Uganda's Uniqueness

Already back in my old room in Groningen for 2 weeks now after almost an amazing year in Afrique, lived for 3 months in South Africa and 6 months in Kenya and travelling through 10 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa.
What a year it was! A perfect combination of studying, working and travelling.

My last post dates back more then 2 months so time to tell y'all how my last 2 months were in Kenya and Uganda.
The last 2 weeks of our internship in Mago in the beginning of February were about rounding off the tasks we were working on. The basketball court I raised funds for got finished finally after a delay of several weeks and costing almost triple the amount that we expected, but the foundation helped allot and soon I will send the final photos to the sponsors.
Before we arrived in Nairobi we wanted to spend some more time in Kenya's nature parks, 2 days at the hotsprings of Lake Bogoria and 2 days in the extreme luxurious Crater lake resort this all for very affordable prices thanks to our connections.
As planned my friend Noud arrived on the 11th of February and Linda left the 14th after spending an amazing 8 months together in Africa, but she felt she had enough and wanted to go home. This gave me time to travel to Uganda with Noud hopefully time enough to sell the car. With Noud we drove back to my internship to get some stuff and to change the brake pads of Beast. Left for Uganda on the 17th just a day before my Kenya visa expired and we took Robin a French guy we met in Nairobi with us. On the way to Jinja we met a guy on a bike who knew Noud from school years back, what a coincidence that was. Spending a few days in Jinja we decided to go to Kampala for some serious partying with 2 Israeli girls and with the 5 of us (me, Noud, Robin, Orit and Shoshi) we spend travelling a week first to Murchison falls in the north and then to the crater lakes in the west of the country. Saw the mighty Murchison falls, chimpanzees and had a great time experiencing Uganda.
In western Uganda we decided to travel with the 2 of us again heading south to Kabale and Kisoro. In beautiful Kisoro with many high vulcanos on the background I wanted to see the rare mountain Gorillas on the border with Rwanda and Congo, you are allowed to spend an hour with these huge creatures and after searching for them in the jungle we found them within 2 hours. It was an amazing and unique experience to watch these human like animals just a few meters from us. Costs: a shocking 500 US Dollar!! but hee how often am I in Uganda and the costs to see these animals are raising every year. Back in Kabale I felt a bit feverish and slept bad and as I expected: Malaria got me! finally after spending 8 months in Malaria country they had me. Did a test at the doctor got some pills and in 3 days of feeling bit weak I was better. In the meantime of the last few weeks I kept in contact with an Australian guy I met who was interested in buying Beast. On the way back to Kampala (skipping Rwanda unfortunately because of time) we met with the 3 Australian guys who were heading down to Cape Town and got enough of travelling by public means. We partied a night and discussed the price I wanted for it; 6500 US dollar, 1000 dollar more then we bought it for but we did have spend some money on maintenance and camping gear. As they were on a tight budget we agreed in a contract on a 2 term payment, the 2nd payment done by them when they sell it in June. Maybe not the smartest decision but as I trust them, and Beast is going back home to Cape Town and for the money I wanted for it, it was the best solution. Felt sad when my old companion who never let us down drove away out of sight in this small city of southern Uganda.
Noud and I were now depending on public transport to Kampala (my first bus in Africa in almost a year) arriving in Kampala Backpackers (serious partying again) we met with an old friend from Nairobi; Heron and with him and Melina a girl from Canada we wanted to spend some time on one of Uganda's islands. 4 Days of perfect weather on a perfect spot near the lake we relaxed, drank, smoked and got seriously burned while playing Frisbee. Ooh and I caught 2 fish with my hands leaving fisherman friend Noud in silence. Not all perfect but shit happens... my camera got stolen with all my gorilla photos on the camp site blameable on my laziness. (Got some photos of the same Gorillas of a friend who saw them a few days after me) On our way back to Kampala (yeah ofcourse serious partying again!) and Jinja Noud's camera got stolen from him on the street and Melina's camera a few days later so very few pictures remained of the last week in Uganda. Travelling through Uganda with Noud was perfect and we met many nice travellers on the way.
On monday the 15th of March we crossed back into Kenya to my internship place and from there on the next day straight to Nairobi for a 5 day exhibition for promoting the guesthouse. Noud left the 18th and my flight was the 23rd back to Dusseldorf, Germany and then Holland, back to see my Linda, my friends and my family.

What a RIDE it was!!! One year in Africa.... and a more perfect year I couldn't have imagined. I had no expectations of this dark continent before I came which is the way to do it. I learned allot about life here, poverty, people, problems, nature and wildlife, met amazing people and grew so much thanks to my internship with Linda which will help allot in the near future. Africa is truly amazing and if you're ready; Do IT.

Thanks everybody for your posts and following my adventures.

For more photos and many videos check;
http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Some people asked me already "Hey Joost where are you going next?" uhm no idea yet first spend this summer, my first summer in NL in 6 years, in Groningen with my friends and then the world is open again.

''Challenges and obstacles in Western Kenya''

Hey everybody, Ok I know that it has been a while since my last post, more then 4 months ago actually. So what have I been doing these last months on my internship in Western Kenya, you might ask.
Well many developments here in the guesthouse we are working in. Linda and I are the managers of a guesthouse in Western Kenya, the guesthouse is located on a school compound and serves as a training centre for the catering & hospitality students as it is a hotel school as well. Our main task was to write a marketing plan for it but meanwhile we have taken the function as managers and are constantly busy with improving the service standard in the hotel.
Regarding marketing we are busy with getting a name here in Western Kenya (which is not very known by tourists), visiting travel agencies frequently, improving the website and translating it in Dutch, German and Swahili, placing signs and promote the guesthouse on fairs. In the last 4 months we have been on 3 fairs and a conference about ecotourism, we were visited by a media team last week to make some footage about Western Kenya, we have met the Minister of Tourism already twice and some other ministers and next week we are invited for the official opening of an Impala sanctuary in Kisumu were we will meet the Prime Minister. All in all we are really trying our best to put Mago on the map.
As managers of the guesthouse we try to improve the service and facilities, the guesthouse has been operating for more then 2 years now and it has never been marketed and when we arrived many things were below standard.
Things got missing from the storage, many things were broken etc, but by making strict controls and checklists we are trying to change this.
The result is there; after many questionnaires from customers we improved allot and more and more visitors come thanks to our Western way of implementing new structure in the organisation.

