One of the projects I have been working on is converting a beautiful thatch-roof African pavilion into a coffee and snack bar. It was previously used as a meeting/conference facility. For the past month I have been looking for a cappuccino machine. The chairman of the guesthouse went to Dubai on business and brought back one for me! I was then on to the task of finding whole bean coffee and a grinder. This would normally take a few weeks, but God must have been smiling on me that day. I mentioned my needs to the man that runs the cash box for the restaurant here at the guesthouse. He said that he used to work at a coffee bar and could get their supplier’s name – if I gave him my cell phone (airtime is expensive here). I happily agreed and went in for some tea. About five minutes later, Amos came up and said he can get me coffee for 5000 shillings for half a kilogram and that we could get half a kilo of decaf coffee for 25000 shillings. This was very exciting to me as there is NO decaf anything here (Nicholle and I gave up caffeine when we found out she was pregnant about a year and a half ago) and ALL the coffee that is available is instant. If we ordered 3 kilos they would even deliver it to us. I handed the phone right back to Amos and asked him to place an order for 3 kilos of coffee and half a kilo of decaf – and it actually showed up in under two hours (the best thing is that I didn’t have to leave the serenity of Namirembe guest house!) That same day we were discussing the need of a bean grinder. Until we purchase a real unit, Nicholle reminded me that the blender we bought had a coffee grinding attachment with it – it all worked and we made some decaf cappuccinos for the Franke’s! Now, I just have to keep on Alex (the man that runs the coffee bar) and make sure he pushes the new drinks and knows how to make them. In fact, I have (with Nicholle’s artistic help) created some flyers that I need to print and place around the hotel to advertise our new addition. In a similarly exciting turn of events, we also started selling ice cream – another hard to come by treat here in Kampala. To my amazement, this was also delivered to us – in fact, about the same time as the coffee arrived. WHAT A DAY Friday was for me. In this culture, you are reminded over and again that you can only do one thing per day. Well, Friday I got about 10 things done, so I told Nicholle that I had earned myself a weekend ☺ Be that as it may, when you live where you work (we literally live in the hotel) you don’t really ever get a true day off, but I’ve had a chance to be lazy and read my overpriced magazines.
Andrew Franke
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