Holiday or Disaster?

Since 15 months we have not been on holiday together. Either the pizzeria or construction work is taking our time or Heleen is on tour. We have been travelling with family and friend, but -no offence- this is different from spending time together away from home.

Despite the rainy season, we have rain every day, we decided to take a break for FOUR whole days! Aim is to visit Kabwoya Wild life reserve on the shore of Lake Albert. None of our friends have been there. But Lake Albert is the warmest place in Uganda and we like to explore.

First I will start with all the things which went wrong. We got stuck in the vicious mud of the park twice. First time with our own car for 4 hours. Our dinner was at 22.30. Next day we got stuck with the landrover of the lodge. This took only one hour. On our way to Hoima a shock absorber of the car broke. We had to stay an extra night in Hoima. The new shock absorber and mechanic had to come from Kampala and did not arrive at 14.00 like agreed, but only at 18.30. The repair took 3,5 hours instead of 40 minutes. During the extra day in Hoima we did not dear to drive the car and the whole afternoon it was raining.


This all sounds like a disaster, but actually we had a great holiday. The construction and pizzeria were hardly discussed! We had a excellent three days in a gorgeous, hardly visited park. The very luxury lodge is build on the edge of a cliff looking down on Lake Albert. The days is the park we did not have any rain.

The getting stuck in the mud was a great experience of how to get out and which tools we need to bring next time. It also gave an opportunity to see a duiker, oribi and buffalo in the park. We went horse riding in the park and surprised warthogs, Uganda cobs, bushbuck by our presence. Michel brought home many souvenirs from the fossil hunting in the park.

The visit to the nearby fishing village was also very good. Friendly fisherman explained about drying and selling the fish and making boats. The anxious children really tried not to interfere Michel photo’s of the nets, but failed completely. It was also good to see that the oil company working in the park, did not seem to have a bad influence, only better road and more business.

We were even lucky to have an excuse to extend our holiday, because of the car break down. And we have found a good car mechanic , who is willing to bring spares from Kampala and install them right away.

We relaxed completely and did not feel like going home. But even the log trip home was nice. The new shock absorbers improved the performance of the car on the bad road. Arriving home we were lucky. No cooking, but a good pizza was waiting for us. We are planning our next trip...

A working holiday

So this time not a report from Heleen or Michel, but a report from a visitor. Last July I stayed with a friend for a month with them to help them with the pizzeria.

In the beginning the plan was to help in Dutchess, but unfortunately the building process wasn't ready yet. After arriving in Uganda we first went to Jinja to relax for a bit. Heleen came to pick us up. The car was already full with bottles and other stuff for making the cheese. To our surprise Michel was coming with us to Jinja too. But he came with more stuff. This time for the new place Dutchess. After the night in Jinja we went to Fort Portal. Not new to us, because last year we travelled with Sawadee and Heleen was or tour guide. So the pizzeria wasn't new for us either. We went there two times last year, because the pizza was sooooooooo good.
And it still is. And I can know because I think I had like 18 pizza's in a month.

At home we were welcomed by the dogs, every day again! It really felt like coming home. Not only because of the dogs, but also because Heleen and Michel totally opened their home to us. In the four weeks we helped with making cheese/yoghurt, painted the pizzeria and if it was necessary we helped with the pizzeria it self. Serving and making pizza and counting the stock. Especially painting the fence was funny. There were a lot of people walking by to watch the blond girl painting the fence. But they all
said I did a good job ;-). The make-over of the pizzeria was a success. The new colours are great, they installed a new toilet and they sorted out the electricity. Dutchess is still in the building process but it is already looking great. The fence they designed themselves is awesome. The terraces are real eye catchers.

I have a lot of respect of what Heleen and Michel are doing over there in beautiful Uganda. Not only they are managing a restaurant, building another one and making cream/yoghurt and cheese, they also made time to travel with us. I will never forget the evenings when we watched “Weeds” or “True blood” with the dogs on our laps, or the night clubbing with Heleen and the staff of the pizzeria to say goodbye to everybody.

The last week I travelled with Heleen. Unfortunately Michel was sick at the same time :-(. We went for Ishasha to see the tree climbing lions, but for the second time in my live I didn't see a lion in the whole park. And I helped to bring Heleens average down a lot. After the disappointment of not seeing a lion we also got locked up in our rooms. And off course, at that moment our phones didn't work. In Lake Mburo we almost got a hippo on our car. He was only 10 centimetres away from the car. It was dark and we just didn't see his big pink.........

So all together it was a great adventure! Heleen and Michel; thanks for everything. I will be back when Dutchess is finished!

