A home at last

1 September 2010

With all the problems with the previous house VSO found a new place for me to live and I moved on 1 September. This is a modern first floor apartment. I had a slight surprise when I arrived – the previous tenant had not moved out! I managed to negotiate with her to leave quickly and she moved out late on the 4 September. I have a spare bedroom – complete with bed and mosquito net so can accommodate visitors. It is easy to clean, in a quiet area and I have a balcony which is very pleasant to sit out on in the afternoon. There are 4 apartments and a house which is used by an NGO within the complex and there is an askari. It is in a residential area and seems much safer after dark than my previous house. The journey to work in the morning takes about 30 minutes and coming home takes 55 minutes to walk (all the taxis pass me full) or 15 minutes if the registrar gives me a lift. There are local shops within a few minutes walk of home and although the ranges are limited they are adequate for day to day living.

 

Transport

In Kampala there are four options for public transport:-

Boda-boda

These are the motorbike taxis. In Indonesia I frequently used this form of transport (there known as ojek) as it is relatively cheap and will go exactly where you want rather than on a set route. Despite bringing my motorcycle jacket and having a full face helmet from VSO I have no intention of using this form of transport here. My reasoning for this is three fold:-

1) The motorbikes all appear to be very old and are often in poor state of repair

2) The drivers only seem to be able to go at one speed – fast – and do not concentrate on looking in the direction they are travelling

3) The roads are in a very poor state of repair with lots of potholes and other obstacles.

 

I have already seen several accidents involving boda-boda and do not want to add to the statistics

Taxi

These are multiple occupancy minibuses running on set routes.  The Indonesian equivalent was the bemo. The taxi here has some advantages over the part of Indonesia where I lived:-

1) They are licensed to carry 14 passengers and only ever carry a maximum of 14 adults

2) They do not have large sound systems

 

There are of course disadvantages as well:-

1) There is absolutely no indication on the taxi of its destination, the conductors do shout out the final destination but this is only helpful if you know where the taxi would head after your desired destination

2) The taxis tend to wait at the terminals until they are full so if you want to join anywhere else you can have a very long wait until one comes past with a seat

3) Seats are arranged in rows – straight across the vehicle so you have to keep getting in and out to let other passengers off

4) They are old and often have exposed pieces of metal on the inside so you have to be careful how you get in and out not to tear your clothes

Special hire

These are what we think of as a taxi but have no special livery or signs to identify them as such. They also do not have a meter so you need to establish a price for the journey in advance. There are specific places around the city where these wait. Once you find one where the car is in a reasonable state of repair and the driving is good you take his name and number then call him when you next need to use a special.

Security

The compound I am living in has a high wall on three sides topped with broken glass, however on the third side it is possible to get over the fence from the offices next door – as I was to discover. My house has bars at all the windows – for which I was very grateful when one night someone managed to open 2 of the windows – well the catches are not very good.


I have large metal doors with a complicated system of bolts and padlocks. Most Europeans living in Kampala are in compounds with an askari – someone who controls the gate to the compound – as there is an assumption that all Europeans have a lot of money so are targets for burglary.

23 August 2010

I arrived at work to discover there had been a break in over the weekend. Owen – one of the cleaners - had discovered this at 06:30 when he arrived at work. There was no security guard around, an uneaten meal at his table the front door security gates were open but the door was still closed. The security gates on the accounts office had been opened and the inner door broken open. The computer and screen but not the keyboard or printer were missing and the desk drawers had been broken open and envelopes scattered around. Some of the staff went to the police station to report the incident. The askari had come on duty at 07:00 on Saturday and had not been due to be relieved until 07:00 Monday. His gun was also missing. The scenes of crime officer arrived with the staff just after 10:00 and very shortly afterwards about 6 policemen arrived with the absconded askari. He admitted to being an accomplice – he had been given 1.4million/- in what had turned out to be fake notes. His role had been to let the gang of 8 or 9 others in show them where accounts was and then disappear. He had hidden his uniform and the gun – although according to him not where it was found. He was in handcuffs and barefoot and made to pose for various photographs near the gun, the accounts etc. What I heard of his interrogation it was very different from what would happen in the UK. It appears that after the gang failed to find any money in accounts they had tried to gemmy the window on a small office and then tried the front door. They had done some damage to the lock but not managed to open it. According to the police there had been 3 other burglaries in the area on Saturday.

My new house

4 August – 1 September 2010

After a week in Ntinda Wednesday 4 August saw me moving to my new house – Sam from VSO was due to be collecting me early morning but was running late and then could not find where I was staying. After a lot of phone conversations we finally agreed a place which we both knew for me to walk to and wait for him to arrive. He did not know where my new house was either but this was much more straightforward – being on a main road and I go us there without mishap. The house is enormous, three bedrooms, big lounge, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, two halls and a garage. It is a semi-detached bungalow in a compound.  Unfortunately as well as being far too big for me, it is very noisy, gets dirty very quickly and is in a poor state of repair; making it difficult to keep clean. The house is not in a residential area so I would not fancy being out at night. The landlord was very good and rapidly came to inspect the problems; he then organised a series of workmen. A carpenter came to mend the drawers, the towel rail and put handles back on some of the windows. The plumber came to stop the taps dripping and to get the bath to drain. I then had the carpenter back now in the guise of the painter to remove the mould in the bathroom and repaint it. The next task was to do something about the floor which was breaking up but I moved out before this could happen.

Temporary accommodation

27 July – 4 August 2010

Another volunteer - Finley and his wife Romain kindly offered me use of their spare room whilst I wait for my accommodation to become vacant. The live in a very plush first floor apartment with all mod cons in Ntinda. As Romain is only doing a few hours in a morning in a local school and due to the distance to work I do not get back until around 18:30 each evening she has been preparing a meal for me each day. I am very grateful for them taking me in but am looking forward to having a place of my own.

 

First week at work

26 – 31 July 2010

I had expected to move on 26 August so it had been arranged I did not start work until Tuesday; however nowhere had been found for me to live so I was taken to visit the Ugandan Nursing & Midwifery Council (UNMC) for an hour on Monday afternoon. I was greeted by Madam Juliette the Senior Nurse for Registration and Training as the Registrar was out of the office. I will spend some time working with each of the departments to get a full orientation to the workings of the Council. I Was now due to move into temporary accommodation on Tuesday morning so it was agreed I would go to work sometime in the afternoon. Tuesday morning arrived and I was told I could not be moved until the afternoon so VSO arranged for a special hire (taxi) to take me to the UNMC. This time I had a tour of the premises and started observing its work in the registry department. I was observing what Joseph was doing and he was very patient in answering all my questions. The next three days I managed full days are work 08:00 until 17:00 or whenever after that time all the work for the day is completed. All the permanent staff have made me so welcome and as worked with them I observed their tasks a few times then was allowed to take over supervised and then allowed to work independently. This is giving me a good understanding of what is taking place. At present some of the processes make very little sense as i have not seen the stages that lead up to or follow them. Madam Juliette has already identified some specific areas she wants my input into and I have some ideas of my own so I am sure I will be gainfully employed for my 12 months here. They are already sorting out office space for me once I have finished my orientation.