Whoo…this past week has been crazy! We’ve moved from Kampala to Gulu (which is a 4-5 hour
drive..) Which doesn’t sound so bad, except for the fact that half way to Gulu
you begin to drive on this road that probably came from the moon! The potholes
on that thing could literally kill someone..they’re HUGE! But it gets worse…I’m
gonna start from the beginning..then let my dad take over :) (this should be
fun!)
All was going well, we had a moving truck that was coming
the night before we left so we could pack It up, we had almost everything
packed, we were all super excited to move! We said all of our goodbyes. Then,
as Annie puts it, Satan attacked. Our friend who found the guy with the moving
truck said that the guy (who was going to be driving EVERYTHING we owned to
Gulu) had disappeared, and turned his phone off. So my dad frantically began
calling all of our Ugandan friends asking if they knew ANYONE who could drive
our things for a dissent price. Finally after many phone calls, at 7pm we found
a truck!
So the truck arrived and we packed in up, with no power, in the dark, by candle
light..At last around 10pm we went to bed thanking Jesus! Not knowing what else
Satan had in store for us…
We all woke up around 6am, ready to leave! The driver was here the truck was
packed, the driver was here! We were set to go! And so at 7:27 we had finished
packing the last minute stuff and had locked our doors to the house and all
packed into the car, until we found out that the driver had to tie down the
tarp (which took 20 minutes) then get the engine ready (which took around 15
minutes) so we all got out of the car, played with the neighbor’s kids for the
last time, said goodbye around, prayed for one another, then got back into the
car.
We all sang and laughed at funny memories! And about an hour and a half of the
way into the trip our moving truck broke down..about 30 minutes outside of a
little town. Dad got out, and the rest of us sat in the car praying that God
would fix the car so we could continue driving. But as 2 hours ran by we had to
come up with some options..the best one we thought of was for my dad to wait
with the things while mom drove us the rest of the way to Gulu (now let me just
let you know that my mother has only driven ½ of a mile (1km) in Uganda..ever!
And that was in a nice part of Uganda)
And now..she was going to drive us to Gulu..on the road of death…Oh
Jesus please help!!! The whole time we were driving I kept hearing in my head
the Carrie Underwood song ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ that soung has a whole new
meaning to me :P
Thankfully Jesus did take the wheel, and we had a safe journey! We sang and
talked and prayed for Daddy. Every so often we’d get a call from him asking how
we were doing, then we’d ask how he was doing, and there was always worse
news…It broke our hearts that we were on our way to our new home while Dad had
to wait in the 91 degree sun (33c). My mom handled driving so well though! She
stayed on the right side of the road, and was perfectly calm! I was super proud
of her! Oh and did I mention that there are these GIANT buses that enjoy driving in the middle of the
road…and Ugandans favorite hobby is passing people (especially when fuel trucks
are coming on the other lane) Oh my..
Well we got to Gulu safely. Went to our new house, our
wonderful friends brought over mattresses and pillows and blankets (because
everything we owned was with Dad in the middle of Uganda somewhere..) And at
around 8pm the power went out..But we still didn’t complain because we thought
of Dad, wherever he was..
 |
| We woke up to the driver and Dad unpacking the truck at 5:45am :) |
Know I think it’s time for Daddy to take over! This is the adventure of
Scott
Abandoned in Uganda!
I have moved a few times in the U.S. the steps are usually
pretty simple after you have you stuff ready to move.
Step 1. go online and hire a moving company, give them the
addresses you are moving to and from.
Step 2. supervise as they load your stuff.
Step 3. Drive to your new address and wait for your stuff
and supervise it being unloaded.
(there is also the U-haul move, just insert yourself in the
place of the movers)
Here are the steps to a move in Uganda:
Step 1. start a few months before you move and find
"the man" that owns a big truck
Step 2. argue and eventually agree on a price
Step 3. have the price change a few days before because fuel
prices have gone up since you agreed on the price.
Step 4. argue some more to make "the man" honor
his original price
Step 5. the day before the move "the man" with the
truck, be told that he has gone back to "the village" and is no
longer in town. He will not answer his phone
Step 6. Go find another man with a big truck and argue and
agree on a price and tell him you need the truck right away, to which he agrees
and is on his way
Step 7. Wait 2 hours then remember that "on my way"
in Uganda means "I might be there in 1 hour or 5 days"
Step 8. find another truck
Step 9. start the price negotiating all over again and agree
on a price.
Step 10. truck arrives after dark , load the truck yourself
(along with wife and children) by candlelight
Step 11. have someone guard the truck overnight so no one
comes and steals everything off of it
Step 12. Pay the owner of the truck half of the agreed price
to pay for the fuel to your new place of residence
Step 13. after the owner of the truck leaves the driver
arrives to tell you that he needs to borrow money to buy fuel for the trip
because he spent the money the owner of the truck gave him to buy fuel on a family
problem.
Step 14. refuse to pay the drive and call the owner of the
truck to complain about his driver asking for money
Step 15. get all info of the driver and truck and follow the
truck closely because everyone has told you to not let the truck out of your
sight because the driver will disappear with the truck sell your stuff and
claimed he was robbed.
Step 16. the truck, if you’re counting that’s truck number
three since we started, breaks down.