Sky above Fort Portal

Yet another boring update

Construction work has taken all our time. The renovation of our restaurant/cheese making and the improvements at the pizzeria we are running. We follow the news of riots in Kampala, the earth quakes in Japan and early and hot spring in the Netherlands. But it is all too far away to have an effect on us. Michel is too busy being barman at the pizzeria and Heleen is trying to get grips on money flow, compared to dishes prepared.

First some pictures of the renovation. Construction work is going own as we speak. The walls inside and out have been plastered. The carpenter is putting the first window frame in place. The terraces in the back garden are now being constructed.
The renovation does give some headaches, when the plumber is just finished the guys from the kitchen break some water pipes. The electrician has to come back several times because the plaster guys have hidden a number of boxes in the wall. The water reservoir did not fit on the small tower build for this purpose. But the result is excellent. We can not wait to sit on the balcony of the first floor sipping a fresh juice or a cold beer and enjoying the town view and the Rwenzori mountains.

But “construction” is also going on at the pizzeria. The easy-to-manage pizzeria needed more changes than we expected. We are both perfectionist… Two members of staff have been replaced. The change of the barman/cashier had the most impact. Michel resorted to a night life as a barman. Going to bed at 2.00 eating pizza every day. It looked like a student life, but he just celebrated his 40th! birthday. After a month finally the new barman manages on his own. So Michel has to get up early in the morning again! Heleen is trying to control the orders and the money flow. Introducing order books (can you do without?) and whole flow of money and goods is traceable and automated. Also purchasing is getting done in bulk to reduce costs and time. More improvement projects are planned, training staff in customer care, improving workflow in the kitchen and promotion of the pizzeria (we now have a website www.GluepotPizzeria.com, are at facebook and leaflets of the menu are being spread in Fort Portal). The only item which does not need any work is the quality of the pizza’s. These has been excellent from start. Our learning curve in Ugandan business, running a restaurant and bar is steep. We are all geared up for the Dutchess restaurant!

In our spare moments (WHEN?) we make cheese, yoghurt we even made mozzarella for the pizzeria for 2 weeks, because the supplier was longer on holiday that expected. When we make 20 liters yoghurt , it is sold out within days without advertising. The same applies to fresh cheese (something between feta and mozzarella), and cream cheese (boursin). We already have a regular set of clients (lodges and individuals) interested and what is left over is sold to clients of the pizzeria.

In business!

It sounded very tempting. Pizza at your own restaurant every evening. We have a team of 6 men cooking and serving the guests. We are very lucky, they are doing a good job. We agreed we would not change to much, since the building is rented as has its limitation. But off course everything has to be better and more efficient. It has been a difficult two weeks.

Our business is based on people eating pizza and people watching soccer. It is interesting to balance the interests between these groups. Also shopping is interesting here. Some items need to come from Kampala (300 kms away), the mozzarella travels also 350 kms to our pizzeria, 3 different super markets in Fort Portal, fresh milk from the diary plant, fresh goat and beef from the butcher, pork from a different place, fresh vegetable from the market, cigarettes from the tobacco shop and 5 different suppliers for drinks. All these suppliers are necessary to keep the purchasing prices as low as possible and the availability and quality of the food and drinks the best.

The pizza still has a great tast, but it now includes judging the service, balancing the ingredients and testing the quality. Things have changed...

We started with two

Arriving from the Netherlands we took our two Jack Russels dogs Kito and Couda with us. Our collection of animals is growing. We added Snippy a fox terrier whose owners went back to the UK and did not want the dog to be 6 months in quarantine.

But in our house uninvited a collection of mice and rats added themselves. The mice preferred banana, tomato, courgette, sweet potato and kitchen utilities with a specific soft plastic. The rats had a preference for everything within hard plastic. Our outdoor bags, horse riding caps, but specific dog food and peanut powder kept in plastic boxes. The first group was not smart enough for the dogs and the Dutch mouse traps. The second group got more smart and did not get caught. We tried to lived together in peace. But when the damage got too big and they were waking us up at night with their destructive nature the decision was made. We were going to take a cat.

We ordered for a young cat so Couda, who is the biggest hunter might accept it as a puppy. After a month no kitten. During a visit to Kampala we saw an advert for kitten and decided to take one to Fort Portal. On our way back with a lovely 10 weeks old wit gray kitten, we received a call. Were we still interested in a cat? Actually no. Without our consent this tiny little white spotted kitten of probably only 4 weeks was dropped at a friend’s place.