Kenya is great but after handling with the people here frequently you often know why businesses are sometimes not running efficient because many and (trust me) many people here don't think about long term planning.
We have the feeling that some people just don't want to change their way of working, when we want to change something we have to mention it at least 3 times to that person. Of course in the Western world people in general are more educated thanks to government funding of education, less poverty etc.

These thresholds and obstacles are often very frustrating but we do see them as challenges and we really like living here and working in this organisation. When confronted with these challenges we know that we will be better of in a Western company later on; especially regarding when things are being done right away when asked, better time planning and long term investment.

The trips we make for example to the Masai Mara and Nairobi we combine with sightseeing the country. My parents visited me in October for 3 weeks and Linda's parents in November and so on we went twice to the Mara to see the Big 5 (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and (not yet the) leopard) and dozens of other animals, went to the coast with my parents and Nairobi a few times to combine it with visiting tourism bodies like travel agencies and tour operators. It was good to see our parents again after 5 / 6 months away from home.

Our BEAST car is still doing very fine and so far we only 3 flat tyres, some problems with the power steering motor, a small battery fire and something that was broken with the break fluid controller, all in all not much for a car from 1988 travelling more then 17000 km from Cape Town, South Africa!
When we were travelling from South Africa to Kenya we often slept in the car and after arriving at our internship we slept from September till November in a nice room in the guesthouse. After the 2 volunteers left (who were here for more then a year) in the beginning of December we got to move to the big house on the compound. The house were we live in (for free!) has 3 bedrooms, big kitchen, living room and a nice terrace were my hammock suits perfectly. And like the cherry on the cream we have a maid in our house who cleans and cooks for us.
How many people can say this about their internship living for free in a huge house with a maid in a country with nice temperature, with allot of freedom of being your own manager of a Guesthouse.

Of course the other side is that as we are living on the compound that we have less free time in the weekend as when guests are there you are the one who has to check if everything is going well. And as we are pretty far from the city or other white people we don’t have allot of options to make new friends. Some people working here we do consider as friends but many here just want to be friends with you because of the fact that we have money.

From this moment I can already say about my internship that I learned allot, with only a few weeks left here one of the biggest changes I have seen in myself that I can be an asshole when needed. People might know me as that friendly guy and that is how I like to be, keeping everyone as a friend but in my time here I learned different. In the first few months we tried to approach people in a friendly way and saying it normally how to improve their behaviour but these methods don’t work here in Kenya (at least); shouting and being extremely strict or money punishments only works. I don’t like being like that but if you want to change and improve something here (and that is why we are here) you have to be an asshole to people or they just don’t listen.

Another project I have been working on for about 2 months now is creating a basketball field for the students of the school. The idea came from that I saw in the storage a big bucket full off good quality basketballs but no basketball field anywhere around.
As I played basketball for many years I wanted to give something to the school and students as I heard that they would really appreciate it. I started a sponsor campaign for getting the required 550 euro needed for the goal posts, building a retaining wall and concreting the field with the official sizes 15m by 28m.
Within no time I had the money given from friends and family and the building could begin.
The basket posts are finished and the field is levelled and at the moment 2nd year masonry students are mixing the cement with sand and stones to make a strong base for the court.

By the end of the week the baskets will be placed (with a valuable message on it; AIDS KILLS, Drugs KILLS & Education your Future) and the lines will be painted on the field.
A big drawback for me is that the total costs will be much higher then I expected. More sand, cement and stones are needed and the 900 euro line will be passed. I am at the moment looking for more sponsors but a big amount I will have to pay for it myself.

Between all the hard work we are doing here, we also were able to create some free time between Christmas and New Year to go to Uganda, just 2 hours from here.
We left Mago the day before Christmas and picked up a friend of us at the border, who we have met a month before in Nairobi. With him (Marcus) we celebrated Christmas on Banda Island; a small island in Lake Victoria with a small campsite and hostel on it. We had a very nice time for those 3 days but unfortunately we had rain every day. Jinja was our next stop, this small village is also known as the source of the Nile (the point where the river Nile begins).
Here at a nice hostel I celebrated my birthday and New Years Eve among fellow tourists and travellers. For my birthday I got from Linda a rafting trip on the Nile, a grade 5 rated full day of rafting with some serious waterfalls and rapids. Many of the rubber boats flipped over and I ended up in the water several times.
On New years day we left to Sipi falls, three beautiful waterfalls on the border with Kenya. Within 2 weeks we were back at our internship. Uganda is really nice, very green and much cheaper then Kenya is.

So what are the plans the following 2 months; in 2 weeks time we will leave this place and we will travel back to Nairobi. Linda will fly back on the 14th of Feb. and Noud a friend of mine will arrive a few days earlier and with him I will go back to Uganda and Rwanda to travel and to find a buyer for our car. In March I will come back to Kenya to help promote the Guesthouse on a big exhibition in Nairobi and I will fly back home on the 23rd of that month after spending a year in Africa.

Sorry again for waiting so long with this post, but better late then never.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

Greets from Western Kenya.