Transactions Without Truth

There are a lot of things that make you tired about moving to Africa. You get tired because you never really know where you are and none of the streets are marked. You get tired because, even though everyone speaks English, you can’t understand a single thing that anyone says. You get tired because your kids are up sick in the night on a pretty regular basis. You get tired because things that used to be easy, like taking a warm shower, may take twenty minutes of planning and a master’s level feat of engineering.

There is, however, one thing that makes me more tired than anything else - dishonesty - consistent, blatant, unrepentant dishonesty. The honest truth about Uganda is that honesty is an extremely rare commodity. Everyone here lies. And the crazy thing is that no one seems to care - or really even notice - when someone is lying to them.

Now, there are small lies, there are big lies, and there are silly lies. Small lies are told by the taxi cab driver who says he “will be there in 10 minutes time,” when he really has no intention to arrive for over an hour. Big lies are told by your internet service provider who charges over one thousand dollars per month for “broadband service of 256 kbps” when the monitor on the router demonstrates that less than 50 kbps is actually flowing through your modem (for comparison purposes dial up in the U.S is 56 kbps). Silly lies are told by the same internet service provider when you show him the printout and he tells you that the problem is not that he has failed to provide you what was promised but rather that you failed to buy the more expensive package.

This seemingly accepted practice of systematic dishonesty makes commercial transactions nearly impossible. For example, Amy and I are desperately searching for a vehicle to purchase on the second-hand bulletin boards (imagine Craig’s list on the wall of a grocery store). Last week, I find what appears to be an ideal 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser. The price is a bit high, but it says it is negotiable, so I give it a shot. I call the number and talk to Sam. Sam tells me that he has the vehicle at his office, and that I should come to see it (lie #1). I arrive at Sam’s office, and he says that the vehicle actually isn’t there, but it is on its way (lie #2). He talks with someone on the phone and then tells me he’ll just bring the vehicle to my office later that afternoon (not quite a lie, but not necessarily true). He hands me a copy of the flyer with a picture of the vehicle and its identifying details, and I go on my way, having wasted an hour and a half of my day.

Later that afternoon, I get a phone call about the vehicle I wanted to see. I am told that the vehicle has arrived and that the caller, who I assumed to be Sam, will be over in a couple of minutes to show it to me (lie #3). An hour and a half later, two men show up in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Neither is Sam. I instead meet Richard. I pull out the flyer, show it to Richard and ask him if the car he brought is the one in the picture. Richard looks me square in the face and says, “yes it is” (lie #4). I point out the fairly obvious fact that the photo is of a vehicle with the word Prado painted prominently on the doors, and the vehicle in front of me bears no such markings. Richard is unphaased. I ask Richard what happened to Sam and the vehicle in the photo. Richard says, “Sam actually sold that particular vehicle this morning and asked me to bring this one instead” (lie #5). Moments later, Sam calls ready to show me the car we discussed this morning. He is somewhat upset by the fact that someone has tried to beat him to the sale. Richard, tells me that the caller must be an imposter (lie #6).

Intrigued by the drama, I go ahead and inspect the vehicle. I pop the hood and immediately notice that the second battery (turbo diesel engines have two batteries -who knew?) is missing. I ask Richard why there is only one battery and he says, “this is a different model - the model with two batteries has a lot of mechanical problems - one battery Land Cruisers are better.” (lie #6). I decide it is not worth pointing out the gaping hole with two now-empty connector cables where the missing battery should have been. I walk around to the side of the vehicle, and look at the insurance sticker, which prominently states that the current policy period commenced in June 2008. While standing directly in front of Richard and looking directly at the sticker, I ask “when was the vehicle imported to Uganda.” Without blinking, Richard says “three months ago.” (lie #7). I point out the sticker’s date, and move on. I look at the old school odometer and notice that the vehicle has significantly less mileage than my old 2002 Volkswagen and that the mileage of this vehicle is amazingly within 100 kilometers of the mileage listed for the vehicle in the flyer (lies #7 an #8). I ask Richard somewhat jokingly about whether his boss rolls back the odometers himself. At this Richard gets very earnest, and says, “it is not possible to tamper with such an odometer, as they are completely tamper proof (lie #9).

I just laugh and join in the fun, telling my new friend Richard that even I know how to roll back a fourteen year old odometer (lie #10).

FINALLY

Here are some pictures of where we are staying. The front entrance.


Our Living Room


Our Dining Room


Our Kitchen


Our Bathroom


Our Bedroom


The Kid’s Bedroom



It'll do for now : )

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs

I’m not a bug person. I don’t mind them outside, but inside the house...they really bother me. I’m starting to wonder why I said I would move to Uganda. : ) We have ants everywhere. And really big ones. Rachel was showing Isaac how to step on them the other day, but Isaac realized that sometimes he would miss, so now he just uses his fingers to squash them. yuk! Today he brought me one in bed.

