Museveni telling it how it is

President Museveni took power after a guerilla war in 1986 and has led the New resistance Movement since then , voting additional terms of office for himself and reluctantly it seems agreeing to a form of multiparty democracy this year though there continue to be stories of harrassment of opposition supporters.
He and his 69 cabinet ministers have just been on a well publicised 3 day retreat in Entebbe. Museveni is known as a blunt speaker and accused his ministers of sleeping and being lazy and inefficient. Museveni is keen to attract foreign investment and expand business growth. The current political motto is of developing a first world eceonomy in Uganda. Museveni criticises the main university for wasting its time training environmentalists and psychologists rather than businessmen and says Ugandans are a nation of hairdressers who need to learn how to work hard in order to get rich.
In the meantime power is on alternate days in the capital. The hydro generator at the start of the nile river on lake victoria has been half closed because lake levels have dropped over recent years.
Needless to say MPs have just each voted themselves a bonus of a brand new $40,000 4 wheel drive car......
A UK oil consortium has just bought exploration rights in Uganda. There may be large untapped reserves. One positive outcome of this is that there now is a huge incentive to resolve the ongoing war with the Lords resistance army in the north and for the first time in years people are optimistic that the peace talks in Sudan may be successful.......

Induction week in Kampala

Whisked from Entebbe airport on Friday morning to Lwesa training centre on the outskirts of Kampala - home for the next week and a gentle introduction to Uganda. Its a missionary training centre on top of a small hill with a landscaped garden of mango trees and palms populated by buzzards and green monkeys. ( These turn out to be the local version of grey squirrels, general troublemakers, thieves and robbers of orchards). There are "sea glimpses" of lake victoria in the distance.
The compound is protected as are most shops in town by an armed guard and at night by some mythical but very noisy dogs (please don't go out between midnight and 6am because the dogs are loose!!)
We've done our patriotic duty - walked 2 hours down to the lake and back yesterday in the middle of the day with no protection and now have distinctly red faces and arms. Hundreds of children everywhere shouting hey muzungu at the party of white folk out for their midday stroll.
Everywhere (apart from the roads which are mayhem) is friendly and safe.
Runyankore language training starts tomorrow.....