HIV/AIDS and Golden Nuggets ...

View from the Red Cross building in Bubulo...

Sipi falls again...gotta respect that!

Melembe?? MAAAAAKWA!!! ("Watzup? I'm alright !!!" in the Mbale accent of Luganda!)


After approx. 10 days in Bubulo, we now feel that our research is over, and that we can turn 7 really qualified entreprenuers onto the CSE-project, which feels very good at the moment.

The last day in bubulo we visited a High School-class of around 50 students, we were invited to hold a lecture of Entreprenuership. If we say like this, the questions we recieved was quite heavy like: "How do we fight poverty?", "Why is Africa more effected by AIDS then the rest of the word?", "Why are you swedish people so big?"...huuuu?? The last question was easy, we replied "We drink 3 litres of Milk everyday, stright from the Cow!" The whole class erupted !


The AIDS/HIV issue is really staggering...there was a test among 1 000 Makarere Students, and over 750 showed postive of having the HIV virus...so just imagine how many we've encountered so far? We really live a secure, luxurious and protected life back home in Sweden, but you'll never know unless you travel to poor developing countries.


We're now leaving Bubulo with a greater smile on our faces, after finding some Golden Nuggets to the Project in August. More information and pictures will be updated on the blogg, later when we get back to the capital, Kampala.

Tobias and some kids at the slopes of the Mt Elgon...

Me with one of the elder...Mr Lepardhunter!!

C-yah in a few days, or weeks, you never know ...Boom!

Sipi Falls (2100 m), Mt Elgon.

Uganda, you're beautiful!!!

To get our spirits up, we left for the magnificent Sipi Falls, at one of the peaks of Mt Elgon (2100 m) to take a relaxing shower in one of the Falls! We took a random guy from the street to drive us the 60km to the great Sipi Falls, which is one of the most know touristspots in the country.

After a couple of hours in Sipi Falls we got back in time to whatch another magnificent attraction, the Miss Uganda 2007 Competition in Mt Elgon hotel in Mbale…that was one of the craziest things that has so far happened. We sat in the front row and got interviewed by some newspapers and got dragged up on stage by some Dancehall-girls, being a Whiteguy in Uganda is a popular thing around here! But after being here a month you take all compliments at ease, knowing that there might be a second thought to your friendship.

Tobias and me in one of the numerous Waterfalls in Sipi Falls...

We'll leave Mbale on Wednesday, for a few days to see Mr Jock in Iganga, and then head to Kampala to see the Uganda vs Nigeria in a African Nations cup qualifyingmatch on Nelson Mandela Stadium, Kampala...

The Great Hunt for Entreprenuership in Bubulo…50 interviews later!

Tobias and me (holding the CSE sign) together with some of the 40-50 interviewed potential entreprenuers in Bubulo. Some of the already installed solarpanels can be seen above us.

We’ve now spent a 7 days in Bubulo, and we have at least 4 days left.

It has been a very demanding and a big struggle to meet all these peasants and farmers that think that me and Tobias are there to help ALL of them in 50 different projects. Everything from building private schools, to install radiostations, to help the farmers with their poultry and cattle farming.

Rex, who’s the coordinator of the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship (CSE) project in Bubulo, the Solarpanelinstallation, hasn’t really communicated to his community that we’re only the researches that are there to find potential entrepreneurs for potential development projects…we’ve probably encountered 100 people that wishes to invite us to their homes and see how they live and what we can help them with, especially getting their poverty level from a subzero level to a some kind of “live-able” level. We talk to each and everyone of them and listen to what they all have to say, but it’s a big struggle to keep your words back when there’s hidden agendas around the corner.

Me and Tobias were furious when Rex took us to the side and asked “So guys, when are you going to take on my personal project, the Radiostation-installation!? You can work with my oldest son, he can be responsible for the project!” Me and Tobias didn’t really process what he said, so we just sat down and continued interviewing the potential entrepreneurs in the Red Cross building.

The second day in Bubulo, the fury rose to a climax, when an old lady, Joy, introduced us to the Bubulo Medical Center…which was more or less in a disaster shape! Rex was thinking about his own personal interest, the radiostation, when the common people is dying in their homes because the Medical center is more or less out of function.

Us togehter with the coordinators in Bubulo and the foundation stone of the Solarcell-project, they've got Växjö University caps on..good PR in case some Bubulo villagers wanna do an exchange and attend Osvaldo Salas classes!

300.000 people in the community and not a single functional Medical center. The Microscopes were out of order, the fridge as well, the sanitation level is something I don’t wanna mention. The strange thing is that there’s already solarcells installed on top of the Medical Center, but the fuses and batteries seams to be out of function, for the last 5 years! According to Peter, another coordinator.

