9th week

Today i had my first taste of corruption in Uganda. I have been told that there is corruption everywhere but had not seen it first hand. Here is the story: driving back this morning from playing soccer evidently i ran a traffic light, there is no traffic light first of all second, if there was one i was following others. As soon as i make my right hand turn a police officer jumps in front of me and waves me to the side.  Im like holy shit here we go, officer comes to the window and asks me if i like my life and if not to i want to die? I am now alittle nervous, i replies no sir i love my life and want to live, what did i do? officer says i ran a red light (mind you there is no light) before i could say anything he asks for my permit, which is a license. I take out my wallet and show   him my Va license. He looks at it says well im gonna have to write you a ticket for traffic violation you have to come to court and pay a fee of atleast 100,000 UGX ($40), i smile and say what can we do about this tapping on my wallet at the same time, he looks and says give me 100,000 and i will let you go, i said 10,000, he said 50,000 i said 20,000 he blinked i gave him a 20,000 UGX bill and i wan on my way. I was thinking to my self imagine if Fairfax County Police was the same way, there would be chaos everywhere.  When i get home i told the story to ed and he said the fine for it was 40,000 and i they got me. LOL thats all i could do.. freaking cops here are making a killing of these poor people. Any ways i had to share that  story of corruption.

This past week i have been back in training again, this time barista training, for those of you who dont know what that is, it the person at the coffee shop making espresso and cappuccino's. So now i am officially a certified barista. The test was so hard, you have to make 4 shots of espresso's and 4 cappuccino's in 10 minutes, it is not easy i tell you, specially when there are 15 others watching and 4 judges evaluating your every move. Everything has to be perfect, timing of the espresso shot to have a good extraction of the coffee, cleaning the machine, grinding the proper amount, tamping correctly, flushing the machine before every shot, pouring your milk, heating up the milk and making sure its not too hot or cold and it has a lot of foam when making a cappuccino. It took me two attempts and i passed, first time it my espresso was over extracted (it went beyond the time limit of 30 seconds) and i didnt clean the steamer. but then the second time it was perfect. I got to work and train with Uganda's current Barista champion which was very cool, i mean to learn from the best is awsome, very young guy 23, but very sharp and a great teacher.

Time is going by very fast, its already october, couple of months and i will be back home, i cant wait. life here is not bad but its boring, i miss a lot of people, you know who you are. Every Friday and Saturday night i get that feeling of i should be back in DC doing something with the boys or that other person, instead im sitting or playing some pool, there is nothing much to do here, dont get me wrong these people party big time, i think i have mentioned how the music is blasting from thursday night to monday morning, but they drink too much, plus i cant even stay awake past 11 pm anyways...i drink this beer called nile beer which is pretty good, but nothing like our beers, man i miss a good Sierra Nevada right now, or a blue moon with a slice of orange..