farewell and new beginnings

i havent posted much in last weeks, because the last 7 weeks have been crazy, and life changing. i terminated my contract in Uganda with DED on a short notice, because i got a consultancy job fo UNICEF!!!! the last 6 weeks in Uganda went so fast with finishing and handing over the job, eptying the house, finding 2 persons for Molly& Pantoffel, having farewell parties
it will be a challenging and exciting one, because i will work as a sanitation advisor for the next 6 months in Democratic people's republic of Korea (yes, that is the North).
i expect it to be different , but in the same time i am very curious and nervous how the country is like, and how i like the country in

so currently i am in Beijing, leaving for Pyongyang on Tuesday. i hope i can keep you updated somehow, but not so sure......

wedding introduction

one of the big occasions in a Uganda is the wedding and the funeral. Bith events are a family and social event, that will invite a lot of people (families are huge) and oblige the host to show of his wealth and generosity.

i was invited to the INTRODUCTION CEREMONY of my GTZ colleague Winni(fred) and we went with the hole team of colleagues to family village 1.5 hours from Kampala.
an INTRODUCTIOn is where the 2 families of the bride and the broom met. The bride and her family are introducted to the brooms family. and then the brooms family has to give presents to the bride. exchange of engagement rings, cake cutting etc..
The whole ceremony takes about 6 hours and ends with dinner. both families have a MC, who is guiding through the fixed steps of this introduction, and trying to make some jokes etc... also it is interesting, that really everyone is dressed traditional: the women wear the "GOMEZ'- a ugandan long dress in terrible polyster, and a mix between sari, kimono and the top with puff-sleaves.
The men dress a long grown (also in polyester) and a dark jacket.
its a bit crazy that this event can cost up to 6-8 Mio USH (3000 EurO) and then the wedding, that follows soon will be even bigger and costs start from 10 Mio to 40 Mio (5.000-20.000 EURO)
i enjoyed that afternoon, although it was damn hot and the ceremony was in Luganda-language, but to participate in more of such events can be quite boring.

Winni's aunties are introduced.

The King of Buganda is hailed

this are only a small part of the presents for Winni & her family. i liked very much that women are bringing cooking ingredients, and the men the beer!

now Winni is officially engaged to Richard

my colleague Florian
and the GTZ trainees all in Ugandan style

farewells

oh, how i hate farewells.
it was time to say goodbye to my housemate alice, which whom i shared in the last 10 months house, milkcoffees in the morning, the strokes on the dog (she did not like that cat at all...) german TV shows, pilates sessions, books, same taste and size of shoes, and much more and of course the friends! her became mine, and mine hers. some even thought we were sisters, and there is some little truth in it, as we looked similar and had same interest & socialisation.
its not so easy to find someone to live and even work together with (she was a young professional at DED) and not getting annoyed with each other at all .
i think it helped that i have some staff to clean up some of my chaos :)

so , i wish her all the best with Shane in Sambia

weekend wars....

okay, that is just a song title form one of my 2008 favourite bands MGMT... no wars here in Uganda, its on the contrary: i spend wonderful weekends with my bunch of friends.
And what to do on weekends in Kampala:
- long breakfast on the terrace
- avoid going into town and shopping into one of the 2 malls
- if the weather is fine, hanging out at the pool side of the "Country club" ;)
- organizing something for all friends, such as pingpong tournaments, trips to nice weekend resorts, karaoke madness, BBQ & cooking etc...
- eating out a lot

its a nice troup now, very international , as i dont like to spend only time in a german enclave, so there are teh swedish Indie-swedish, a gay autrian who might become an embassador in teh future, another gay italian and a beautiful funny italian, the fancy australian, the irish boyfriend of my housemate who is the drinking chanpion (of course!), the belgian who is son of the castle-brewery owner, and we 2 germans ;) very nice. i attach some of the pics.


that was a full boat trip to lagoon resort weekend


Koraen Killer Karaoke with Gerold.... and a bunch of others


and our favourite swedish LOGG game, after Twister and Pingpong

East Africa Cup

Football, soccer unites people, definately. and it is also THE sport in Uganda. but even if Ugandans are football fanatics, they are not playing that well- internationally. (same like china ;) ) so, the NATIONAL TEAM is actually Manchester United....

The official team, the Uganda Cranes, hasn't qualified for the Worldcup- neither for the African cup- so the East African Cup is just a consolation to them. And they performed well, and made it to the half-final. which we visited last sunday. On a side note: the match was pushed forward for 3 hours , because Manchester was supposed to play Chelsea the same time.....
and maybe because of that, and maybe because of the ticket prices (4-8 euro) the NelsonMandela national stadium was rather empty with only around 8.000 supporters out of possible 40.000.
But it was fun, as Uganda won 5:0 against Burundi, which had a desolate defence...



and this is how the UGA-Cranes masquot got arrested...


In the final yesterday Uganda beat Kenia with 1:0, congretulations Cranes!

brrrr,

damn cold in Germany those new years days and it was still so nice to have snow below the feet. wonderful, white, innocent and this fluffy sound.
(okay, i did catch a real bad cold after the photo...)
i celebrated new year with my beijing girlfriends (+ freinds) Hanna, Eva and Feli and Tina in Berlin, which was a wonderful and very unexpected event, because Feli came to Germany from Neuseeland,... on pink cloud No7 actually. it was a great start into a hopefully likewise fantastic year 2009.



now in Uganda, it is nice and warm here, the pool has been visited immedeatly, and my doggy dog has lost weight, although Uli pampers her with sausages ...

back in warm uganda........

You are a South African bush pilot working for Blue Sky Aviation.

You fly in some critical medical supplies, enjoy a quick lunch at the hospital.

It's a stifling 100 degrees in the shade and you're eager to get back aloft to the cooler upper atmosphere.

On the way back to your aircraft, you discover that the only bit of shade within 1 mile has become very popular.

You start estimating the distance to the aircraft door and wonder...

'Do I feel lucky ?' - OH SHIT