My so-called life ...

Fortunately we only worked until 3PM today. We hit a roadblock on some network issues. Ivan and I are going to re-convene to tomorrow at 8PM in the office and work with George from Nairobi. Joseph dropped me off at the Just Kickin' sports bar to watch some EPL. It was reminiscent of many many nights at Blue Drops. The first game was a 1-1 draw between Stoke City and West Ham. It did not fail to please muzungu. Then I watched most of Tottenham and the Wolves which ended up 3-1 for the latter.

The bar was OK with large 45 inch LCD screens and lots of them. I had 3 bottles of Bell and a nice mixed BBQ for about $11. The area of town was very busy with street vendors selling mainly DVDs and khaki pants. I picked up a few needed toiletries at the Millennium market and waited for Godwin the cab driver to come get me. He called and said he was stuck in traffic so I cabbed it with one waiting at the plaza where I had watched football. I have been in Kampala a total of ~15 days and this is the first time I really got out ... silly me. Tomorrow AM I will hoof it into town then grab a cab back here.

ManU and Liverpool are playing at 5:30PM so I will probably head back to Just Kickin' for that as well as a dinner. I have spoken to my Sweet Thing a few times. She was interviewed by radio free Europe ... Professor Kronick that is. She is teaching in Montenegro for a few weeks then is off to Budapest, Prague and finally Amsterdam. She had a cucumucca of the 10th degree with her flights. We had double-booked her leg from Frankfurt to Budapest. As soon as we noticed it, I called Travelocity and since the booking was less than 24 hours old, they cancelled it. Well it appears that they cancelled her return flight from Budapest to Montenegro AS WELL AS the flight from Frankfurt to Budapest ... whatever for; that is not what I asked the operator for. I emailed them, not expecting to hear anything back, and will call when I get back home with the cancellation number I was given.

RAC'ing up the hours

I just found out my departure date has been pushed back somewhat. I will not be returning to Canada as planned on Friday the 24th. I will be here until the RAC install is completed and properly documented. I walked back from very nice pizza lunch. I spoke too soon ... it was clear and sunny this morning and now it's back to gray and gloomy.

Say what? Goat races?

I was speaking with Nowa and he mentioned he was going to goat races Saturday ... never heard of that. My first experience with a goat was at the Bronx zoo when I was very young. I held out my hand to touch a goat he grabbed the plastic bag I was holding as well and ate it. Yummy ... hope it was a Farm Boy rather than Pharmaplus bag :). It is finally sunny here after a few days of gloom and light rain. Still experiencing a string of unfortunate events with the RAC install and it is not going well.

I also had plans for Jinja this weekend but I am going to have to work ...

If I could, I would, but I can't ...

Since returning to Kampala, life has been a lot less stressful than the first 10 days I spent working here. We are making some serious progress on the Oracle RAC install I am here to perform. I had a nice steak dinner last night at Lawn's for $15 or so. I also found out what medium-rare means in Uganda ... the meat waved at me so I sent it back for more cooking. My new favourite is Bell beer and it comes in a 500ml bottle, reminiscent of Tusker we had on safari in Kenya.

My "room mate" Arben has been complaining that his allergies are acting up what with all the dust wafting around the city. I did notice on the way to work in the AM, that there are hoards of women madly sweeping the streets. Here's where the title of this post comes from ... they are bent over sweeping with the equivalent of a broom with no handle. I want to get them all a handle; imagine bending over at the waste for 8 hours a day when one could stand and work with a real broom?

The streets are continually covered with a layer of dark orange dust which, now that Arben mentioned its prevalence of this substance EVERYWHERE, made me think of the cause. Regardless of whether one stoops or stands upright to sweep the roads, clouds of dust are inevitable.

I am trying to arrange a trip to Jinja, not far from the source of the ever-famous Nile river. That would be fun. Jinja is 50km from here. It would be sweet to get out of town and do something touristy for a change. I have been emailing with people in Vietnam about my second mission with no response yet.

My pet project in Ethiopia, which never got off the ground, was "a car seat for every baby". Here, as well as that, it's "a broom handle for every sweeper". I still have not figured out which side of the car the driver is on and keep going to the North American passenger door on the right of the car and find a driver there; then I chuckle ...

The arrival of Avery

We are now grandparents to another micro-Abbey. Avery Sydney _______ Abbey arrived Sunday morning and was a whopping 9.3 tons, I mean 9lb 3oz (I think I got that right). I found out yesterday from, of all people, Avi's paternal grandmother. What with being on the road from Sunday at 6AM eastern until Monday at 1PM eastern I missed the earlier new of the big event. I already forgot his third name so Lindsay will remind me.

Mr. Borge is a little pumped. He had 2 days off work and is heading back to tomorrow I think. Annabelle is quite please with the new arrival. As Ian and Sylvia said in the 60's ... think I'll go out to Alberta ... soon after my return to Ottawa on the 24th. I heard classic newborn noises in the background when I spoke to J&L; she says he is a little crabby ... hence she thinks he may be Crabbey Abbey. I've never heard that name before (today). Both ST and I are awaiting more pictures on Facebook. AA-squared ... sums up our 2 grandchildren - Annabelle Abbey and Avery Abbey. Good Canadian initials, eh?

2 out of 3 ain't bad

We left Addis a little late. Only in Addis do they call a plane and while the people are waiting downstairs for the bus, people in line for Djibouti find out this is the Kampala flight. They do not have a PA system with which to announce the flights that is working all the time. They do their best to announce a flight but there is usually confusion as people arrive downstairs. I get moved from 11L to 14J while doing the final check-in and find the seat occupied. There was more confusion as the plane filled up and many occurrences of double-seat booking. As the stream of flyers ended, one of the attendants found me a seat and shortly thereafter we left.

I slept most of the way to Kampala then scurried for the visa and luggage. Woops, only 1 of 2 bags made it. When it finally becomes obvious there are no more bags to unload, I trundle off to lost baggage and sit for 15 minutes while the lone clerk fiddles with paper and her PC, never once asking me if I needed assistance. Another lady shows up and asks if I am being served and I say "no" and that I have been waiting and waiting. Then the lady at the desk assists me. We do the standard paper work and the bag is still in Addis. There is only one flight a day so it is supposed to be here tomorrow at 1:30PM. Joseph has the paperwork and will pick it up for me ...

More oy yoy yoy

The flight from LHR was uneventful. The equipment at ETH is very tired. I was on a Boeing 767 that probably went into service in the 1600's. At Addis I spoke to someone at Ethiopian air for some assistance. I went downstairs to get the visa and had to speak with the attendant's supervisor. He would not let me out of the airport. I pleaded but knew it was a waste of time. I am on the ETC 2 EUR for 30 minutes internet. I guess I can really say I was in Addis if I get to experience ETC :).

I now get to kill 4 hours until my flight to Entebbe on another tired ETH jet.