Lots of little errands done
The weather in Kampala is always warm, but threatening imminent rain. Darkish clouds like to hover around, suggesting that you might get rained on, but fortunately for me, it's never happened. I bought an umbrella just in case, though Derek seems to be the rain magnet, and hence all the downpours. I just get the puddle aftermath.
Walking on the way to work, I got hailed by a matatu (taxi van) that pulled up next to me and offered to take me to the hospital for 700 USH. I know that sometimes, 300 USH can get me to the hospital, and that 500 should get me to most places in the city... so 700 seemed kinda expensive. Of course, keep in mind that 700 USH isn't even 50 cents, and the walk to the hospital takes an hour (probably 2-3 miles). I said no thanks, and kept walking. But what was funny about the situation was that there happened to be a traffic jam at the time, and at the speed they were moving, I was moving at least their speed, and at times a bit faster. By the time they caught up with me again, the guy at the sliding door said, "... 500 and you can sit instead of walk..." and seemed pretty wise to the fact that there wasn't much difference in speed at the time. I hopped in, and took the ride down.
Once I got in to work, I had barely settled down when I was told that Nuhu was free to take me around to get my errands done finally (read: I wanted a sim card for my cell phone, so I could finally be in contact with all these people). We ended up driving down to Garden City mall, which I had been to on Sunday. It was rather nice recognizing where we were driving, and also knowing where the shops were in the mall that I had to go to. I got my MTN sim card, and put credits on it. Uganda is interesting in that they went from no telecommunications, to wireless telecommuncations, and completely skipped the hard lines. Apparently, everyone uses cell phones, and even the phones that look like hardline phones are actually cell phones dressed up and in disguise. Another interesting thing about cell phones in Uganda is that they're pretty much portable phone cards. You use up phone credit when you make calls, but when you receive calls, it's free. So technically, your phone can be completely without minutes, but getting calls is still possible. If any of you want to call me and hear my voice instead of read my words, my mobile number is 0774116435. Don't ask me how you get through to that number from a US phone, but if you figure it out, let me know. Actually, this is the first country that text messaging is actually economically feasible. In the States, texting costs 10 cents each outgoing message, or something like that, but if it's after 9 or on the weekend, you're on free minutes, and might as well just call and save the cost of texting. However, since calls and texts cost money in Uganda, and texts only cost 200 USH, it's pretty cheap to text here. Now what I REALLY want to know is how to text US phones, because that'd be a pretty darn inexpensive way to keep in touch.
Thankfully, the phone I bought in the US worked over here. It's a NEC unlocked quadband phone that I picked up from a lady who was from Turkey (I suppose she was getting a free upgrade). For those of you who haven't tried using cell phones abroad, a note: your US phone won't work outside the Americas, not even with roaming, unless your phone is tri or quad band (and even then, you might have troubles getting a carrier that will recognize your Cingular or AT&T or Verizon etc. services). The US phones operate on the 850/1900 bands. Don't ask me what this means, I just have a hunch that it's like AM/FM, where one has a far range and one has a short range, and between the two cell phone bands, your reception is optimized somehow. The rest of the world outside the Americas seems to run on 900/1800 bands. So unless you have a phone that can access at least 900, 1800 or both, your phone won't be working in Europe or where I'm at currently. Another thing you might want to make sure of is that your phone is "unlocked" meaning that you can take out that little chip/SIM card in your phone (that has the name of your cell phone provider on it, like Cingular or T-Mobile, etc.) and put in another company's chip/SIM card, and still have your phone work. Most providers, especially if they gave you a free phone or free phone upgrade, won't like to unlock their phones (otherwise you might quit their service, but keep their phone and use it with a different service). But if you're travelling internationally, it's pretty much a must, since you have to get a SIM card for a provider that services the country that you're in.