There are also spiders. Thankfully I haven’t seen any big ones yet! But we do have those jumping spiders...which for me are just as bad. I had a traumatic experience with one back in high school (remember that mom?!).

Today I picked up the bath mat in the bathroom to hang it up to dry, and look what i found.



Yes millipedes. I don’t know why these creep me out as much as they do, but they do. and it really grossed me out b/c i could have easily stepped on them. I had seen two by our front door before but Jesse was around to get them out, this time he was not. So I had to muster up some courage and try to get them on a piece of paper so i could throw them out. By the time I had found a big enough piece of paper one had already crawled under Isaac’s car seat (which was just sitting on the floor). I moved the car seat, but as I did I accidentally cut the sucker in half! Both halves were still moving. That’s just wrong! Needless to say, I finally got them both out of my house, and we now make sure we pick up the bath mat as soon as we are done taking a shower.

We’ve had one more bug bother the Rudy household... the stomach bug. Poor Levi had a temp for about 24 hours and started throwing up. I then got it the next day. Thankfully I am feeling better today. Just really weak, but at least it’s not malaria. Hopefully no one else comes down with anything!

There is one good thing....


at least we have him to help us out! (just in case you can't tell it's a lizard, i tried to get a closer picture but that just scared him away)

The Lorenzens'

This is who we are staying with. They have an incredible ministry here. They are not themselves working with a mission group. Jim is working with a company here. But that does not mean they are not doing ministry. They found a great big house (for actually less then everything we are finding) and they basically run a guest house for missionaries, who need a place to stay but can’t afford to stay in hotels. Most people stay in the main house, they are graciously letting us stay in a small apartment that is in the basement part of their house. It’s 2 bedroom, living area/dining area, small kitchen, and bathroom.

They have new people here every night. It's been really fun to meet people and here what they are doing all over Uganda.
We can have dinner with them every night M-F, which is wonderful, since I’m not comfortable yet, with figuring out how to make anything here yet. & let's be honest anytime i can get out of making dinner I will. : )

Esther (the wife) has a wealth of knowledge to give me. She is completely a type A person, and is sometimes a little overwhelming for me, but I know in the long run it will be great. For example, she already has set up for me to interview house help on Thursday!?! I don’t even have a house yet, but she thinks it will be good to have her start now a couple days a week just helping with the apartment, and then I’ll know if I would want to keep her on or not. But there is still an interview! I have no idea what to ask this dear lady? Can you clean? okay great ; ) I know I’m an idiot, but it’s quite overwhelming to me.

I am just really ready to get into our own place. It’s just really hard for me to have to be in someone’s else’s space with 3 young kids. Again they have been wonderful, but it's always nice to have your own space.

I will try to post pictures soon, but I haven’t found my cord that connects my camera to the computer.

We Are Here

I arrived Friday morning. My flight from London was a night flight, and overall went very well. The kids both watched a movie and then slept the rest of the way until about 1 hour before the flight landed! I didn’t sleep but maybe about 30 minutes, there’s something about being the only parent on a flight, I just couldn't’t let myself nod off.

We arrived at about 7:30am. The Ugandan staff was wonderful. They helped me off the plane, took me to the front of the line going through passport control, and then had me sit while they searched for all my bags. Of course that meant I was the last one to leave the baggage area, but there was no way I could’ve done it by myself. Once we finally got out of customs, I saw Jesse! Wow it was great to see him! I wanted to give him a great big smooch right there, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking “you can’t do that, that would be very offensive to the Ugandan culture." I probably would’ve done it anyway, but there were 3 people from Jesse’s work who were also there, so I decided instead to just live with a long hug.

It was pouring outside-first rain they’ve had in weeks I guess. We waited till they tried to pull up the vehicles so we could load them up. And yes we needed all 3 vehicles! I had 7 suitcases/Tupperware bins, 3 car seats, 1 pack ‘n play, 1 stroller, diaper bag, laptop bag, backpack, rachel’s carry on, and of course the 3 kiddos : ) We fit everything in, and then divided up and took off for where we were staying. The kids of course wanted to ride with their dad, so I rode with Ida (the office administrator).

I was so tired so i don’t remember much of the trip, but Ida was very nice pointing everything out, and giving me tips on where I should buy fruits/clothing/furniture. It took us about 1 hour or so to get to where we were staying.

My first impressions of Kampala were very different then i thought they would be. Yes, everything is very green, and it is very hilly. But things seem much more spread out then I was thinking. The city is in one area, and then the rest is much more residential. Very different from Sri Lanka. Although this is nice, it’s also hard for me now, b/c I feel much more trapped where we are staying. I’ll write more later about where we are staying, but wanted to let you know that we are here, and so far so good!

NEGATIVE ON THE SWINE FLU

just in case anyone was worried