Thursday 10 March 2011

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...

Monday 7 March 2011

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....