Well, after I got my sim card and put a lot of minutes on it (hope I don't get my cell phone lost/stolen) I went shopping for food at the local supermarket. Now in Uganda, it seems to be that everything is pretty extreme... either the market is extremely small (like a one room shack/hut) or it was like the one I went to. It was like a Wal-Mart, only fused with a Safeway as well. They sold electronics, sporting goods, bedding, toys, rice in bulk, produce, fresh bread, canned foods, juice, milk, everything really. I spent a good 80,000 USH (bout 40 bucks USD) on groceries, which seemed like a lot at the time. For 40 USD in a 3rd world country, I felt like I must have gotten food to feed an army, but it didn't seem like I actually got that much. I've come away from Berkeley Bowl with 30 odd dollars worth of groceries, and felt like I had food to last a month at least. I think the big difference was that I had to buy a lot of starch in bulk, and a lot of canned produce so it wouldn't go bad, which tends to be a bit expensive (still cheaper than the US, but fresh produce is dirt cheap at Berkeley Bowl compared to canned stuff just about anywhere). In the end, I got a lot of "long life milk" which you can apparently store at room temperature and it stays good for like 5 months (I wouldn't have trusted it if I didn't see a guy buy a flat of it on Sunday), a lot of rice, pasta, bread, canned beans/corn/carrots, juice (which is incredibly concentrated- to just swallow it, I had to dilute it 2:1), salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper (I expect to be making a lot of curry rice, with either beans or corn making the star appearance). Nuhu was kind enough to drive me back home to drop it all off, then take me back to work.
Once I got back, I had a whole new set of issues. The data being entered is being entered into Microsoft Access. That's no problem, because even though the new laptop I got from the department is an apple, it can dual boot into Windows, and I have access installed there. The major problem was that after I configured my comp to be able to link up with the other computers in the data center, I had to log in as if I was logging into one of the other computers- and their default login screen requires you to press CTRL + ALT + DEL to bring up the the login screen. Normally, this would be no problem on a PC- but apples don't have a delete key. They have a fake key that's labeled "delete" but really is "backspace" and does everything a backspace key does and nothing that a delete key does, at least in Windows. I figured out that I had to "remap" a key, or just redefine one of my keyboard buttons to be a delete key (and forget what it previously was supposed to be- I ended up making the ~ key into my delete key), but the problem was that you have to be IN Windows to change those settings, and I couldn't even log on! I ended up stealing a keyboard, and plugging it into my laptop... finally everything worked in the end... but what a hassle! One other issue that I had was that I couldn't right click (apple computers in general have mice that only have one mouse button, which makes the right click function non-existant), but I fixed that rather easily (had to grab a program that runs in the background and makes it so I can hold down CTRL and then click, and it registers in Windows as a right click).
After fixing those problems, I chugged along and entered a good bit of data. I'm almost up to the point that we're shooting to be at in 10 days, so I'm pretty happy about having gotten so much entered. We might even get a third person to help with data entry (which would be good, since the goal of this summer is to get SUSTAINABLE results, and if I leave or stop entering data, and the data starts to fall behind again, the project faces major slowdowns). It looks like I'll be going to Apac (the place where the data is being generated) on Thursday, so hopefully I'll be able to fix some things up there (probably no update posts till I get back- I might be back the next day or on Saturday, depending on how long it takes to get a feel for the place). It's not that optimistic, since Hasifa, my boss, has said that she sits down and talks with the clerks, who all nod and seem to agree and indicate that they'll try to change- but then when the next month's records come in, nothing's changed at all. Kinda hard to motivate permanent, sustainable change, when you don't have something that's physically different. I think maybe if there were a completely new form or new way of doing things, the changes would be better done, as opposed to asking someone to write more neatly, since that's something that will improve only when someone's breathing down your neck, like my cursive teacher from second grade.
