Having missed out of some food which one will not be able to find in Uganda, one of my mission this trip will be looking for food which I missed so much. A friend of mine is kind enough to drive me around to look for all these food. One of which is the “smelly tofu”. I believe this dish is not so welcome by most because of its aroma. Definitely this dish will be a no no in Uganda.
A variety of asian food nicely set in front of me.
Close up view of "smelly" tofu, a delicacy in Asia. Originated from Taiwan.
Looking forward to go back Singapore. Initially I intended to fly back on 23rd Jan but last minute work just kept piling up. I decided to finish all my errands before I take my trip back.
Anyway, one of the errands took me to Jinja, near the Source of the Nile. There are some things that need to be done at Fischer’s resort and might as well spent a peaceful, quiet day there. The following morning had a wonderful breakfast, away from the hustling and bustling of Kampala City. Took out my camera and did some morning shots of the lake while having my breakfast. I always enjoyed every moment whenever I am here. The fresh air, the sound of the birds chirping, the soft rippling of the tide, sometimes really makes me wondered had I arrived in paradise? Time literally stood still. These feeling and experiences must be felt physically by oneself.
Morning has broken.
Morning ritual for these children, going to the shore to collect water for the day.
Maribu stork pearched on a boat, waiting for its breakfast to swim by.
Slowly the sun is warming up the surface of the lake.
My room facing the morning sun. Having the sun greeting you as the first happening of the day really makes you feel alive.
Home away from home.
Fischer's grand daughter, Naomi, came by to greet me and Yang. Knew her since she was only 1 year old. She is already an experienced host at this age.
Last week was a very hectic week. It was a mad rush. I was traveling all over Gulu and Lira, trying to organize one of this year’s main activity, to have a radio program for my bee farmers. Radio station is currently one of the most reliable source if I need to disseminates information to my bee farmers deep in the village. Literally when one is moving around the village, you will definitely see people walking around with a radio on one hand. Training farmers is an on going process. There are still lots of room for improvement for these farmers who wants to embark on honey farming as another source of income.
Radio Wa main building.
Radio Wa came a long way. The station was created in January 2000 by Fr. John Fraser, a Comboni Missionary working in the diocese, as a community radio belonging to the Catholic Diocese of Lira. Its main goal is to contribute to the development of the local community (mainly the Lango group ), promoting peace, development, common understanding and human values. The radio is owned by the Diocese of Lira and it is inspired by Christian values; its main purpose is to be an instrumental social agent beyond religious denomination, tribe, gender or social group and it wants to do it by means of promoting education, development, respect, tolerance and peace in a plural and diversified society. This particular area has been deeply affected by the armed conflict of the LRA and its has suffered the violent consequences of it. One of the most visual expressions of the impact of this problem are the numerous IDPs and refugees’ camps that have been scattered up to a few months ago all over the region where the radio and TV operate.
Village woman preparing sesame paste for meals while the radio is playing loudly in the background.
The social impact of the radio has been considerable. From the very beginning Radio-Wa included in its programme grid a regular programme (‘Karibu’, welcome in Swahili) dedicated to child soldiers. Some of these programmes were done by former child-soldiers who tried to encourage their colleagues and let them know about their new situation, their families, etc. These programmes obviously were heard even in the forest where thousands of children had been abducted. It encouraged them to go on, not to give up hope, to know that they could go back one day to their society and that the population was ready to welcome them.
These messages were passed on for years, leading many rebels, particularly child soldiers, to desert and return home. This very success allegedly prompted a group of LRA rebels to attack and burn the premises of Radio Wa on 27th September 2002. Its main infrastructure was utterly destroyed and the radio stayed off the waves for six months. This sad incident brought about the relocation of Radio-Wa to its present premises, next to Lira Cathedral in some rooms belonging to the Parish Hall.
Also prior to the peace talks held in Juba between the Ugandan Government and the representatives from the LRA, the rebel leader Joseph Kony asked as a condition prior to the talks to take off the waves the radio program ‘Karibu’ broadcast by Radio Wa from Lira.
