It's been all go here over the last week. The elections passed without any real violence. Yoweri Museveni got in for a further five years. There have been a number of homemade bombs going off in Kampala city since the result was declared though. Some say it is Besigye's supporters, others that it is Museveni's crowd trying to justify the high security they put the country under. Whoever is responsible has already caused three deaths and many more injuries.
On a lighter note I had a very pleasant St Patrick's weekend in Kampala. On
the Friday evening I was at a reception at the Irish Ambassador's residence and
then at a party at a bar called Andy the Greek's which is run by English man
Andy. He must have Greek blood in him somewhere. The following day we
had a game of Gaelic football with many people trying the sport for the first
time. In the evening there was a ball at the Sheraton Hotel which was attended
by over 240 people. The meal was fantastic though I found the way the waiters
came around and placed everyone's napkins on their knees for them a bit strange.
Maybe it isn't a remnant of the country's colonial past but I found it a bit
unsettling.
On
Monday morning, after that busy weekend which only included fours hours sleep, I
headed down to Jinga with Andrew to collect the computers that have been on
their way from Ireland since August 2000. There were huge boxes of computers,
blankets and books in the store room when we arrived. We barely managed to get
it all into our two vehicles. Thankfully it didn't rain on the way back as
everything was just in cardboard boxes. My house is like a warehouse at the
minute as you can see from the photo on the left. The only assistance Dudley
could render was to attack the cuddly toys that were in some of the boxes.
I want to take this opportunity again to thank all those who so generously donated equipment for this project. I hope to be able to show you photos of the computers being used in my next web article. It has taken six months to get it all here but seeing it all undamaged in Luweero is immensely satisfying.