On a Mission

I have been on a mission to find a Church home where I can belong. I told a work colleague and he recommended the Kampala Pentecostal Church, which is located in downtown K’la. I went there twice and liked the service. I especially liked the second time; for some reason the preacher/sermon really spoke to me that day. But the place is humongous, and I felt like I could easily ‘get lost’, as in I worship there, but may not really get to know anyone, hata kama they have cells (sorta like a church within a church) where they meet occasionally. It seemed like a place where most young professionals in K’la attend church regularly, but the fact that I have always had a serious aversion to mega-churches didn’t help. They have at least 3 services a day, and the place is always packed, at least the services that I attended were. It's also kinda Westernized (the people are mostly Ugandan and the interior design Afrocentric, I've to say) and I felt like it may beat the point of being home?

So I went home for Christmas. At home I am Presbyterian. My mum gave a Presbyterian-‘branded’ diary which listed all the P.C.E.A. churches, and there happened to be a Uganda mission area in K’la, complete with the pastors Safaricom and MTN phone contacts. I gave him a call last Saturday, and he told me where to find them-one of the halls at Nakasero Primary School. Sunday fikad, and nikaenda Church. Very small group, which I liked, but everyone seemed to be from Central Kenya. The service was in English but kila time there was a testimony to be ‘removed’, it went something like, “am so-and-so Kariuki, Wanjiru ..”etc (names changed). That, I didn’t penda. Juu if I choose to be a member there, it’s like I’ve moved with my village church to K’la, and there’s no newness/adventure there. Even while I was away, I refused to join a ‘Kenyan’ Church. But the members at the P.C.E.A Uganda mission seem quite nice, welcoming and advising, too. The most interesting thing happened at the end of the service. There was this ‘Kamau’ jamaa who’d said in his testimony that he is graduating from Makerere University on Thursday. So one jamaa (an elder, I presume) asked him what he was planning to do in celebation, and ‘Kamau’ said that he was making a trip to Nyeri to celebrate with his grandmother. Hi, you’ve never seen a graduation arrangement taken over like that. The ‘elder’ said no, there is need to celebrate properly, and we are going to do it at the Golden Fish restaurant, and offered 3 kukus. Then proceeded to volunteer what others were going to bring (the pastor “wewe unaweza afford half a crate of sodas!”), and even appointed people for the graduation party committee. Others volunteered to buy several things like a goat, chapati, sodas, and within no time, plan ikaiva. Can’t tell how it went coz I was tied up at jobo. Such fun things, the spirit of community, make me want to go to such a Church. I guess I’ve to figure out some other way of connecting with the Kenyan community ‘abroad’.
Next, I am checking out the Presbyterian Church of Uganda as I saw an allusion to something like it in the papers(will have to ask s/one why they are not part of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa?), or the Anglican Church. If anything, I was confirmed at the Anglican Church (back when it was known as the Church of the Province of Kenya) next to our school as we were attending school in the neighbouring district where apparently the English missionaries had outdone their Church of Scotland counterparts. Sio shida if the Anglican Church’s services here are in Luganda . I think I’m learning quite fast-it’s v. similar to Swa, anyway- and that will indeed help. We’ll see.

HOUSE-HUNTING IN K’LA

I have an informal employment offer in the works-nothing in writing yet. But I decided to look for a place to live in when the time to settle here comes. A colleague recommended a broker, whom I went out to see in Ntinda. Apparently real good. I go see the broker, broker says I give him UGX 20K (roughly Ksh 900) as some sort of fee. Seeing as it is that I am tired of living out of my suitcase in a hotel room for more than a month and a half, I duly give the 20K. We agree that once he gets a place that fits my description, I will give him an unspecified amount as ‘appreciation fees’. In my mind, that can’t exceed another UGX 20K. Sunday 14th Dec comes and I meet the broker, who is now with a colleague of his. We go around in my colleague’s car ( I fuel it), look at various houses, and I like two options. I promise to get back to broker by Friday, 19th Dec. That’ll give me time to see some other places with broker numero dos, who I’d also paid UGX 20K and we had an agreement to meet on Wednesday afternoon. Lakini before I leave, broker asks to add something small, Nyabo (ma’am)? I say, but we agreed on the 20K, and something more once I decide on the house? Broker says but now I came with him. Me I say, but that was not the agreement and I don’t know what agreement you had between the two of you blah blah blah. Broker says, now I’m begging, you can deduct from the other fee, but me I say no, that’s not what we agreed. So, me I refuse, but promise to get back to broker by Friday. By this time the colleague is pissed, as I am and I’m guessing broker did not quite say he had received something earlier.


