Nothing to envy an HP Envy laptop

A year ago,this month, I bought what was supposed to be a brand new hp Envy. I wanted something I could kind of afford, that had a video card and a large screen. I thought buying it from abroad would make it more functional. 

Lo and behold, the joke was on me. Right after using it for a about 20 minutes, it just went off. Sent it to an IT guy, but like all patients, it behaved infront of the "doctor". 

A month after I suffered through several "goings off", I did what I should have done in the beginning. Read reviews about the product. Turns out hp Envy is known for just going off without any explanation. 

The person I asked to buy it for me couldn't do a thing because I guess he might or might not know what happened to it. 

Just know I have an expensive gadget that isn't doing anything I expected it to do. 

Stupid stupid stupid purchase. Every time I look at it, I feel the pain of using a whole month's salary to buy a useless laptop that just goes off. 

I thought boda boda tourism was for international tourists 🤭

Several years ago, while I was still in school, the motorbike as a boda boda was introduced into Uganda. Prior to that it was bicycles being used to ferry people mostly across borders, that is Uganda to Kenya etc etc. Fast forward almost 20 years later, I am still a loyal fan much to the frustration of my family. 

I became so comfortable that I could sit sidesaddle while this young man, probably high on something, weaves through the traffic from Zana to Mulago. Mind you I always have more than a handbag with me and I don't believe in Safe bodas, I mean look at how unrully they've become now. I need to carry a pair of rubber boots incase it rains or a lamp shade incase I have to work in a room with too much light (sorry, this has never happened though).  

Anyway, seven months ago I was posted, to what we in Uganda like to call, upcountry. The traffic is lighter, the boda bodas still hoot to warn each other, and they even still have brakes🤔. While this was all well and good, I realised that now I was a coward when in Kampala. Suddenly I was that passenger telling the boda boda guy to stop risking my life because I still had dreams to fulfill, corn in the field, blah blah blah. 

Then came one fine afternoon, when I was following up some stuff in Kampala, a colleague offered me a ride to town in her car. I had already booked a matatu in town which would take me further to my final destination. And like any rainy Monday, we found traffic. I had to jump out of her comfortable car onto a boda boda. 

I stopped this friendly looking boda boda guy who immediately spoke to me in perfect English. After we had negotiated the fare and I got on, he told me that he used to be in the tourism industry until COVID19 happened. He took tourists on boda boda tours round Kampala. He was what I thought all guys whether currently or formerly with Safe boda should be like. Calm, considerate of a passenger sitting sidesaddle, ensuring that  you are comfortable, telling you a few things about new developments. I actually forgot about being a coward on Kampala boda bodas. 

Sadly, I didn't get his contact. But I pray that he stays nice, that the tourism business picks up again, that he doesn't decide to marry a younger greedy wife when it picks up and that his basket is always full. Thank you Sebo. I will always remember that comfortable ride to the railway station. 

Why won't you just pay for a service?

I never thought that I would have reason to discuss the issue of "Ladies of the night". And I will not pretend to understand their lives, work or even why they do what they do. But I think in a way they are service providers who deserve to be treated like human beings like any other service provider. 

Recently, I heard one have an argument with one of my neighbour. The argument was a little too hard to miss since it was right outside my window. According to her, she was having an attack, I am not too sure of what, and he had refused to pay her plus leaving her waiting outside in the cold. And by tropical standards, it was a coooold morning, although she didn't sound like she was having an asthma attack, thank God. Considering that she had to dress provocatively, I imagine she was wearing something skimpy. Didn't have the heart to peep out. Preferred to leave her some dignity since her customer clearly wasn't. 

Anyway, he is soft spoken and hopefully was embarrassed to not be too loud for the other neighbors to hear him. But she was having none of that. I can only imagine how angry she was to have been "used" like she said, and not be paid. I thought that it was unfair to deny her payment because she had provided a service. Unless he feels that it is ok to walk into a shop and carry off stuff without paying for it. I then heard them walk to the gate, and heard it close after which I heard his front door close. She however, remained outside the gate not only shouting profanities but also informing us, his neighbors, that we were living with a thief and so should keep our stuff locked up. 

