Nearly time to leave - Friday 18th and Saturday 19th December

After the excitement of the dinner on Thursday night, it was tempting to think that we might have faced an anti-climax on Friday. In fact, when we went to bed on Thursday night, we only had around three meetings arranged between three of us. (Anton, our Californian colleague flew back to San Francisco on Thursday night.) But in the end, we didn't see each other all day as we all dashed around from one thing to another!

TOUGHSTUFF

The ToughStuff products being presented to the PM on Thursday night had caused quite a stir, so Jonathan had at least four meetings yesterday and has had another three today. It's worth me saying something about ToughStuff here. Their products include a small, durable solar panel, a rechargeable LED lamp, mobile phone connectors, radio connectors and battery packs. The LED light and the battery packs can be recharged from the solar panel; the connectors allow you to recharge your mobile phone or play your radio from the panel. So what? In the west these might not seem very interesting (especially in the winter!!!).

But, taking Uganda as an example, approximately 78% of households have no electricity, which is approximately 3.5m households, or 24 million people. They all need lights. Most people use candles, kerosene lamps or battery powered lamps. The latter two are expensive because you have to keep buying batteries and / or kerosene. Mobile phones are huge here. The cellphone companies have done an amazing job of selling very cheap phones and giving people SIM cards. Phone companies have been very successful as they have made the phones affordable, even to the very poor. In the rural communities where there are no phone lines, cellphones have in fact been transformational. People actually use them to auction and sell products to neighbouring villages. But they need charging - and 78% of houses (probably more than 90% in rural areas) don't have electricity! So people pay others to charge their phones, maybe three times per week. This is an ongoing, weekly cost that can be eliminated by the use of your own solar panel and a phone connector!

So ToughStuff products achieve the following: -

• Reduce costs for lighting, mobile phone recharging and use of radios.
• Improved quality of life, as lighting, mobile phones and radio use become more affordable
• Allow business to be carried out locally selling the products, thereby helping to relieve poverty.
• Reduce the damage to the environment from burning kerosene and using disposable batteries.
• I'm sure Jonathan would add more!!

Metalrax is going to look into whether we can help ToughStuff by providing services that are our core expertise, such as product development.

Cool!

MEETINGS, MEETINGS, MEETINGS

Unfortunately, my day was just like being at work in England - a series of meetings! I'm glad to say they were all good and worthwhile, ranging from breakfast with a gospel singer that wants to own a recording studio to make gospel music, through to the Executive Director of the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (what a job title!). He is responsible for implementation of policy on lots of science related stuff, including laboratories - a very useful contact for Post Glover Lifelink. They also give out grants ($30m so far in the last three years) for businesses investing in science and technology. A useful contact!

Today I met the owner of an engineering company here in Kampala. His company designs the mechanical and electrical systems for laboratories. I gave him the PG Lifelink sales presentation and he liked it!!

I won't bore you all with the rest of my meetings yesterday and today!! But it's interesting that so many meetings took place today, Saturday.....

I did see a Weston Body Hardware product on the way to dinner last night.

There are zillions of stand-alone generators out here, as the electricity supply is limited and unreliable. They have to be protected by sturdy body hardware. Weston has loads of stuff that is useful in these applications.

FAREWELL LUNCH

We had a farewell lunch with Hamlet and his family. He is a truly blessed man. He has such a heart for this country and is working hard for God and Uganda.

ON THE WAY HOME

So, our flight leaves in about six hours from now. I'm not looking forward to driving home from Heathrow in the snow and ice!! :(

But I wonder if British Airways can beat this..... See you all soon!

The Big Day! Thursday 17 December 2009

So, finally the big day arrives!

When I was first planning this trip, some of you were having a laugh. In my true mad style, I was flying to Uganda just for a dinner! Well the dinner was yesterday evening. My colleagues and I were on the top table with the Ugandan Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Uganda. They felt very honoured to be with us!! Anyway, more of that later!

CLIMATE CHANGE!!

I gather you're suffering the cold weather in the UK at the moment. The weather in Uganda today was sunny with occasional showers, as they say. Temperature peaked at 82F (28C). At the moment (10.50pm) it is 79F (26C). While we've been here, typically it is sunny in the morning, rains just after lunch, then brightens up late afternoon. It's the classical Tropical Climate that I remember learning about at school! Kampala is at a relatively high altitude (c.4000ft / 1200m), which moderates the weather. It's actually very pleasant at this time of year.

Talking of Kampala, I thought you might be interested to get a feel for the city. The traffic makes the M25 look like an airport runway. Here's a typical middle of the day scene. You'll notice at the top we had the green light!!! The one underneath is the latest form of transport for steel tubes. I never could understand why our companies spent so much on lorries!