Lunch at the data center, and in many of the offices at the hospital, is actually very easy and cheap. People actually come in and serve you food and drink, without you having to get out of your seat at all... if you can believe that. They bring you a dish of food, and take it away to be cleaned somewhere out of sight and out of mind... and the food is really good for the price (1,000 USH, like 50 cents). You can get chicken or beef with sauce over some sort of starch- rice, potatos, sweet potatos (which are actually rather stringy and not so sweet, last time I had them). Otherwise, it's a great deal- where else can you get a 50 cent meal? Even fast food joints couldn't fill you up for 50 cents, not like this meal did. I'm still new to the whole ordering business- I only got rice and chicken today, but there's a whole set of "insider" side dishes you can get too... I'll learn slowly, by spying on other diners probably.
I decided to walk home after work (I left after most people left, but earlier than I did the day before). I headed out around 5 and started the walk back. The roads are made of this very red earth, that seems to erode pretty badly, given the conditions of the roads, and the sudden "cliffs" that form right next to either side of the road. Livestock free range, and there are a lot of cows that sometimes wander into the roads and block traffic. These aren't your run of the mill angus or jersey or whatever cows- these are what Nuhu calls "North-eastern or western cows." North-eastern cows come from the self named part of the country (or maybe continent). They're crazy looking- think like antelope antlers (long pointed unbranched horns) then thicken them and make em think and mean looking, and put them on a cow with udders, and you get a picture of this type of cow. Not all of them have those crazy horns, but some of them do. Western cows apparently have short horns, compared to North-eastern ones.
I took a few pictures, which I'll try to figure out how to upload, but after I got back, I was pretty darn sweaty- carrying a backpack really cuts down on the airflow to your back, which makes sweating a big deal. Usually there's a decent breeze, but if it's not there, and you've got extremely smoggy cars blowing into your face constantly, you tend to walk a bit faster to make your own breeze and to get out of the smog.
So ends another day. I'm looking forward to when my advisors (Grant and Art) will be coming, since we can all pow-wow and get some good ideas and make some hard decisions and get this show going- once Apac is finally to our standards (or even before it is) we're planning to move to another site and start it up. The goal is to get 7 sites up and running, but if I'm lucky, I'll see 3 by the time I leave.
Walking on the way to work, I got hailed by a matatu (taxi van) that pulled up next to me and offered to take me to the hospital for 700 USH. I know that sometimes, 300 USH can get me to the hospital, and that 500 should get me to most places in the city... so 700 seemed kinda expensive. Of course, keep in mind that 700 USH isn't even 50 cents, and the walk to the hospital takes an hour (probably 2-3 miles). I said no thanks, and kept walking. But what was funny about the situation was that there happened to be a traffic jam at the time, and at the speed they were moving, I was moving at least their speed, and at times a bit faster. By the time they caught up with me again, the guy at the sliding door said, "... 500 and you can sit instead of walk..." and seemed pretty wise to the fact that there wasn't much difference in speed at the time. I hopped in, and took the ride down.
Once I got in to work, I had barely settled down when I was told that Nuhu was free to take me around to get my errands done finally (read: I wanted a sim card for my cell phone, so I could finally be in contact with all these people). We ended up driving down to Garden City mall, which I had been to on Sunday. It was rather nice recognizing where we were driving, and also knowing where the shops were in the mall that I had to go to. I got my MTN sim card, and put credits on it. Uganda is interesting in that they went from no telecommunications, to wireless telecommuncations, and completely skipped the hard lines. Apparently, everyone uses cell phones, and even the phones that look like hardline phones are actually cell phones dressed up and in disguise. Another interesting thing about cell phones in Uganda is that they're pretty much portable phone cards. You use up phone credit when you make calls, but when you receive calls, it's free. So technically, your phone can be completely without minutes, but getting calls is still possible. If any of you want to call me and hear my voice instead of read my words, my mobile number is 0774116435. Don't ask me how you get through to that number from a US phone, but if you figure it out, let me know. Actually, this is the first country that text messaging is actually economically feasible. In the States, texting costs 10 cents each outgoing message, or something like that, but if it's after 9 or on the weekend, you're on free minutes, and might as well just call and save the cost of texting. However, since calls and texts cost money in Uganda, and texts only cost 200 USH, it's pretty cheap to text here. Now what I REALLY want to know is how to text US phones, because that'd be a pretty darn inexpensive way to keep in touch.
