Hunting for a house

Our first goal is to find a new place to life. Preferably a place to life and to put the container to start making cheese. To get the container installed with electricity, water supply, drainage, a roof with the solar panels for electricity and hot water is quite a big investment and sets quite some demands to a house. Just being able to get there with a truck and being able to place the container is in most cases a challenge due to the hilly dirt roads. We are looking for rental places and places to buy. The easiest would be to rent a place in “Boma” the administrative centre of town, with colonial houses. Rent is between 300-400 euro a month. Most mzungu -white people- stay there. But our preference is to stay in a place more out of town, where we can grow our own vegetables and live in a more mixed environment.

I miss funda.nl, the internet site which is very clear in the availability of properties in the area. We have several contacts, some via reference, one real estate agent, some just people knocking on our door, who know we are looking for a house. At first we depending on boda-boda (moped), which make it quite difficult to travel, but since a week we have a car, so we now drive around town with normally 2-3 people in the back giving terrible directions to where we should be going.

We see on average 5 houses a day, most of them are not really suitable. To get a picture or idea of a house before we go to visit is quite difficult. Our demands on a house are very non-Ugandan. We prefer a veranda to overlook a garden, preferably with a view. A standard Uganda house has a veranda directed to the road side. Most of the life around a Ugandan house is around the backyard of the house. Which, if finished, has a wall around it with an outdoor kitchen and a number of small rooms, which are used as storage or staff rooms. Sometimes we are asked an inspection fee, sometimes a house turns out not to be for sale. The last 1,5 week we are exhausted when we go to bed, trying to match our ideas with the houses we have seen.

It’s raining

It is strange how quick you adapt to new situation like little supply of water. Before we flush the toilet we first check if the water is running. If not we don’t flush, but use a bucket. If it is raining we put a bucket under the gutter to collect water for flushing the toilet. We now have 200 litres of containers in the house and a drum under the gutter for roofwater. Also the new container with a tab and a small bucket underneath, simulating a kitchen sink is a huge improvement. The water comes on and off every other day, so we do not have to be paranoid about the water being on or off, like the first week. The first time the water was on it took us 2 hours to fill all containers. We are looking forward to implement roof water harvesting and getting our water filter system (in the container ) operational. This would mean we do not have to buy drinking water or cook our water any more. A great improvement environmentally seen!

It ‘s a dog’s life

Couda and Kito had to adjust to their new life quite a lot. Food wise we have to adjust their diet. Michel allowed only 1 kg of dog food in the luggage to bring to Uganda, which is almost finished now. Heleen tried to adjust them to the food her dog in Zambia just to get: Nshima (maize porridge) with dried fish, but Kito refused. A -not so quick- search on the internet indicated that this is also the wrong food. So we have changed to bones with some meat and raw vegetables and sometimes leftovers from us. Couda already loves vegetables and but even ate the Nshima. To get Kito adjust to the vegetables some dried fish/sauce is added. He approves the new diet and finishes his bowl. We also will buy some organs meat, but also Michel has to get used to meat in the fridge and freezer. Bones with some meat we can buy for just over 1 euro per kg, probably the vegetables are more expensive! The dogs have adapted well and are chewing away their meat/bones in the garden every day.
Couda and Kito are suppose to guard the house, they still have to get used. They primarily bark at children and noisy chickens around the gate. Knocking on the metal fence or hooting from a car at the entrance is not recognised as a doorbell yet. But non accompanied visitors in the garden get shocked about how vicious small dogs can be. All Ugandans think our dogs are puppies, so on the street this is their name. The neighbourhood is getting used to our walks with the dogs. Every Sunday we take the dogs down to market day, which attracts a lot of attention and requests to buy the dogs.
The flight was quite stressful for the dogs, but they have seemed to forgotten this. Their next shock will be a third dog in the family. A English couple (really Zimbabwean) is returning to the UK. We have bought their car. They are looking for a good home for the 10 year old fox terrier. I know how difficult it is to leave your dog behind. So we have agreed to take the dog and do a trial run. Today we will receive the car and the dog. I hope the dogs get along!

Village life

Our home is on a small hill 3 km out of town. With a boda boda (just a moped) we get a lift for 1 euro to town (this means 3 people on the moped!). The hill we live has only dirt roads leading to the houses on this hill. Checked with the neighbour what our official address is. Only Kihembo Hill. No street name, no number. The neighbour :”This is a village, no street names”. Luckily we opened a Postal Box (PO box 772, Fort Portal, Uganda)!

Because off the little number of houses not much attention is given on the water supply. The families living in the mudbrick houses are used to having to carry their water. The rich houses have a water container of 500-1000 litre to make sure they always have water and enough water pressure. Sadly our house is not finished. No container, only 3 jerry cans of 25 litre. On our request a container of 125 litre with a small tab was installed in the kitchen. We have lived here now for almost one week and have had twice water from the tab. Each time between 01.00 and 06.00 so far, we never woke up ontime to fill our jerry cans. So we have filled them at the closest water vending point. The cost of this is 8 cent, but transport is the biggest issue. Also the jerry cans are off course not water tight.