Radio – Wa saw this attack as the confirmation that its programs where having a deep impact in the armed group and it was indeed giving hope to those innocent children trained as killing machines for no purpose at all. In more recent reports from military intelligence, it is estimated that around 1.500 children escaped from their captors thanks to the program for child soldiers aired by Radio-Wa. In this new period of peace and stability, Radio – Wa would like to continue and to improve its service to the local community and specially to its more vulnerable members.
Alberto chatting up with farmers.
Alberto is running the radio station now, and we will be working together to get a program out to cater for the bee farmers in Gulu and Lira.
Alberto from Lira came to Kampala over the weekend and he was looking for a car. We will be traveling back to Lira tomorrow to discuss some projects for the farmers in the North. Alberto runs a radio station in Lira and this kind of media is the best way to disseminate information to the villagers.
Alberto and his spanish omelette.
Being Spanish, I took this opportunity to get him to prepare a real “Spanish Omelette“. He told me all those spanish omelette prepared here are not prepared correctly.
A real “Spanish Omelette” or “Tortilla” consist of onion, Irish potatoes and eggs only. Sometimes you can add tuna or shrimps.
You can either make it in thin slices or if you have a pan that has some depth, you can make it like a sponge cake. The better ones are those that it is hard on the outside but soft and moist on the inside.
Amazing how one is able to interact with people from all walks of life here. All of us has one thing in common, is to make this place a better place for all.
Other than sharing how to make the omelette, I had a very interesting insight of his former work when he was with Oxfarm in Sudan. A man with a wealth of experience.
2009 had been a quiet and difficult year. The ripple effect from the economy downturn hits us badly. Even the most productive month of December, I did not see any surge in sales. Everything laid dormant. I can only see many people browsing instead of buying. Some even said it will be worse next year. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Well, today is the last page of 2009. Hopefully the turn of this page will see a whole new wonderful chapter awaiting. New stories with new characters. So far I had took a glimpse of the new book and some part of it seems interesting. I hope these trailers will happen in this new book. That will give it more exciting twist.
Family reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's day.
2009 saw many unforeseen things happening, good and bad. The year also made me realized how important it was to go back Singapore occasionally to put myself on my sane mode. If not I would had gone brain drain staying in Uganda for more than 4 years without going back. I guess the happiest time this year was when I had gone back and spent New Year with my family. I told myself I will try and make an effort to do this from now.
I am so glad my mom is aging gracefully and happily. That is one thing I could never ask for more. For this I have to thank my siblings for looking after her so well. All these while, my bond with them were quite a distance but hopefully comes 2010, things will change. I will try and make effort. 人生有多少个十年。
9 years staying here had made me see things in an appreciative note. There are so much injustice and suffering here that whenever I looked back at Singapore, we are so blessed. When we want water, we just turn on the tap. When we want electricity, we just flip a switch. I just simply take a slow walk to the nearest food centre anytime of the day when I am hungry. Home, it is a luxury.
Going into my tenth year, I will be recommended for permanent residency by the relevant authorities for my contribution back to the community. I will then be able to save some money on my work permit every year. Imagine paying US$1,000 every year and in fact they had already raised it to US$1,500 since this year. I was lucky mine expired before the changes.
2009 saw myself making some tough decisions between financial freedom and personal freedom. I chose the latter. There are some things money just cannot buy although the amount is quite substantial. Yes, the money part is so tempting but when I sat down and looked back the numbers of years that I had struggled to this stage, I cannot simply let anyone come in with money to dictate how I should run business and life here.
I am glad I made this choice because now I feel freer in whatever I am doing. The best thing now is that the very same people are coming back to offer me alternative solutions without losing my freedom. I know they are sincere in making this co-operation a success but still I have my own reservations. Somehow this decision had opened up more ideas and avenue to explore. They can see the potential in honey farming in third world country. Not many would do it here.
I believed they can see the business opportunities, which will be in higher demand next year when my beekeeping school is setup. Not only there is a demand for honey, there will also be a demand for other by products from the bees. Most important of all, a demand from NGOs who require a professional training centre for their bee farmers. My centre will cater for the whole of East Africa region. It will be one of its kind. I know I shall be alright then. I have to stay focus on my long term goals. They had anticipated my direction. I need to hang on.
In summary, 2009 had presented a tough time for me and it was these tough times that had made me stronger. Looking forward for a nice time next month back in Singapore, catching up with friends and family, get myself recharge and coming back in full force again.