Thankfully, the phone I bought in the US worked over here. It's a NEC unlocked quadband phone that I picked up from a lady who was from Turkey (I suppose she was getting a free upgrade). For those of you who haven't tried using cell phones abroad, a note: your US phone won't work outside the Americas, not even with roaming, unless your phone is tri or quad band (and even then, you might have troubles getting a carrier that will recognize your Cingular or AT&T or Verizon etc. services). The US phones operate on the 850/1900 bands. Don't ask me what this means, I just have a hunch that it's like AM/FM, where one has a far range and one has a short range, and between the two cell phone bands, your reception is optimized somehow. The rest of the world outside the Americas seems to run on 900/1800 bands. So unless you have a phone that can access at least 900, 1800 or both, your phone won't be working in Europe or where I'm at currently. Another thing you might want to make sure of is that your phone is "unlocked" meaning that you can take out that little chip/SIM card in your phone (that has the name of your cell phone provider on it, like Cingular or T-Mobile, etc.) and put in another company's chip/SIM card, and still have your phone work. Most providers, especially if they gave you a free phone or free phone upgrade, won't like to unlock their phones (otherwise you might quit their service, but keep their phone and use it with a different service). But if you're travelling internationally, it's pretty much a must, since you have to get a SIM card for a provider that services the country that you're in.
Well, after I got my sim card and put a lot of minutes on it (hope I don't get my cell phone lost/stolen) I went shopping for food at the local supermarket. Now in Uganda, it seems to be that everything is pretty extreme... either the market is extremely small (like a one room shack/hut) or it was like the one I went to. It was like a Wal-Mart, only fused with a Safeway as well. They sold electronics, sporting goods, bedding, toys, rice in bulk, produce, fresh bread, canned foods, juice, milk, everything really. I spent a good 80,000 USH (bout 40 bucks USD) on groceries, which seemed like a lot at the time. For 40 USD in a 3rd world country, I felt like I must have gotten food to feed an army, but it didn't seem like I actually got that much. I've come away from Berkeley Bowl with 30 odd dollars worth of groceries, and felt like I had food to last a month at least. I think the big difference was that I had to buy a lot of starch in bulk, and a lot of canned produce so it wouldn't go bad, which tends to be a bit expensive (still cheaper than the US, but fresh produce is dirt cheap at Berkeley Bowl compared to canned stuff just about anywhere). In the end, I got a lot of "long life milk" which you can apparently store at room temperature and it stays good for like 5 months (I wouldn't have trusted it if I didn't see a guy buy a flat of it on Sunday), a lot of rice, pasta, bread, canned beans/corn/carrots, juice (which is incredibly concentrated- to just swallow it, I had to dilute it 2:1), salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper (I expect to be making a lot of curry rice, with either beans or corn making the star appearance). Nuhu was kind enough to drive me back home to drop it all off, then take me back to work.
Once I got back, I had a whole new set of issues. The data being entered is being entered into Microsoft Access. That's no problem, because even though the new laptop I got from the department is an apple, it can dual boot into Windows, and I have access installed there. The major problem was that after I configured my comp to be able to link up with the other computers in the data center, I had to log in as if I was logging into one of the other computers- and their default login screen requires you to press CTRL + ALT + DEL to bring up the the login screen. Normally, this would be no problem on a PC- but apples don't have a delete key. They have a fake key that's labeled "delete" but really is "backspace" and does everything a backspace key does and nothing that a delete key does, at least in Windows. I figured out that I had to "remap" a key, or just redefine one of my keyboard buttons to be a delete key (and forget what it previously was supposed to be- I ended up making the ~ key into my delete key), but the problem was that you have to be IN Windows to change those settings, and I couldn't even log on! I ended up stealing a keyboard, and plugging it into my laptop... finally everything worked in the end... but what a hassle! One other issue that I had was that I couldn't right click (apple computers in general have mice that only have one mouse button, which makes the right click function non-existant), but I fixed that rather easily (had to grab a program that runs in the background and makes it so I can hold down CTRL and then click, and it registers in Windows as a right click).
