A time for reminiscence…………………….

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 .