1st traffic violation

So I don't remember if I have told any stories about police officers pulling me over, but there are a few funny stories. This one however is not one of those. I was driving my friends Ashleigh back to the hospital from getting some things in town so she could get some test results. In the past two years, Uganda has begun to use traffic lights. However, they don't use them well and often have police directing traffic no matter what the traffic light says. On this day, I had a lot of things to do so I was rushing to get Ashleigh's results and return to school to work. I was following a taxi (van) when the light turned yellow and he decided to stop, but there was enough room for me to pass him and make my left turn so I did so only to see the traffic officer waving at me to pull over. If you didn't know the traffic officer or police officer doesn't have a car and chase you down like in the US, but instead they stand at the side of the road and just raise their hand and you're supposed to know to pull over. I can't tell you how many times I almost just drove by. Anyway, the traffic officer (not police officer) told me I ran a red light. I disagreed telling him it was still yellow when I crossed it. He disagreed. So I told him to just give me the ticket and I would pay it. Maybe he was looking for me to pay him off because he told me it was 40000 shilllngs (about $20). I said okay, just write the ticket. He told me he didn't have the tickets so we had to go to the police station. Remember he was just a traffic officer. After some haggling and attempts to direct me to the police station, he jumped in the van to show me where to go. As I pulled up to the police station, I just waited. A police officer greeted me and asked me what happened and I told him my story, that the light was yellow and not red. But I also told him that I wasn't here to argue and I was in a rush so just write the ticket so I could go. He told me he didn't want to write the ticket if I didn't agree. I told him I didn't care because I had somewhere to go. He asked where and I told him I was going to the hospital, and I didn't have time to argue with him. That's when he changed and said, "Okay, you go." And he didn't write me the ticket and I was off on my merry way.

See all you girls/women out there, there are better ways to get out of a traffic violation than just crying. Just kidding. I was lucky and very surprised that they let me go. I'm sure they were just looking to get a bribe from me, but when I just kept asking for the ticket, they knew I wasn't going to give them anything. Praise the Lord.