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Day 3
On my way to Fort PortalAlice drives me to Fort Portal. It’s 290 km away, and when I look at the state of Kampala’s roads, I get ready for a day’s travelling. Beforehand, I buy a small bottle of...
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Day 4
I simply haven’t slept well. I started out by crawling around on all fours under my bed to look for scorpions, snakes and spiders (only a gecko scurried away), but all of the night-time noises were so...
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Day 5
I start my day with a fruit salad made from fresh mangos, apple and a passionfruit from the garden, and I make the snap decision to never buy another mango back in Germany because they don’t even...
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Day 6
I’ve come down with such a terrible cold that I have a very, very sore throat when I wake up. In the evening, it gets noticeably cold – after all, we are 1,600 m above sea-level. After I listen to a...
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Day 7
Felix and I decide not to stay stuck at our desks today, and instead, we get a driver to take us to Kyaninga Lodge, 20 minutes’ drive away. Though the weather is cold, rainy and windy, the view across...
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Day 8
When I wake up in the morning, the electricity is out. Which is a pity, because without electricity, the monster of a boiler we have in our bathroom won’t produce any hot water. This doesn’t really...
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Day 9
Yippee! When I wake up, we have electricity! Unfortunately, the gas bottle is empty instead, so I can put away any hopes I had of making coffee. Oh well, these things happen. Whoops – was that a moment...
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Day 10
Wednesday morning: to mark the occasion, we have electricity, gas and water, and I discover what a luxury this is. There are so many things that we take for granted in Germany or that I’d complain...
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An aside: observations about the rain in Uganda – a free adaptation of Irish Journal by Heinrich Böll.It has just started to rain. Or, more precisely, it’s like someone forgot to turn off a tap again...
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Day 12
Everyone in Uganda, men and women alike, have what is known as an empaako, a pet name that is meant to say something about a person’s character. Interestingly, you get your empaako based the very first...
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Day 13
It’s the weekend. In the past 10 days, I’ve often sat at my desk until late at night and have seen precious little of my surroundings apart from on may to and from my meetings. But now I’m treating...
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Day 14
The day begins early, at 6 because I want to join a small group of people and go to see a “chimp trek” in a gorge. Unfortunately, the chimps are doing exactly what I would do at this time of day too –...
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Day 15
It didn’t rain yesterday and now the roads are actually usable again – somewhat. This is a good thing, because this afternoon I have to go to the university at Lake Saaka and hold another three-hour...
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Day 16
“Everything is possible in Uganda!” beams Felix, talking English in an African accent. I have come to like this opinion by now – things might a bit longer than at home, but they get there in the end....
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Day 17
We set off for a weekly market at 7.30am. I know I’ve written that I find it hard to get used to these markets in Uganda. The freshly slaughtered cattle, the dirt, the primitiveness, the old pots used...
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Day 18
We leave for Kampala at 11 am in the pick-up. Three people from GIZ and me. We have 290 km ahead of us… According to friends in Frankfurt, the weather has turned autumnal in Germany, and while the...
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Day 19
I’m sitting on the veranda having breakfast: I’ve ordered coffee, fruit and toast. After 10 minutes, the waiter comes and explains that there’s no more bread. This would be unthinkable at any other...
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Day 20
The weekend. My alarm went off at 6. During the night, there was such a terrifying thunderstorm for six hours that I sat bolt upright in bed and was scared that the hotel would collapse. The bus goes...
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Day 21
Today is wonderfully unspectacular. The trip from Jinja back to Kampala is a non-stop bone-shaking experience, but that’s nothing new, is it? The traffic in Kampala is, as usual, a mess – no surprises...
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My fourth week starts today. The first time I heard about the project here, I sent my neighbour a text message straight away asking “Where is Uganda exactly?” She studied geography and I can really...
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