Where's 911 when you need it?

I don't think a month can go by without me posting a story involving my car. This past Friday night I was coming from my teammates, the Wilks', house with their oldest daughter, Emily. We were then going to my Ugandan friend, Patience's house to pick her up to go to aerobics in town. Traffic was moving slowly because there was a large truck with matooke (the green bananas they eat here) a few cars in front of me. We eventually came to a dead stop while this truck was going over speed bumps (there are speed bumps every 2 ft in town here). Emily and I were talking about what movie we should watch after aerobics when all of a sudden...BAMMM! Oh yeah, pretty sure a Toyota van (these are the taxis here) plowed into the back of me! I quickly pulled to the side of the road and surprisingly the taxi also pulled over. The driver and two men got out and came to my window. I tried to act really confident and say, "Baseebo (sirs) what happened?" The one who spoke the most English said, "the car was not able to stop." I said, "so you were not paying attention?" They didn't really say anything so I got out of my car and went to look at the damage that had been done (there is a picture below you can see). These men didn't just have trouble stopping....they weren't even trying to stop I don't think! Our necks were jerked back pretty hard and a good bit of force caused this dent. I asked what they were going to do about this and didn't really say anything. Unfortunately we can't just call 911 here, there's no such thing.  

So I got on the phone to call Dr. Pepper my supervisor. Dr. Pepper said to try to write down their driver's license and information and then try to get 50,000 Ugandan shillings out of them. Well, when I asked to see their license they said they 'left it at home' a.k.a. they don't have one. They thought 50,000 was too much and asked where I lived so we could go to my residence and talk about this...WHAT?! Yeah like I am going to bring 3 men to my house. Dr. Pepper called me back and said he was on his way. By this time it was becoming dark outside and a few other men were stopping to see what was going on. Dr. Pepper pulls up and I tell Emily to stay inside the car with the doors locked. Larry has his camera and immediately starts taking pictures of my car and the other car. He can be a pretty intimidating guy (not because of his size, but because of his demeanor). He then begins to try to take a picture of the man who was driving 'illegally'. The guy gets scared and tries to hide his face, so Larry grabs him and continues trying to take his picture. All the other men who were crowded around begin raising their voices and talking in Runyankore. I felt like we were on the TV show 'COPS' or something. 

The men refuse to pay any money or show proof of their driving information so Larry says we are going to the police station. The men 'agreed' to come and we all got into our cars to go just as it began to rain. I was leading and then I saw that they turned down a dirt road and Larry followed them. I waited a couple minutes then called Larry. I heard his car horn blaring in the background....he was CHASING THEM! Hey when you can't call the police....YOU become the police. I went to the police station to wait. By this time it was pouring down rain, just like a movie or something. I finally get a call from Larry and he said he chased them to the other side of town. They drove to a bakery apparently where they work (how dumb is that?). So Larry talked with their boss and was able to document what happened and they paid the 50,000 sh we were asking for so we decided not to turn it into the police....like that would have really done any good anyways. I still cannot believe Larry chased down these guys! Just another crazy story from my life here. But seriously praise the Lord we were ok and nothing worse happened. Safety is a constant prayer request for life here. Everyday I get behind the wheel and make it home safely is a miracle!