Hhhmm, in any transaction, there is an agreement that one will provide a service and the other will pay for it. So if one breeches the contract, they are also breaking the rules of business. It made me wonder why someone would voluntarily agree to a transaction and then back out after not just sampling but rather taking all the options. Well eventually she left to go home. Business, no matter the kind, is full of challenges indeed. It would have been so much easier, and less embarrassing if he had simply paid for the service. Actually, not only did he disrespect her, but he also disrespected us the neighbors for forcing us to listen to his personal stuff.

How much information is too much?

I resigned my job in December 2015 and since then I have been looking for something to do. I went through the phases, panic, fear, relief and finally excitement. First of all, I didn't know I was that exhausted. I only discovered this after I managed to sleep for three days (with occasional breaks for food and bathroom) without worrying about the alarm sounding or deadlines. It finally caught up with me that I finally have a chance to change the direction my career was taking. A chance to figure out what my next step in life was going to be. Now I get to choose what I want to be when I "grow up". Many times we worry about leaving a job without another in hand. We worry about family, bills, food, transport fare, taxes etc and forget to take care of ourselves. 

Well, I must say that during these 6 and a half months, apart from doing the job search and being interviewed twice, I have been able to put in a lot of reading, come up with ideas (which I now have to sort out into something workable) and also had time to attend career building forums which I either didn't have time to attend before or was too tired to attend or even pay attention to. Actually, this is the point at which I feel like I just shared too much information.

Anyway, during one of the forums I attended, there was a discussion about earning money as a blogger. To be honest I knew people earned money as bloggers but I didn't know anyone in Uganda who is earning as a Freelance Blogger. It was quite an eye-opener to listen to one of the panelists talk about her work as a freelance blogger, so I thought, why not? I mean I do this as a hobby, so can I turn it into something that earns me a couple of dollars at least? Then the question came to me, "How information much is too much?" I mean looking at some of the assignments given to freelance bloggers.

How much information is too much? If say, I am writing a piece about my family, how much of their lives should I put out there? If I am describing a product, how much information should I or shouldn't I put out there about it? If it is a piece about politics in my country, how much should I write or leave out? If it is a technical piece, should I fill it with all the technical jargon I picked up while I was doing research on that particular topic? While I am sure the answers are in the guidelines about blogging (which by the way are way way way more than "too much"), I think these are some of the questions new bloggers like me have. 

I started this blog as a personal initiative or something I did for my former employer to share some of the work being done and testimonies from a few of the clients away from the structure of the Company website. But since I left, I had to take off the Company stuff. The blog provided a great way to engage fellow staff and I also used it as a ..."more/details" page for the weekly newsletter. I loved the flexibility of writing my way, writing when I wanted to and about any topic that caught my fancy.

Aah, let me go Google the answers and hopefully begin my journey to becoming a great blogger.

A visit to an old friend.

Today, I and a friend went to visit another friend who is an artist. All three of us went to secondary school together but we hadn't met physically for about three years, although I was in touch with both of them.  My visit was majorly to discuss business, but like we always did in the old days, we used up a good 5 - 6 hours laughing and catching on our lives. So typical. 

We discussed everything under the sun; life, family, politics, religion, health and definitely the good old days and the people we went to school with. It was interesting that we were talking as if we last met just a few days ago. We just seemed to pick up from wherever it is we left off. 

Now, we are all grown up, supposedly, lived life and seen what the world is like. We have been through happy times, sad times, difficult times, uplifting times and all the kinds of times in between. We have all traveled beyond our country's borders, either for school or work and seen different cultures and met different people. But at the core of all that is that we are still the same people we were back the with our short hair and wearing red skirts and white blouses in school except maybe a little wiser.

There are some people you might meet after several years and you just can't strike up a conversation with them nor do you even feel comfortable being around them. Well, for us today, it was a successful reunion. We were still as comfortable as we were back in school. To be honest, I don't know whether it was that we have similar upbringing, hold the same values or whether we have that kind of friendship which involves mutual respect and the knowledge that everyone has something they have achieved in life and deserve to be respected. 

Anyway after hours of catching up, we finally got down to business. Again the ideas were flowing, support for each other and recognition that like were a team in school, we had to be a team to build something else, this time away from the laughing and stories. Finally the lessons we learned about teamwork, being creative and building social networks were coming in handy, because much as were are friends we went into different professions. 

