We have all experienced it in action and today was just one more proof. It was a beautiful day to ride into Masindi, sunny and pleasant both ways. No rain since Tuesday’s deluge though and it was a dusty ride. A new addition to the law states that the rougher the road, the greater the likelihood of encountering other vehicles. And the faster they will be traveling.
We stopped at Nybeyeya Forestry College again to see if they had numbers for us. Two cabinets, lowers and uppers with glass doors and eight student benches, handmade from pine and delivered by July 1st for 390,000/=, just over $200. Not bad. And we can get bed frames for only 30,000/=. We heard that the Norwegian grant that’s been funding the school may dry up next year. I wonder if Norm Abrams’s crew would consider picking it up?
While in Masindi, I got a much needed haircut, a bit too short but for $2.50 what can you expect? Then the troubles began. It’s going to be a bitch getting funds transferred to Tanzania for our safari. I can’t believe these companies operate without credit cards. Then the power went out and the hardware store was closed and Maggie hadn’t come through with the food she promised! But lunch was good and we made it back without rain. They did some grading on the road making one kilometer very nice and upgefucked several more.
We arrived home to find we were out of propane for the fridge so we’ll go back again tomorrow. Dinner at the Sugar Works tomorrow and we’ll spend the night with Richard and Kara. Hot showers??!!
Debby did drop in to look at the progress. She’s has a lot of grand ideas for the site and for Kaniyo Pabidi but her champagne taste is matched with a pepsi budget. We think the money would be better spent on Roots and Shoots, not on infrastructure. Attitude changing is better than remodeling.
Peter, the Danish guy at Nybeyaya summed it up when he told us about the philosopher Eric Fromme’s comment that there are two types of society – having and being. We obviously live in a “having” society where it’s all about possessions. Africans have a “being” culture focused on the here and now with little thought to planning for the future. Or as Connie noticed, it takes a lot of time to live here. Nothing is ready made or delivered on a schedule.
