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.

Emergency cheese

We are slowly making progress in setting up our lunchroom and cheese factory. The architectural plans for the renovation are finished. We are in the process of selecting a contractor for building the extra floor on top of the house . Under Michel’s supervision improvements are made to the exterior of the gardens. A huge wall of 4 meter high and 25 meter long is being build to make sure the back garden does not end up at the neighbor yard, which is much lower than our place.

At home we are making yoghurt and fresh cheese to try out the milk. Also we try to get goat milk, which is very difficult. In the mean time everyone is asking when the cheese will be available. Specifically the local pizzeria, who now gets all his cheese from Kampala (300 km away). On his specially request we made mozzarella. We tried several times to get it right and proudly we let the pizzeria test it. The Italian owner is very happy with the cheese. We agree we would only start to make big amounts when the cheese factory was finished, but can make 6 kg in our kitchen in case of emergency.

Four days later… the pizzeria has an emergency. The mozzarella, send deep frozen by bus from Kampala, got lost. When found back the next day, it was spoiled. At 13.00 we get a call if we can make 6 kg of mozzarella, otherwise they might not have enough.

Our first order! We are so proud. Eight hours later we are less proud. We are not equipped to handled big amounts in our small kitchen. We are completely exhausted and the kitchen is a mess, whey and curd everywhere. With headlamps on (since the electricity was cut half way) we made in three batches of 20 liters of milk the mozzarella. At 21.30 we drive off to the pizzeria , who is very happy to see us, since the mozzarella just got finished 15 minutes ago. But we tell him we are never going to do this again unless the cheese factory is finished. The rest of the evening we spend at least half of our profit on pizza and drinks.

Very proud we tell everybody, they are eating our cheese. Victory and a big lesson on making larger amounts of cheese. We keep the cheese activities low profile for the time being.

Cranes and heavy containers

Getting the container from Amersfoort to Kampala took us 2.5 month. We have heard many bad stories to get it through customs but managed to do this in a couple of days. Getting the container to be placed next to our house, seemed to be more difficult. The transporter is suddenly being difficult about placing the container on the ground, so we look for a crane in Fort Portal. After 3 days we have found a man who says he can place the container, if it is empty. We get a transporter to bring then container to Fort Portal and arrange some help to unload. The truck with container went to the lunchroom to be. While our caretaker was preparing lunch for the helpers and the truck drivers, Michel tried to find the guy, who was suppose to take the container of the truck. After literally following the bulldozer with the man, it turned out that the proposed solution was not possible. In three days time he would make time, but would place it without a crane. Michel had only to make a special talus en get some poles. (The cheapest solution for this was to just cut a tree). In the meantime the truckdrivers needed to head back to Kampala. The truck luckily had a small crane so he could unload it just on the side of the truck, everybody thought…. It turned out that the container was too heavy. With a lot of patience it took the drivers one and a half hour to put it down by tilting it to it’s back and then move the truck centimeter for centimeter. A weak heart is not recommended for this method.




The next move a couple of days later looked even worse. A bulldozer scoped the container placed it on a special prepared driveway. For 15 meters the container was pulled by a winch rolling on 4 logs. The pictures tell the story.

Boxes and more boxes

The container has arrived, after problems with the work permit, we had some problems with the transporter, which is a weblog story on its own. But finally the container arrived in front of our rental house; not really in front, more against the gate of the house. Damage of one bag of cement... Because the crane was not strong enough to unload a full container, we unloaded it on top of the truck. We had arranged a couple of people to help us. Every item had a sticker and every room had a label. What can go wrong?

Unbelievable, while opening the container, it looked exactly the same as when we closed it. No items where moved, so far nothing is broken. We only have some water damage, since the container roof was hit by large object probably a hook of a big chain. After two hours with 8 people the container was unloaded. some items were placed in the garden, most rooms including the garage were unreachable because of the number of boxes and items laying all around. Michel went off to our house on Mugurusi road, the place where the container needed to be offloaded. Heleen stayed behind to create some order in the house. Boxes labelled kitchen turn up in the master bedroom and so on. But still one week later we have too many items, too little cupboards and continuously essential screws missing to put things together.


To put as many items in the container as possible everything was taken apart. Even the legs of the sofa’s were taken off. This means a challenge when putting things together. The legs of the sofa’s were separated in three different boxes. The screws for the television cupboard only showed up in one of the boxes after a week unpacking. Now, after a week of unpacking the house is liveable. The kitchen and living room do not contain anyboxes. All the other rooms still have.

But the pleasure of sitting on a sofa, specific your own sofa, drinking espresso, having good kitchen tools is unbeatable. The biggest joy is too see Couda, the oldest dog to wag her tail fanatically, when she discovers her eating bowl somewhere between the boxes and the first week playing with a different toy every day.

