Friday, May 31, 2013

at the hotel

Elsa and Michael soon got used to the stay in the hotel room.  Elsa liked to come to  the bathroom with me and waited, looking down from the shelf above the mirror. But a room cleaning woman ,who was a young Mongolian, was scared of the cats.  I had to put the cats in their cages as soon as she rang the bell every day. She came from Mongolia alone apart from her family to work in Vienna. Another cleaning woman for weekend was also young and also a Monglian. In her case,no problem with my cats.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Part II Vienna

April 4th,2011 we arrived at Vienna,via Amsterdam. When I saw Elsa and Michael at the airport,it was a luggage claim corner, I found their two cages were clean. Cats were also clean. They didn't look tired. I thought someone of KLM took good care of them.  It was thankful. We  picked up two cats with other luggages and nothing  like a passport control  about my cats was requested.  We went to the hotel and stayed there  for a month, looking for an apartment to rent.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Bye-bye Uganda

This is the end of part one.  I left Uganda on 4th April,2011.  At the age of 52 ,I visited africa for the first time and I stayed there for 9 months .  Uganda is in the eastern part of afrika. Kenya, South Sudan ,Congo are its neighbors.  I enjoyed so much that I didn't want to leave such a bright,sunny land.  When we live in a foreign country, it doesn't matter that how developed that country is. I think it's a personal and a  mental issue how much he or she  enjoys the life in a foreign country. In my case Uganda was nice.  It couldn't be better.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Flight

We reserved the flight tickets to Vienna for two person and two cats by KLM. I was happy to go with  Elsa and Michael.  My husband also seemed happy.  At first he came to Uganda alone. He had never supposed that he would leave Uganda with a large family like this. The departure was 0:30 at midnight. It was not a moonlight flit. We paid the rent regularly.

Monday, May 20, 2013

moving

Everything for shipping was packed.  Elsa was jumping into the each box to play hide-and-seek as if she was busy checking the contents.  Very helpful ,Elsa!  She  still has  this habit now.  When I open  the cupboard in the kitchen, she quickly goes in .  Twice I have shut the door of the pantry as she was inside and I have left her  through the night . She was quiet when I called her. I didn't notice that she was there.


Friday, May 17, 2013

lunch

This is a typical Ugandan plate. I think it's healthy.  Stew with many kinds of staple food - rice, potetoes, matoke (green banana,not sweet) ,posho (cooked corn flour) chapati and so on - and some salad.  The restaurant of this picture is for foreigners or rich Ugandan people.The lunch buffet costs 10,000 uganda shilling,about 5dollars.  I went once to the local canteen and lunch was 2000 shillig,about a dollar.
When we buy the same thing in the market, the price is different between foreigners and local people. I liked shopping in the local market. It was thrilling .

Monday, May 13, 2013

at my friend's

Michael was relaxed from the very first day at my friend's house.  His adaptability pleased me because we have to move worldwide every two or three years. But after he grew up, his caracter changed.  When someone rings the doorbell, he disappears immediately. He hides behind the dryer or the sofa until our guests leave.They want to see my cats ,but no way. One of the reasons I began to write blogs is to show my cats to the guests who were disappointed .

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Michael on my bed

Elsa and Michael slept in the kitchen ,not on my bed.  A mosquito net is very necessary in Uganda to prevent malaria .But cats move during the night. I can't wake up each time to open the net when they want to go out or come in through the net. Especially Elsa liked to jump up and play with it,I had to
darn small holes she made. That's why they couldn't sleep beside me.

Elsa on the sofa

I took this picture in March 2011. Eight months have passed since she came. She grew up,but her weight was 3.5kg. She is still small now even after a contraceptive operation. She feels like rather silk than fur. I'm sorry that I can't show you how soft the touch is.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

another Elsa?

During the safari tour in Queen Elizabeth national park in the  western part of Uganda, my physical condition  was poor because of the carsickness.  After a long drive -all day long- when we were on our way back to the lodge, being disappointed because we could't find any lions and any leopards, we saw a leopard sitting in  the middle of the road about 50m forward.We stopped the engine. I forgot my sickness and gazed at it ,which radiated dim white light from its body. Soon the leopard slowly walked into the bush and disappeared.
 It was a mysterious scene.Unfortunately it was too dark already to take a picture.

The next day we met a group of lions -seven young brothers and sisters-(the guide explained) . The lion of this picture is one of them.  We were very lucky .

Sunday, May 5, 2013

preparation

It is not easy to complete the formalities for cats to enter the European Community.  The veterinary doctor of Makerere University was cooperative enough to give us the certificate in time. He took blood samples from Elsa and Michael and sent them to the rabies reference laboratory in South Africa and received the reports.
.  And he buried a microchip into each leg. And he wrote  inter-state movement permit,and so on.  I was thankful to him.  If it was not successful,  my friend kindly promised to take Elsa and Michael to Vienna later. I was also thankful for her proposal.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

staff

They were the staff of our house. I learned much about Uganda through them. Without their help I don't know if I could enjoy the stay there. They showed good teamwork. They speak English but each of them has a mother tongue of their birth region. Whenever their relative died ,they went back to attend the funeral services at their birth village. If someone died in the city where he or she had worked , the body was carried to the birth place.  It often occured. People die of AIDS or malaria or other diseases comparatively  at an early age. My thought sometimes turns to the Ugandan people. How are they now?


 .

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

At the animal hospital

When I took two or three months old Elsa to the local vet in Uganda for the first time, I was surprised to see that the vet -a tall,  strong looking man- called three assistants to hold Elsa when he gave her injections. Three young men who also looked strong came from the next room.
And the vet put on thick gloves which were thicker than those for cleaning. With the gloves it seemed difficult to use a small hypodermic syringe.  When I took Michael to the same vet, he did the same thing for the still smaller Michael.  I was proud of my both kittens.They could bear it.

An elegant walk

This is not a picture from a magazine which a photographer took. I took it in the park near Kampala. It was enjoying a walk. Though I went near it, it wasn't scared by me. This bird-gray crowned crane- is Uganda's national bird and it appears on its flag. Without make up by eye shadow or cheek rouge it has a beautiful face, without going to hair salon it has remarkable golden hair.