'I've been talking to the girls. They often tell me about their desire for more shoes, currently they all have one pair of shoes but they are school shoes so big black clunky ones and need to only be used for school. So they mostly are bare feet, I was just wondering if you girls could rally some shoes up from people, even just asking friends?'
In the 21st century with electronic gadgetry coming out of our ears and the general standard of living never been better how can this be? Since we've been here this time for this group we have paid off debts, bought food, provided charcoal for cooking, paid for the water to be put back on so they aren't reliant on rusty rain water collected from the roof. We have supplied a large amount of food for another group who collect water from a filthy stand point 140 times per day. This is wrong. In the UK this would be considered child abuse.
Sorry for the overflow of emotion it must be the Paloma Faith album getting to my deep bits.
Today we were left the pickup. Paul had no need of it and because I always drive when I'm here Paul was happy for us to have the vehicle for the day. After a long breakfast and loads of deep discussion we decided to head for the east. Jinja is the playground of the region. The whole of East Africa descend on this town for thrills. Bungee jumping over the nile. White water rafting etc. it is the place that has for 100 years or more been regarded as the source of the mighty river Nile. We decided to try out an activity as a kind of reccie for next summer's travel trip and probably because the bungee jump doesn't really appeal, we decided to quad bike as a fun thing to do and as something we could recommend to our fellow travellers. It was exceptional, superb fun. We also had a great discussion with Herbert, our guide, and also with the ATA proprietor regards purchasing such a machine for Malangata. It is currently out of our reach but would be a very useful asset and is certainly something to consider in the future. A quad bike would be perfect for work on the hillside and also a vehicle for the mechanic trainees to maintain.
On our journey to Jinja I overtook two taxi buses that were driving at a very slow speed looking for fares. Probably 5mph on the highway. Within 10 seconds of the overtake we were hailed by a policeman. He approached the vehicle and asked to see my permit. During our long conversation he informed us that we had been arrested for overtaking. We questioned the road markings which appeared to us to permit us to pass. He asked to see our vehicle papers and after intentionally not looking at the papers but pretending to take note of our legality. He then returned them and asked how he should penalise us. I told him that I thought he looked like a reasonable man and even though we knew that he stood for what was right and that it was his duty to uphold the law we had made a simple mistake and hoped that he would tell us to be more careful and allow us to continue our journey. He said that this was not within his power. We would have to accompany him to the station to speak with his OC. After a little more reasoning and when it became obvious to him that we wouldn't offer him a bribe he returned my driving license. With a look of disgust he seemed to find the authority from somewhere and moved us on. The police force here is underpaid and it is expected that they supplement their wage with 'wvoluntary donations' from offenders who can pay. It can be a lucrative employment and some police officers apparently have a paunch that is derived from their con. According to some lady friends of mine they can tell what kind of man stands in front of them by the shape if his stomach. It seems that the women of Uganda, when looking for a husband, choose the right man by his stomach shape. On consideration we think that today's police officer is new to the job.
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