Living in Uganda - Update

I haven't updated the blog in some time... There has been a number of reasons for this.

First, right now Uganda is in the middle of rainy / monsoon season. Every morning I wake up to the sound of cacophony of rain drops pounding against the tin roof of my house. Imagine having a two year old banging a spoon against a metal pot. You probably think that's cute. But multiply that sound by ten-fold. Yes, it's very, very loud.

Rain means two things. First the electricity has 50 / 50 chance of going out. I have never heard the official explanation but I suspect that the rain means power lines get cut here and there thanks to fallen trees. Thanks to that I often sit in the office without power and lights. In addition, when it rains people do not go outside and everyone waits for the rains to stop.

Also, I have been heads down writing a grant proposal for my organization, South Buganda Teachers' SACCO. When I had arrived here, the manager had asked me to train them on this microbanking software. The organization had apparently paid $2,750 USD to purchase 3 used computers and this software but last week I discovered that the copy was actually a trial copy that was downloaded from the internet. So I decided to apply for a grant to purchase an actual licensed copy. After a week I finally completed the 10 page grant proposal and submitted it an hour ago.

On a side note, today people are waiting to watch the second leg of the UEFA Championship game between Lyon and Bayern. A typical scene involves a crowd of 100 gathered around a 22 inch CRT TV and stay glued to the TV until the last whistle blows. I'm going to pass and sleep early tonight so I can watch the Barcelona / Inter game tomorrow.