But - not to worry, the Traffic Police are never far away! Here they are. Actually, they're well out of the way as you can see, which might explain the traffic conditions.



Whilst I was taking these photographs a normal policeman (ie not a "Traffic Angel") saw me, came up to the car, poked his machine gun through the window and told me I wasn't allowed to take photographs unless I was a journalist!! Whoops. I didn't argue, as the machine gun was about 10cm from my face. He told me the same thing 3 times, I said sorry 6 times and sat on my camera in case he took it off me. Luckily he looked tired and gave up. I was told by the driver afterwards that if I had given him a gift he would have changed the rules. Que sera sera! Anyway, shortly after, we were through this particular jam and on our way to the meeting!



MEETINGS
Yesterday was quite a busy day. First thing we met the owner of Great Lakes Safaris, Amos Masaba. Amos is a really impressive guy, with an amazing story. He was an orphan in a rural village of Uganda, brought up by the Salvation Army. From less than nothing he has built a really successful business organising bespoke safari holidays in East Africa. Maybe you should consider a safari in Uganda for your next holiday. It would be a fantastic experience and I would recommend Amos' company, having met him and some of his key staff. Check out his web-site. If you're more interested in primates (that's monkeys and things, James), check out their Primate Lodge web-site.

Next up I had some business meetings. The most interesting one was with the head of the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), Dr Samson Kibende. God made this connection really easy for me. Samson used to worship at a church in Coventry more than 20 years ago. It happened to be the same church that Jerry Marshall (one of my travelling companions) is still a member of. So, it's the easiest sales cold call I ever made! Then when we got there it turned out they have just built a brand new research centre containing laboratories and a healthcare ward in Kampala. Yesterday they had their first meeting to discuss kitting it out!! Obviously I offered to put them in touch with our medical and laboratories business, Post Glover Lifelink.

Anyway, finally, THE DINNER!

The boys got dressed up the best they could!


I thought it was ironic that the Californian was the only one wearing a suit!!

The purpose of the dinner was to launch the proposed Talent Bank Project. This aims to provide funding for entrepreneurs across Uganda, so that they can develop business which in turn will alleviate poverty. The dinner was attended by the Prime Minister, the Archbishop and representatives from every diocese (33 of them) in Uganda, along with other invited guests.

We were on the top table. Here's Jerry looking rather serious! Spot my chair...



At the beginning they gave out candles to every diocese, to represent the hope and opportunity that will be given by the Talent Bank Project. Here's the PM and the Archbish with their candle...



I bet when you watched the video you couldn't see the candle that the PM was using to send the light out into Uganda. Here's a photo - I hope you can make it out...



In case you can't quite see, it's the Rt. Rev. St. Claus.
MySpace Graphics


By the way, there's an AndyR's YouTube channel now with all the videos from the blog and a few others for good measure. You might like one of the "favourites" that happen to be on there!

Back to the main event. Anyway, after lots of ceremony, some good Ugandan food and the exciting speeches, the dinner ended.

Fantastic news for TBN and ToughStuff though.... Jonathan Bamber had done a terrific job of explaining the concept of ToughStuff and had given some products as a gift to the PM and His Excellence the ArchBish. Jonathan asked them to hand the products on to someone that needed them on their next visit to a village. To his credit, as soon as the dinner finished, the PM asked Jonathan to demonstrate how the products worked. This resulted in a media frenzy as the TV cameras and paparazzi rushed over to film the whole thing. Fantastic publicity for ToughStuff. ToughStuff really is a good demonstration of how TBN uses business skills to alleviate poverty. Check out ToughStuff's web-site. Go for it Jonathan!!!!

Anyway, it's time to go to bed. I'm not looking at my best at this late hour.... I knew I should have brought my creams (think Michael - in-joke) with me!!!



How's the weather doing? Now let's see....

Ah; a very pleasant 26C here at 1:45am.....

3C in Cincinnati, and.....

-5C in Birmingham..... Night night.

MySpace Graphics

Wednesday 16th December

Hi! Sorry I couldn't post a blog last night. The internet in Uganda is worse than I thought it would be!
Anyway, Wednesday was a really productive day. We were back in Kampala, warming up for the main event (more in the Thursday blog)and holding some business meetings.

Before I talk about that, there are a couple of photo's that I didn't show you earlier in the week....

You all know that food is not that important to me, so I guess you've been wondering how I've been enjoying it! So, let's begin with a photo of lunch, which was missing from Monday's blog post...



Also, some of you know that I like to stay in decent hotels. Rachael will remember the moment in Lima, Peru when I had a sense of humour failure in a hotel bedroom which looked and felt like a prison cell!! Well, what about this....!