Merry Christmas and happy birthday to my blog. I realized I started writing last year today. The year is coming to an end. Looking back at this blog, so many things had happened.
We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at Sek and Mary’s house and they really made us feel so at home. Really a home away from home. In fact come to think of it, I don’t even celebrate Christmas this way when I was back in Singapore.
Christmas is also a day for me to take stock of what I had done and what I had learned so that I can be a better person for the years to come.
Just a few days back, a friend just sent me a email reminding me of the importance to differentiate between “used and loved”. The story goes like this;
While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked up a stone and scratched lines on the side of the car. In his anger, the man took the child’s hand and hit it many times not realizing he was using a wrench. At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures. When the child saw his father….. with painful eyes he asked, ‘Dad when will my fingers grow back?’ The man was so hurt and speechless; he went back to his car and kicked it a lot of times. Devastated by his own actions…… sitting in front of that car he looked at the scratches; the child had written ‘LOVE YOU DAD’.
Lincoln, Vasmeet and their beautiful gift from God, Manpreet. Beautiful family.
It’s common nowadays. We had become too materialistic and always wanting to be seen to be better than others in terms of wealth and achievements. So much so that we had forgotten the real meaning of true love. Things are supposed to be used and people are to be loved. The problem in today’s world is that people are used while things are loved instead.
Wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at Sek and Mary's place.
2009 had been a wonderful year with so many people helping me to push my business forward without asking for anything in return. I am really blessed to have so many good friends that wanted to see development in my work. Now that I can say, it’s love. I will try and transfer these love to my farmers so that they are able to feel it too.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all that had helped me one way or another. Have a beautiful Christmas and a fabulous 2010!
AT 17, he was my idol and he still is. 30 years had moved on and I couldn’t believe finally I am able to watch him in his live concert in Singapore this coming February. All this is made possible by my good friend, Melissa. She knew I grew up with his songs and this might be the one and only opportunity that I can attend his concert.
While writing this blog, I dug up all his songs to play. One after another, his songs brought back so much memories. At 17, I was thinking there was so much life could offer. Always having my Sony walkman in my chest pocket, with my ear phone plugged permanently in my ears, I engulfed myself in his world of songs. His lyrics were so real, so close to my heart. It was as if he was preparing me what to expect when I was struggling through this walk of life.
David and me at the then unfinished ECP.
Doing my national service at that time only allowed me to meet up with friends on weekends. Comes Saturday, my friend, David Soh and I would start our evening walk. Our journey would start from his place at Alexandra Road, walking up the unfinished ECP, ending up at East Coast Parkway, sitting at the jetty. We would stopped at hawker centres along the way, buying a can or two, day dreaming (or I should say night dreaming) of owning a car so that we don’t have to walk anymore and becoming somebody someday. David, being a cantonese, would translate the meaning of all the lyrics Sam Hui had written to me. It was these songs that made a big part of my life. I used them as my guide. I did managed to fulfilled some. There are some dreamers that only dreamed while some will turn their dreams into reality. Till now I am still wondering which category did I fit in. Well at least we dare to dream. Anyway, whats there to life if one doesn’t dream.
Sam Hui’s songs did influenced quite a big part in my life.
Jonathan decided to give my colleagues a treat after all they had helped during his stay here, especially washing his “Big” clothings . All in all, he had a very good experience here and his mindset about Uganda had changed compared when he set foot 3 weeks ago. He had seen things that were misinterpreted about Africa or in this case Uganda. He told me life in Uganda is not as bad as some videos he had seen on youtube from NGO’s showing how pathetic the country is in. There were too much hype in trying to make the country as if it was like the end of the world for them if developed country is not going to inject funds quickly to save them.
Having a feast and enjoying the festive mood early.
As usual, always having his camera near him, he managed to get some snaps of them preparing the meal for us and enjoying the afternoon, breaking off from work early to come together to have a nice lunch. Christmas is round the corner and we celebrated Christmas early .
I believe his trip here is a memorable one where he is able to witness the true lifestyle and progress and not from hearsay about the things happening in Africa.
I felt very honoured to be invited to Dr. Anne Merriman’s house for tea the other day. The moment I sat down and had my tea cup filled, I know I will be embarking on another interesting journey of knowledge from a dynamic lady who had done wonders to humankind.