I must say it was a great day, I feel lighter, hopefully so do the others. The lesson I learned is that in life no matter how independent you would like to be, you will always need someone for something even if it is just for a great laugh.

Why do we always forget that Human Resources are part of the system?

Last week I traveled to one of the districts in my country. Now anyone who knows me knows that traveling and I are not really "friends". Although some of my best adventures where while I was traveling. Anyway I traveled because I had some work to do.

Like any other district far from the Capital city, it is not that industrialised and yet it is the source of most of the cement that has built this nation. However, the thing that struck me most was that we had gone to sign an Agreement with the district leadership to strengthen the health systems, yet we found the major government hospital closed. Staff were on strike because they had not been paid for months.

The once very active hospital is abandoned and is as silent as a morgue. Infact walking into the hospital, one gets the feeling that they are walking through a ghost town.

While looking around, we came upon the two ladies. By my colleague's estimation one is about 5 - 6 months pregnant. She had come to the hospital for her regular antenatal check up but found it closed. The other one is pregnant too but barely showing. According to her, she came to hospital because she felt some pain in her tummy (for lack of a better word). She was told that the health workers were on strike and would open the Antenatal Clinic on Monday (This was Wednesday).

As lay people, and not even employed by the hospital, we could only talk to them and sympathise. As people who work in the health sector and especially as women, we felt the patients' and the health workers' pain.

So as we signed the agreement to give the district money to strengthen health systems, we hoped that it would help to ensure that the district has it in mind that the human resources are part of the system to be strengthened.

The empty compound

Waiting area

Waiting area

This was so dry, it had not been used in days

The Antenatal Clinic was locked

Got published......

Finally I have two pieces written, edited and published on Yahoo. Part of my dream come true.

Why the Libraries in Sub Saharan Africa are Facing shut down and information rules the world

Fake or Genuine: University Choices

Resturing and job cuts

So after four months of waiting, waiting and even more waiting, the Board and Management have finally decided on who goes and who stays.

Staff are called in for an impromptu meeting and for once everybody is on time.

However a few minutes to the meeting, knowing that my job is one of those to be cut, my boss calls me for a one on one session so he can cover his bases. And while I appreciate that he bothered, I don't appreciate that it took him this long to call me in for this, because now it becomes a double blow. Although, I appreciate that it is a tough job to do.

Well, we sit in and two presentations are made. What do I go away with after the meeting? That I might or might not be out of a job at the end of this week. There is something callous about any presentation on job cuts. No matter how polite or apologetic you try to be, you are left feeling like a mean guy who yanked a favorite toy away from a child.

When that letter finally makes it to your desk....

Today I saw another colleague fight to hold back tears. With donor demands, funding and job cuts, this is a common sight in many companies relying on donor funding. And no matter how well prepared you think you are, you are never prepared for that moment when you see the ink on a piece of paper telling you that your services have been terminated.

While the person leaving is more affected by the letter, there is "stayee's guilt" for those who still have their jobs albeit temporarily. There is also thoughts about having to take on the duties that Management assumes are non-existent. There is also anger towards those who make the decisions or the powers that be for doing this to both the one leaving and the one staying behind.

And so today as my colleague declares she is not going to touch a thing, my desk is full and piled up with work. Thoughts of resigning cloud my mind. So while Management (this sounds like a dirty word right now) is busy walking around to check on whether people are doing their job, you are thinking about 101 ways to get rid of Management. You want to walk up to them and tell them that the reason there were two job descriptions and two people to hold the posts is because there was that much work.

In fact, this is not the time to have some weird motivational speaker giving you that nonsense about work smart, prioritize and yet leave some time for yourself and your family.

You know you are growing old when ....

I was invited to be part of a team to facilitate a workshop for adolescent girls. We started off with a tense team of teenagers staring at us like we had two heads. That is when it struck me that I am certainly growing old if I am now the facilitator and not the participant.

When did I stop being an adolescent? I mean there was no warning or anything apart from a few aches and pains here and there. Well, those years are gone. As I looked at their shinning but very timid faces, I knew exactly how they felt. I used to be so timid, a mouse was more outgoing. I hoped that nobody would see me especially the teachers who were likely to pick on me. I got so good, they sometimes forgot I was even then.  But today, I wanted to reassure those young ladies that like me, they would soon outgrow it or be forced to be well spoken.

