I thought I would tell a little story to show you how things run (or don't run) in Uganda.
Last night I decided to get a bunch of people together for dinner at Zamo, the hotel that our volunteers stay at ( I have now moved into Busoga Guesthouse,for those who know). For volunteers right now I have a family of four (Mike, Janice and their two boys Jacob-10 and Joseph-15), Shelly (31), Kelly (20), Sarah (22), James (23) and Miko (26). The family as well as the girls were there, and then I invited to pay for dinner for one of our Ugandan staff; Baby Justine and her two kids Zepohra and Gift. She also brought along two ladies that work with her. Wonderful right? Everyone together, happy times.
Now Zamo is famous for being slow service, but this night just topped it off. We all ordered and it was fine and lovely and then about an hour and half later I asked if our food was coming, "yes, just now, of course" is always their response. Another half hour passes as some food comes out, pretty much every order is wrong in some way (wrong sandwich, chips instead of rice, etc etc etc) and the boys and Mike's food didn't come at all, some mistake apparently...so another like hour passes before the boys get their food, after many trips by me to the kitchen pestering them, the boys getting tired and cranky (as it's now like 9:30pm), baby Justine's children falling asleep, me trying to keep everyone talking and visiting to pass the time..
finally everyone eats and I'm calling taxi to come and get the family and bring them home as well as some boda's to bring Justine and crew home, another 45 minutes passes... (what, are they driving from Kenya!??) as I'm on the phone to 2 other taxi's getting SOMEONE to come... finally one van comes and takes them all home..as the waiter comes up to me and says there is a problem with my bill (I had already paid for everyone) and I owe him more money... by this time I'm starting to loose it and pull him inside and demand to see the bill and the money I paid him, and another staff comes over to go over it and we are all arguing and adding and I have tears starting up when I finally gave in to paying half of what he wanted me to and I am furiously angry with them as ALL I WANTED WAS TO DO SOMETHING NICE FOR EVERYONE AND IT TURNED INTO SUCH AN AFRICAN GONG SHOW!!
I walked out of the restaurant and started bawling when my friend James (one of my volunteers) saw me and then saw these other taxi's start to show up that we had called like, 2 hours ago.... I guess James saw my face and he went and dealt with the drivers and then started to walk me home as I'm crying when Mike calls (the dad) saying the boys lost their room key, can I look for it at Zamo... James and I go back to the hotel and go on our hands and knees with our cell phone flashlights looking for this key which isn't there so I call the driver who brought them home and he found it in the car, so I told him to go back to their guesthouse...and then one last call from Baby Justine saying she left her purse in the taxi and was freaking out but luckily Mike had assured me that they found it and had it for her.
this is now, like, 11pm.
OH. MY. GOODNESS.
James and I walked up to the porch of Busoga where all our friends were visiting and I collapsed on the couch next to Alex, wiping my face and laughing and remembering why T.I.A (This Is Africa) and that I love it....most of the time.
the end.
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