mollige MOLLY

guards....

i was really pissed yesterday afternoon.
when i came back from my weekend grocery shopping, 400 meters away from home on the muddy road a brown dog passed by. it looked almost like molly, but i thought she must be inside my garden as always, but coming closer: it indeed was MOLLY! total confused, strolling the bushes and looked like lost direction.i opened the car door and she almost stormed into the car's backseat.
so, we drove home, and it was the first time i was really really angry with my house stuff. it was actually the fault of "lucky Fred" the replacement day&night guard, who opened the gate and didnt check if molly was back in.
puhhhh..... and thats the thing i hardly get used to here in uganda, because it is so different: talking, thinking, advising, paying, organizing, controlling, and speaking about the day& night guards.

but, to be fair, my day guard Mustafa, he is worth every money: my chaos never looked that clean and tidy like it is now, he picks flowers for the table, and even my bathroom mats have been shrubbed and bleached to shiny newly white.

BBB

My mother recently complained, i should write more about my colleagues.
So heres a special one on a special colleague: BBB. That is Boris Bisa working in Busia. He is not only the special person for accidents in every circumstances (the results of his recent bike crash you can see on the left), but grew up only with classic music and atomic energy, and he is the decendent from a 800 year old adel family related to Count Dracul and nose-wise probably also with the English Windsors..... He has 5-6 surnames, and his title is:
„Freiherr von und zu Ast
Ritter ersten Ranges,
Schuetzer des golden Flies“
Isn' t that hilarious!!!

I know my mother always wanted someone of our family to marry either a doctor or a blueblood, but sorry...chances are still bad.....

fasting break

i never thought here in africa I would ever start thinking about the moon in Mekka. but yesterday evening conference calls among my colleagues took place: "announced? or not announced?". Why? its all about the muslim fasting break. With a muslim population of %, the day is also a holdiday here in Uganda. and it is announced when the new moon is to be seen over mekka.
the moon showed yesterday, so we have a long weekend now.

what i do like is, that except today, normally you dont see muslims obviously, and women dressed even today rather colourfull or as you can see in the pic above: completely colour-contrast to arabic countries: black skin- white dress.
the pork-place in the backside of the picture is probably also closed today.....

IN(n)A TV!

just 4 months in the country and i already appeard in TV. jajaja, and toilets make it possible! on wednesday 8pm primetime on Uganda Broadcast channel (UBC the no2 channel) there was a talkshow on ecological sanitation. i appeared in the 5 minutes feature about a girls school, where a colleague and me went the day before. so funny: me inspecting the eco-toilets and talking about it and next years UNyear of sanitation.

and because the DED is so proud, they are sending me on a Moderator-trainings course to Nairobi in November. maybe this will be an alternative carrier to my alternative toilets ;)

china in afrika

in STERN magazine, there is a photo-story about the chinese business in Africa. not so positive though.... but very nice pictures

simpsonized

hey ya- big fun!

i 've been simpsonized

UUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH

checking ThatsBJ I found out that one of my absolutely favourite bands the YEAHYEAHYEAHS are in BJ playing at a festival in Haidian , and to make things worse, Vladislav delay (swedisch wonderful elektronic-producer luomo) at No+ch. dont know if thomas is responsible for that, but congretulations.
i am not only pretending, i am really crying out loud.
the only idea i have now, is to get drunk tonight at the reception at the german embassy for 3rd October national day tonight.
In moments like these I am really in the wrong place....
FEVER TO TELL me the WAY OUT!

annual assembly

last week was DED's annual assembly, with 32 "development workers" , our official title, although i see me more as an advisor. but anyway....
we are a interesting mixture of old & young, of africa-frustrated & africa-loving, of dynamic & lazy, of practical & naive people. of course, in my water group we are the young, dynamic & practical ones!
The assembly took place in the oldest Hotel in Uganda: Massindi Hotel, where Audrey Hepburn stayed while shooting 'African Queen' and catched serious malaria. but it is really a nice place with good food.
and because we germans are so keen on rights & democracy, and the DED- founded in the early 70s- additionally especially loves participation and the theme of "we are all equal" (especially when it becomes to our salary), we had one day full of votings. in the end, we started voting if we can vote on this&that issue. or voting if we can "recommend" something, and vote that we start voting.... crazy...
the other day we had presentations about population growth and if development aid is really necessary, from an ugandan perspective. when i sum up ironically : development aid is unnecesary and just helps to corrupt the government, so withdraw all aid, and let the people starve&die, that will also slow down the high population growth of 3,2 % .