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.....
No comments:
Post a Comment