TIA - This Is Africa!

It is said that time is Relative. Here however, I would say that time is Irrelevant. People are just not in a hurry. Period. Troy is convinced they must know something we don’t. Maybe he is right.

We had planned to meet the YC on Saturday at 2pm to kick things off. We set off from Mbarara to Kinoni (pronounced Chinony) with the intent of arriving a little early to set up. When the mini bus we found ourselves on detoured to the other side of town to pick up somebody’s lumber order, it became apparent that expecting to run on any sort of schedule had been optimistic. After being loaded, unloaded, and loaded back into the mini bus several times in order to pack us in just right, tight, and in a logical drop-off order, we were finally on our way. Just the 21 of us…in a fifteen passenger van….with four or five two by twelve 8 foot lengths of lumber.

We had been told to expect that a set meeting time in Uganda should be assumed to represent more of a ‘guideline‘ than anything hard and fast and so when we arrived in Kinoni at precisely 2pm, and wedged ourselves out of public transport , we shouldn’t have been surprised when we were met by a solitary youth. I considered for a good half hour that maybe all our planning had been in vain and maybe we should head home, but we hung on and about 20 others eventually trickled in. We got started just after 3pm which apparently was “Right on Time”.

We made a plan to meet again the following Saturday. At 3pm. I am confused, does this mean 4? We shall see. The 45 minute ride home was again via shared transport, but in a car this time. Your standard five passenger variety. At one count there were ten of us. Could have been more though, I can’t be sure as you can really fit a lot of babies into the nooks and crannies and I may have lost count….

TIA. Love it :)