At Home with Roland and Kermit

Since our last blog things have moved on very nicely. Firstly the project is going well. We won't bore you with all the details but a few highlightes are.

1. Alison can now tell one goat from another and can even recognise them in the street. She's given a few of them names.

2. She can also tell you how much a goat is worth based on it's gender and size.

3. We can both tell you the prices for beans, sorghum, maize and simsim per Kg.

We're now officially the most boring people in the pub (if only there was a pub).

The best news ever. Beverley and Pauline (Garry's sisters) sent food parcels. This has been life changing stuff. We can make curry, so have had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Squirty cheese is the worlds best invention and our hut is the best (or should we say only) place in town for Pizza.

Brand Beckham has reached Karamoja. Posh is launching a range of cocktails to complement the gin above. Read carefully the packet. There are some interesting claims.

This is a piggery. Thanks to Kate Snowden for your help with pig information. It helped us create a business plan. Alison hasn't named the pigs yet.

In our attempts to find something new to eat we've started making bread. We can now make our own pizza bases. Toppings are a bit restricted, squirty cheese and tomatoes. Hmm lovely. We're growing some basil (that Pauline sent) so hopefully we can soon add that to the toppings.

This was in a brand new upmarket hotel we stayed at in Abim. When they said they had running water we thought foolishly that you turn on a tap and water comes out. No, no, what you have to do is pump it out of a well and then tip it in a bucket. Then you can have a wash.

These guys were having a beer and a dance after earning a few quid putting on a show for a new bank. The beer is a well dodgy home brew. It's in the red bucket.

This bloke is only 21 but has supped quite a lot of the dodgy home brew. He is doing the conga after a few beers.

This is kabalagala - aka Karamajong "chocolate". The banana and cassava dough on the left is fried in the oil over the flame and comes out crispy. Good breakfast fodder. Couldn't see where Moses had put the fire extingusher in his bamboo hut. Willy Wonker has got nothing on this chocolate factory.

This is a school PE lesson. No excuses accepted, such as no shoes or kit. Get running!

A scorpion outside our hut.

Progress on the building from the last blog.

We had a party. Garry with Andrew, one of the guys we work with.

Sunday morning, reading the papers at what is now called Garry's Corner. It's a little shop that sells everything, including beer.

These kids have made a model village in the sand.

Lots of kids have these toy cars, made out of old oil bottles and bottle tops. You see them racing each other up and down the street with them. The two above are actually Jenson Button's Maclaren and Alonso's Ferrari.

These are the hottest chillies you will ever come across. Small but fiery.

Garry feeding Suzanne and Heidi.

Rainy season. We don't have many clothes so even when they're still wet you have to dry them where you can. This was on a business trip to Kampala.

Same business trip - the car broke down. Never mind, fixed and back on the road in about three hours.

What can we say?

Would you let this guy manage your property?

Geese packed into sacks travelling to market on the roof of a van.

Some of the cows have very big horns. What would you do with a pair of these?

Furniture shop - DFS eat your heart out.

Real bicycles, the only ones we've seen.

Real monkeys, we've seen quite a few along with antelope and buffalo.

This is what you do with the horns. Pimp My Ride!

Check out the registration. We had a very important neighbour staying in the hut next to ours. The Archbishop for the whole of Uganda came to launch the Bible in Karamojong.

One of the projects,we have been working on is to get small bank loans for people who would not normally have access to credit. This is 4 of the first 5 successful applicants celebrating.

So why the title, living with Roland and Kermit?

Guess!

Bye for now

Alison and Garry

Election Party in Kaabong

Since our last blog, we have been mostly eating beans and rice and getting stuck into some real work. MercyCorps delivered and installed machines for flour milling and nut grinding to a number of beneficiaries. Our role is now to make these profitable businesses. We have also started to make applications for bank loans for a number of other businesses through the MercyCorps loan guarantee scheme. Other than that, life has been all about finding something else to eat rather than ......................


One evening, we went to a local attraction called "Sliding Rock" - there's a clue in the name. The picture shows Alison making a daredevil move of sliding under Garry. There is only rock and no soft landings, so our first few attempts at a high speed descent on plastic trays resulted in too many injuries. We decided to go down at trouser speed instead. After sliding down the rock, we hung around for a while on the top, drinking beer and watching the sun go down.

This is the local cattle market, recently refurbished by MercyCorps. It is a huge success and now attracts all kinds of traders not just people selling cattle. This group is selling tobacco. As you can see it looks like a lump of mud or something nasty and no, we haven't tried it yet.

Alongside the cattle market, there is a commodity market which sells everything from football kits to animal medecines. The guy in front of the stall is a typical Karamojoan Elder in tradtional garb - skirt, bedsheet, hat and stick.

Football kits sold behind this young lady. She's practising her "on the ead son"

Three very fierce looking Karamojoan warriers. They are pastoralists and use the stick for guiding the cattle. The guy on the right, in his right hand is carrying a small piece of wood. They almost all carry this and it is in fact a stool, so when you sit down, you don't get ants in your pants (wearing skirts, we are not sure if they wear pants)

Chicken tonight? These three are selling the chickens that they are holding by their feet.

All the above people insisted on us taking their photos, but despite them always smiling, they don't smile for pictures (yet)

This is the area of the market selling cows and bulls.

This bit is where you buy goats. A goat is about 20 pounds and a cow about 100 pounds. The problem is you have to eat them all in one go as there is no refrigeration. We might buy a goat for the staff party barbie.

This is our training room. Alison is deep in conversation discussing business skills training.
We used to share the room with a dog and two chickens, but they have moved to Kaabong.

Alison went to the local jewelery shop

This is Bena on the right, Alison's personal shopper in the store, not quite Harrods, but similar to Ratners.

