Minivan

So on Saturday upon return from the camp, Pastor Dongo was able to pick up my new ride. Not as shnazzy as my pimped out VW Passat at home that Grayson Kemp now enjoys, but it's transportation for me and "my family". Yes, it's a minvan. I'm not one of those who's said, "I'll only get a minivan on my death bed" However, I never really expected to ever own one. After all, I'm single with no end of that in sight. What do I need a minivan for. But I find myself in a situation where I am a surrogate father to many of the children at God Cares School. The four boys and I here joke that I'm "dad" to them. And as much as that is a joke, there is some reality to it. To my knowledge, three of the boys do not have fathers and the other has a father who has pretty much disowned him. They have been living here at the school with me over the past 3 weeks and we pretty much do everything together. Sunday, we were able to drive to church instead of walk or wait for someone to pick us up. Amazing. Hopefully having a car won't make me lazy. I still find the need to walk to places close and only drive when there is a purpose beyond just a few people.

However, driving in Uganda as you know can be hazardous. I've had some problems in my first days of driving my own car. Previously I had driven an SUV around. They are somehow made for these types of roads whereas my vehicle is not in many ways. As a minivan, the engine resides underneath the car. That means...low clearance even though you seem high up when in the vehicle. I bottomed out at least 8 times going to Pastor Dongo's house the second day of having the car. On the third day, I was scheduled to pick up a visitor from her hotel so that we could put her luggage at the school for the day. I have driven these roads plenty of times. However, they are in the process of fixing the road and had somebig rocks in place to keep you from going where they didn't want you to drive. There was a man walking on the road and I kind of went wide around him and in the process ran over a rock which turned around and bit my tire! Death to the tire! Luckily I was close to the hotel, so I pulled up into the parking lot to fix it. Guess what? Used car = not all the parts to jack up the car and change the tire! So I called Pastor to help. In addition, some men from the hotel came to help as well. People are so friendly and helpful here in Uganda. The good news is we were planning to get new tires anyway so now there are five new tires! I'm a little worried about getting back on the saddle though after those first two rough days! I'll let you know what happens!