This is her biography;
Dr. Anne Merriman Biography
Dr. Anne Merriman graduated from UCD Medical School in 1963 and is internationally recognised as one of the leading Hospice Movement pioneers in the world, and the undisputed leader of the Hospice Movement in Africa, a continent to which she has devoted close to a quarter century of her professional life. Anne was born and raised in Liverpool. She enrolled in the UCD Medical School in 1957, was a devoted Mater student and, after qualification in 1963, she did her internship in the International Missionary Training Hospital in Medicine in Drogheda. Then, over the first decade of her post-graduate career, she completed three two-year stints in three Medical Missionaries of Mary hospitals in South East Nigeria. This was interspersed with posts in Drogheda, Dublin and Edinburgh, during which she successfully took her MRCPI and MRCP Edinburgh as well as diplomas in Child Health and Tropical Medicine. She then returned to the UK for almost 10 years in order to look after her incapacitated mother and, during that time, remarkably, she was able to complete her training in Geriatric Medicine and was appointed as Consultant Physician and Clinical Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, and subsequently as Senior Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine and Honorary Consultant in the University of South Manchester. Then she moved back to be nearer to her mother in Merseyside where she became head of the Department of Geriatric Medicine at Whiston Hospital.
After the death of her beloved mother, Anne took a new direction – both career-wise and geographically – first by becoming Associate Professor to USM in Penang in Malaysia and then as Senior Teaching Fellow to the Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine in the National University of Singapore. It was during this seven-year period that she developed her interest in Palliative Medicine and the Hospice Movement. She became a Founder Member of the Hospice Care Association of Singapore and made major contributions to that discipline, not only in Singapore, but also in South East Asia generally.
Dr. Anne Merriman receives an Honorary Fellowship of UCD’s
Medical School, in recognition of her lifetime’s work.
In 1990, Anne was invited to be the first Medical Director of the Nairobi Hospice in Kenya, which opened in January 1990. During her time in that role, she realised the terrible suffering of terminally-ill patients in a country where oncology treatment was available only for the privileged few, and where patients tragically only presented at a late and often incurable stage of their disease. Dame Cecily Saunders, the legendary foundress of the International Hospice Movement, asked her to publish her views on palliative care in Africa. As a result, Dr. Merriman received numerous invitations from a variety of African countries requesting her to assist in setting up palliative care services along the lines of the model that her team had successfully pioneered in Kenya. This “Merriman Model” was the inspiration that was to drive the development of affordable and locally accessible services for the African subcontinent in the ensuing decade. In 1993, Hospice Africa Uganda was founded. Under Anne Merriman’s leadership, this introduced a model system of terminal care customised to developing countries with limited resources. She founded the Palliative Care Association of Uganda and was its founding Vice President. On a continent-wide basis, she became a founder member of the African Palliative Care Association.
Anne’s academic career and discipline saw to it that she has published extensively – over 90 articles and five books, as well as serving as editor and peer-reviewer on several journals. She still receives multiple speaking invitations to address learned associations and organisations all over the world. The driving motivation behind all of this for Anne Merriman is her passionate commitment to bringing affordable and culturally appropriative palliative care to all of Africa. In 2007, the School was delighted to confer on Dr. Anne Merriman its highest award – Honorary Fellowship of the School, in recognition of her lifetime’s work.
Its that time of the year again where you can see Organizations setting up bazaars to catch the crowd of Christmas shoppers. Some were there to sell their used stuffs while others were there to raise funds for the needy. We were invited to two bazaars this year, one at US Embassy and the other at Hospice. This was the first time we did bazaar sales with our products. I wanted more brand awareness and it is working. People were inquiring about our locations and further discussions were arranged.
We could not capture any moments at the Embassy due to security reasons but still we had an equally productive time there. At Hospice whom we got to know Dr. Anne Merriman, had a more friendly, casual environment. She was also a Founder Member of the Hospice Care Association of Singapore and made major contributions to that discipline, not only in Singapore, but also in South East Asia generally. Nonetheless, we enjoyed both the outings. Jonathan helped out with the photography on this occasion.
Hospice Africa Uganda
Stands and stores of various Uganda's art and craft on display.
"My honey boutique" at the bazaar.
Doing our bit of contributing back to the community.
