l4pete's Blog

Kabalagala Recipe

2010-09-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

Kabalagala

Here is a simple guide to making "kabalagala" as "banana pancakes" made from cassava flour & sweet bananas are called in Uganda. The most appropriate type of bananas are the "apple bananas", also known as manzini or bonanito bananas [Wikipedia], locally known as "ndizzi" in parts of Uganda. In this recipe, though, "plantains" or "gonja", which are more widely available in some parts of the world are used. The result is not much different (really!) and the video still serves the purpose of showing how to make kabalagala. ;)

If you have no access to cassava (tapioca) flour, wheat flour can do, though it is then not the "real" thing. The taste is not bad, however.

Follow this link ==> http://www.orbituganda.com/kabalagala-using-gonja

How you can listen to over 130 African/Africa-related radio stations right from your browser ...

2010-07-27T01:51:00.000-07:00

This article has been published with permission from Orbituganda.com:

It is possible to access and listen to all known Ugandan streaming radio stations right from your browser.

We have done all the work for you and added them to our browser toolbar which takes just a few seconds to download and install.

Once you have it installed, it will work just like any other familiar toolbar. The exception is that it has an embedded radio player. If you click on the radio player, you will see all the available radio stations. Scroll to & select the one you want and enjoy.

Some of the fm stations currently available:

Radio Kampala
Radio Uganda USA
Karibu FM
Impact FM (Christian)
Ngoma FM
Connect Uganda Radio
Bana U Radio
Ugandan Radio.com
Uganda On Air
Radio Kyeyo
Radio Sapientia
Top Radio FM
Akaboozi ku Bbiri
Simba FM
Dembe FM
Buddu FM (New!)

That is not all there is, however. Many people in Uganda and across Africa listen to BBC World Service and BBC for Africa as well as VOA programs. BBC Focus on Africa and Network Africa are sometimes hosted by the well known Ugandan Journalist Paul Bakibinga.

This is what we have:

BBC World Service [broadcasts round the clock]
BBC Network Africa [Live at: 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 & 7:30 GMT]. Other times: On-demand.
BBC Focus on Africa [Live 15:00, 17:00 & 19:00 GMT on weekdays] At other times: On-demand. More detail on listening times: here
VOA Africa News Tonight: 16:00 & 18:00 GMT Live. For other programs, see VOANews.com
CNN Radio

Almost all require having the Windows media player already installed and normally if the station is at the time on air, it will start playing right away and you do not need to do anything. If it is not on air, you see a yellow triangle after a few moments.

A few stations with the bluish icon, like Radio Okapi (Congo) require the Real media player. These open in an external player, outside the toolbar. A light version of the Real player (in terms of size, resource use & having no ads, requiring no registration, etc), the "Real Alternative" can be downloaded from here. An alternative is the VLC Player from here. [You might need to set the VLC or Real player as the default player for .pls or .ram files, in case the browser asks] or in some cases before it plays at all.

It is important to note some radio stations do not stream all the time and once in a while, one goes off air for good. We try to keep the toolbar up-to-date. If a station is "off air", try it at different times, before writing it off. Another issue is some stations change their links without warning and this may take sometime before we notice and update.

The toolbar offers much more, though. We have all together over 110 radio stations from across Africa, with the list slowly but surely growing. Here is just a small selection:

Ghetto Radio - Nairobi
Easy FM 101.5FM - Mombasa
Bush Radio - South Africa
5FM Live Radio- Johannesburg
RFI Afrique
Kool FM - Mauritius
Sierra Leone Radio
Africa Bengue Show
Voice of Africa Radio - Ghana
SkyOne Radio - Cameroon
Bongo Radio - Tanzania's Hot Station
Radio Jam - 99.3 FM Abiadougou - Ivory Coast
Radio Palmwine - Nigeria
Nana FM - 95.5 FM Lomé - Togo
and much more

If your favorite radio station is missing, let us know via the contact form and we shall include it.

The toolbar works with Firefox, Internet Explorer 5+ and Safari. In the Linux version of Firefox, the radio player does not load, though the rest of the toolbar functions.

It otherwise offers other standard features found in the Google and other toolbars. Other features:

a pop-up blocker
a Google-powered search
Babylon translator & dictionary
a Chat client - you can chat with other toolbar users who happen to be online at the same time.
weather for your region. Just set your nearest location.
RSS reader
and of course a link to your community site - Orbit Uganda.

What to do? Download our browser toolbar, install it (instructions on download page), enjoy it and recommend it.

Chicken in groundnut/peanut sauce

2010-07-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

Groundnuts are what is known in some places as "peanuts". At the site below is a simple recipe showing how you could prepare chicken in groundnut/peanut sauce. Try it with rice, steamed potatoes, "East African chapati" (see our video), "matooke", "ugali", ... or simply recommend it. ;)

Herfe is the link ... http://www.orbituganda.com/chicken-groundnutpeanut-sauce

Pearl of Africa Online Shop

2009-07-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Pearl of Africa Online Shop is a unique online shop selling T-Shirts of all types, sweatshirts, mugs, caps, bags, stickers and lots of other articles.

