbul, that amazing city on the border of Europe and Asia. I was there on Tuesday, but haven’t really been there. Let me explain, I don’t consider myself having “visited” a place if I’ve only connected through the airport. I’ve only connected through Istanbul…twice. However my travel schedule includes a visit of two days to the city sometime this fall. I’m really looking forward to it.
This being said, I’ll have to add that just being at the airport is great. So many little shops with things like Baklava, Turkish Delight, nuts and olive oil of every variety. Wonderful restaurants and lounges. It’s a really well designed airport, with the sole exception that there is security at every gate, so you’re stuck in this hot boarding area for quite a while before flying out.
Then, to top it all off, there is the brand new CIP business class lounge. Let me start by saying, with all the flying I do I’ve reached a status where I can use the business class lounges even while flying economy. There’s nothing like a nice shower, free wi-fi, great food, drink and a place to relax after a long international flight. However this new lounge beats anything I’ve yet visited, including the amazing first class lounge at Frankfurt where they pick you up and drop you at the plane via Mercedes limo. Believe me, I’ve visited a lot of Biz and First class lounges worldwide.
To start with, the lounge covered 22,000 sq ft. Huge by any standard. Inside were over 5 dining areas, individual sleeping rooms, a theater, kids play rooms, showers, etc. The showers even had bluetooth connections so you could enjoy your favorite play list while cleaning up.
Main Hallway
Library and billiards room:
Library & Billiards Room
Fine food selections, including 9 types of olives and honey on the comb. Food selections changed for breakfast lunch and dinner:
One of the several breakfast buffets
And finally those having the urge to sit in a latticed garden with olive trees and a self playing grand:
Piano Garden Lounge
So if you ever happen to be passing through Istanbul and are lucky enough to be flying business class or have Star Alliance Gold status, be sure to check out the lounge and get some rest. It won’t disappoint. I was sad that my layover was only 5 hours…
- AGS
Bits and Pieces
One of the things I’ve not been able to get used to in Uganda is their taste for gristly, chewy meat. As first I assumed that it was a cost issue, but on querying my local friends I was told that’s how they like it. After chewing on some particularly crunchy pork the other day, my mind wandered to biting into a juicy steak at home, so tender that it could come apart with a fork.
At home when the local butcher goes to work on his daily tasks, he strives to produce “cuts” of meat, separating it out into various parts with the minimum of bone and other unpleasant things. Here the objective seems more to simply cut the meat. Cut through bones, gristle, other chewy crunchy mystery items etc.
It’s a good thing my wonderful parents taught me not to be picky. I remember someone once talking about how they trained their kids saying “In life your are going to be served many things you will not like. Start eating now.” For the most part, I like everything I’ve eaten in Uganda so far. Many times however I’ve found the meat to be less enjoyable than at home. I can’t see this as a bad thing and I’ll admit that my waistline agrees! I’m eating much healthier here than I have at home for a long, long time.
- AGS
Electrician On Demand
Over the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to step into several different careers as I’ve traveled around. I can now add fence technician, boat wiring tester and electrician to the list. For the last few years the security fence around the Sunbury Property has given them headaches no end. Breaks in the underground cables, false alarms and other general wiring / operational problems. More recently a lightning strike caused more damage to the fence and the Sunbury pump-house as well. Even before the lightning strike the pump-house was a wiring nightmare, with multiple electrical panels, the wiring for the two property wells, as well as all the fence energizers and associated accessories.
I’ll admit, I’ve never installed an electrical box before, but I’ve assembled one and hand my hands in a few others by now. Fortunately the only shocks I’ve received have been from the fence and it’s an experience that leaves you little doubt that you’ve “found the power”. The second shock I received left me feeling rather sore the next day, but I guess that is to be expected from 8000 volts.
More recently I’ve had the opportunity to put my network tools to use assisting in tracing out problems on Amani. Electrician, fence tech and boat repairs all in one month. On Whodathunkit? On the positive side, I was able to turn the electrical disaster pictured below into something of beauty…at least to me. Hopefully it will be problem free for years to come.
Sunbury Pumphouse Wiring Before (Unfortunately I did not get full "before" shot of pumphouse)
Sunbury Pumphouse After
Life Under the Line
Muyenga, a hilly suburb of Kampala Uganda where I stay currently is 20 miles north of the equator. Technically that would make it the end of spring here, but unlike Chicago where the sun is reaching its highest arc, we start summer here with the sun at the furthest angle. That being said, it’s barely an angle and therefore hot all the time. Sunscreen is a daily necessity year round and sunrise and sunset don’t change that much throughout the year. Muyenga located just above a swamp, so there are plenty of hungry, malaria ridden mosquitoes flying about like a horde of blood hungry zombies, waiting to strike when I least expect it. On the bright side I have a four-post bed with mosquito netting all ’round.
Sunrise over Muyenga
It’s been a while since I have updated the blog, but I’ll give the lame excuse that I was exceedingly busy with many things going on. So I’ll catch you up on this Nomad’s movements. Back in March I mentioned that I was looking for a job here in the project management field. It looks like I’ve found that job and it’s a definitely more than I expected. While visiting a ferry company and their boat back in April I mentioned that I was looking for project management work to their CEO Rob. It turns out that this was a situation where I was in the right place at the right time. After reviewing my CV, Rob and his board asked me to come on as Managing Director for their East African operations, a position I’m incredibly excited to accept.
