Intra-Africa Travel

This morning I left my apartment in Kampala at 710 am to head to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  In total I would spend around two hours and fifteen minutes in the air but I did not arrive at my hotel here until 4pm!!  It was a day of complete frustration with the way things work...or do not work.


Upon arrival at the Entebbe airport I was sent through one security check which just took me to the cafeteria....I wandered around confused wondering where to check in and why the security guard had sent me that way.  It was because he likely new I would purchase some water and a snack!  I then worked my way through a security line into the check-in line.   From the check-in line I moved to the massive immigration line.  Maybe because it was Sunday they only had two staff working for the 300 people waiting.  Phew - I made it through there and had some time to waste.  I wandered through the duty-free stores and realized that each store had its own pricing.  Eventually my flight was announced and we were directed to the gate - where again I stood in a security line just to enter the holding room.  We were kept there for quite some time as the flight was delayed.  The final line was to get onto the plane....that would take me to Nairobi.


Upon arrival in Nairobi I was quite anxious to get off the plane and find my connecting flight - I only had about 40 minutes until departure.  The airport is hot and humid and I had worked up a sweat by the time I got to the security check for the gate.  Again I sat in a holding room and waited to get on the plane.  I was one of the first on the plane - BIG, HUGE mistake.  There was no ventilation.  I had a window seat and ended up with a rather large, sweaty man in the middle next to me.  We were waiting on the plan for close to 45 minutes before takeoff with no air!  I was feeling very claustrophobic.  It turns out some of the seats, including mine had been double booked.  Had I been more patient and got on the plane late I would have ended up in business class!


By 215 I arrived in Dar.  I turned on my phone...and surprise, surprise it did not work.  After my x-mas experience I thought this might happen but a bit of research indicated that Zain, my carrier has one network for East Africa....meaning that it is not roaming to be here.  Needless to say I was unimpressed.  The airport was hot and humid and I got into the immigration line.  The official that I think is just checking our visa forms asked me for the visa fee and I thought he was joking!  I thought I would stand in line at one of the windows and actually pay the person and get the vis.  That is not how it works in Dar.  He took my money and passport and left me in the crowd to wait while it is processed.  At around 3pm I had my visa.  It was $50 and I paid with $100...I was given 2X20 and 1X10 for change.  While this may seem reasonable it is frustrating as you receive a better exchange rate for larger bills.


By 4pm I had made it to the hotel and was able to enjoy the air conditioning:)  I am in Dar for meetings and will return to Kla on Tuesday night.  I tried to cram as much into the two days as my dad was supposed to arrive on Wednesday morning.  Unfortunately due to the BA strike he will now not arrive until Friday....just in time for our weekend safari!


The past week was a busy one.  I was out for Janet's birthday on Tuesday and then farewell for a while drinks for Trude on Thursday.  Saturday we tried the new restaurant near my house, Cayenne and it was great!  Fabulous atmosphere.  I also immersed myself in trying to understand twitter....I have a long way to go but think I may slowly be figuring out somethings.  Using tweetdeck and twitpic I have managed to post shortened links and a photo!  I think I will stick to my new exploration of social media.  


Next post will have some pictures again....I hope.

twitter??

I had been pondering twitter for a while...it seems more convenient that blogging as you can send short messages, 'tweets', to keep people updates.  I was an avid twitter follower during the Olympics to track all of Right To Play's activities.  I started to learn that twitter is much more than a glorified facebook newsfeed - it is a great way to share information.  So today I took the plunge, signed up for twitter, found some things to follow and now have my fingers crossed that I can keep people interested and develop a following!  (Thanks Meghan for becoming my first follower:)) The welcome email I received had the following quotes: "The New York Times calls Twitter "one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet." TIME Magazine says, "Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app," and Newsweek noted that "Suddenly, it seems as though all the world's a-twitter."  I figure I may be a late joiner but that I made the right decision in joining!


This blog now has a feed of my latest tweets on the right hand side....please be patient, I am just starting to figure it out.  I will keep you posted as I learn - I must admit I feel a bit like an 80-year-old on a computer for the first time as I try to navigate all the options and news that pops up on my twitter home page.


Mom - don't worry, I will continue to blog.  But following tweets will keep you much more up to date!

not your regular Sunday night

One of my Kla friends, Vanja, started working on a song in January.  I first heard of this on our Lake Bunyoni road trip but at the time thought this was just a fun project - not something that would actually go anywhere.  The initial line I had heard was "Mzungu...sexy....remember me, we met at Iguana, lets go home and make a little Obama".  I thought it was pretty funny - Iguana Bar is one of those places that you are bound to end up at, likely every couple of weekends if you are in Kla longer-term.


Well by early March the song had been recorded, was being played on radio stations and at the various bars and clubs.  To hear the song go to Little Obama.  After recoding a song the next logical step is to make a video!  Vanja actively recruited her friends and asked us to take part in the video shoot...I can now say I have danced in a music video....and I now have my fingers crossed that I don't look like a complete idiot.


The video shoot took place Sunday night in a warehouse in an area of town we had never been - and likely won't rush back too!  The traffic to get there was pretty horrendous and the directions we received were minimal.  Upon arrival we found that another video was being shot and that we were delayed - it was almost 8pm at this point.  I was a bit worried about how long the whole thing would take but worked to keep a positive outlook (despite a mild hangover from a late Saturday night!)

Warehouse where the video shoot took place

Vanja's set would be the one on the left

Trude and me on set.....waiting

Janet and Sonia arrive, chatting with Keena

The Star begins to get ready

preparations

Trude putting her heels on in anticipation of starting

(she was about 2 hours too early!)