Sharing of information on our product.
Other products that were on sale.
Jonathan helping out with photo taking at the bazaar.
Electricity just went off and I could hear the thunder rolling from a distance. Woke up to close the windows before the rain got in. It’s going to be a heavy one. Couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to pen down some thoughts.
Had my camera close by and it diverted my attention. I began toying around with it for a while. I had not really meddle with most of the function since I bought it beginning of this year.
Wanted my picture to look retro. Took a snap at my beside table using the black and white mode. The burning kerosene lamp brought out the “60’s feeling”. Turned out to be nice and cool.
The stillness of the night, the sound of the rolling thunder from afar, the chilly air that slowly seeped into the room and the warm glow from the lamp reminded me when we used to visit our grand mother when we were young. The house was big with 2 bedrooms during that time for we were staying in a flat that only had a curtain to divide our bedroom from the living room.
Although I don’t really know my granny much, somehow that tough lady kind of impression lingered on my mind. She passed on many years ago and I heard she went while sleeping peacefully without waking up. I think this is one of the best way to leave the world……peacefully without any pain or suffering. I believed she had lived a wonderful life having so many children and grand-children.
I guessed during that time, most women had this heavy responsibility of procreation. More importantly producing male off springs.
I could recalled vividly that I saw a picture of my proud granny holding my eldest brother showing off his precious little “bird”. My brother was the first male grandson for our generation. Can’t imagine it took place nearly 50 years ago. Where did all the time went?
Come to think of it, life just rushed by all these years. I only picked up bits and pieces of memories here and there. Most of it were left behind when I came here.
The other night when I was in Masaka, we went to this restaurant to have dinner. I was very surprised to see this clause on the menu. An extra 15% service charge will be imposed if there are 5 guests or more!
I find it very funny and I am still wondering what is the logic behind. I thought they should be happy to have more customers coming in for meals but instead, we are being penalized for bringing more guests to dine there.
When I asked the waitress, she told me it was because there are more work, so they have to charge extra for the work. I cannot imagine this answer she gave. Was this instruction given by the management? Now what if we were to split our group of 5 into two tables coming in at five mins interval. This mean we are having two tables, one with two while the other with three without them knowing we are together. That extra 15% service charge will not be imposed. In fact I think having to serve two tables is more work! Strange right???
I know this restaurant is run by some charity organization but I feel that doing business this way in the name of charity is not right. There must be still some sense of logic in business practice. If people wants to donate, do it with a heart and not forcing it down one’s throat. In fact I would be more willing to donate if it was not imposed this way. Worst of all, I would not even think of going back to the place and will definitely not recommend anyone to dine there. Sorry for me to say this.
It was a sad birthday present for me. I laid Ying to rest yesterday. The vet told me her condition had not improved and all effort to revive her pancreas had failed.
The vet told me that in the morning, she was trying with much effort to move around and once in a while would walked towards the entrance, looking towards the car park, and then walked back to hide under the bench. She was as if looking for my car, to see whether had I arrived. She was holding on for me one last time.
Left for Masaka at 5am and by the time I was back in Kampala in the afternoon. I rushed to see her. When I reached the hospital, she was already in great pain. She had difficulty in breathing. The vet told me that she had developed a chest infection, conjunctivitis and her heart is not strong enough to pump. They did all they could.
The Vet Professor advised me it was time for me to let her go, to end her suffering. Even if they were to inject booster a few more times, the chances were very slim for her to recover. Her body had already broken down.
I got to know about this condition from him and online. German Shepherds are very prone to this condition call Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. Some can pull thru while others are unable.
The vet performed Euthanasia. I was holding her. Her muscles relaxed. She suffered no more. Within a month, I lost two of my closest friends here
Yesterday was a good milestone to review my life here. How far had I come and how far more the road will be. I can feel the ripple effect from the economic downturn in Uganda. Things are slowing down while some other countries are already on its way up.
Just last month one of my German shepherd died and today I am bringing another of my dog to the vet to check what is happening to her. She hasn’t been eating and was always hiding in my room sleeping. She had to be put on drip because she was already suffering from dehydration.