There’s a guy in the village who’s a certified Solarcell engineer, but because the Community of Bubulo cannot afford to pay him, this Engineer found work in Kabale and Kisoro, close to the Rwandan border. But don’t worry; we caught him, interviewed him and his going to be interviewed a second time next week, with the other 7 potential entrepreneurs, out of the 50.

With the knowledge we have that the Top guy, Rex, is having is own hidden agenda makes us disgusted and angry, when you see that newborn babies are lying in the medical center with inadequate medical treatment/facilities.

It feels that we’ve helped the Chalmers /CSE people with a big burden, to explain for the whole district what is going to take place in August, and believe me when hundreds of people beg you to help them, you become mentally drained, even though you’re mentally well prepared. The CSE people will be fully warned of the extent of the EXPECTATION level that is in the region.

A newborn baby in the Medical Center....

Me and Tobias haven’t smiled or laughed in the last week, because allot of people have hidden agendas of how they personally can benefit from a Development Aid/Technology Project, such as the CSE project. There’s a lack of priorities, Radiostation VS a functional Medical Center????? No Medical center --> No Health --> No life --> No Development…End of story! When we questioned Joy, the Medical center responsible, which the most common source of death in the district was, the answer came without any hesitation “HIV/AIDS and Malaria, and people are afraid to come to the Medical center when it is as dissfunctional as it is now!”

The women are the ones that makes things happen around here. The majority of the men sit around and wait for things to happen. There’s a mindest of “Live for the day, and as long as I’m not hungry today, I’m content with my life” That is one of the reasons why the women get the microfinance loans and not the men, in this part of Uganda, but the man is the one who’s the Head of the family, so the woman won’t have a say anyways.

If you take in to consideration the combine experiences that me and Tobias having lived around the entire Globe and have a high tolerance-level, immune to culture clashes by know, it takes a while before anyone can makes is angry in any culture or country around the world…that has happened here!

At the moment we only want get this project finished and go back to our main Headquarter, Red Chilli Hostel Hideaway in Bugulobi, Kampala. We will do our best, as always, but we’re definitely not smiling anymore.

Mbale and Bubulo @ the Kenyan border.

The view from our hotel, The Mt Elgon View Hotel in Mbale, overlooking Mt Elgon.

After we had taken another suicidal trip from Iganga to Mbale, 2 hours north of Lake Victoria, just by the Kenyan border, in a Mutato , Ugandan minibus, which is limited to only 13 persons, but the minibus driver insisted that the 24th person had to get in, we where finally on our way !

Mbale is a very calm and stressfree provincial city just by the Kenyan border, overlooking the magnificent Mt Elgon (4300m). Me and Tobias have spent almost a week in Mbale and Bubulo, and we feel that our research is getting to a closure.

Bubulo is a 40 minute drive with a Mutato from Mbale. Bubulo is the largest village in the Manafwa district with inhabits almost 300.000 people.

Bubulo is probably 150 years behind the Western world when it comes to communication, development and technology. There’s virtually no elektrcity in Bubulo, except some mobilechargers. Mbale has the same problem.

A good example is this last Wednesday was whatching the Champions Leuage Final between Milan- Liverpool, the electricity failed probably 6-7 times during the 90 minutes game, making it virtually impossible to keep track of what was happening in the game. That is the mainproblem in the Mbale area, powershortage. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to copy paste this text into my blogg, because the last time I tried to do it at our Internetcafe here in Mbale, the power shut down after 2 minutes! Its possible that I haft to wait until we come back to Kampala to update the blogg.

Iganga & Jinja, The Source of The Great Nile River!

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Bananatruck in Igangamarket...east of the Nile River, Uganda.

We've been going through another adventure, a trip from the Source of the Nile River to Lake Victoria just we're the ashes of Mahatma Gandhis we're spread out. The reason for this is because there's a big community of Hindus in the Jinja area. His ashes was also spread out in Ganges, India.

Tobias and me, just where the Nile touches Africas greates lake, Lake Victoria!

We've been in Iganga (2 hours East of Kampala) for almost a week now. The reason for this stay is becuase of our friend, Mr Jock. aka Mr Peanut man! He's project is based upon his knowledge in inventing Peanutmachines that make the peanutdeshelvnig process more efficient. He just got an order of 300 machines, and we've been in the workshop in the village for the whole week, working with the locals in the shop and studying their behaviors...the best experience ever!

The view from the Village outside Iganga, we're the Peanutmachines are made....