Step 17. its 9:30 and you’re in the middle of nowhere on a
Uganda highway and the driver says he is going to get a mechanic
Step 18. an hour later the driver arrives on a motorcycle
with two mechanics.
Step 19 Ugandan police pass by to ask why you are on the
side of the road with family, you
explain we are moving and the broken down truck in front of you has your things
on it. The police says you should have them fix the truck and get it off of the
side of the road
Step 20. agree with the policemans brilliant idea to have
the truck repaired
Step 21. have driver tell you the truck cannot easily be
fixed and he needs to go and find parts to make repairs but will be back in
less than one hour.
Step 22. the police from step 19 drives back by to ask where
the driver went and says not to leave the truck because the people from nearby
villages will come and steal everything if its left unattended
Step 23. send wife and kids on without you, remain with your
belongings
Step 24. pray for wife and kids because wife has never
driven in Uganda, but you have now sent her on a 5 hour drive on Ugandan roads
(details on that in later steps)
Step 25. wait 2 hours and call the driver who won't answer
his phone,
Step 26. begin calling the owner of the truck, who tells you
he has another truck he is sending and will be there in 30 minutes
Step 27. after the 30 minutes turns into 2 hours call owner
of the truck several times
Step 28. driver and owner of the truck turn off their phones
Step 29. the friendly and helpful policeman mentioned in
steps 19 and 22 comes back by to say it is getting dark soon and if the truck
is left overnight it will be robbed of everything and I would be beaten and or
killed if I tried to defend it
Step 30. wet yourself slightly
Step 31 pay someone to go into the nearest town to try and
hire another truck to complete the move
Step 32. receive a call from the person you paid to tell you
he has found a truck, that would be truck number 4
Step 33. realize all you own is in a truck broken down on a
road in the middle of Uganda and are desperate and any chance of negotiating
does not exist
Step 34. truck number 4 arrives and you begin unloading what
took 4 hours to load the night before in 30 minutes and begin to load truck
number 4 in record time as the sun gets low on the horizon
Step 35. A different mechanic arrives and begins to work on
truck number 3, but driver and owner still have phones turned off
Step 36. after a 5 hour absence the driver of truck number 3
arrives and the scene to see his truck unloaded and a large sweaty, hungry,
thirsty, and irritated white man loading another truck.
Step 37. driver becomes enraged and demands full payment for
the move
Step 38. decline to make full payment and demand deposit
back
Step 39. driver of truck number 3 disappears again
Step 40. driver of truck number 3 reappears with 5 Ugandan
policemen to have me arrested
Step 41. take a nice drive back to police station with the
afore mentioned policemen, while one remains to look after truck number 4 that
is now loaded
Step 42. arrive at police station and appear before the head
of that particular police department to plead my case
Step 43. have driver of truck number 3 lie about being
absent all day and assure them that he was with the truck and me all day
working on the truck and has not been paid a deposit.
Step 44. have the frequent passerby policeman from steps 19,
22 and 29 show up at just the right time at police headquarters to inform his
captain of the drivers deceit.
Step 45. watch as the driver of truck number 3 is arrested
for lying to the police and truck number 3 impounded until the deposit is fully
refunded.
Step 46. grin slightly
Step 47. have truck number 4 pick up at police station and
continue journey
Step 48. wonder why headlights are not used until 3 hours
after sunset.
Step 49. assume that Ugandan roads have been involved in an
asphalt erosion test since the Nixon administration and have allowed testing
for land mines on the parts that aren't eroded yet.
Step 50. fantasize about having and extra stick of deodorant
to give to your new best friend, the driver of truck number 4
Step 51. have truck number 4 begin to squeal like a banshee
and pull over
Step 52 have stinky (new nickname for driver of truck number
4) say that the U joint that has been giving him problems for some time has
finally gone out
Step 53. consider murder after having a single tear roll
down cheek
Step 54. wait an hour while stinky has a friend bring one of
the U joints off of one their other trucks
Step 55. rejoice as repairs are made in less than 20 minutes
Step 56. after driving for an hour the driver pulls over
again, the reason....."to take tea"
Step 57. recite 4 letter words learned in Junior High
quietly to self
Step 58. after a 30 minute "tea time" back on the
road
Step 59. go through 3 police checkpoints and give them a
small payoff each time to avoid being fully inspected
Step 60. cringe while Stinky is forced to make the road his
personal slalom course avoiding a small percentage of the potholes while
convinced you have heard everything in the back of the truck either fall off or
break
Step 61. if Stinky was a boxer his name would be Gaseous
Clay because apparently b.o. was not enough of an assault on the world of odors
Step 62. imitate a dog and hang head out of the window of
truck number 4 to maintain consciousness while Stinky continues his assault on
my olfactory system
Step 63. compare the ordeal to those of the S.S. Minnow
Step 64. what was supposed to be a 5 hour tour ends in just
over 18 hours.
Step 65. Ask God for forgiveness for a day filled fantasies
of verbal abuse, murder, dismemberment, hygenic insults, military invasion,
pushing a certain driver from a moving truck (#4) and driving it myself. I will
miss you and remember you always Stinky, all my love Scott
 |
Annie underneath our beautiful tree :)
I think I'm in love <3 |
So thankful that God got us here safely! And I can’t wait to
see what God has in store for us here :)
