In Uganda’s capital Kampala, gates to café Pop Up open up every morning at 11, pushed by barista Frederick Osiya. By then, cook Andrew Aloro is in kitchen, banana porridge in the making.
Nõo girl opens café in Uganda
26th February 2013, 15:34
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They offer rice dishes, pot roasts, samosa-pies with meat or vegetable filling as appetisers. Coffee and tea, of course. And refreshers.
Where’s the link to Tartu? Very simple: the café popped up as a result of a girl from nearby Nõo, anthropologist Siisi Saetalu volunteering in Africa for a while, with business plan polished by Priit Reiman and Lauri Kasemets of Eduard Vilde restaurant.
As volunteer of non profit organisation Mondo, Siisi Saetalu spent in Africa nine months of last year.
Getting an adventure of a lifetime, solving problems bordering on the impossible, arriving at the conclusion that people are – in their dreams and expectations – quite similar, after all, wherever you go.
«The greatest challenge was how to start working like them, the way the atmosphere works. Not being stressed out, when things went wrong,» reminisces Ms Saetalu.
Another tight spot was finding people you could trust – and how to discern such from those who just pretended to be friends.
Right now, Pop Up employs full time housekeeper and cook, as well as cashier Olivia Naava – in a wheelchair – and assistant cook Annet Babirye, who needs sticks to walk with. The others come periodically, all being students of boarding school for children with special needs.
Cashier Olivia Naava, for instance, has told Siisi Saetalu that a mere year ago she never dreamed she would ever get a job, in her whole lifetime.
According Vilde restaurant chief Priit Reiman, the Siisi Saetalu mission did seem a bit crazy, at the first. «But there was fire in her eyes and the desire to get something done in Uganda was very evident,» recalls Mr Reiman. «Had she gone there to open an orphanage, we’d stayed indifferent. However, with a café, we decided to help along.»
Still today, Siisi Saetalu keeps an eye on the café, via internet. For the business to turn profitable, a monthly turnover of €4,000 is needed. That’s not the case, yet. Come March, another volunteer heads for Uganda – to uphold Pop Up. Aliine Lotman. Her task will be finding new clients and turning up turnover.