The term “pearl of Africa” was coined by Winston Churchill, the war time British prime minister of Great Britain to describe Uganda when he visited the continent in (I think) 1906, whose extraordinary beauty left a lasting impression on him.

Whereas the emphasis of the shop is offering articles decorated with Africa-related graphics, it is by no means limited to that.
Currently, there are thousands of articles related to the following countries:

Uganda: with the Elephant R Series, African Lion R Series, Uganda Goodies series, Pearl of Africa 1 Series for example.
Kenya: different options, including the Obama “A son of the soil” series
Tanzania: the world’s favorite safari country
Rwanda: the Land of 1000 hills
South Africa: Lots of cute stuff featuring the rainbow nation and as next host of the World Cup in 2010
Ghana
Nigeria
Cameroon
Liberia

Outside Africa, we have articles with graphics related to:

Jamaica
USA
Macedonia
The Netherlands

Not related to any country are the cartoon series. Currently, there is the “Never argue with a fool” series.

None of the categories is closed as they are being updated and expanded now and then.
The targeted customer seems to be one wanting to use one of the trendy high quality articles with a cute graphic with a message or someone in the Diaspora who wants to show off one’s roots and so on.

Other articles not mentioned above: things, tiles, thongs, boxer shorts, hoodies, tank tops, clocks, magnets, buttons, postcards, Flip Mino cameras and lots more, all with cool graphics. Check them out for yourself!

BBC Earth Explorer

2009-04-28T01:37:00.001-07:00

More about Orbit Uganda Community Website

2009-04-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

Orbit Uganda is a new community website that is meant to "Connect Ugandans and Friends Worldwide".
The first thing that caught my attention is it is simply cute. I think that matters.
More important, though is what it has to offer for its targeted audience.
It has lots of frequently updated news feeds about Uganda and the rest of Africa, aggregated from different sources, keeping one informed about what is going on, not only in the area of politics, but travel, business and sports.

Coming to community features, one can read African proverbs and get Ugandan/African recipes. There is still a small number of both, but it is growing as more people register and share.
The recipe section does not offer strictly African/Ugandan recipes, but is meant to help users share recipes of foods that may be exotic, but can as much as possible be made with locally available materials.
The purpose of this is to contribute to users being able to have a bigger selection of dishes by making the most out of what they have.
Just like potatoes are used for countless dishes say in Europe, one can make quite a lot of stuff out of cassava, instead of merely steaming it, for example.

For the purely Ugandan/African recipes, just like their proverb and story counterparts, Orbit Uganda offers a platform for people to jot them down and share them as a way of preserving African culture.
Some of the stories/proverbs told in our traditional/tribal communities, passes on through generations by oral tradition may be lost for good as some are not written down as the elders pass on. There is a good opportunity to "preserve" them.

I think adding a section for sharing traditional song lyrics would be a good addition, for the same reasons.

Registered members can share photos and discuss topics in the forums of what they may find to be of mutual interest.

For those interested in Ugandan/African music and News, the Orbit Uganda Toolbar apart from offering the normal "toolbar functions", including a pop-up blocker, search bar, some widgets like weather, Babylon translator to name a few, has a radio player, with which one can access a huge selection of African/Africa-related streaming radio stations. That means one can listen to radios from as far as South Africa, Uganda, to Guinea in West Africa, BBC Focus on Africa/Network Africa, live or on demand and Africa related stations based abroad, sich as Radio Uganda USA.

Check it out. ;)

Habari Search Web Directory

2009-04-09T04:28:00.000-07:00

This is a very comprehensive catalog of quality websites related to East Africa, that is Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

This is what makes it tick:

well-categorized links, making it easy to find what you are looking for.
search engine friendly links, making it even easier for them to find your site. An example, http://www.cafepress.com/pearlofafric a can be found at http://www.habarisearch.com/Pearl-of-Africa-Online-Store-T-Shirts-Mugs-much-more-l4953.html. Part of the URL is derived from the site Title.
the large number of links already submitted for the different countries
the inclusion of links from the 5 members of the East African community and South Sudan, which has increasing trade & political links especially to Uganda & Kenya
the "non-English" section for each country, allowing submission of links related to those countries in some of the major languages - French, German, Spanish and minor languages (Dutch, Swedish, Danish) which however have lots of links to East Africa, mostly in the area of tourism, development and humanitarian work.

Welcome!

2009-04-06T03:12:00.000-07:00

I would like to welcome you to my blog.
Uhmm, what's up today?
I was thinking of reviewing 3 websites:

which I think are worth recommending. :)
I will be doing that soon, first a general review, then that of new content.