Blood samples were extracted and I brought it to the lab to run some tests. Results came back that she was diagnosed with pancreatitis. The doctor told me it could be due to anything, ranging from contaminated food to hereditary. In order to understand more, I goggled and found this site very useful, http://www.vetontheweb.co.uk/pet-clinic-detail.asp?id=213
Ying on drip.
The laboratory was just next to the apartment which I stayed when I first came. Time really flies. It has been a long time that I had not come back to this part of town. I used to eat at a restaurant, (Sam’s Restaurant), just next to it. While waiting for the results of the test report, I decided to celebrate my birthday in my small little way, giving myself a treat at this restaurant once more.
The very first apartment which I stayed.
Sam's restaurant.
My birthday treat - pepper steak.
2001, I came here with a colleague, Sandra Wu. We were supposed to conduct a feasibility study on Uganda’s market on a certain type of self igniting fire extinguisher from Japan. Beekeeping was never our study and this fire extinguisher business never took off.
We were so enthusiastic with the whole project because everything and everybody seem to be in favor with the product. We went to all relevant authorities, business organizations and fire departments. Everybody wants it. We even did a life demonstration at the fire house in Kampala and many people came to watch. It was a big hoo haa event. End of the day, it was only hot air! At that time, Uganda has no buying power at all! Most people are still waiting for hand out from NGOs.
It was indeed a great paradigm shift for me. Being inexperience then and took everything at face value. Culturally it was a 180 degree turn compared to where I came from. Generally the people are mild mannered and they will never give you any opinion other than, “good”, “it’s nice” even when they don’t like it. We only managed to convince a few big Companies to purchase a number of them.
It was on the last few days before my return trip to Singapore for a briefing that Uganda Investment Authority invited me to attend an investment meeting on Apiculture. It was there that I met Professor Horn and we had a very long discussion about this industry. Our direction shifted and we never looked back.
9 years had passed and the experienced gained was priceless. It was bundled with much ups and downs, joy and sorrow, frustrations and satisfactions.
Living in Uganda was and is still not easy. Investing in any business here needs to be very careful. It is true that Uganda had improved in many ways but still it is landlocked. Road transportation is a killer. To make matter worse, most of the roads are very badly maintained with lots of potholes sprouting up whenever the rainy season comes. I believed Uganda could have been mistaken for Mars from afar with all these lookalike craters, (potholes).
Anyway, my birthday wish this year is to stay healthy, stay positive, focus on the training school and to look forward for this new challenge, hopefully becoming one of the most productive and comprehensive beekeeping training and resource centre in East Africa. Happy birthday to me .
Last Saturday, I went to my regular bank, Standard Chartered Bank, which I thought to be a world class, high standard bank, where I do all my transactions. I had a shock of my life when I wanted to check on my account to see my balance. I approached one of the customer relation officer at one of the open concept station, sat down in front of her, gave her my bank account number and you know what she did? She simply log onto the computer, search for the account, wrote the balance on a piece of paper and loudly recite the amount to me! Everyone in the bank turned and looked and me, thinking out loud as if saying, “Wow! you have so little money in the bank, might as well keep it under your pillow!”
I went, OH MY GOD! I told her, “Have you ever thought that I might NOT be the account holder? I might have gotten the number somewhere and just handed it to you and there you just simply blurt out the balance without even first asking me for any identifications to make sure I am the rightful owner!”
She simply gave me that “why are you doing this to me” aghast look. She did not even recognized her confidentiality and security lapse and was trying to rebut by saying she was trying to be customer friendly and not to agitate the customers by asking too much questions.
Yes, I know she was being helpful by not asking too much, but as a professional especially in the financial industry, there is no excuse to overlook such things. Definitely I would not mind if she were to ask me all the security and identification issues. I would had felt much better coz at least I know my money is safe with them.
The banking industry still has a long way to go in terms of customers confidentiality. This incident had brought me back to another case where I was making some transaction at DFCU bank. Every teller has a money counting machine to assist the teller to count money. The most intriguing part was that the digital counter which shows the amount being counted was place in such a high position that the whole queue, or I should say, the whole bank can see how much money was being counted! Ha!
No wonder there are so much robberies and snatched thieves. They simply wait inside the bank to see who is going out with loads of money and then hijack them along the way.
I really hope those who are in charge of security in the banking industry see this post and to finetune the system and plug the loophole.