Yesterday Chunkie and Alan came to Iganga, Mr Jocks old friends, rich and crazy movieproducers from Hollywood! Chunkie use to be the assistant Producer of movies like The Return of the Jedi, The Crow, Willow e.t.c. We're hanging

Tomorrow we're leaving the small town of Iganga, for Mbale, 2 h north of Iganga, we're we'll be settling down for a few weeks. Chunkie and Alan will join us for some trekking in the Elgon mountains and the Great Sipi Falls by the Kenyan border.

• Connecting to the Internet here is a greater adventure then taking the suicidalbus to Nairoibi!
  

• By the way, we now understand why Olof Palme really put Sweden and Swedes on the map of the world...everybody here loves Sweden and especially Olof Palme. Its crazy that a such a small country, had such a leader that put Sweden on the map!

• Nzra Mbale, Assanti banna, chakazulu muzungo! (Yeah, thats some more Kiswahili for you!)
  

• Well, should we grabb a coffee in the VaxjoUni. Library café at 10:00 tomorrow morning and continue ?? Or just head towards the kenyan border again?? :-)

In Nairobi, Kenya...a nightmare ride !

Downtown "Nairobbery", Kenya.

After a very impulsive decision, me and Tobias took one backpack and sat ourselves down on the nightmare 16 hours ride from Kampala, crossing the Kenyan border, and finally hitting the destination, the capital of Kenya, NAIROBI, also better known as Nairobbery!!

The kamikaze-driver had a serious issue with suicidal thoughts, it felt like as if he really wanted everbody on the bus DEAD! He aimed at every big hole on the road and every piece of stone their was, on the road which only had 30% of asphalt. The women were actually screaming for their lives, as the driver was trying to be a Modern Brave heart through the Jungle!

We encountered trucks and other vehicles that couldn’t really fit the road, so a lot of times our driver was driving outside the road! For the first time in our lives, we were really afraid that we were going to Heaven (or Hell!). When we crossed the Kenyan border, the military police searched all Sudanese and Congolese refugees that didn’t have any valid IDs. I’m telling yah, the military police could rough up the refugees like George W Bush hunts Terrorists!

Every 10km, the Bus was stopped by heavily armed Highwaypatroll officers, with ”spikmattor” (look it up in a Swedish dictionary if you want to know what it is). And their was at least 40 stops on the way to Nairobi.

Nairobi is without a doubt a modern city, with a higher pulse, tougher environment and with a Kilimanjaro-high-crime-rate! As the Lonely Planet say “Nairobi, or Nairobbery, as it is often called by residents, is now regarded as the most dangerous city in Africa. There are robberies, muggings, and carjackings every day in the city, and a recent survey revealed that 40% of Nairobis residents had been mugged in the past year!!”

After a few not maybe so exciting days in Nairobi it was time to take on the daredevil rough drivers back to Uganda and Kampala. The same thing happened as I explained above, except that our bus broke down at 6:00am, after 14hours drive. We were stranded in the middle of the bush, but as the problemsolving dudes we are, we hitchhiked with another bus which contained a bus full of Sudanese refugees that were kind of stressed out after the humble interaction with the Kenyan border police.

Well, if we put it like this, we’re freaking happy to be back in laidback, safe and secure Kampala!

In a few hours we're heading up to Iganga and the Americans...sometime during the weekend, its Mbale and Bubulo !

Assanti Banna ( "Thank you brother" in Kiswahili! )

We're lecturing at Makarere University...

Voila!

Me, Tobias, The Dean of the Makarere Business School, Head of Dep. Entrepreneurship, The PR-manager and of course the President Yoweri Museveni on the picture ni the background...

During the last few days we've lectured for the students that are studyuing Entrepreneurship at Makarere Business School.

We've mostly lectured about our Project and the diffrent point of views the Western world has of Entrepreneurship. One of our aims is to "see" and "identify" the African view of what an entreprenuer is...

We in the western world tend to underestimate and look down on the Africans and the African countries. They're more full of life, happier and more curious then the Europeans...thats a fact!

C yah later !

Iganga on Sunday!

Hey..

We got the chance to get together with this 65 year old Canadian, whos doing a Coffemachine-project in Iganga. After we got to know him for 3 nights in a row at our hostel, he wanted us to Boss over 6 American students that are flying down Kampala and Iganga on Sunday. The idea is that we are going to organize these American students to work with the set-up of these machines in Iganga, everything is paid for us, by the Canadian...

This will be the perfect opportunity for us to test some of our theories...