The cats are very cute, unfortunately not all dogs agree. Every day we train one of the dogs to accept the cats as part of the household.
We have been very successful so far. With the barking of Couda in the house in the background, we can relax and sit in the garden with two cats and two dogs. So far Chui (leopard in Swahili) has not triggered any mother feelings in Couda. Couda still sees the fluffy kitten as something to hunt. We seriously hope this is just a matter of time.

So our household now consists of Kito, Couda, Snippy, Engo and Chui and the mice and rats have left us. We have lived her now for 8 months. I am not sure where will end up. If our garden was big enough we would have added some chickens....

Emergency Pizza

Two weeks ago the owner of our favourite eating place told us he wanted to go back to Italy. He was looking for someone to take over his Pizzeria. To be honest, it did not take us long to decide. The first restaurant in town with excellent foreign food was about to disappearfrom Fort Portal! This is really an emergency. Our only consideration was if we would manage time wise. Pierluigi convinced us that the place hardly needs any time to run it.

The pizzeria is a small place with 16 tables and a small bar. The location is right in the main street in an old building . The building is known for the oldest bar in Fort Port The Glue Pot (since 1960). The interior of the place could definitely improve, but the pizza’s are great. Pierluigi build an wood oven, specific for pizza. The people who come there are wasungu (whites), mohindi (Indian) and Ugandan. The Ugandans come for the meat with chips, the bar and football. The wasungu have their special night Wednesday and especially eat pizza and spaghetti. The mohindi prefer quite evenings so they get quick service and they come for pizza, chips masala, fruit juices and Indian tea. We really have to learn a new type of business. The pizzeria has 6 staff members: 3 in the kitchen, 2 in the restaurant, 1 in the bar. The new name will be Glue Pot Bar and Pizzeria. The pizzeria is of the few places that does take away and they even deliver by motorcycle!

If you want to see the flashy website of the pizzeria you can look at pierpizzeria.com
Also important is that the pizzeria is using 40 kilo of mozzarella per week. We have taken over possibly the biggest client of our cheese factory.

The restaurant to be

Our major project: the renovation of the house we bought has finally started. The house is on our names. The municipal county has approved our plans. We are adding another floor to the building and the contractor started November. The first two months only seem to destroy the house. The roof was taken off. Columns need to be cut in the existing house, to hold the first floor also during earthquakes. Finally at the beginning of this year we saw results! The first floor received it’s floor and walls. The quality of the work is better than we expected and so far the delay is only 1,5 week in 3 months time! We expect the roof to be on at the end of February. In the mean time we are looking at the next phase, getting the doors and windows, getting plumbing and electricity in and setting up fences around the plot (instead of old iron sheets).

Most outside doors and window frames in Uganda are made out of iron. Our house will have wooden doors and window frames. The most used and available wood is mahogany. So we placed an order with a local carpenter for 28 doors and 27 windows. The owner personally went to Congo to select the trees for our house. The trees have to cross the Blue Mountains –which go up to 2000 meter high - until they get at the Semliki river, which is used to transport them to Uganda. Arriving in Fort Portal the wood first has to dry. Hopefully we will have the doors and windows in April.

We have not even discussed getting tiles, toilets, shower head.... We are thinking about the furniture and decorations and staff but that is too early.

We were lost

This expression is used in Uganda if someone has not seen you for a long time. No were we not lost, but very busy.

Just a small review. Michel had a small accident while setting up the cheese container. He suffered of a concussion for 6 weeks and had some stitches in his arm. But a visit of two friends , Pim &Tanja livened up the place. This gave Michel the opportunity do some sightseeing. He had not left Fort Portal since our arrival in June 2010! We visited one of the most beautiful national parks of Uganda, Murchinson Falls and spend a couple of evening s unpacking gifts, sinterklaas sweets and some items that did not make it to the container. Unfortunately the visit resulted in malaria for Michel, but he recovered quite quickly.


In the meantime Heleen guided two more groups of tourists in Uganda and Rwanda. One in October and one during the Christmas holidays. During a gorilla tracking one of the gorilla’s touched the guide and held his arm.

Setting up the cheese factory has been delayed by this all. But the arrival of Michel’s parents at the beginning of January are giving a huge boost. Everybody is working to get the cheese factory finished mid February. Heleen is setting up a clientèle by making yoghurt, quark, full cream and fresh cheese at home at a regular basis. The kick of f of the selling started at a Christmas bazaar. This was a great success thanks to Pim and Tanja. The first samples of our products now have found their way to the most important lodges and hotels. Methods of making the products are improved and everybody is very positive.

To be honest with all our activities, we were a bit lost.