I felt sad or ashamed, not because that now everyone knows I am a poor bloke, but it was that the bank officer did not realized how serious the repercussion would had been but instead thinking that we as customers are making life difficult for them. Wrong attitude.
Uganda weather is really unpredictable now a days. It was so sunny this morning and I wanted to give my dogs a wash down. After cooking breakfast, the next thing I knew. the weather changed and now it is raining cats and dogs. The rain really hit hard on the ground and everything that were not tied down went scattered everywhere.
I had decided to tidy up my room. It has been a while that I did not do it . Adjusted the orientation of my bed to make more space. Jonathan is coming next month and I had shifted my work into my room. I kinda like it now coz its so convenient for me to work and to watch all the Cantonese and Korean series Melissa gave me when I was back home beginning of this year.
True enough, the weather in Uganda and life is running on the same line……..unpredictable.
Yesterday, I received another sad news from Melissa. She told me our friend’s husband is diagnosed with brain cancer. It all started when he first experienced spouts of giddiness in July, the docs diagnosed it as vertigo. Next, when he experienced acid reflux, they prescribed him anticid. Then when he experienced pain in the back, they dismissed it as muscle pull. Only upon persistent request for a scan (which was intended for the stomach and colon) did the report finally (accidentally) pick up spots in one of the kidneys. Further tests confirmed it’s cancerous. within a short span of 2 months, the cells have gone into the blood stream and a tumour has finally been detected in the brain.
He’s only 50 and we knew him since our early 20s. He goes for annual thorough check-up yet all the tests couldn’t pick up any signs or symptoms of the deadly cells! yet they say we are very advanced in our medical field! how so?
Sometimes I wondered, is it because technology had advanced so much that it can detect every single problem which had already existed in our bodies. When we are not aware of it, we simply live life with not much worries. But once something wrong is detected, our worries are then amplified, worries and stress takes over and finally one give up fighting.
Life goes on…….
After the rain, went out to the garden to pluck kangkong for lunch. The sweet potatoes, maize and kangkong are growing well with the rain.
Steamed rice and kangkong
A simple joy in life. Steamed rice and fried kangkong for lunch. One can never asked for more.
My approved work permit.
Got my work permit renewed recently. Hopefully this will be my last renewal because Ugandan Investment Authority told me that they are going to recommend me for permanent residency once I cross my 10 years mark. I cannot imagine I have been living in Uganda for 9 years now. Will this be my home? I wondered……..
Tricia passed on this morning. She was one of my first 4 dogs that I brought home when I first came to Uganda. It was just like yesterday when I answered to an advert on the supermarket wall, saying that they had young German shepherd puppies for sale.
When I went there the following morning, I saw 8 puppies running around. 4 caught my eyes and Tricia was one of them. Paid my deposit and collected them 3 weeks later because the owner wanted to make sure they had reached 12 weeks before they were separated from their mother. Imagine if they were to know their destiny, how sad it will be for them
According to the calculation, Tricia should be 63 years old when she left. The doctor did a postmortem on her and she was diagnosed with liver cancer. She had been very strong last few months for I did not noticed anything peculiar in her daily activities. It was only 1 week ago that I saw her struggling to walk on her hinds. This had happened to her other siblings and they recovered. She did not make it.
Just 2 days back, she lost her appetite and show signs of giving up. Initially I thought she had indigestion or worms. So I contacted my vet and he came and gave her vitamins and antibiotics jabs. Nothing changed.
By evening time, she was already lying sideways and had difficulty in breathing. I carried her to the verandah and gave her milk which she did not responded well. It was getting cold outside and I brought her into the house. At least she will stay warm.
Come this morning when I went to see her, she had already passed on.
Looking back, I can say Tricia is really a fine guard dog. She was obedient and intelligent. She gave me many happy memories and puppies too. Most of them were given away to friends.
Writing this passage had also made me realized that I could had given them more love and tender care. They are really man’s best friend.
Anyway, whats there to life if one doesn’t dream.
Uganda weather is really unpredictable now a days. It was so sunny this morning and I wanted to give my dogs a wash down. After cooking breakfast, the next thing I knew. the weather changed and now it is raining cats and dogs. The rain really hit hard on the ground and everything that were not tied down went scattered everywhere.
Lesster Leow