NomadTravels in Uganda
The ferry company has been incredibly generous with me, allowing me three trips home yearly for a few weeks to catchup with stateside business, family and friends. I’ll be coming home on June 14th to get everything ready for living in Africa. After celebrating July 4th, I plan to return to East Africa on July 5th to continue the next phase of my adventures. So for anyone who wants to hang out, make sure to give me a ring while I’m still in town!
- AGS
…when I was almost killed by a rocket.
Ok, so it was only a model rocket. And it was really the tree that almost did me in, but it would be rather boring to say I was nearly killed by stupidity. However I’m getting ahead of myself.
My young friend Jay, one of the kids living at Sunbury received a model rocket from his friends in the US. When the package came I was at a loss as to how on earth it made it through customs. The declaration said “Toy Rocket” and was pasted on the box. A few years back, on my second Africa trip I sent three boxes of computer cables to Sunbury well in advance of my planned visit. Only one of the boxes arrived…a month after I left the continent. So here I was in shock looking at a toy rocket, engines (quite flammable mind you), ignitors, batteries, really the whole nine yards, thinking back and wondering what possible threat could CAT5e cable have posed?
But I digress, the rocket was there, ready for launch (after finishing the “some assembly required” which was specified, and “some modification required” which was not). So Jay and his Dad Mark did the assembly and we waited for the perfect weather for launch. The problem with living on top of a hill is that when you shoot a rocket several hundred feet in the air it tends to find annoying little undetectable puffs of wind that carry it this way and that. When that hill is completely surrounded by sugar cane fields, the problem of retrieval is vastly compounded. So we waited for the best day, when even the tops of the gum trees were barely moving in the air.
Mark, Jay and I prepare for countdown
The perfect weather day showed up this Saturday, so Jay and Mark setup the rocket while I watched and Kara photographed. We started out with “A” power engines, designed to launch the rocket only 100 yards or so. The launch was perfect, the parachute came out as expected and all was well. That is, until a puff of air came along and landed the rocket very gently in the top of a neighboring gum tree.
Houston, we have a problem!
In a flash Mark was in the workshop, out with a ladder and up the tree. Gum trees can grow quite tall and this one was no exception. Mark was probably a good 35′ up before reaching the offending branch. On seeing the situation and coming to the assessment that no shaking or poking was going to get the rocket down, we resorted to taking the tree apart. (Just a little) We trimmed the offending branch, at which point the rocket fell a little lower and lodged itself on another branch. This branch was quite a bit larger and upon trimming brought the rocket nicely within reach. The only problem at this point is that the top half of the branch, (about 8″ in diameter) was still stuck. Mark who was still out on the limb, literally, was afraid to cut it the whole way for fear of it’s knocking him out of the tree on the downswing. So far below I pulled, twisted, jerked, everything I could think of before the branch separated and came down resting on another branch. So Mark descended the tree and we both set to jerking the branch down.
Instead of falling nicely away from us as we thought, the branch propelled by its lower limbs arced up over us and proceeded to fall directly at our heads. At least that’s how it looked from below.
In the records of human athletic prowess, I am sure there are many records for human sprinting speed. I’m quite certain that Mark and I broke them all. I kept up, neck & neck with Mark, who is quite athletic. Our spectators, after getting past the shock of the sonic boom, informed me that they had no idea I could move that fast. I informed them that when the motivation is right, just about anything is possible. Believe me, seeing that limb swing down, I was motivated. After Mark and I finished laughing, we surveyed the situation, coming to the conclusion that the manner in which we brought the branch down was probably not the brightest thing we’d done. However it was hilariously funny and we did get the rocket back.
Later that evening we enjoyed two more successful launches, with the rocket landing gently almost at our feet. Jay was quite worried about his rocket, but I reassured him saying “half the fun of launching model rockets is the fiasco involved in getting them back.” 
- AGS
Just When You Think…
…things can’t get worse, your debit card number gets stolen. (Seriously Unhappy Face) It’s really amazing how we take these day-to-day things for granted, until they are really needed. Last week I received a call from my bank asking if I had recently spent $200 at a Walmart in Pompano Beach Florida. Upon mentioning that I have been in Africa since March 1st the friendly call center agent and I concluded that the $200 charge was the result of some nefarious shenanigans and most likely not my alter ego on a spending spree. Thankfully the Anti-Fraud wizardry at the bank caught the transaction within an hour and called me directly. I’m also quite thankful that the shenanigan prone, card number snatcher did not use my card during the late afternoon hours, thereby prompting the bank to call me at an inopportune time and interrupt my beauty rest.
Fortunately the card was not used for any other transactions and the bank immediately reversed the charges. This incident does have me a little curious though, mentally wandering back through all my recent transactions to remember anything suspicious. Unfortunately many receipts here in Africa still have the card number printed on them, so I reason perhaps that lead to the theft. Also one can never be too careful in looking over ATMs for cameras or any unusual looking devices which might capture your card number and pin as you swipe and type. Add this to the fact that you are already keeping an eye out for lurking types who would be happy to lighten your just filled wallet. You never can be too careful of personal security and belongings in International situations.
So I guess I’ll be out of an ATM card for a few weeks. Oh well, the bank charges more in fees than my current credit card anyhow.
- AGS
