Wednesday, September 17, 2008

About driving in Kampala...

As Nate mentioned, I started driving this past weekend. It can be frustrating and scary, but I actually felt more comfortable than I thought I would. Nate left Monday morning and I walked to work since the clinic where I go on Mondays and Fridays is close to home. I had no need to drive Monday evening either, so the next time I got in the car was Tuesday morning. I had to do a lot of positive talk to prepare myself for this moment and I really was ready...but then...the car battery was dead. So I grabbed Dan's helmet and walked off in search of a boda boda (motorcycles that act as taxis).

I viewed this incident as a blessing in disguise - thinking maybe I was being protected by not having a working car. Tuesday night was nice - 3 girls came over for a ladies night dinner and before they left we tried to jump my car. I felt like 4 girls jumping a car would make our ladies' night complete! We read directions online to make sure we were connecting the right clamps to the right parts, but nothing happen when we tried to start the car. Even the guard and 2 other security guards could not make it work with the jumper cables. They did however push the car and get it started that way. I was excited as I drove around the neighborhood at 10:30 pm charging the battery....

But of course - this is Africa - things cannot be that easy! I came out this morning and attempted to start the car again, but it was dead again. Maybe its actually an electric car that must be plugged in at night?!? Luckily I have Wednesdays off, so it was not too big of a deal. But I still want to know what is going on! Why does this happen when my mechanical engineer is gone?!?

Well, hopefully I will have a more positive story to share soon. For now I will have to embrace this free time at home - perhaps I should begin working on my research project for my MPH? :)

Ciao everyone,
Alicia

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