Taking a Taxi to Kampala

First, let me define taxi. Don't think yellow four-door sedan. Think fifteen passenger van. Here a taxi is a van. It picks up people along the route it travels. Taxis are privately owned. You can also hire a taxi--the whole thing, like chartering a bus.

On Saturdays the university has started providing transportation into Kampala so people can do their shopping. It's a nice service. I haven't taken advantage of it because I usually do my shopping when I have to go to the embassy for something.

Yesterday we received an email saying that the electricity would be off this weekend due to some electrical upgrade on campus. I figured it might be a good day to go into town. We couldn't do much here anyway.

Since all the university buses and vans were occupied Sister Warden (actually Sister Justine, who is the campus warden--manages transportation, housing and such) hired a taxi to take whoever was interested to Kampala. Bry'Chell and I were among those going. We left shortly after 9 AM.

We arranged to meet Henry at the Shop Rite where the taxi dropped us off. I didn't want to do too much shopping because I'd have to carry whatever we got until the taxi returned at 3 PM.

We walked to Quality Cuts for lunch--they have good sandwiches--and stopped at the Embassy Supermarket to get some more Cadbury cooking chocolate to make more chocolate chip cookies. Since Henry was with us, I didn't worry about getting lost.

Knowing that the taxi would probably be late, I figured we should still be back on time. The one time I was late would be the one time the taxi was there on time. We were waiting for a few minutes when Christine (another passenger from UMU) came by to say that the driver had called her to say he'd be back about 4 PM (of course, this could mean anything between 4 and 5). Christine went to do a few more chores, but we decided to stick around. We'd finished what we had to do, so we--Bry'Chell, Henry and I--were sitting on plastic milk crates reading our books.

As I'm sitting there I see the university bus drive by. I recognized the driver as Peter. I'm wondering if there's been a change of plans and the bus has been sent to get us, but it drives right past--although not very fast. I pulled out my cell phone and called Peter--fortunately I had his number. He was stopping about a block or two away (not a real block, just about that distance) to drop off someone.

He got out of the bus to look for me. I waved and he waited. About now, Sr. Cecilia, who was on the bus called me to confirm that it was me. It was. We caught up to the bus and had a much more comfortable and quicker ride back to campus.

Six months ago I would have just sat there with a dumb look on my face wondering what the heck was going on. Today, I didn't question the circumstances, I just acted. Providential as we would say.

Of yeah, if you're wondering how I'm on the internet when the power is out, it's because my laptop is fully charged and my internet connection--slow as it is--uses cell phone technology. Neither relies on the campus electrical grid. Now, I don't have unlimited power, but enough to get on my blog. Since my email is based on the campus servers, I can't access that, but general internet is fine.