Last day in Kampala and homeward bound

The final day of the conference was just a half day of formal sessions and the afternoon had a trip to the source of the Nile billed. Sadly my flight times meant I couldn't go on this so I sat for a couple of hours in the sun at the poolside of the lovely Hotel Serena in Kampala.

I also managed to fit in a Skype conference call from my room before I was booted out for the next person to come in.

The final day of the conference was summed up beautifully by the Ugandan Minister for Trade, Industry and Tourism (I think that's an accurate description of her title, but don't have the agenda to hand). There was a common agreement that Africa needs to get it's act together and connect the disparate groups to enable an increase in production and local value addition to take place. So much cotton is grown here, and just exported with no value add.

While I was in Uganda "second hand clothing" was raised as an issue many times. Not something I'd ever considered before. BUT must find out more. It seems that a massive proportion of clothing sold in Uganda is second hand, recycled, refurbished, repackaged from the left over stock that doesn't sell and the clothes banks we all put our old clothes into. I'd never considered the effect that this has before. Apparently it undermines the local apparel industry, undercutting the prices by a considerable margin and making it nearly impossible to build a local market for new clothing. Wow. That was an eye opener.

After my 2 hours in the sun I took a leisurely Taxi ride to the wonderful Entebbe airport on the shores of Lake Victoria. Once through check-in its really not much more than a couple of open spaces, some small over priced souvenir shops and a food/bar. I really like the look of Uganda, not that I've seen much from Entebbe to Kampala. The 2 taxi drivers I had were both a credit to their country and spent lots of time answering my questions about everyday life. 95% or more of all the cars on the road are refurbished secondhand imports from Japan and South Africa (where the Mercs and other Euro cars come from). I was surprised to learn that the Mk2 Golf I sold recently in the UK was a highly desirable car here and very expensive... (Told you it was a classic Martha!)

My flight left on time to Nairobi. A packed plane. I chatted to an American ophthalmologist while we waited. He'd been in Uganda on a mission doing minor eye surgery in rural areas. He was saddened by the number of people blinded by cataracts that could be easily cured if the equipment existed. Instead they live miserable lives. He said just a 10 minute operation would restore their sight in the US. A sad statistic indeed.

I had a 2 hour wait once we got to Nairobi for my flight to London. Another strong coffee from the Nairobi coffee bar and my next flight was on time. This time I had 2 seats to myself, the food was good and the in-flight movie worked. I watched "There will be blood" starring my distant relative Daniel Day-Lewis. It was remarkable how much he looks like my Dad in some of the shots of him.

Eventually the long night passed with a little snooze crunched up on my 2 seats and we arrived on time to London. I passed quickly through immigration and headed for baggage claim, where my first bag was already on the belt. I waited and waited for the smaller display stand to come. After an hour, nearly everyone had gone and no new bags were coming through. My first baggage loss I thought. I had a quick scan around the belts and discovered someone must have taken the bag off and put it aside. Damn. A wasted hour, a lesson learned and the coach missed.

I'm typing this now as I have a 2 hour wait for the next bus to Swindon. Having landed here at 6.10am this morning, I'll not be home till at least 1pm. That's nearly as long a wait as the flight from Nairobi!