25 APR 2007 – RSA Update

25 APR 2007 – RSA Update

Hello All,

Just a quick update:

I finally got my trip confirmed to South Africa; I leave Thursday morning, nonstop to Johannesburg. I’ll spend a couple of weeks there at Simuflight going over KingAir systems and taking both an insurance check ride and a South African validation check ride. They have a KingAir/1900 simulator so I’m guessing it will be similar to Flight Safety. I’ll also be going over South African air law and will have to take what essentially amounts to an FAA commercial written exam. Can’t wait.

The mission in Afghanistan is a little different than it is in Africa. Although it’s considered humanitarian, it’s not considered emergency humanitarian. It’s a UN contract that takes security personnel to various locations to protect construction workers building (or repairing) one of the main highways running through the country. Between the Russians and the Taliban, it’s seen better days. There are however people who would prefer the highway not be built and to their best to disrupt progress, hence the need for security. The security personnel do carry firearms on board the airplane – time will tell on how I feel about that one.

The UN, at least in Uganda, is not very well received. Entebbe is only a base of operations and the locals I’ve talked to wouldn’t seem to mind if they packed up and left. Mostly it has to do with the in-your-face presence; they drive brand new Toyota Land Cruisers, 4Runners and Rav4’s while the locals drive cars from the 1990’s, if they drive at all. The general impression seems to be that UN employees are on vacation and do as little as possible. I’m not informed enough to make any kind of decision, but I’ve heard similar statements from other ex-pats. I can only imagine what it will be like in Afghanistan…

Other random thoughts:

I’ve been in Entebbe for over two weeks – about 10 days longer then planned. I’m doing my best to stay positive, although I’d give just about anything right now for a couple of mahi tacos from South Beach. I’d probably even settle for McDonald’s at this point. Entebbe is a small town and there aren’t a lot of choices when it comes to food; and because I’m staying in a hotel I end up going out to eat every night.

I’ve trying to keep busy, went to the zoo, the botanical gardens, and Kompala a couple of times. Trying to do as much studying as possible so my time in Joberg will be as painless as possible, but KingAir systems and South African air law are about as exciting as watching paint dry; especially when you’re by yourself and don’t have anybody to study with. On a side note, the botanical garden has an interesting rumor associated with it – supposedly it’s where the original 1918 silent version of Tarzan was filmed. I don’t know if there’s any truth to it – I Google’d it but couldn’t find anything definitive one way or the other.

I went to a “club” last Friday night called Knight Rider’s with one of the other pilots. No apparent relation to the talking car. It was hands down one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. Imagine going to a karaoke bar, but instead of singing, people got up on stage to lip-sync and dance. They have whole routines worked out that they’ve clearly spent a lot of time working on. Various types of music is played including African, Indian, and American and it’s mostly hip-hop and R&B type ballads. Between performances they change clothes. And if the lip-syncing and dancing performance was good enough, people in the audience will run up and give them tips. Entebbe has about seven local TV channels, two of which are non-stop music videos, which might have something to do with it. I don’t know. It was weird.

There is a security guard/history buff here named Steve at the Air Serv hangar that I’ve gotten to know. He looks about 17 but won’t tell me his real age – he insists he’s much older then that. Originally he’s from Kenya but is very proud of Uganda, knows its history inside and out and generally speaks of it like he’s been here his whole life. We’ve talked quite a bit – he’s very interested in America, American history, the history of African American’s and racism, even Barack Obama has come up a few times. I do my best to explain it but find that my knowledge of US history compared to his knowledge of his Ugandan history is a bit lacking. It’s a bit embarrassing, but like I said before, everything is relative.

My only regret so far is I haven’t taken as many pictures as I’d like. Since I’ve been here, some of the more interesting things I’ve seen include a couch being carried away on the back of a boda-boda, a University of St. Thomas t-shirt (where my dad teaches in MN), an In-N-Out Burger sticker on a car, and a woman balancing a bucket of fish on her head, to name a few. As I’ve become more comfortable in my surroundings I’m getting in the habit of taking my camera everywhere and hopefully will have more/better photos to share.

With that said, I’ve uploaded a few more pictures at flickr – just look for the group titled Uganda.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djhorton/

More when I get to South Africa.

~dj