Archive for the ‘Fun/Events’ Category

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Lunch with Mamma Janet…

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

“Mamma Janet” is the name Ugandans have given to the First Lady, Janet Museveni, because she acts just like a mother for her country. She is a very powerful figure, but perhaps one of the most humble and caring people I’ve met.

Walking around the State House

Anyway, today, just following the awesome dinner/dance party and the Vice President’s, we’re heading to the State House where the First Lady has invited the CFU team for lunch (talk about your crazy weekends). She was so touched by their hard work, and was especially thankful to them for installing a lab in one of her chosen schools this year. So this was her goodbye party for them.
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Dinner and Drums with the Vice President

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

The day started out pretty normal…I headed to InterConnection Uganda early in the morning and finished setting up the demo computers, then I did some work sorting out all the RAM we have managed to rummage up into the appropriate size and speed piles. Things were pretty calm today after the mad rush to get the place ready for the Grand Opening.

Christina was scheduled to arrive at 2:00pm in Entebbe, but John the Driver got a little mixed up on what the schedule was, so we didn’t leave until 1:50pm. Ooops. I hope she’ll be okay.

By the time we made it to the airport, the passengers were just leaving the airplane. It turns out that they had delayed the flight by an hour. Wow…what timing.

Then things got even nuttier.

John, Christina, and I hung around Entebbe until about 6 pm, waiting for the Computers for Uganda team to arrive. On the agenda today: Meeting with the Vice President of Uganda at his beach house in Entebbe.

Wait…what?!
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The Grand Opening!

Friday, July 6th, 2007

The setup

Today is the big day. We got to InterConnection Uganda under little sleep very early in the morning to make last minute preparations. Three ministers were going to be here today, including Johnorable. The guest of honor is the Minister of Education and Trade.
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Riding my first Boda-Boda…

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

Rudi left for Kenya today. Since he’s with the CFU team he had scheduled his vacation (a three day safari trip in maisa mara) ahead of time because this was the week that the students were going to take two days out of to visit Queen Elizabeth National Park. Unfortunately the original schedule was completely blown to bits due to the late arrival of the container. And unfortunately he is going to miss the grand opening tomorrow because of it. Don’t worry, Rudi…I’ll take a lot of photos!

In other news…I rode my first boda-boda today!

Boda-Boda
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Meeting the Vice President

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Today, after a little work at ICU, we tagged along with the CFU team at their “hand-over ceremony” at the school sponsored by the Vice President. Jackie, also from MIT, arrived late last night, so she was certainly in for a treat today.

Once we arrived, the security personnel escorted us to our seats, and just a few feet away was the Vice President of Uganda. How awesome is that? The team had met the President a few days earlier while they were in Masaka over the weekend (I didn’t go because I had work to do in Kampala). Two years ago the CFU team I was on met President Museveni at the State House, but this year…wow. Both the President and the VP…neat.

The Vice President was very sociable and friendly. People here really love him (and some say even more than the President).

Meeting the VP
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And the award goes to…

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

“Prince” Nicholas, InterConnection Uganda’s P.R. Manager invited Fredrik, Rudi, and me to the first installment of the VIGA Awards (the awards show for Ugandan Gospel music). Outside of working at InterConnection Uganda, Nicholas is also a DJ for Beat FM, and has been working during his free time to organize this show.

Johnorable was invited to speak as the guest of honor. However, that morning we got word that his car had broken down (yet again) in Masaka while he was following around the CFU team. So with the possibility of John missing the awards show altogether, Fredrik was appointed as his substitute to give the keynote speech. Oh boy. Let’s just say Fredrik was feeling a bit out of place in that position.
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Work, work, and…ambassador?

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

So this morning I woke up to the sound of the car running outside my window. Oh, right, we were going to the American Embassy today.

I jumped out of bed, put on something decent to wear and nearly tripped over myself as I scrambled outside the door and hopped into John’s car.

Ambassador

Today we met the American Ambassador for Uganda Steven A. Browning. The meeting was basically a question and answer session where we got to prod Ambassador Browning with questions about what exactly the U.S. was doing in Uganda. He was quick to mention that most of the help was coming from the private sector, and he also pointed out that Uganda was one of the most welcoming African countries. We also had a little discussion about their relationships with other foreign presences in Uganda (like China), which is quite interesting considering the Chinese are helping to install the new National Internet Backbone.

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The Arrival of the CFU Team

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

Arriving

The CFU team arrived today. Johnorable (our new nickname for Hon. Nsambu), Driver John, Ronnie, Rudy, and I got up in the wee hours of the morning to pick up the team bright and early at 7:45 am in Entebbe. The team took over an hour to emerge after their plane landing, and we found out soon enough that a two pieces of luggage went missing, one belonging to Fredrik, and another belonging to Jessica (one of the high school students from Washington state).

Yay, here they come!

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UNIDO Visit

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

Walking Around InterConnection

It was certainly an interesting day today. Brenda, Nicholas, and I met with four people from UNIDO to talk about InterConnection Uganda. They have been communicating with Fredrik Winsnes, CFU’s team leader who works at Microsoft, for the past few months, getting the scoop about setting up a refurbishing center in Uganda. UNIDO was quite thorough, asking questions about how we decided on our price for the computers, how our setup will work in the warehouse, our annual sales target, and whether we were providing other services in addition to selling refurbished computers (among many other questions).

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Song and Dance

Sunday, June 10th, 2007

Today Brenda, John (the driver, not Honorable), and I headed down to Masaka to celebrate Father Jumba’s brother’s first CD release of Ugandan gospel music.

Music

Hon. John had told us two days before that Brenda had to show up to speak in his place. So while we were all listening to different artists, Brenda was trying to come up with something to say.

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