Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Good Samaritan

Internet is kind of a fickle thing out here. Wireless is not hard to come by but Fred and Brenda don’t have any at home, it’s something they’re considering for next month because the kids are in secondary school come fall. So I was on my way up to Backpackers Hostel - which is the most reliable source of internet - when a slightly lost looking white lady came down the drive from Backpackers and asked me how long the walk was to downtown Kampala. The walk is not epically long or anything, but I certainly could not have given adequate directions for her to arrive there without getting lost in the twisty, unlabelled streets. Her name was Laura from Colorado. I flagged down a boda-boda and haggled with the driver for her, and she looked horrified at the solution puttering away in front of her. Part of the horror was the cost of the boda-boda, she only had 3000 shillings and couldn’t afford the cost of the ride downtown. So I hopped on and told her I’d go downtown with her. We set her on the bike between the driver and myself so she wouldn’t fall off and away we went!
It turns out she’s a research biologist who’s headed down to Kibale National Park to work with the chimps! We had fun on the ride downtown. I answered her questions about Kampala as best I could and showed her how to use the very specific foreign exchange system they’ve got for visa cards. Once she’d figured out her exchange and I’d convinced her that really it was ok, I didn’t need to be taken for lunch, she paid for my boda-boda back to Backpackers and we went our separate ways. In theory she’s just reached Fort Portal, and didn’t even have to take the Kalita because a vehicle was sent to get her. Lucky girl, I bet she’ll have a great time with the chimps.
From there the plan was to go swimming with the kids at their school pool. Unfortunately the pool was closed for summer renovations, so no swimming for us. That’s alright though because it sounds like today we’re headed to Jinja today to go check out the source of the Nile. Yee ha! So we’re taking along swimsuits and seeing if we can find a good spot to hop in.
Hope it’s sunny and warm back home, cheers!

1 comment:

  1. You are such a selfless person, Kenna :)

    Today is the first day of good weather here since a while ago, or so I'm told. It was nice enough that I went for a run at lunch. The weekend looks to be superb, however: sunny, high 20s.

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