Sister in Uganda
Yet another way to enjoy this beautiful country

My sister Willemien and her husband Maarten, from the Netherlands, visited me last year and had a go on the dhow. This they found too much vomiting and waiting for proper wind, so at day 2 they hired a boat to return to base, but Uganda pleased them. They decided to move.

To slow and too much vomiting. They rent a boat and return to base.

To their friends and family they mailed a notification of moving house:

Left: announcement of moving to Uganda, Right: another immigrant, Frodo, needs more papers and money than people (while any elephant can just walk in...)

on which they neglected to display Frodo, a sympathetic �800/= stud-book terrier with a shrill bark, under-bite and diabetes (and associated insulin injection regime). Their projected house, however, was of different style. Nearly half a soccer field got dug up and made unfit to feed the hungry for the foundation of their future hut, which I already proposed to call the "Hammerkop nest".

Left: laying the foundations for the Hammerkop Nest. A considerable surface of Uganda turned unfit for feeding the hungry...Right: sample of completed hammerkop nest

But how to live in the short run? My sister is a frantic socialiser, always, always, when visiting Dutch home and abroad, with pen and paper frequenting toilets where Dutch people typically have a birth calendar featuring their friends' and families' birthdates. The yield was stunning again. Within 2 days, through their contacts they had rented a temporary little house (Go to: Their temporary hut), borrowed for free some essential furniture, bought 2 handsome 25 year old four wheel drives, hired Ugandan Victoria full time for the house and cooking - and she is good!, George full time gardener and a security company guard for the nights. No more vomiting and waiting for wind! Yet another way to enjoy this beautiful country.
There I met them the third day. They had found some comfortable super markets and bought a 5 liter box of white wine, albeit the wrong brand (for the same money): a taste of wine acid with a waft of urine. They were so disappointed that they had decided to get drunk. Maarten greeted me with relief. "Welcome, join us", he mumbled inarticulately. "We have only six glasses to go". Of course I immediately volunteered to drink those remaining six glasses so they could wash the memory away with a decent Nile Special Beer.

They now have an eloquent blog of their own - in Dutch: Garuga Blog .

Willemien now works part time in the administration of a Dutch plant nursery near Entebbe. Though she has been cooking excellently all her life every day, for her and her children, after a hard full day's work, now - after only a few weeks of Uganda - you can hear her say: "on Sunday we have to eat out because Victoria is free". The full time gardener has all the time in the world to every day sweep the garden tiles until the far back dead ends that you can see from the veranda only when you use binoculars.
Before eating out together on Sunday we had a small drink on my dhow. The first time this entire week the house was left unmanned for an hour. Willemien's phone rings. The night guard had arrived and found the house broken open.

A disturbing event

The house had been entered through the the weakest point. That it indeed is the weakest you can only know when you have seen the inside. De dog was not killed, hence must have stayed pretty silent, hence most probably be familiar with the house breaker. Stealing is our favourite hobby here in Africa but that does not mean we are better or smarter at it than at what do overtly. The security company had not warned for the weak spot used for breaking in and the guard got fired nor grilled. Maarten decided for some fortification, changing and stepping up to 24/7 the guarding, and ordering two new laptops.

Peace restored, Africa is beautiful!

Links to Maarten and Willemien:
Foundations for their final hut. You will actually see less than half of the foundations, this is only what they call "the private wing".
Their Garuga Blog
Their picture site