Day 8, Monday - the first day in the new office!

All the staff had to travel to Kajjansi for the first time today. A large convoy of cars were organised to collect all the staff from the main road near to the old office. We were lucky in that we didn’t have to walk anywhere as we were going with Mark. He was one of the designated drivers. We were in the Land Cruiser again and when it’s not being used for cargo, it has two fold-down benches in the back for 8 people, so on the way down we had a total of 10 of us squeezed in! Around 4 other cars were in the convoy which left the pickup point at 7.30am.

We were really hoping for everything to be up and running by Monday morning but there has been so many delays with the new power line into the office, and being unreliable when it was up, that we just couldn’t chance booting the servers up. They have installed a very complex power system that includes mains power, solar power, an inverter and a backup generator. They should switch cleanly between all of them when needed but it just doesn’t happen. A team of engineers are trying to troubleshoot and get it working correctly.

This meant that first on our agenda was to install a UPS. (Uninterruptable Power Supply) This would allow us to turn the servers on and protect them from any power spikes or outages. The batteries in these would only hold the charge for around 20 minutes but at least it gives us chance to shut the servers down properly.

Once this was up and running we started turning servers on. Part of the plan for the office moving location was to also change the IP address configuration for the network. This meant we had to manually log into every server and give it a new IP address and log each change we made. We ran into some issues with the firewall and the Internet not being connected. Not only that, but the main fibre link between the hangar and the office was not working. This meant that even if we did have Internet, it wouldn’t pass through to the office, as the entrance point for the internet is in the hangar.

We managed to get a 3G dongle into a router and got some internet that way in the office but we still couldn’t configure the firewall. Who ever thought that cloud managed firewalls was a good idea in Africa?!

 

 

We resorted to prioritising the local network and getting servers configured. We amended DNS records, pointed exchange servers in the right direction to carry on receiving and sending emails, got their databases online and amended the site location for servers. We gave all the servers new Static IP addresses so they can communicate on the network and this meant that tomorrow, when we finally get the firewall online, things should all be working. Fingers crossed!

We were lucky to have a quick response from the company who laid the fibre connection who, by the end of the day, managed to find the fault and fix the line. We felt so sorry for the guys who had to dig the cable up again after it was buried under the ground for 175 metres.

We also managed to finally get the IT office tidy and get a desk and some chairs in there so we can actually sit down and work. It’s all slowly coming together.

The outside of the new office is still very much a building site with a lot of ground work to be done but it shouldn’t be long before that is done. Maybe another week.

Another nice meal at the MCC this evening and back to the house to catch up on emails and chat to the family on Skype. It’s great when we have a working Internet! Family is what keeps you going.

Day 7 Sunday - a day off!

Today we were invited to go to church with Dave and Joy Forney. Dave is one of MAF’s pilots and Joy is the programme's visit co-ordinator. They are originally from California, USA and have 5 children. Again, another great family and great company to be around.

So they pick us up at 9.30am and one of the first things they say is, 'Oh thanks for getting the Internet up and running.' And we were like, 'huh'? It’s not working, we haven’t done anything. We then start hearing reports from other staff that theirs all came live this morning at 9am.

This has absolutely baffled us but hey, it's Africa! Anything can happen that doesn’t make sense so we got our afternoon back!

Kampala International Church

All the MAF staff are free to go to any church in the area they prefer to go to which is great as you can find the church that best suits your style. They took us to their church - Kampala International Church - which is in Heritage International School. Families are also able to put their children into whichever school they choose, and some of them come here.

The church service was great, it had a great atmosphere, and was full of people of many different nationalities. I particularly liked the worship. You could really feel the congregation come together in worship, it’s quite powerful. Martin Ekholm, our avionics expert from Sweden, was leading this service. It was great to see MAF staff participating in the local churches. We were even treated to a pastor from the UK leading the sermon, breaking into a rap! It was hilarious and very well delivered.

Eating a Rolex

We were invited back to Dave and Joy’s for lunch and were introduced to a Rolex. Nope, it’s not a watch! You buy them from street stalls for 1,000 shillings which is 20p. They are chapatti with an omelette rolled together. It’s a great mix of flavour and works so well. We didn’t just have those.
They put together an amazing mix of foods to add to it. The best way to describe it is like when you have fajita night! You have lots of bowls of different veg and meat and you can make your fajita the way you want. They had fillet beef, fried veg, cheese, salad, red onion and some spicy rice with some good old ranch dressing and tabasco sauce. It was a great mix of Ugandan and American food.

The Uglish language

We got onto the subject of accents and how they vary between states and also in the UK, and came across a term I thought was clever. Uglish. A mix of Ugandan and English. The locals do very well to speak English out here but they often miss words or get words the wrong way round. Sometimes they swap r and l and so grass and glass are the same.

It can make for interesting conversations and you often find yourself speaking Uglish subconsciously when having a conversation with the locals.

Dinner with a view

So now we very gratefully have the afternoon free because the Internet was working, we headed back to our house for a few hours' rest before going out to dinner. I had been recommended by a friend of my wife, who both have previously been to Uganda, to visit a place called Cassia Lodge for dinner.
We found it was only 10-15 minutes' drive and so headed there tonight. It was advertised as the best view in Kampala and they were absolutely right. Situated right at the top of a hill overlooking Kampala city and Lake Victoria, it was stunning.

We sat on the balcony enjoying the view as night fell with some nice food in preparation for another busy week ahead of us. 7.15am start for us tomorrow so I best get some sleep!

Luke