In 2 weeks time the Canadians wealthy friends are flying down from the US, and he wants Tobias and me to "show them around the country in their Landrover"...thats going to be the Highlight!!! Thinking about taking them to the Waterfalls just be Mt Elgon, (4500 m)

Tobias and me are riding on "the wave" at the moment, the wave of opportunities !!!

Too bad it took my computer 50 minutes to download blogger.com..otherwise I wouldve shown you some cool pics!

BONNO MUZUNGO!!!!

Bonno Muzungo !

View from one of the Hills of Kampala...

BONNO MUZUNGO!! Thats the first line you need to start a conversation off with, which more or less is the best Ice-braker in a conversation, which means Stupid White person :-) ("Seeiii Gwaaii looo" in Cantonese, "Pibafalangoo" in Thai .e.t.c) Especially if you wanna stress and scare my fellow traveller, Tobias....which happens like 100 times every day!

Tobias is getting from stressed the hell out, because he's the Whitest person around the Capital, to settled down with the fact that people really dont care...its really only his Ego that is stressing him out.


Yesterday we went to the Great Victoria Lake, in Entebbe, its a shame that you cant swim in the Lake becuase you"ll attract a nasty bugg in the Lake which enters the humanbody by taking the "rear-part" entrance... nasty stuff!


Today we made our first visit to Makarere Univeristy, which is only 10 minutes away from our district BOGOLOBI (Poor Tobias, he has no clue how to express any words in KitSwahili or in Luganda, absent-minded dude!) . We're gonna hang out Makarere Campus for a couple of days and interview entreprenuership professors and student at the Business Faculty...

These dudes are the ones the are disturbing our sleep at night. 20-30 monkeys that are running around in - and outside the Hostel....

The Ugandans are, sorry fellow Chinese friends, 100 times warmer, friendlier and happier... then the Chinese. It feels like we're gonna have the best 2 months of our lives here, with the best people on Earth !

Pictures from Kampala...

From the roof of Sheraton Kampala you can see the Great Victoria Lake in the horizon...Kampala is built on 8 diffrent hills...beautiful! Too bad we had to leave Sheraton after 2 nights. We're staying at a Hostel outside downtoen Kampala, at Red Chilli Hostel Hideaway.

Ok, ska vi ses i Bibblan imorrn klockan 10:00 eller ...naaaaah tror inte det va!!!! (Should we meet in the Vaxjo Uni. library as the rest of our classmates back in Sweden and continue with our thesis..naaaah..dont think soo!!!)

So you wanted to use my shootgun eyy?? Visit the Mosque first, then I'll think about it...

l


Tobias, Mr WhiteBoy, where the hell are you?? People, wild animals (Monkeys, MarabouStorcks, Vultures), Dust and traffic is all mixed up in downtown Kampala.

I'll download pics from the beautiful nature the next time and all you see is the color GREEN GREEN GREEN here !!!!!

Just to let you know, the downloading takes approx. 5 minutes per photo..

To be continued...

Weapons, weapons, weapons...

Hello again..


There are certain things that one haft to experience if you come to Kampala.

• Weapons, weapons, weapons - Everywhere you go you'll see heavy armed police and armypersonell...don't wanna think about what would happen if one of the guards by misstake pulls the trigger, Dominoeffect?? David, is a driver who we meat through my Swedish friend Anna, who was here for 2 months on the same schoolarship as us. David always have his AK47 beside him in the car, and the gun down his pants.
• Boda Boddda Bikes - Just like a Tuck Tuck in Thailand, but a motorbike...dangerous?? Noo, not really. No
• Ang Noir - A Nightclub where you can dance to classic African Hip Hop and RnB

We just moved from Sheraton Kampala, to a Hostel east of the central Kampala, Red Chilli Hostel Hideaway where we'er gonna be untill next weekend, then we're probabaly meet a couple of americans that are really curious to hear more about our project in Bubulo.

Too bad I didnt bring my camera to the internetcafe, so that you could see the pictures, THEY ARE GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY! I'll download some pictures next time ...

Take care friends, wherever you are...

Beautiful Chaos in Kampala!

Hello!

First impression of Africa, A beautiful Chaos, or as the stewardist on Ethiopean Airlines said to a guy If you dont shut up, I'll kill you, this is Ethiopean airlines!!! First impression last!

The thought strikes me as I whatch Maraboustorks in thousands circle around Kampala, that this is truelly the Pearl of Africa, as Churchill said when the Brittish Empire took over Uganda.

In 10 days or so we're on our way up north to Mbale, 4 hours north, close to the Kenyan border!

Gotto logg off now...catch you maybe tomorrow, Ill try to upload a couple of pictures as well!

Many kisses from Kampala!