Wednesday, I call other broker. Broker says to come at 5pm. Me I ask, with the K’la traffic jam as I know it at that hour, what can we possibly do at 5pm? Will probably take an hour to get to one estate, means we’ll be seeing the other houses at night? I tell broker, we agreed afternoon, 5pm is evening? Broker says evening is 6pm, and all this time I’ve been thinking afternoon starts after noon? Broker says good question, let me think about it, I’ll call you back. Broker doesn’t call back. 3pm, I go to broker’s office (at least this one has one, other one we met some place in the open). I tell him I’ve had a bad experience with another broker, I want my money back, will come back when I have enough time. After a while he gives it back, but then his cell-phone rings. Apparently there’s some place in Bukoto that meets my criteria. I get excited - Bukoto would be a v. nice place to stay at the range I am offering. So I have to give him back the 20K-I do. Broker tells me to go meet his agent (who I had actually met earlier at broker’s office) right away. Not that I know the areas that well. Well, I go and meet said agent at Kayunga road. Agent says he is working with yet another agent of theirs, so we wait. Other agent comes. Says I have to give 20K. Me I say, but I gave 20K at the office? Says he’s working independently, so I turn to former agent and ask you guys work how? I paid? Says there was a mistake. Calls broker in office, who says give other agent 10K and get it back at office. Other agent says it’s OK, I’ll show you the place, as long as I get a commission-eer, many landlords actually want 4-6 months worth of rent in advance. OK…. But other broker says we have to wait for a colleague of his. Colleague comes, turns out the place is quite different from what I’d described, and they’d described, and none of the agents had any idea. None had seen it. Other agent says he has yet another place right over theeere! So we go. Right over theeere! is not quite right over there. And, whoever has the key to the place had an accident, so is not around. Agent says we can look outside and then, what do you think? I say I haven’t seen it, so I can’t decide. I head straight to broker’s office, say everything looks very sketchy, I even feel like I may be being taken advantage of, can I get my money back, since I didn’t see any house? I get it back bila hustle. When this jobo comes through, it seems like I may have to do room-mate for a couple months. Or more?


As for right now, I am so looking forward to being home for Christmas after missing out three years in a row.

PROGRESS REPORT

I was eager to go here, but then something else short-term opened up in my neighbourhood. My former mdosi was quite understanding juu we had agreed that due to budgetary constraints on her side that woulda seen me travel bila per diem allowances and get my lodging/housing covered only up to a point, I would be looking for something long-term at home. I’d have gone anyway, and used that experience in the ‘tell me an instance where you went above and beyond the call of duty at work’ interview question. And honestly, it was offering great experience. What I have now has potential to turn into a long running commitment. To be fair, I have offered to work for her (former mdosi) after-hours due to the time differential-seven, soon to be eight hours. We’ll see how that goes. But I’m very encouraged. Then there are the benefits of working close to home; seeing my family and friends often is priceless, I don’t have to freak out about the winter (the weather is near perfect all year round, I think), the people are wonderful, and the food? Wee wacha tu!

I just handed over my first weekly report. Goodbye Accra, hello Kampala.

East African Community

Today I returned home from the longest bus ride of my life. I was on a bus containing mchanganyiko maalum of people from UG, TZ and KE, among others. The bus driver happened to stop somewhere ( I still can't bring myself to pee in public again-yet) and some people from UG took the longest time to come back, at what point the driver decided to leave. Lucky them, they were not alone and one of their friends managed to convince the driver to wait. In the meantime, friend number 2 called one of them on the cellphone and told them to 'don't even run, fly!' As friend no.1 got back to his seat after the bus finally stopped, he mumbled something to the effect that the driver was not doing right by leaving his buddies since 'they paid money' to get on the bus. This ticked off a Kenyan man, who argued that there's no reason he should be inconvenienced in his efforts to make money simply because some people had paid money to get on the bus. An argument ensued, and went out of topic when the Kenyan man referred to the Ugandan man as 'young man'. The 'young man' felt that the 'older man' was taking advantage of his age to speak down to him. Friend no.2 told friend no.1 to 'shut the fuck up!'. Those we had been waiting for came in at the heat of the moment, and a man from Singapore asked the late -not dead, just late-gent (not the ladies who were with him) to apologize for inconveniencing everyone, which he duly did and enjoyed a friendly conversation with Singaporean the rest of the way.
It then dawns on the bus driver that there are additional people who need to get onto the bus and get off at the next junction where they'll take the bus to Mwanza, TZ, but there may not be enough seats. He then embarks on a mission to convince us to 'squeeze' for them, sometimes using English, I believe, so as to appeal to non-Kenyans and non-Tanzanians. For the first time a Tanzanian lady speaks out. "Kama wanaenda Mwanza basi waTanzania tubambane". It turns out there are enough seats for everyone. Oh, well, karibu kwenye Jumuia ya Afrika Mashariki. Yesterday I heard that a recent poll revealed the reason most Tanzanians are so opposed to the EAC idea is that Kenyan men would steal their women.

