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| Pure insanity at the regional meetings in the congo this past week. It was the first time we’ve ever held a regional meeting there, and we all expected it to be chaos, but that didn’t make the reality of it any less stressful to bear when it all actually hit the fan. Everything, and I mean Everything, went wrong. I think Murphy’s Law was invented by the Congolese, or maybe Murphy himself was Congolese. The Chairman of the Board of one of the subsidiaries had his visa get lost in the mail so was visa-less just one day before he was supposed to fly out. The immigration authority that issued fly visas (like transit visas) turned around promptly after issuing them (and we paid $250 a pop for them) and told all airlines not to accept them, so all of our attendees with fly visas were denied boarding at the last minute and stranded in Nairobi. Flights were delayed, or canceled, or delayed and then canceled. One poor guy was stranded in Nairobi and not allowed out of the airport because he carried a Tajikstan passport and they wouldn’t issue him a Kenyan visa for him to leave and go spend the night at a hotel, so he had to spend 24 hours at the airport. Pretty much everyone was shaken down at some point either at the airport immediately upon arrival or otherwise to pay a bribe of one kind or another. Asa result, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, reshuffling everything around in the agenda and putting out fire after fire. It got to the point where I had to just put up a flipchart outside the conference room with the latest agenda and keep updating it every few hours because there were so many changes. And to top it all off, some pretty pretty princesses in our group decided they wanted to add to the stress by complaining that there weren’t any salty snacks with the tea breaks, only sweet snacks. Or they didn’t like what was on the fixed menu for lunch for the day. Or they were upset because we restricted lunch tickets to only participants of each day’s meetings because costs were so exorbitantly high at the hotel where we were holding the meetings. Yea, there’s nothing quite like the smell of a pissed off CEO to wake up to in the morning—it’s quite invigorating, I tell you. But all in all, we pulled through, and I think everyone really appreciated it in the end. And we managed to have a couple of really nice nights out after the madness of the jam-packed days. We hung out at a strip of street food joints known for the local specialty of roasted goat one night,had some fabulous barbecue another, and of course, the Congolese lived up to their reputation for loving to dance. On the last day, I was finally allowed out of the cage of the hotel once the meetings wound down, and eagerly went out into the field to see some of the real Lubumbashi and visit a couple of our branches. Crazily (and appropriately) enough, some thieves had broken into one of the branches while the regional meetings were going on. They tore in through the ceiling in what looks like an uninformed attempt at getting into the strongroom, but fortunately were unsuccessful and wound up making off with little more than the petty cash. I really want to know what kind of scumbags try to steal from a microfinance institution—literally,stealing from the poor! 
attempted bank robbery
But the branches received us warmly nonetheless, and it looked like they were carrying on with business as usual, just with a gaping hole in the ceiling above their heads while they worked. We also got to see a demonstration of our very cool POS technology with biometrics, so clients can now go to any shanty selling airtime that is equipped with one of our POS machines, and with just a card and their thumb, withdraw money from their accounts! Take THAT, illiteracy as an obstacle to accessing financial services! hehe But oh man, is it ever good to be home. If you ever don’t appreciate where you’re living, a trip to a place that’s half as developed and ten times as rough will cure what ails ya in a Big hurry :-p Kampala: the Paris of East Africa! 
Street Scene, Lubumbashi 
Street Scene, Lubumbashi
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| a 1-week business trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania has turned into almost a 3-week stay. can't really complain too much, now that I've discovered all that Dar has to offer in comparison to my last tour here when i stayed i a $15/night budget guesthouse in the city center and didn't even know that the Peninsula area, with all of its beaches and expat neighborhoods, even existed.
This time around, i was pampered at the coral beach hotel for the week of our original workshops. with beautiful sea views, we shared the facilities with many families on holiday and couldn't help feeling a bit like we were on holiday ourselves, despite staying under the Work banner. once i extended my trip, I moved into a cheaper place, and have, funnily enough, been living at a really nice, chill bar for the past week. the best kept secret in accommodation in Dar, Triniti Bar and Restaurant, with its relaxed thatched banda bar full of plush zanzibar dayloungers, keep as well some cosy and charming little cottage rooms hidden in the back of the property behind a mini forest of tropical trees. the room's full of cute rustic accents of twig and wood, and although the room is small, the bathroom is massive and takes up about half of the living space, which is the opposite of my house in kampala, so i've actually quite enjoyed it. something about coming home from a rough day to a massive, blue-tiled shower behind soft gossamer curtains and big soft white towels that just says home.
it's been much easier to be productive, too, being finally physically based in the same place as my direct boss, and also working out of an actual office instead of an ostracized and isolated hub office. work kicked up a good deal this week, too, so there was a lot of content to work on with the local crew and get to know them with some real work.
i must also admit that it's hard to beat seaside living. now that i've discovered it here in Dar, i've taken full advantage while here. went diving with the CEO of the Tanzanian subsidiary and the COO of the Malawi subsidiary last weekend. it was similar to the diving in Zanzibar, i.e. not all that spectacular but nice enough, worth doing, and certainly a pleasant way to spend the afternoon and bond with fellow Fincas. Then the next day we went to Kigamboni beach, south of the inlet of the peninsula, for a private BBQ of some friends on a nice secluded beach with little bandas on it. I nestled into the sand and promptly dozed off with ears full of crashing waves.
