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

Day 6 Saturday - the joys of troubleshooting

For most of the staff, their work ended yesterday. Not for us…

On Saturday morning, we were in the office again at 9am. We had left some bits behind in the IT office on Friday and so we rounded this all up and loaded it into the Land Cruiser.

Our international staff families have their internet provided and managed by us and so, due to the office move, their internet was now down. Today, our priority was to install the new firewall at one of the houses and then link up all the other houses by a series of point to point wireless antennas. This is a completely new technology for me to be working with and so it was quite a challenge to get to grips with how it all worked and what was the correct way for us to wire everything up.

Frustratingly, 3 hours later, we still couldn’t get part of the network working. We had got the internet set up and working from the firewall but somehow this wasn’t passing through to the houses. Well so we thought… more on this later.

We then had to quickly drive to the hangar in Kajjansi because MTN - the ISP for the new office - was on site to install the satellite dish for the Internet connection. They mounted it on the roof of the hangar as this is the highest point with line of site to the receiving antenna at MTN.

They had their own engineers there and so we had some time to continue to troubleshoot the international families' wireless remotely. I started changing configurations and phoned one of the families, but no, still no internet. I then get a call from Steve to say the Internet has stopped working after being up from around 10.30 this morning.

This absolutely baffled us?! How can he have internet in his house which happens to be the furthest point from the house we installed the internet in, and yet the house we installed it in doesn’t have a connection? So I put the settings back again and he was up and running.

A hometown reunion!

We continued to be baffled through the night and so we agreed to try and troubleshoot some more on Sunday afternoon when we had a bit of free time. We spent the evening with the family we are staying with, Mark and Sarah Newnham. We had a great homemade dinner and then went outside in the garden to sit by the fire Mark had made.

 

We had marshmallows and toasted them on the fire! Mmm yummy!

We were also joined all evening by an old MAF UK employee, Gillian Withell. This is the first time we have met but it was great to hear her journey and now works for Medair.

We also found out that Mark, Sarah, Gillian and I are all from the same part of the UK within 15 minutes of each other! It was like a home town reunion in Kampala! What a coincidence.

Mark and Sarah’s 2 daughters, aged 2 and 6, wanted to show us their ballet performance whilst we were outside. It was so sweet! I was also recommended to try a Tangawizi by my wife while here and so had the opportunity tonight. It’s a non-alcoholic ginger ale. Very nice if you like ginger but I’m not too keen.

Day 5, Friday – moving day!

We were given the engineers' Toyota Land Cruiser. As we had a lot of expensive servers and large racks to transport, we had this as our dedicated vehicle. I was also assigned designated driver! Cool!

Steve Forsyth, the Programme Manager, took me out for a brief driving assessment to check I was safe driving and advised me of the driving laws out here in Uganda. He also gave me helpful tips such as indicating left can mean many things out here other than turning left. It could mean, I want you to pass me, it could mean don’t pass there is oncoming traffic or I am stopping on the road. It’s crazy!

I passed my test and was allowed to drive. Woohoo.

We loaded up the vehicle with all the servers and rack and cleverly packed it with mattresses. Of course, we were transporting them via the roads of Uganda, very bumpy! 'Bumpy' and 'servers' do not go hand in hand and so the mattresses were great at absorbing all the shock to protect the servers.



Meanwhile, the rest of the office were loading up their departments' office furniture and computers into cars and trucks. There were lots of people helping, so many, an entire office was loaded into cars and trucks in 3 hours. We were the first ready to leave the office, and so we went to report in to Steve, only to find he had in his office a bubble bath… no not really, it’s just a bad joke! He had a load of bubble wrap stored in the bath tub.

Driving... Kampala style

So off we set in the Land Cruiser. This was a big vehicle. So big it had 2 fuel tanks. It was quite exciting but at the same time quite nerve-racking. Firstly I had ‘precious cargo’ - all the data for MAF Uganda is on those servers - and secondly driving in what is quite dangerous conditions. There are all sorts of obstacles in the road: people who just run out in front of you, cows in herds or strays, dogs and chickens, cars who pull out from all directions, drive on the wrong side of the road, Boda-bodas swerving in and out from all directions... your attention has to be everywhere. It is quite an experience.

