Life here in Africa just takes longer....you can't just "run" to the grocery store or the post office. What would take me 30 minutes to accomplish in America takes about 2 hours here. Lately I have experienced some of these nice frustrating "Africa days". Like the day before I was supposed to leave to drive 4 hours to Kampala (the capital city) I had a flat tire. No big deal right; wrong! I didn't have a jack or any of the other equipment needed to change a flat. When I finally did get the proper equipment I found out my spare tire was bad! To top things off as I was leaving the clinic to go get my flat tire repaired I hear a "crunch" sound.
I was like oh no...now what?!! One of the Ugandan counselors who was with me had left her seat belt hanging out her door and I ran over it. Anways, I ended up spending over 4 hours getting my tire repaired, buying a new tire for a spare, and fixing my seat belt! Later I found out that while they fixed my flat...they did not balance the wheels and when I drove above 60kpm my truck started shaking really bad.....so I spent a couple hours the next morning before leaving for Kampala getting my wheels balanced. I am learning things here that I would never have to worry about in the states!
So today was another "fun" day. I was with the Words of Hope team and we were getting ready to leave to do home visits when I realized I left my cell phone at home. I knew it wasn't safe for us to go without communication so I went back home. When I got my phone I had a call from my supervisor (Dr. Pepper) saying that the electricity department was coming around turning people's power off who hadn't paid their bill. Well I hadn't received a bill in over a month so I figured I better go check on it. Of course the electric department was full of customers who were upset cause their power was shut off. So I went to try to find out where my bill was. See here the company personally delievers your bill to your house each month. Well since my house is surrounded my a fence/gate if no one is here the company leaves the bill waded up and stuck somewhere in my gate. Which is just great cause the wind can blow it away or a kid might take it. But that's the system here. So they finally found my bill and said I owed a ridiculous amount of money. Before Iwould pay it though I went back home to check my meter. Thankfully I had written the number down on the day I moved in 44164 so I went to check the meter and what did it read?? 44164 of course...my meter was broken. So how was the company getting the balnced I owed you might ask? Well by estimating of course. Apartently the meter has not worked for over 2 years and the electirc company has just been estimating what this house uses each month. Can you imagine your electricity bill being estimated in America! So after taking a man back to my house to check it again and going back and forth about 3 times I was able to get out of paying the bill and I am supposed to be getting a new meter...so we'll see.
Now the Post office is beside the Electric Company so I thought I would run and check my mail "real fast"Ha, yeah right. I find a nice big package from back home....Yea!! I go to pay for the package and they tell me I have to go with someone from the post office down the main street to the revenue offices where someomen in "customs" will inspect my box. So after waiting for some time they finally opened my box and make me take out each thing one by one...It's insane!! After taking the man back to the post office and paying for my package....I realized that I had spent the last 4 1/2 hours just going to the Electric Department and the Post office! The joys of living in Africa....a culture where time has no meaning, literally!
Through all of these "frustrating experiences" I have been learning a lot! Evas, a Ugandan nurse who works with me helped me through a lot of this kind of stuff. Today as we were driving back and forth to the electric company Evas reminded me not to worry that these kinds of things happen and that I just need to trust the Lord and ask for his protection/guidance each day and accept whatever comes my way. She is so right...there's no point in getting upset or frustrated cause this just life here. It's amazing to me....Ugandans are such strong people cause they have had to live such hard lives. I really am learning a lot from them...there faith is strong and it puts me to shame at times. May He Be Glorified even in the "frustraing" days :)