One Geek

Well I’m now on the train to Heathrow. Waiting to leave England. I leave having visited Malaysia, Uganda, Belgium, France, Northern Ireland, Ireland, as well as of course England.

Did I accomplish what I set out ti? in a word no. I thought I was going to be able to use research methods in Africa that require far more time and planning then I could do. I found the needs in the area of IT in Uganda is great, and complex. I wish I could of done more to help the organisations I visited. I found that lack of infrastructure, expensive prices and poor training made the use of ICT far less effective then it could otherwise of been.

I set out trying to define my life for the next few years by determining where I could serve over the next few years, only to have that worked out two weeks before I even left. What I did find is that my future colleagues are helping small frail but ultimately powerful fighters of poverty a lot. I am looking forward to serving and helping them be more effective.

I set out planning to be largely independent and end up living closely with two awesome TEAR Fieldworkers and getting to know their community.

I had a wonderful time having a holiday with my friend Pete who’s in the Peace Corps. He has had a challenging year, but is ready to face another year in The Gambia. I enjoyed staying in a great bed & breakfast in Brugge, Belgium. I enjoyed visiting the pubs, and chocolate shops their a lot. I got stuck arriving in Paris looking for accommodation for a night. I went to the top of the Effiel Tower, and was starting to fall in love with the city when I left.

My highlight though was Belfast where I caught up with my friend Ally who I met in India I got to meet her fiancé who was pretty cool (I am always glad when people choose well). We travelled 200miles in a day as she showed us the best of Northern Ireland, and a little of Ireland. Then we out for dinner at an Indian restaurant, which was just a great time reminiscing with Pete and Ally about our time in India. On Sunday we went to church and out to lunch with some people from her church, which was really good. I love Irish humour.

Last night and today was mainly spent hanging out with Pete in London. It was a good day. It was a bit sad and strange to say goodbye again to Pete, but I was glad I got to spend this past 8 days with him.

So now I head back to Australia to live in a new city, with a new job. I hope that Melbourne and TEAR are good to me. I’m not sure quite how it will all work out but I am thinking at the moment it will be good.

About stuff

So I traveled back to Mbale and arrived back here at about 8.30pm on Monday Night. Have been just relaxing for a few days here now. Yesterday I tried to make Dosa, but I got the wrong kind of Dahl, and it was too much work to grind the rice and dahl into a powder so I gave up. I then went to a boys night with the local expat crew and watched Casino Royal. Today I haven’t been doing much either, finally got around to putting my blog back online which is something I guess.

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I got a lift with Ian and Tash most of the way there, and caught a Pikie(Motorbike) the remaining distance down a small dirt road. I felt so white going through the back roads of rural Uganda. It also felt really good though because I had the wind in my face, the cool morning and the very beautiful country side. I arrived in time for the last hour and a half of a four hour church service at the PAG. I was made to introduce myself, except I neglected to mention my name, where I was from, or what I was doing there (OPS).

I had lunch with Sharon(the Manager of the project) and the chairman. It was quite nice to sit and talk and eat.

After lunch I took my leave and went to the “Divine Mercy Guesthouse” for the rest of the day. I thought I would be really intelligent this time and stay in a slightly more upmarket place then where they put me last time. The room was small but OK, except that the interior plumbing wasn’t functioning so I had to go to an outdoor bathroom. The staff also sat in the corridor between the rooms and seemed to talk all night. On the upside though I did manage to get breakfast and dinner there which is more then I ever managed at the previous place.

I was ready for three days of work when Monday morning came around. I ended up leading devotions with a message I stole straight from a book about the 4 people bring the man who was paralyzed to Jesus. I ended up talking about needing to have enough love and creative to work around the problems you are facing. (Look later for the irony in the message).

I had brought some new equipment (Voltage regulator, power boards, fixed UPS and good power cords) and set about getting everything ready. By about 9.05am I was all set and ready to go, but the managers who’s office the equipment was in was busy in meetings. About 10.20am she was free and I go the go ahead, but to run the generator they needed to buy more fuuuel. Why they could not have fuel on hand I do not know, anyway it was about 11am by the time the generator was running. In the mean time I got a second hand donated computer setup with an old monitor they had. The monitor lead for the newer monitor was missing. The first time the same group only sent the monitor with no computer, ops.

The UPS was not functioning correctly but everything else was working pretty well. I decided I’d try and get the printer running. This was all well and good except I forgot that the laser printer draws a lot of current and I ended up stuffing the voltage stabaliser. So they shut down the generator while I worked on option. I then worked to remove the old dodgy two pin European plug that didn’t sit properly in the Universal power sockets they use here with a brand new plug I brought in Kampala. However in the office they didn’t even had a screw driver and side cutters. Eventually I had some pliers with a cutter, and a screw driver so I set to work. Once I was ready to go we had to wait for a staff member to get back to start the generator.

Then once the staff membered started the generator it slowed down to a halt within about 10 seconds. One of the dodgy fuel intake pipes had broken off. It was now 1pm, and I’d only gotten to do 30-45 minutes of work. The manager and I went off for lunch at the church where I decided it was time to get the hell out of dodge. I discussed with the her and eventually got her to agree to let me go. She was disappointed, as was I but I couldn’t stand the idea of another two wasted days in the middle of nowhere. I promised to work on a proper solution to the power problem.

At about 4pm the generator was fixed and so I got 1 hour of training people in. I then worked to get the printer going again, except every time the computer started the power flickered on and off. Without a working UPS the computer just rebooted killing the print job and frustrating me. Around this time my driver arrived to pick me up and I left.

I didn’t really end up doing as much as I would of liked for my partner organisation in Kaberamaido but I did introduce two people to computers, and an accountant to Excel.

About stuff

I must say that the more I travel, the more I am saddened by the level of racism and sexism that exists.

There is so much resentment of Indians, and Chinese in Uganda.
And for a country with so many women managing day to day operations of organisations there is still a lot of sexism too.

About stuff

After being delayed in Kampala for a few days due to car troubles, I eventually caught a special hire(Taxi) with Ian & Tash’s friends to MBale. It ended up costing us 200,000 shillings which is about $126. On the way we stopped off at a supermarket and I was nearly blown away. It’s amazing how quickly you forget how good and big supermakets are.

With the delays in Kampala I ended up delaying some of my work on my presentations for the workshop on the Thursday(6th). Ian who was meant to be doing half of the presentations ended up stuck waiting for the car in Kampala and missed the workshop. So suddenly I had to prepare the entire workshop myself. During the day I had to prepare, I was also entertaining Ian and Tash’s guests. I was a little stressed that day.

When it came time to do the workshop the sessions on power, file organisation, Excel, Powerpoint and Word went pretty well. I really needed to a week or more of sessions, but I am happy with what I fit in. I would of loved to go more in depth and to split participants into smaller groups or individuals (I had three groups of 5 people), but with no one to help run the sessions I couldn’t really do so.

My favorite session was Excel, where I made people use Excel as a planning tool.

The funniest session was the Word Q AND A session where I didn’t know how to do half the things I was asked, (OPS).

After the workshop I relaxed for a few days before moving on to Kaberamadio.

About stuff

City of treats and delight. What a horrible place to have an upset stomach.. It’s been good to have some R & R and catch up on some work related shopping.

In other news I am hopeful that I have unhacked my Blog now.. But we shall see…

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