Will we get used to this?

Meeting the neighbours

We bought a huge Jackfruit. After peeling for half an hour (I miss my good kitchen knives!) we decided it is a good time to meet and greet the neighbours and give a big piece of Jackfruit to share.

On the right hand side our neighbours live in a mudhouse and hardly speak any English, but we get big smile for the Jack fruit. On the left hand side our neighbour live in a similar house like ours. Kevin and David speak good English and both work in the hospital (on walking distance).

We get invited for a drink and realise we cannot return the favour. We cater only for tea, coffee and water at this moment. No glasses and only two mugs and the some plastic jugs. We cannot wait until the container arrives. But having seen the roads I am not sure everything will arrive in one piece.

A regular day

Today the quest of getting a tax id, which you need for buying a car and a postal box, for receiving mail. Getting a tax id is best done via internet! In shock we leave the tax office. This afternoon is the soccer game Netherlands - Denmark, we go and watch this in a newly opened Danish Bar! We never watch soccer, but abroad you become more Dutch.

Again we see more houses. We are looking in renting and buying. The house we currently renting is for sale, for a low price, since it needs a lot of work. Are we in for another challenge?

Finally feels like home

Today the first full day we stay at home, without a full program of visits, quests of new cars or houses. We clean the house thoroughly, prepare for the first time a meal. The dogs chaise all day long lizards in the garden and have a blast (they killed a rat in the house).

We finally feel at home.

Landed (2)

We welcome our temporarily house in Fort Portal with mixed feelings. The neighbourhood is nice. A few brick houses, but most mud houses in the middle of banana fields on a hill. But the house has water problems. No running water at the moment, no water/sink in kitchen and no hot water at all. Some rooms are dirty. We should have brought more practical things, like linnen, towels, etc. But the dogs are enjoying themselves and running around. They feel more at home than in Kampala.

After a night sleep full of worries, we relax on the spacious veranda, the beautiful view and the housing situation looks much better. Friends are inviting us for lunch and dinner. During lunch we buy a Toyota Landcruiser and we will probably get a dog with it (a small fox terrier). Both car and dog we will get in a week’s time.

Landed (1)

Landed in Entebbe. While waiting for our luggage. We suddenly hear a vicious dog barking. They have also landed! A bit stressed , don’t even want to drink.

A new life has started. To get our life in order we focus on getting a car, change money and get mobile access to internet. We have two mechanics (one from Kampala and one from Fort Portal) supporting us finding a car. We look at several Toyota pickup Hilux, double cap. We see second hand cars from Japan, third hand (same vehicle, but used for some time on Ugandan roads). We decided that the third hand cars are to problematic, the second hand are too expensive.

We flee from Kampala to Fort Portal. Away from the heat, the traffic jams, but without a car.

And... we have a lift off (2)

Container gone, finally. We “only” need to leave ourselves. Fitting the last things in the luggage seems to take more time; towel, router, modem and resetting the alarm. Just a tip, changing the user code to 0000 gives a lot of problems! Internet was needed to find the solution. Finally we arrive in the hotel close to Schiphol at 21.00, repacking takes till 01.00. Consequences are a lost collar of the dog and the keys of Michel’s flight bag wrongly packed...

Next morning the dogs have their last chaise of rabbits which appear to have overtaken the Schiphol area. We say goodbye to our family and friends, with some sadness. The dogs are handed over to special luggage, are we going to see them in Entebbe?

Exhausted we finally relax in the plane.

And... we have a lift off (1)

Friday morning the 4rd of June (3 days left to finish the packing).
Heleen left for work and Michel has a two-page list of unfinished business.
New renters of the house decided not to take the furniture, i.e. all needs to be packed in the container. Transport of container is not arranged. Dogs still need physical exams and some formal paperwork.

With the help of family and friends we managed to fill up the container, emptied the house and get all unfinished business sorted.

Many thanks to all for:
- packing numerous boxes with all kind of stuff and fitting it tightly in the container
- carrying extreme heavy walnut furniture into a horse trailer
- painting pipes that were hidden unpainted behind cupboards with only the use of one arm
- doing repairs to the house with a shrinking tool-set
- taking a complete home cinema centre plus TV apart and not getting frustrated when we discovered that it did not fit into the container
- cleaning places in the house that did not see daylight for many years
- many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many other things...

The container was fully packed and lifted on schedule on Monday afternoon.

Packing the container

Not yet ready to leave, still packing to do. Today we received notice that the house will be rented out as of the first of July, not furnished. Good news! Now we start packing the remaining content of the house.

The white sea container is now for 4/5 full and we hope we will be able to fit the last but not the least items in: three beds, couch, two lounge chairs, two cabinets and desks. I have to go and start measuring...