This weekend I sampled the Darian nightlife. Triniti had an album release party for Yvonne Mwale from Zambia, who brought a funky brand of bluesy jazzy reggae, then afterwards I headed out with Sunday, former legal counsel of F/TZ to a house party. We wound up at club Runway in the wee hours and after fending off his advances for awhile, I called the night and we came home around 5am. hangover cure the next day involved taking a little ferry to bongoyo island, a great little piece of paradise with super powder white sands and clear turquoise water. it was a perfect day of relaxation and definitely made me glad to be here. kampala is nice, but it's tough to beat an idyllic seluded beach on an uninhabited island.
off into the mouth of the dragon today--back to the dusty hole in the ground that is the city center to change hotels and meet up with my team again for--what else?--more workshops! i'll have lived in tanzania almost as long as uganda by the time i finish this "business trip." thank you, FINCA, for funding my well-rounded East Africa experience :)
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| i have moved into my beautiful new home in kampala. it's empty and practically unlivable at the moment, but it's gorgeous, haha. at least i'm consistent in my habit of choosing form over function in a living space. here are some shots of the fancy new abode:
 front door
 back terrace  backyard
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| work's really hit the fan, officially. pretty much worked through this entire past weekend, with only brief outings on friday and saturday evenings to decompress and restabilize a bit. just proves that work is still work after all, although at least believing in what you do at a high level does make it seem much more worthwhile.
combination of the sudden head-first dive into working life again and the fact that i haven't been out of the 5-block radius around my office and home much since i've arrived (especially since acacia avenue is within that radius) has got me itchin' just ever so slightly again to maybe take a little trip on the weekend. jinja on the headwaters of the nile seems like an attractive place to start...
signing the lease for the townhouse today! so i will be hanging out in an empty house with no furniture or anything starting wednesday, haha. hm, maybe i should prioritize furniture shopping over trips for my weekend time for now, lest i wind up sleeping on the floor :-p
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| after basically sleeping through my first weekend here in rehab-mode from the INSEAD year, i spent a lovely weekend this past weekend getting a little acquainted with my new home :)
i've made a few new friends in the expat community here, and on friday evening went over to one of their flats for BBQ and cocktails. the couple is here on diplomatic mission for development work from the UK and live in this insanely posh place on kololo hill. my knee-jerk reaction was to find it just a little perverse that one could be sent here to work in development and live like a sultan, but who am i to judge (especially when the townhouse i am trying to move into isn't exactly shabby either)?
saturday, i met with the landlord of the towhouse again and this time, it looks like we've finally reached an agreement--yay! so hopefully i'll sign the rental contract this week and then can move in next week or so. a mini-spanish villa looking, loft-style townhouse with an english garden in the back... in the middle of kampala. who knew?
the rest of saturday was spent lazing around brunch in a treehouse (yes, like when we were kids, but with brunch!) at a nice art/lounge/cafe place called mishmash, followed by a very successful wander through nakawa market. i scored a dress, 2 skirts, and 4 tank tops for a measly 35k shillings! i then proceeded to get into a matatu misadventure that landed me in the middle of the city nowhere near my flat, haha. good thing this place is anglophone and people are friendly. a pleasant 30 minute stroll got me home no problem, with the help of the informative boda boda drivers along the way (i won't get on one to ride, but they're priceless for directions).
met up with yet another friend-of-a-friend introduction for dinner and drink's at big mike's. the meal was mediocre but the company was great. i got to hear all about his work with a new biomass contraption that combats deforestation for cooking by grinding up compost and pressing it into charcoal-like briquets. it's so nice now with the natural selection bias of being here that pretty much every expat i meet is likeminded in doing good for the world. i used to have these kinds of conversations once in a rare while, and now it's everyone i meet, everyday!
sunday i finally got the long overdue lay-in i've been needing all week (those 6am starts are brutal). rolled out of bed around noon and spent the afternoon on gaba road checking out the custom furniture manufacturers. i'm going to try my hand at pirating some gorgeous restoration hardware designs for a fraction of the price. it sure is good to be back in the developing world :)
feeling very proud of my productive afternoon, rewarded myself with another gorgeous late afternoon of lazing in the sun, poolside this time at the kabira country club. it's really a tough life out here, sometimes, hehe.
hitting some real work on the job this week, finally, and hopefully locking down the deal with this townhouse. It all sounds so domestic and pedestrian, but one thing's for sure: "normal life" things really take on such a more exciting hue here :)
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