This is a Rolex. We walked into the office one day with one of these and a colleague asked 'do you like Rolex?' Garry responded with 'it's not a Rolex, it's a Swatch', thinking the guy was talking about watches. He was most insistent it was a Rolex and Garry insisted it was a Swatch. After some discussion, we found he was refering to the food that we were carrying. It is actually called 'rolleggs'. It is our favourite breakfast and is a chiapatti with two eggs fried and rolled up inside it, all beautifully packaged in a page from a school notebook.

More 'on the ead son' pictures. This is Masei, the owner of our local, he is wearing a cabbage leaf on his head as it is pretty hot sat in the sunshine.

The Night Out!

A posse we met up with one night at the local 'hotel'. We enjoyed a couple of beers with the gang and later went to Kotido's one and only 'night club', Planet 10. The favourite song is "Shake Your Waist'. Check it out on Youtube. It's definately number one in Kotido.

No pictures from the disco sadly! Everyone was really friendly, girls and boys alike. No-one was smoking or drinking, so no aggravation.

The groundnut paste machine being started for the first time. It was great for us to see something tangible (though the smoke).

Simsim paste (sesame paste). Tastes better than it looks and an expensive commodity round here. You can make all kinds of things with it, you can even add it to beans for an improved
flavour.

The happy owner and the local community.

Heath Robinson was here before us. This is actully the coolest/warmest thing we have come across so far. It is at the guest house in Kaabong. You lower the bucket, add hot water (the only place in Uganda where ther is any hot water), raise the bucket and treat yourself to a great shower. The hot water comes from a solar system in the garden.

This is our election party in Kaabong. A group of us relocated to Kaabong whilst the elections were being held. Great company and good fun. From left clockwise, Tim, Alison, Sam, Rolan and The Other One. There are 2 dogs at the guest house. One that used to live in Kotido, called Kooch and one stray, affectionately known as The Other One.

This guy has an amazing story about an incident during the Sierra Leone civil war. One day, we hope it will be published and could be made into a film (tear jerker). He is on the top of telecoms rock, the only place round there with a telephone signal.

A view across Kaabong, taken from the top of telecom's rock in the back garden.

The election was trouble free and we have moved back to our normal location in Kotido.

Hope you are all having fun and enjoying continuous electricity and (hot) running water!

Bye for now

Alison and Garry

Beans and rice again

We have arrived in Uganda and have settled in well. Our first few days were spent in Kampala where we enjoyed Erytrean food and Tim's hospitality (Deputy Country Director for Mercycorps, the company we are working for). Kampala is a "reasonably" cosmopolitan city on the edge of Lake Victoria. Unfortunately we didn't have any time for touring, but did manage to stock up on a few essentials before moving up to Kotido. This is in the North East of Uganda, in the Karamojoan territory where we will be spending most of our time.
Some of you blog readers may be wondering why we are in Uganda. A brief update is that we are not on vacation or a back packing jolly. We are working for an American NGO as economic development officers or to put it simply, we are helping people to start up and run profitable businesses. If you are interested in the detail, there is a website - www.mercycorps.org


This is our little home for the next 6 months. You're right, no satellite dish or TV aerial, however we have got running (cold) water and electricity, but not much of either. We have a nice little sitting area in the front, but we have to share this with cows, chickens, ghekkos and a million bugs. Apart from that, it's fine. We have been entertaining ourselves with watching DVDs and playing backgammon.

It is a little like the Wild West round here. This is the "main" road into town. Traffic is not really an issue and unlike Cyprus, there is no problem about walking on the pavements. Wild West is actually not a good description as the people are in reality nice and friendly. This guy is not taking his goats for a walk, he is taking them for lunch!!

This is the local market built by Mercycorps. It is busy with lots of traders all selling similar stufff, so choice is a touch limited. We haven't found a bread or cheese stall yet, but remain hopeful.

These two made it past lunch!

How cool is this? Whisky in a sachet. Would it catch on in UK?

There is a bit of building work going on, near our house. The paper bag on the guy's head complies with all relevant safety standards, including UV protection. Scaffolding is also to a high standard - yeah right!

This ugly looking bird is a Malibu Stork and it is huge. Look at the size of the crow near it. This was taken outside our hotel in Kampala.

This is Phillip, one of the entrepreneurs we will be working with. He has a milling business.

Phillips business is in a village called Kachery and we were mobbed by these children as we walked through.

Another Mercycorps project. These people are building a much needed micro dam under a scheme called Cash for Work. There has been a high dependency on handouts. Obviously this scheme is slightly different as people get paid for working. When the project is finished, the local community is financially better off and will have a critical water source to see them through the dry season. A real win:win situation.

This is Daniel, the project grant's manager we are working with. One of the problems is the ground is really hard - Daniel is showing us the bent hoe.

How's this for a builders radio. Dewalt and Makita - eat your hearts out. It really is a radio and it does work!

This is the site it was working on - a grain storage silo built by Mercycorps and donated to the local community.

There is even a Hilton here.

A Local Economic Development committee meeting that we attended. We will be working with these committees in various areas to help get businesses off the ground. We were made very welcome and were left with real enthusiam and committment from the locals about making these projects work. It is also quite nice holding a meeting outside with dogs, ducks and chickens free to join in when they wanted.

Our first puncture - sure it won't be the last. There are no tarmac roads, so travelling is a bit slow and bumpy.

In the past we have been asked about what we eat whilst we are working or travelling. So, that is the reason for the title. This week we have been mostly eating beans and rice, although one day we did have rice and beans, however there is no shortage of goat! For the time being, we will stick with rice and beans.

Bye for now

Alison and Garry