When I woke up this morning to I looked at my cell phone and had two missed calls. One from a number I didn’t recognize and one from my cousin Dave Maestri. I’d alluded to it before – but Dave was in Kampala as part of a joint mission between United Nations “United Against” Malaria and “Nothing But Nets” a group that distributes nets to disadvantaged people. There was an outside chance that I’d be able to travel with Dave and his group up to Gulu to hand out mosquito nets in IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps in the region. But as things turned out the UN didn’t have enough time to brief me on the mission and they weren’t comfortable with me coming along. Oh well.
I went to Cassia Lounge (pictures posted below) and got breakfast and come good ol’ American coffee. Breakfast was good sans the eggs.
“I’ll have scrambled eggs.”
The waitress nodded.
Hmm – that’s kind of boring I thought to myself.
“Actually, I’ll have sunny side up.”
The waitress nodded and scratched out my previous order.
I thought about it some more. Eating raw yolk from African eggs didn’t sound like a particularly good idea. “Actually I’ll have scrambled eggs.”
The waitress nodded again and scratched out my order.
I think I angered the egg gods. My “scrambled eggs” were eggs that looked like they had been barely cooked, mushed together and heaped on a piece of toast. Salmonella special.
No eggs for Joe.
I hung out in Cassia for a couple hours talking and drinking coffee. The view is so spectacular.
Afterwards I walked back to the Buziga compound.
I stopped at the boda boda stage (the stop where the boda boda drivers hang out waiting to drive people).
“I’m happy to see you’re all still alive.” I said.
They laughed.
“You boys know the boda boda driver that died on Ggaba road last night?”
One of the boda boda drivers, Sylvester, shook his head, “No, we don’t know what stage he was from.”
“What happened?”
“The boda boda driver was coming from Kampala and he tried to pass someone. He was speeding. He hit an oncoming car at full speed. The next car ran over the boda drivers head and squashed it like a pumpkin.”
“Yeah – I saw the helmet.” I said.
Sylvester nodded.
“You guys are crazy.” I said. “Ya’ll need to stop all this crazy speeding and stuff. What do you save – a couple seconds?”
They nodded.
“Yes – its dangerous but we have no choice – we have to work.” Zen responded.
Connie (one of the mentors walked up). “Did you hear about the accident last night?!”
We all nodded.
She shook her head. “I saw the boda driver on the way back from the city. It was terrible. His head was flat like a pancake.”
Wow! Everyone heard about this accident.
When I got back to the compound I met Evan – Eric’s cousin who was volunteering in Mozambique and was visiting us for a week.
“Is there anywhere to watch a soccer match?” He asked me.
I told him I was going for a run and then I’d show him a local bar.
We went to the bar to watch two English Premier Teams – Manchester and Chelsea (I think?). The bar was PACKED with people. Literally there were patrons sticking their heads in doors and windows to get a glimpse of the game. Evan and I walked in and ordered coca cola’s. We looked around and noticed that out of all the other people there literally only one person bought a soda. Poor bar proprietor!
Evan and I got a chance to learn a bit about each other. He’s only 19 (so young!) and is going to USC in January. Made me feel REALLY old! Rather than sit around and wait for college to begin he decided to go for an African adventure. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro the week before. Pretty cool.
When we got back the power was out. Everyone in the compound gathered around candles and talked and laughed. The night ended with everyone bunched around my laptop watching “Snatch.”
The power never came back on so we went to sleep.
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