Note to Rose from Kampala: There was a certain middle-aged looking mzungu man waiting for you outside the National Theatre at about 10:30 am on Thursday, 2nd October 2008. It'd be a good idea to describe yourself or what you'll be wearing next time you go on a similar date.

"You Look Beautiful, You are Fat!"

Some of the things that people are telling me as complements are ridiculous, like how fat I've become, how short, and generally how I've changed. I gained at most 4kgs in the 3 years I was away, and I'm surprised it's so noticeable. My response, "yeah? thanks!" while thinking 'that's what happens when you spend most of your day indoors sitting in front of a computer'. And that's the kind of life I'm looking forward to here. Some of the comments border on the absurd, like how I now have a behind, have calves (? the back of my legs, as in 'riu ona wina tukere').

Halafu I think the American ego may have rubbed off on me kidogo. I think hukos the customer is spoiled while here it's not always the case. Like, you could buy stuff and return it up to 90 days baadaye lakini hapa, it's not necessarily the case. I was so pissed jana when the driver in the ma3 I rode in the morning turned around when he saw a tow truck (break-down). I think the ma3 was not fully insured. Leo, they told me '40 bob tao!' and gave me back 50 bob back after I handed them 100 bob. But the driver later gave me the ka-10 bob. Halafu coming from Gigiri, they said '20 bob Odeon!' only for them to say kuna karao huko mbele and decide everybody has to shuka. Me, I asked for 10 bob back, some others refused to shuka so they took us to Odeon.

Overall I'm happy to be home, seeing, family, relatives and friends. I'm especially glad that my niece who was 3 months young when is excited to have me around, and I can forge relationships with my nephew and others that were born while I was away. I'm also making new friends, and that, too it's exciting.
Of course I've disappointed some people coz I didn't bring them the latest gadgets, and had to expalin hata mimi I did not have most of them. Neither am I dropping dollars/shillings everywhere, if anywhere at all, since I have to preserve my reservoirs. It's hard work explaining the life in America as seen on T.V versus in real life. Of course there are questions about Obama and my answer has consistently been "Obama is the next President of the of America".

At Home with Self

I got to Nairobi Sunday night. So far I'm liking it. Exept that on my first full day it rained sana and ma3s were scarce.
I haven't started tarmacking yet, in fact I go to my shags kesho to properly catch up with my folks.
I've met a college friend today and interesting to see how many people are trained as teachers but are going to different fields, yours truly included.
I haven't signed for internet at home yet, so I'll keep this short.

My $0.02 Take on Stato's Siasa

I am no US political commentator or expert but I hate the way the GOP is using terrorism and war as a political weapon. McCain use of his Vietnam POW experience is getting tired with me. He apparently used the term 'fight' 25 times at his nomination acceptance speech, with little in the way of what he will do to solve America's current problems.The last part of the speech ended with something like 'stand up and fight! fight! fight!' to a very enthusiastic crowd. At one point it felt like I was watching the Olympics with 'USA! USA!' everywhere. Almost like its the dems vs USA. Obviously I favour Obama but I may be biased seeing as it is his father was Kenyan. Not that it matters. If I were American at this point in time, I would vote for Obama. Primarily because the economy is screwed up, things are so worse off than they were during the Clinton time and it so feels like he has a plan to make America strong.

But as a Kenyan, I'm all for someone who can ship them jobs to Kenya or any other developing country for that matter. Outsourcing, and democrats hate that.That, plus really free (and yes, fair too, too, it doesn't have to be either or) trade, would do more for development than more years of aid. It's always interesting to see what side of the political divide seems to really care about global povery and how they plan to deal with it. As part of the international community, I favour America drilling oil on her own land. Juu if the war in Iraq (assuming it was about oil, not wms) and conflicts in many other oil-producing countries is anything to go by, I think 'drill baby drill' combined with renewable energy would do more to end such conflicts than the current energy situation in America. Well, at least as far as Stato is concerned?

Can't end without one more rant-did they (have to) go all the way to Rwanda to get someone showcase Cindy's personal commitment to charity, or did they look for her here? I'd hate for my unfortunate calamity to be used like that.