I have been so blessed with so many gifts in my life time. Sense of direction just isn’t one of them. Sorry, Dad. I know you tried.
That being said, my first solo trip to one of the villages (Danita) had the potential to end in disaster. The funny thing is that as I was riding over there I was telling myself “No problem, Johnny boy. You got this” Like I could conjure up some sense of direction by sheer power of will. And when I got there (mind you, I’d been there probably 10 times previously) I didn’t recognize anything. So I told my piki driver to just drop me off and I’d walk around until I saw something familiar. After a million funny looks that said “this pale kid has no clue where he is,” one kid took mercy on me and sorta walked up and said hi. I told him I was looking for the Suubi place-the building we meet the women to buy necklaces, have crazy-awesome fellowship, and conduct English and Literacy classes. The boy mildly understood what I was talking about and said “the place where they bring the motorcar?”. That was it! He took me there, so at least I was positive that I was in a place I’d been before. My next problem was trying to find an actual Suubi woman’s home, which meant I was back to my aimless wandering. In my defense, most of the shacks and buildings look pretty similar. I’m not a total loss, it just takes me a while.
After about 20 minutes, I was ready to give up and flagged a piki driver to take me back home. I jumped on and we took off, feeling discouraged and frustrated when my angel of hope ,Agnes, appeared on her front stoop! I told the driver that I’d changed my mind (which was a bit of a challenge in and of itself, and I ended up giving him 500 shillings for his troubles…)
From there on (and after a happy greeting from Agnes and her family) I got the grand tour of Danita, with stops at every Suubi womans house along the way. Agnes and the other women had a few laughs watching me trying to memorize landmarks, and we drew a few glances from the rest of the neighborhood as we were being followed by about 30 of the Danita children (the kids are gonna get a blog all to themselves, trust me they’re worth it). And the trip ended back at Agnes’ place for a little impromptu game of handball with a few of her relatives. A total success.
Next up- the
God bless you all as he’s blessed me!
5 comments:
Oh Johnny, I am so not surprised...
What does surprise me is that you didn't call me to have me check directions on Google!! Wait...you're in Africa...I still can't wrap my head around this thing...
Hey! We're just happy you are safe and doing great. Boyd is still worried about you running into a big cat. DON'T RUN!!!
It's great hearing about your adventures....
Love ya - Boyd and Kay
John boy-
If you can make your way around Uganda (and let's face it we are one in the same when in comes to a sense of direction) then I should have no excuse for getting lost here! Keep on keepin' on! Love you!
Thanks for being real and so descriptive... It changes us to hear about life outside of our sometimes small worlds back in America! Keep it up.. you rock!
Keep the blogs coming, Juanny! It is inspiring, humorous and oh so enlightening to hear about your efforts. Makes me remember how truly lucky we are here in the states...
LOVE YOU!!
Post a Comment