Patience and a lot of help

Five days Kampala, what a difference with the quiet Fort Portal. We were suppose to go together and we had already agreed that Michel would drive in Kampala. The traffic is chaotic and Heleen was not looking forward. The evening before leaving, our worries about the concrete slab for the container in Fort Portal were too big. We decided to split up. Heleen was facing a 4,5 hour drive on partly bad roads and traffic chaos in Kampala. Her tasks were, to get a -proof of existence- certificate from tax authority, transfer of the car on our name, getting the work permit, getting the container cleared by customs and to come home with a fridge, gas stove/oven and electrical switch and wiring for the house. To get this done you do not only need to know your way in Kampala , but also know how the Ugandan systems works.

The major item was the work permit, since this is key in getting the container cleared. We had delivered our papers in March to a friend, who would arrange it. But no success, even when Heleen arrived in Kampala she was told, wait till tomorrow. Finally after two days Heleen was given the papers and contacts to follow up herself. After 5 days of running up and down between tax authorities, immigration and banks. Standard procedures are long. Simple tasks normally take hours or days and to separate tasks, different departments and a bank need to be visited. Payments for government or tax fees need to be done at the bank to separate tasks. (Electronic banking is starting to be introduced, but does not fit in the system, sine you need a proof of payment on paper). Efficiency is not high on the list at organizations, with low salaries.

This means that even if you have approval for a special pass (sort of intermediate status, before the work permit is approved), it normally takes two days to pay and get it entered in your passport. Although the procedures are long and we had heard horror stories of containers not being cleared for 3 to 6 months, everybody was willing to co-operate. Heleen told everyone that she could not stay a weekend in Kampala and even government officials were cooperative. A transfer of a car normally takes 4 days, they reduced to 2 days . Approval for special pass normally 4 days, now done 1 day. Receipts at a bank for payment 3 hours, reduced to 45 min. Entry of special pass in passport 1 day, reduced to 4 hours. We know Uganda has entered the top 5 of most corrupt East African countries, but all the help Heleen received was without extra payment! It is interesting to see that in the Netherlands you have to pay for emergency procedures. When you need your passport or driving license quick, it can be arranged but you pay a lot more. Here an explanation was enough. Uganda is a great country!

After living in a empty house with a borrowed bed, a borrowed bread machine, no table, 2 chairs we are looking forward to the container. It also means we can really start to make cheese. So getting the container cleared also very high on our list. When arriving at the container Heleen was almost in tears. The locks were tampered with and many were broken. The seals of Dutch and Kenyan customs however seem to be complete. But to be sure a surveyor was called in to assess the situation. Waiting 1 hour for the surveyor before opening the container was horrible. One hour of visions of a half empty container. After cutting the seals the container was opened and the contents was untouched! Tax authorities were very co-operative and inspection of the goods was finished very quickly. It was time to go home for Heleen with the good feeling that she conquered the bureaucracy and Kampala, and had a car loaded with luxury goods.

Preparing for the container

This week we split up for the arrival of our container. Heleen went to Kampala to arrange clearance of the container (and to do a whole lot of other things) and Michel stayed in Fort Portal to supervise the construction of a simple concrete slab for the final destination of the container. We need to place the container “first time right” because there is not a crane in the vicinity of Fort Portal that can lift it, so we bring a crane from Kampala. But what about the other containers in Fort Portal, you think; well these either do not leave the truck and are emptied on site or are lifted after empting.

The construction of the concrete slab needed a bit more arranging than expected. Since the container will stand on the ground for some time we want to place it above the ground on concrete to prevent rusting. The cheese making requires the container to be place on a level surface. And taking into consideration that the ground has a slope and the rainfall can be extreme, the design of the concrete slab includes a brick wall foundation, reinforced concrete pillars and hard cores (big stones) on a cement base to support the weight of the container. A local architect that draws our ideas about the renovation of the old house made the design.

We hired a contractor, agreed on a price and just before we wanted to start on Monday the Mayor and the Town Clerk including a delegation of politicians were inspecting the road work near our plot. The Mayor saw the building materials and ordered the contractor to abort work that was not even started. Michel spend the rest of the day with the architect writing a proposal letter to the Town Clerk, including drawings of the concrete slab and discussing with the Town Clerk on how to proceed. An approval of the Structures Engineer was needed, but the man was not in town and could not be replaced. Finally the next day we got an informal approval after an on-site inspection of the Structures Engineer.

Materials like sand and the hard cores are bought in the surroundings of Fort Portal and brought by the architect who conveniently owns a small truck (he also has a driving school that is run by his wife from the same office). With the truck most materials were delivered behind the house. To reach there, the truck has to drive down a sloping driveway. The house is approximately 3 meters below road level. With every load, the nicely decorated walls of the driveway moved outwards. The truck holding the container would never be able to pass the house without collapsing the driveway. We decided that the 12 meter driveway needed to be repaired in a permanent way: remove the 1 meter top layer, put in rocks in a particular order, use iron mesh to hold the walls and finish the top layer with small grid. Meaning more truckloads of stones and grid and hiring hard working men.