Quickthink

Just for fun, of course!

Hmm … would that be Kampala, Uganda? How could anyone want me in Kampala? It is, after all, rather far away. And I don’t know anyone there.  Well, as a preliminary matter, one might dispute how far away Uganda is these days. In case you missed it, internet kills distance. And as for knowing someone … that may be about to change.

But before we head off to Uganda, allow me to present a rather sad truth. While the internet is amazing in how it can destroy distance, it does not pull us into great, real life adventures. Instead, we still need to connect to these the old fashioned way - by being bold, reaching out when the opportunity comes, and connecting with great people doing great stuff. Too bad. … Or maybe it’s not so bad after all …

Here is my pitch — what if we could connect with a great adventure via internet without even having to put down our coffee mugs? Not only that, what if this adventure would achieve something unique and worthwhile? And the topper - what if it would lay the foundation for repeating the experiment, learning from the experience and over time help to change the world? This is starting to sound really cool.

So back to our story. That is why we are wanted in Kampala, Uganda. Not to go there or to watch a movie or look at travel photos about it. A real world and rather special adventure is about to start up there and we are being invited to be part of it. It’s time to be bold, reach out and connect. And the good news is that we don’t need to leave home to do it.

 A short intermezzo

In this fantastic scene from the movie, The 13th Warrior, Antonio Banderas suddenly finds a viking adventure knocking at his door. It ends with Omar Sharif delivering the great line “… the 13th warrior is you.” Check it out.

Back to our story. Here are the details. A nice, intrepid Estonian young lady Siisi Saetalu, is about to travel to Kampala in order to set up a cafe to be run by local handicapped persons. You might ask “What’s the big deal? It is just a cafe.” But this will not just be a cafe. It is a chance for people who usually are rudely pushed aside to take the stage and control of their lives. To connect with people by offering value and forming a community. That is really cool. But it gets better. If we can kickstart this project, we share great community building skills. We learn how to connect with real people who need us. That is starting to sound interesting.

So, if you are with us, here is the latest news. Siisi already has manged to get the funding to travel to Kampala and run this project for nine months. Good job! She already has assembled a group of mentors from the business community to help her make the cafe a success. BTW, I love how people here are responding to meet the challenge! She already is in intensive training to be ready for her challenge. And now she is reaching out to you for a bit of help.  The 13th warrior … is you.

Here she is in this short video.

Will you be bold and take the opportunity to join her? Think about it. Think about how even a small contribution would have such a big and long lasting effect. Better yet, think about how you can be part of a new community. You just need to reach out and take the opportunity. Watch the video to find out how.

Onward!

BTW, I first posted about this adventure a while back. Here is the link. You can follow the adventure via Facebook. You can also follow it from this blog.

And last but not least, thank you for giving your attention, even if just for a moment.

Tags: Uganda Cafe

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 11th, 2012 at 11:49 am and is filed under Advocacy, Globalization, good life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.