 

Oh and by the way, I learnt why they get the name 'boda-boda'. So boda-bodas are motorcycles that take 1 passenger, well, 1 passenger legally but it can be up to 3 or with the strangest of loads like a window frame or 6-foot lengths of wood width ways. Their original purpose was carrying people forwards and backwards across a country border. It became very popular as opposed to walking and the journey was called 'border to border'. Over time, it was shortened to boda-boda.

Server racks and switches

When we arrived at Kajjansi, we were lucky to see that our Cessna 208 'BIL' was firing up for a flight so we were able to watch it take off. It’s such a great privilege and exciting to watch our planes flying in action, knowing they are bring help, hope and healing to people in hard-to-reach places.

 

We unpacked the Land Cruiser into the IT office and first on the agenda was to build the rack and fit the servers in. I set up a camera to capture us building the server rack in time lapse so I am looking forward to looking at the final result. I also set up a camera to do a time lapse of the main office. This should be really fun to watch!

This took us most of the day, including rearranging some of the switches in the hangar to make room for the new internet modems and phone servers.

The rest of the office did really well to completely move in and most people had set up their desks and computers by around 3.30-4pm.

We finished around 4.30pm after configuring the firewall for the new network and headed home. At that time of the day, rush hour traffic is heavy and so Kalumba showed us some back roads. I can’t say it was quicker but at least we were moving the whole time. These were dirt tracks the whole way and the amount of dust was incredible. It has obviously been that way for so long that all the trees have actually turned orange from being covered in thick layers of dust. It was testing but pretty cool taking a 4x4 off-road! We were able to pass some of the slower vehicles that weren’t quite cut out for the off-road which made the journey more interesting, some would say I left them for dust.

A fun family

We had dinner with the Rogers that evening. Dave and Amy with their 6 children. The eldest 2 were actually at a youth group, but it was great to get to know the others. They are a fun family, originally from America and have served with MAF in Uganda for over 9 years!

I was introduced to Mountain Dew and love it! Amy apparently thinks it is better in Uganda than it is back in the States. Most things here are quite the opposite.

It was a great end to a very busy day!

Day 4: The big pack-up

Thursday was all about packing up! Today was the day servers were being turned off and everything packed away ready for the big moving day on Friday.

We made it to the office by 7.30am and started packing things into boxes. Most mornings the office will have 10 minutes' prayer and worship as a team at 8.20am, so it was great to be apart of that time together.

At 10.30 we headed back to Kajjansi to finish off a bit more networking, wiring up switches and putting cables into trunking. Short of tools again, I suddenly had a brainwave (amongst the many improvisation brainwaves). Across the airfield is the biggest man shed any guy could dream of in his garden! It is of course the hangar. Aviation spec SnapOn tools and equipment, masses of open space enough to fit a few planes, there is not a tool, screw or nut you could want that they don’t have! So I borrowed a saw…… Hmm, maybe I’ll find something more interesting to borrow and use next week.

We managed to finish at 1.30pm and travelled back to Makindye ready for all the servers to be turned off at 4pm.

 We ended up working until 7.30pm shutting down servers, taking them out the rack, using a high powered blower to blow all the sand and dust out of them, dismantling the rack and pulling all the cameras and Wi-Fi points out ready to me taken to the new office on Friday.

We were so knackered by this time we came straight back to our house and cooked some pasta with tomato sauce! Mmm, reminded us of home, even though it’s an Italian dish, but hey.

Moving day tomorrow! Wish us luck!

Luke

Day 3: a long day at Kajjansi Airfield

So Wednesday was our first full day at the new office on the airfield in Kajjansi. Because all the international staff housing is located near the current MAF office in Makindye, a lot of staff travel to Kajjansi every day. After the office move, almost everyone will have to do this journey.

We had planned to go with the engineers on the first run down but after finding out one of the pilots were travelling down slightly later, we thought we would go with him.