All the mushy stuff aside, I did not really understand their slang, didn't quite know the celebrities they said they admired, nor did I understand why some of them were dressed like they were older than their age. Goodness me, I am slowly turning into my mother. Yap, old age is definitely setting in.

But standing there and having something to share with them, made me proud that I could now stand up in front of such a judgmental and giggly group and impart "wisdom". Let's hope they picked up something I said as well as what I wanted them to see from our conduct.

I live in an urban area that is actually a rural area

I live a few kilometers from the Capital City. One would expect that I have access to all the comforts living in a city would offer. Well in a country like ours, the comforts include, horrible roads, slums, semi permanent shop structures and leaders who seem to have shady dealings.

Well, on the way to my "by the neighborhood standards" acceptable house, I found that the river was over flowing. I didn't know about it until I got there. Since the rest of the place was dry, I assume the river path must be clogged with rubbish. And who is going to clean it up? We the citizens who throw the rubbish there, are going to wait for our leaders and the Government to come clean up.

And so we have to wade throw contaminated water until the river water reduces. eeewwww. I thought this only happened in places that are far from the Capital and therefore the Government never looks there (I too blame the Government for this hahahaha).

Wait, do I use English (United Kingdom) , English (United States) or my home language?

My country was once a British colony. And so up until Independence in 1962, the language, education system and paperwork all had a leaning towards British systems. Fast forward to the 1980s, HIV and AIDS became a big issue and our biggest funders are from the USA. This now means that our systems and paperwork is going American. This doesn't mean that the British pulled out completely. They too fund some projects here and there and in fact a lot of out historical maps and artifacts are in some Office in the UK.

Now comes my confusion, do I use English (UK) or English (USA)? On the other hand we (like any other former colony) want to promote use of our own language. In other words, in school I had to learn English (UK), at work I have to use a combination of the two because reports are to both UK and USA, while I want to retain my identity as an African and therefore speak at least one or two African Languages. It is quite interesting though that some non-Africans think that Africa has one language. It never ceases to amuse me when I watch a film set in South Africa and the characters are speaking Swahili which is not spoken in South Africa but rather in East Africa.

I read so many Mills and Boon novels written in Britain while growing up. And now watch so many Sitcoms from the USA. But I work in a not for profit organisation whose biggest clientele prefers to speak a local language. So I ask myself, how do I organise myself while reporting or how to I ensure that I am communicating the right thing when my brain is unsure.

I once wrote an article and asked a intern from Canada to help me edit it. He sent it back with several grammatical corrections. I gave the same piece to a friend in Britain and she thought it was near perfect. So, was one being honest and another being polite? Or is my English learning more towards UK than USA?

Phew!!! Just thinking about it makes my brain feel drained.

Christianity at a Party?

You know, if you are at a party where alcohol is on the menu and you want to disband the group of people you are standing with (especially if you just met them), just ask them whether they are Christian. Even the heaviest of them is likely to run for cover. Now I'm not saying Christians don't drink alcohol, nor am I saying that Christianity and parties don't mix. I'm just saying that many times people get uncomfortable when you bring up the topic of religion and they have had more than enough glasses of wine or bottles of beer. I can't help but mention by the way, that I just don't get the drinking beer with a straw thing. What is that?

As a Christian, my opinions are biased towards Christianity so I can't really say much about the other religions. Anyway, I read somewhere that Jesus brought the Church into the world, but we are not to bring the world into the Church. Many times I try to look at situations by comparing them to this saying. For example, Jesus turned water into wine but we are not to drink wine until we are wasted because Jesus okayed wine. However, I don't think that discussing the bible or Christianity during a party is wrong. Although going on and on about it and making a nuisance of yourself would make any topic wrong.

Life in the world has changed so much in that we have a generation of people who think Christianity is for the old and infirm. In other words when you talk about it, you kill the mood of the party. But then again, looking at the other side, some Christians do come off as self righteous and condemning.

As a Christian, a consumer of alcohol, a party goer as well as a firm believer of actions speaking louder than words, I think Christianity is okay at a party. Just keep it free of judgement, keep it interesting, clean and know your audience. Enjoy the party and let everyone else enjoy it too.Bless