Another Adventure

So we're down to the last few days that Grayson will be here in Uganda. It seems like just yesterday that we arrived with our team, but I can tell that he's ready to go home and see family and friends. We haven't done much exciting the past few days. We were hoping that Pastor Richard would come up with some fun things for us to do, but as we talked with him, our idea of fun and exciting wasn't really what he was thinking of. So he decided that we should go to town and experience the "real" Uganda. We were supposed to do that yesterday, but it rained us out. Then again we were supposed to go with him today, but he got busy.

As it turns out, my internet has been down the last few days so I decided we should go and find out what is wrong with my modem. So we started walking to Ggaba Road to get a taxi. As we waited, all of the taxis were full so we began to walk. Much later we finally boarded at taxi to town. I hadn't yet taken one to town without a Ugnadan so I was hoping that it would take me to a place I was familiar with to get off. As I saw the Shoprite, we exited the taxi and inquired as to how much a boda boda would be. We bargained them to 1500 shillings (about $1) to take us to the Uganda Telecom office. My boda boda driver knew exactly where we were going but I wasn't sure about Grayson's as his driver followed mine much of the way. When we finally got to the UT office, Grayson was no where to be found. "Oh no, I hope his driver knows how to get here!" I waited a good 10 minutes before seeing his driver bring him there.

Next adventure...stand in line for service. I think we were there about an hour before I even got helped. Then they questioned what I was telling them. I believed that my modem was bad and they just kept telling me to try again. Finally, I got to the front of the line, but customer service in Uganda is much different than customer service in the US. The man took my modem and began working on it. About 40 minutes later, he showed me the internet and said there was no problem. I turned my computer on and welll....no problem this time. However, the transfer rates are still slow (max 16kb/s)  I might have to go in again next week to see if they have fixed the problem!

Next adventure...find a restaurant owned by a Ugandan friend at Calvary, Julius. We knew it was near the Sheraton and the State House. A guard outside the UT office bulding directed us toward the Sheraton. We didn't see any signs that would help us so we began asking people. Finally we were pointed in the right direction, but we still needed to ask a few more people. After about 30 minutes of searching on foot, we arrived at Pearl Restaurant...I think we were a little underdressed. This was a pretty nice restaurant. It was a buffet and very good at that. I requested to meet the owner, but she was eating lunch. Before we left, she came over and greeted us and we talked for a while. I will defintely be going back there in the future.

Another adventure. After that, a boda boda driver found us...Imagine that a boda boda driver finding mzungu!...we asked if he knew where Kenya AIRways was...he talked about some road, but I didn't know that name of the road so I just said okay to a 2500 shilling ride for the both of us. Unfortunately, he took us to the Kenya Embassy. We had to explain "Kenya AIRWAYS". He had no clue and had to ask several people before finally dropping us off.

Great story at Kenya Airways. We walked in and they had a ticket counter where you take a number and wait for it to be called. By that time, I think Grayson was done waiting for help (after the UT office earlier), but I said to him TIA. When they finally called his number about 30 minutes later, he yelled "Yeah!" and everyone just stopped what they were doing. I don't think they knew how to react, but I was cracking up. Everyone started laughing after that.

The rest of the day was an adventure back to find the taxi park and make our way home. Moral for the day...in Africa, don't expect to get served in your time. That's all for now!