You might remember that we had spent a lot of time in the car the other day, after being blocked by the two overturned trucks and the collapsed bridge! James commented that he remembers how bumpy the roads were when he visited Cambodia. Well, here's a video in which you might get a sense of what it was like for 12 hours on Tuesday!



Finally, most of you know that I get bitten easily. I've taken every precaution before visiting. I've got my Malaria tablets, two bottles of insect repellant, anti-hystamines to make the blood taste nasty (thanks, Ian - good tip!) and anti-cortisone cream to zap the bites if they get through all those defences! But all of that is not match for the man that stumbles into an ant hill like this!



I actually saw a bigger one today (taller than me!) but I didn't have time to photograph it. :(

Anyway, what did we get up to yesterday?

EAST AFRICA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
I'm proud to have been involved this week in designing a programme to train elite students in skills such as business, entrepreneurship, science, engineering. The team spent many hours yesterday morning working out the detail of a programme to train students from all over Uganda in world class business skills. We hope to find global corporate partners who will mentor the students, provide international work experience projects, internships and loan funding to raise the standard of business skills in Uganda. The clever thing about this programme though, is that entreneurship is a pre-requisite for entry. While they are on the programme, students will be obliged to visit regional colleges and schools to mentor younger students and teach them how to run small businesses themselves to fund their own education. A key goal of our projects in Uganda is to use business skills to make education self-funding. Once it becomes self funding it becomes available to many more people and at a higher quality level. I've been asked if I will present this programme personally to the President of Uganda. Here's the team, which includes 3 Brits, 2 Americans and a Ugandan.


We had some more meetings during the coursse of the day. One of the most exciting moments was when we entered the Ugandan Parliament Building. Here we are on the steps waiting to go in. (I didn't dare take any pictures inside as there were lots of men with machine guns watching me!!)



BISHOP ZAC

Later in the afternoon we met Bishop Zac, who is Bishop in Kampala. Whatever your pre-conception of a bishop might be, throw it away! He is one of the most energetic, charming, wise, pragmatic, business minded men I've ever met. And with all of that he is a very godly man too. We talked to him about a number of issues, not least the problem of the divided economy in Uganda. There is the practical economy, in which 95% of Ugandans are trapped. There they have 96% unemployment (no unemployment benefit of course, so many of the unemployed are actually subsistence farmers, or trading what they can to make a living). Inflation is very low, as people have no money and prices are held down by a lack of demand for products and workers. But someone who has the desire to set up or grow a business will need a loan to provide working capital. Interest rates range from 1.5% per month to as high as 20% per month. The latter is provided by local people that we might call loan sharks in the UK. But, like the UK, very poor and less well educated people can't get loans from proper banks (if there is such a thing!) so they can only go to the loan sharks. But even amongst the proper banks, interest rates are around 18% to 24% per annum. One of the justifications for the high interest rate is that inflation is c.15%. BUT inflation is only this rate in the upper tier of the economy. The poor people in the lower tier of the economy, remember, have no wage inflation. So all this means that they can't afford to borrow money, as they can't service a loan at 18% to 24%. So how does someone ever cross the line from the lower tier to the top tier? Very difficult.

We also talked to Bishop Zac about industry. It's very interesting to learn that Uganda is unusual amongst its neighbouring countries as it has marvellous land in which to grow things. There is no shortage of crops, including wonderful fruits, vegetables, coffee, tea, etc. But there is a distinct shortage of industrial skills to process the food into packaged product suitable for distribution, including export. Apparently, in neighbouring countries there are shortages of these kinds of food (e.g. in Sudan, Congo). But it's not possible to export it as there is no processing industry to package it. Our industrial skills could help there. A breakthrough in this industry would create great economic growth and lots of jobs.

Anyway, finally, I thought that Mike Smith may want to consider investing in this specialised materials handling product, which is used for transporting products around the country. It's certainly niche!


I'll post another blog covering the exciting events of today, which included a meeting with the head of the Joint Clinical Research Council, a meeting with an entrepreneur who runs a £1m tourism business and the dinner launching the Talent Bank. In the morning I've got a breakfast meeting with a young man who has just returned from serving in Iraq, working as a security guard. He wants to set up a music studio to record gospel music and is looking for some help from me (and some of my friends in England - watch out musicians!!). How cool is that!?
The rest of tomorrow is continuing my meetings about medical and laboratory products. Loads of opportunities there that I started to uncover today!

Tuesday 15th December - Stranded!

The day started serenely. We were at Silverback Lodge, in mountain forests – a beautiful setting. Some photo's....





After we had enjoyed our two hours of electricity and hot water we headed off towards Fort Portal. I can’t really describe the roads in Western Uganda. They’re not roads; they’re just dirt tracks, heavily eroded by rain. So we had 6 to 8 hours driving ahead of us. By lunchtime we had arrived at the only river crossing, to find this..........