The set is almost ready

Vanja on set

Producer's view

Changing the set for the club scene

(this is what we Mzungu's were needed for!)

Sonia - wondering what we got ourselves into!!

We survived!!!  And its time to go home!!

It was definitely an interesting experience to watch the process unfold.  It was slow at times (but TIA), hot under the lights and unfortunately a Sunday night....but it was still good to go out and support Vanja!!  I look forward to seeing the final product and hope that by hiding in the back of the club scene that I will barely be noticed!

Other than that there is not much new and exciting to report.  My dad is supposed to leave Toronto next Monday to come visit me but he is booked on British Airways!  I have my fingers crossed that the strike doesn't affect his flight.

Meetings

It has been a busy 2 weeks with 12 straight days of meetings!!  I apologize for the delay with a new post and for the emails I have yet to respond to.  Yes - my hotmail has some sort of virus...if you receive an email from it with no subject please just delete it.  I have changed my password and hopefully it will stop sending random messages!

First I must back track a bit - you may recall that just before the onset of the meetings I headed to Jinja to go horse riding.  While it was a great day and as usual amazing scenery I was sore for close to a week after!  At first it was my lower back but by mid-week I began to realize how stiff my legs were.  If you are looking for a great work-out using muscles that you have forgotten exist hop on a horse and trot and cantor for a couple hours!

Nile River Rapids

Luc and Trude at a photo stop

The full Regional Planning Meetings started on Thursday March 4 (this was preceded by a two-day Communications Seminar and a full day session at the office).  One of the exciting things for me was the opportunity to meet the teams from the various countries where RTP works.  I had communicated with many of them by email or phone over the past 7 months but now I am able to put faces to all of the names.  


The first few days of the meetings were spent reflecting over the past 3 years.  It is not often that people have the chance to do this as things move so quickly and there is always a deadline for something.  One of the interesting things about the process was that Country Teams were not allowed to use lap tops - all of their work had to be displayed on flip chart paper.  Our conference room ended up with new wall paper from all the work they had completed!

Three-Year Trend Analysis

Tanzania Presentation

On Saturday we also had a visit from the Chair of the Canadian Advisory Board.  There was a lot of protocol to follow as he was on an official state visit.  I have learned the importance of protocol here since my arrival in July and our visit with the Vice-President of Uganda.  

Group photo (taken by me) with CAB Chair and his client (Mr. Naveen)

Group Photo taken by Mr. Naveen 

(The Uganda Country Manager complemented my understanding of protocol when I refused the front row seat and had our AVP of International programs take it)

By the end of Saturday we had heard from all of the country teams and I was thoroughly impressed with the progress that has been made in just 3 years.  Saturday evening was a celebratory dinner and of course there was dancing - there is always dancing at our meetings and everyone takes part.  This is definitely one of the difference to meetings in Uganda vs meetings in Toronto.

Saturday Night Dance Party

Sunday we had a very interesting session on Human Resources.  It is always a tricky topic as there are so many concerns.  Eva and David did a great job navigating us through the new compensation structures and addressing the difficult issues related to one-year contracts for field staff.  Monday was International Women's Day - a statutory holiday in Uganda.  I took advantage of some free time in the morning to get to the gym (entirely necessary after a week of buffet food!) before heading to the office for another meeting!

By Tuesday the end was in sight and people were getting tired.  The group work continued and teams started to plot out the changes they would like to see in our beneficiaries over the next 1, 3 and 5 years.  The next step was to map out how to get there!

National Training Officers

The meetings were scheduled to officially end on Thursday but most of us continued with another full day Friday!  By 630 on Friday a group of us sat at the Korean Restaurant, were able to relax and reflect on what I think was a successful 12 days!

In the spare time that I had during the meetings I found myself fully immersed in the book Shantaram which apparently will be a movie soon.  I highly recommend reading it before the film comes out...as you know the book it is rare that a movie does a book justice.

The weekend was a good one - I did only a little work and tried to catch up on relaxing and my time in the gym.  Upon arrival at Kabira on Saturday I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had upgraded almost all of the weight machines!  While it through me off my work-out a bit and the old equipment has not yet been removed it was very exciting and is the motivation I need to get my butt in gear after 2 weeks of buffet food!  It was also good to catch up with my Kampala friends that I had not seen in a while.  We had a group dinner at Lotus Mexican on Saturday night - yummy, yummy drinks.  Sunday night Janet and Sonia had a group of us over for homemade pizza and game night!  I was sorely embarrassed in a game call Borders where you need to match African borders - my knowledge of North and West Africa is atrocious and I will be doing some studying before the re-match.

with real skor bar and lots of love

The planning meetings are now in full-swing and I am hoping I can keep my energy up for another 7 days!!!

I was lucky to get out of town for a few hours last Saturday and go horse riding in Jinja.  The scenery was amazing and the riding was great.  I must admit that 7 days later I am still a bit sore after 90 minutes of trotting and cantering!!!

Monday and Tuesday were spent in a rather intense but incredible communications seminar. It was all about understanding different perceptions and how that affects your communication with others.  It really pushed me to think about how I react in certain situations and how that can affect communication.

Wednesday morning I woke up very excited as I would receive a package from home.  Sadly when i got to the office I found out my colleague from Toronto had been delayed by a day but it was well worth it.  Thursday she arrived with a fabulous package put together from my sisters that included cookies made 'with real skor bar and lots of love' as they wrote in the note that came along with it:)

So far the meetings have been busy but good.  It has been an opportunity for each country team, and for us as a regional team, to look back over the past three years to see how we have reached where we are today.  I am looking forward to tomorrow's presentations and to reflecting in the lessons learned as we plan for the future.