Unfortunately, the message didn’t get to Mark who’s guest house we are staying in, that we had changed plans and so at 7.15am he was banging on the door! Ooops! Yes, after a late night working I had forgot to set my alarm and so this very quickly woke me up!

The engineers all travel down in 1 vehicle very early to beat the morning rush on the roads. A 45 minute journey and they are working by 8am most mornings. But don’t worry, they do have some good coffee before tweaking bolts on the planes.

Greg Vine, MAF Uganda’s chief pilot, drove us down to the airfield. It was great to meet one of our British pilots and try to understand more what it is like living and working outside of the UK. He shared his experiences with schooling his children, adjusting to the culture, being away from friends and family and also the role of being a pilot. All of which was very interesting, and very positive, as he knew that this is where he was meant to be and was being led in faith by God.

By the time we reached Kajjansi, we caught the tail end of the coffee around 8.45 in the hangar with the engineers and pilots. I must admit, they have some really nice coffee here. A lovely dark roast ground coffee starts the day well!

It's our Cessna 182!

I walked out into the hangar and was interested in what Geoff Linkleter (an engineer) was working on. He showed me how he was mounting lots of little fins to the wings and tail of a Cessna 182. He goes on to describe that they improve stability at low speed so it can have a safer landing on a short runway where airspeed needs to be very low.

Fascinating. And then it clicked!!

*gasps*

'This is the 182 that MAF UK toured in the UK last year and I was lucky enough to see it and take a short flight!'

I was right. At first I didn’t recognise it, until I noticed the new fuel-efficient engine. The registration has now changed to a Ugandan registration 5X-MON. Since being in the UK, it has had an updated RF radio, a new heavy-duty nose wheel to give the propeller more ground clearance, new folding seats in the back to allow for more cargo and a new wooden floor. And now, the wing and tail fins. It was so great to see it again, and to actually see it out in a programme having work done on it.

Network cabling and broken ladders

Our main job today was to complete the installation of the network cabling in the office by connecting them all up into a switch cabinet in the server room. We also had other switches to install in 2 other locations in the building. It was a great challenge to work on a building site, without the tools you would expect to have in the UK. Improvisation was on overload!

I asked someone for a ladder and they came back with a few tree branches cleverly nailed together. The only problem is, I am slightly heavier than most and so I think I broke one of them. Apparently that happens all the time. And they make scaffolding out of these?!

I do have to hand it to them though, their craftsmanship is amazing. We saw them making concrete tops to the walls all by mixing cement and moulding it all by hand. In the UK, we would buy concrete tops and stick them on top of a wall with a quick set cement mix.

Loving my matooke and posho

Lunch break was such a great experience. MAF very kindly provide all the staff and site workers with a free lunch cooked fresh by a cook on site.

She cooks all types of local food in a hut on the airfield.

Steve and I sat amongst site workers, also accompanied by Jay, the project manager for the office building, originally from Vancouver, Canada.

We had some true local food and absolutely loved it!

Matooke - a starchy savoury banana mashed up, kinda like mashed potato; posho - a white starchy mash made from maze or corn, and accompanied by 3 small pieces of beef and lots of rice and cabbage.

Towards the end of the meal, we were joined by a guy called Uriah from New Zealand. He is a Civil Engineer working for EMI. They are the company moving in upstairs in our new office. It was great meeting him as I have never really understood what a Civil Engineer does. He explained how they have a lot to do with bridges, canals, roads, railways, all in an engineering perspective. It was very interesting.

A different world

After a long day's work, getting home around 7pm, we headed for the Makindye Country Club not far from the MAF office for some dinner.

It was strange to walk into a place and get totally confused as to where you actually were?! It was like stepping into a different part of the world. Everything had suddenly changed from dust and dirty, noise and busyness, into peace and quiet, a posh clean restaurant looking onto tennis courts and a swimming pool.

Nevertheless, it was great to unwind and enjoy a lovely beef wellington pie with fresh veg and potatoes.

 

We soon made it home to get some well-earned sleep!

Luke