After fixing those problems, I chugged along and entered a good bit of data. I'm almost up to the point that we're shooting to be at in 10 days, so I'm pretty happy about having gotten so much entered. We might even get a third person to help with data entry (which would be good, since the goal of this summer is to get SUSTAINABLE results, and if I leave or stop entering data, and the data starts to fall behind again, the project faces major slowdowns). It looks like I'll be going to Apac (the place where the data is being generated) on Thursday, so hopefully I'll be able to fix some things up there (probably no update posts till I get back- I might be back the next day or on Saturday, depending on how long it takes to get a feel for the place). It's not that optimistic, since Hasifa, my boss, has said that she sits down and talks with the clerks, who all nod and seem to agree and indicate that they'll try to change- but then when the next month's records come in, nothing's changed at all. Kinda hard to motivate permanent, sustainable change, when you don't have something that's physically different. I think maybe if there were a completely new form or new way of doing things, the changes would be better done, as opposed to asking someone to write more neatly, since that's something that will improve only when someone's breathing down your neck, like my cursive teacher from second grade.
Lunch at the data center, and in many of the offices at the hospital, is actually very easy and cheap. People actually come in and serve you food and drink, without you having to get out of your seat at all... if you can believe that. They bring you a dish of food, and take it away to be cleaned somewhere out of sight and out of mind... and the food is really good for the price (1,000 USH, like 50 cents). You can get chicken or beef with sauce over some sort of starch- rice, potatos, sweet potatos (which are actually rather stringy and not so sweet, last time I had them). Otherwise, it's a great deal- where else can you get a 50 cent meal? Even fast food joints couldn't fill you up for 50 cents, not like this meal did. I'm still new to the whole ordering business- I only got rice and chicken today, but there's a whole set of "insider" side dishes you can get too... I'll learn slowly, by spying on other diners probably.
I decided to walk home after work (I left after most people left, but earlier than I did the day before). I headed out around 5 and started the walk back. The roads are made of this very red earth, that seems to erode pretty badly, given the conditions of the roads, and the sudden "cliffs" that form right next to either side of the road. Livestock free range, and there are a lot of cows that sometimes wander into the roads and block traffic. These aren't your run of the mill angus or jersey or whatever cows- these are what Nuhu calls "North-eastern or western cows." North-eastern cows come from the self named part of the country (or maybe continent). They're crazy looking- think like antelope antlers (long pointed unbranched horns) then thicken them and make em think and mean looking, and put them on a cow with udders, and you get a picture of this type of cow. Not all of them have those crazy horns, but some of them do. Western cows apparently have short horns, compared to North-eastern ones.
I took a few pictures, which I'll try to figure out how to upload, but after I got back, I was pretty darn sweaty- carrying a backpack really cuts down on the airflow to your back, which makes sweating a big deal. Usually there's a decent breeze, but if it's not there, and you've got extremely smoggy cars blowing into your face constantly, you tend to walk a bit faster to make your own breeze and to get out of the smog.
So ends another day. I'm looking forward to when my advisors (Grant and Art) will be coming, since we can all pow-wow and get some good ideas and make some hard decisions and get this show going- once Apac is finally to our standards (or even before it is) we're planning to move to another site and start it up. The goal is to get 7 sites up and running, but if I'm lucky, I'll see 3 by the time I leave.
posted by Vince at 8:34 AM
1 Comments:
i am sleepy, but i'm procrastinating sleep by reading ur thing =)
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