The first truck came along and the eroded bridge collapsed at the side, sending the truck into the stream. Then the second truck came along. He decided he would be OK. But then he turned over and landed on top of the first truck. Carnage! But more practically it meant that we were stranded and couldn’t cross the river! This sent us on a detour of approximately four hours. So, all in all, not the most productive day! I think we spent around 12 hours in the car on some very bumpy roads!

But there are always cheerful people to wave you on your way.....

Monday 14th December – from Kampala to Bwindi

A very interesting day indeed! We left our hotel and drove to an airstrip to fly to Bwindi, which is in the south-west of Uganda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The airstrip was little more than a dirt track. Some of you know that I was always worried about this part of the trip in case the plane wouldn't take off due to our [my] weight! Here's the plane.....

To get it in the air, we had to leave most of our clothes behind, carrying only one very small bag each! I managed to hang on to my laptop so that I could carry on with my blog!

I just managed to get into the plane. Here's the view of my legs!

I have some amazing video footage of the take-off and landing, but my internet connection won't let me upload them tonight. Perhaps later in the week....

On arrival we met up with our other colleagues from California and drove to the bank.

Next we went to a secondary school. Here's the background. Providing education for children is fundamentally important to ensure that society has a chance to develop and to avoid social breakdown. Our host, Hamlet, has managed to set up three successful primary schools in the local area. These are private schools and pupils are paid for mainly by sponsorships coming from people like you and I in the West. Problem: when the kids come out of primary school, their only choice is no school or try to enter a state funded school. However, these are not great. Hamlet has set up a Secondary School and a College (up to degree level). Westerners are attracted by the idea of sponsoring a little child; but it's not so appealing to sponsor a teenager or a young adult. So, Hamlet's aim is to make the Secondary School self-funding. The school is located on a large site. The kids have planted coffee plants and pineapples. In theory, sales of the coffee beans should provide enough revenue to fund the school. That's where our business skills come in. By running the school as a business as well as a school the kids will learn business and entrepreneurial skills at the same time as receiving an education.

Here are photos of one of the school buildings and Hamlet holding the first pineapple fruits. Behind Hamlet are the new coffee plants.

Next we went to the Great Lakes College, which teaches students from age 18 up to degree level. To attend a Business Studies degree course for 3 years costs around USD600, including tuition, lodging and food. This is a huge amount of money to the students' families. Additionally, in this part of Africa, the average woman has 9 (yes, nine) children! On the other hand, the Business Studies degree course is accredited to British standards. Compare USD600 with the cost of 3 years at university in the UK or USA! We made presentations to the students about business and Jonathan presented his Tough Stuff concept. The students were really enthusiastic. They gave us lunch. Yummy! The yellow one is roasted banana.

Afterwards we drove to the Silverback Lodge, which is a business started recently aiming to attract people who are interesting in tracking mountain gorillas. These creatures are quite rare and 75% of them are located in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This Park has plenty of other amazing attractions too, including 90 mammal species and a huge number of forest birds.

Tomorrow morning we have an early departure. We're heading for Fort Portal, home of the Mountain of the Moons University and a new state of the art laboratory. The United States is helping to fund various health initiatives, including a new National Laboratory programme. Post Glover Lifelink supplies electrical laboratory equipment of a high standard and it has been approached to see if it can supply equipment. During the rest of this week I have a number of meetings set up to investigate this further.

I have some cool video footage, but you'll have to wait.....! While I've been writing the power has been turned off – it's only on for three hours in the evening – so most of this has been typed by candle light, with plenty of weird and wonderful bugs keeping me company – yuk!! So let's see if the technology will allow me to post the blog. Here goes................

Video from Sunday night

Just think, you were watching The X Factor Final and you could have watched this...

I've arrived!

Safe and sound in my greeen hotel room! in Kampala....

But anyway, I've arrived safely. I was greeted at the airport by Jerry, and Hamlet's driver, Samuel.

Hopefully in the morning I'll post here a video which will give you the flavour of things..... (There's a killer in my hotel room!!)

Tomorrow we're meeting Jonathan and flying out to the west of Uganda near to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. There we will visit some education, medical and business projects. Tomorrow night we are staying at a hotel which you can use as a base to trek mountain gorillas. (Yes, that's the photograph at the top!). Commercial Tourism in Uganda is one of the industries that our host hopes to develop to help with social and economic improvement. We won't have time to try the gorilla trekking. Someone said it was a good thing in case my head dazzled them into running away!

Check back tomorrow in case I manage to upload another blog from the wild west! Meanwhile, enjoy the video, if it ever finishes uploading onto YouTube!!!

Andy

P.S. There's a prize for the first person to make a comment!