Notes from: April 11, 2012

Today was one of those days that spurted and sputtered.  All attempts to impose some productivity on the day in terms of our ‘latrine project’ stalled and died.  This trip is very much self driven.  If I don’t set goals and push to see them through I could spend a lot of time ‘waiting’ for things that are supposed to happen.  I am trying to find the way between ‘making’ things happen and ‘letting go’ and working with the grain of movement here.  I am sure I have been the subject of discussion amongst many Ugandans as they’ve watched me try to ‘make’ things happen. 

With this said, it only seems fitting that on this day I inadvertently ended up at ‘Accurate Motor Garage’.  I think you’ll remember my last experience with the oil change.  This time I thought I’d just have them check out an unsettling rattle that was coming from the back axle area naively thinking that perhaps a bolt needed to be tightened or something.  I think I subconsciously wanted some adventure and I knew that getting work done on the vehicle would inevitably involve risk, uncertainty, and amusement.  In no time at all the car was jacked up in the entry way to the garage.  Tires came off, bolts were flying around, and small screws were rolling down the driveway.  I was underneath with ‘Material’ who I think you’ll remember from the last visit.  I looked up to see that since the car was on a slant they had put a rock up against the tire to prevent it from rolling but they put it on the high side not the low side.  This meant that if the forces of gravity were to be reversed and the car began to roll up hill we would be safe. 

As it turned out Material discovered that the stabilizing shock absorber no longer worked properly.  What began as a straightforward tightening of a few bolts turned into an ‘African modification’ of a part that was broken.  Material kind of grinned as he used the word, ‘modify’.  I frowned.  At one point, I entered the side room where they were grinding my shock absorber and sparks were flying everywhere.  In the end I don’t really know what he did to the part but when it was all put back together and I scoured the ground to find any missing bolts, we test drove it and indeed there was no more rattle. 

But while this whole thing was going on, which was several hours, I had several conversations with folks in the garage yard area.  One of them was Issa, one of the other mechanics, who hit me up for a loan of 50 000 schillings to pay for a C-section that his wife was in urgent need of back in Kampala.  He was working feverishly on another vehicle trying to make it road worthy so he could travel to Kampala.  I entered into a loan agreement that would make the folks at Opportunity International wet themselves.  I got Issa’s manager to be a kind of surety and another mechanic to be an eyewitness to this loan arrangement.  Plus he looked deep into my eyes when he said, ‘trust me Mr. Glenn…thank you please’.  Issa is to pay it back next week after he gets paid by a guy who owes him money.  In the end, I don’t really expect to see the money again so I am using my own money for this one, it is only $20, and I’m viewing it as a kind of experiment in trust. 

On another note, the manager hit me up for a soda and biscuit while I was waiting and also for a ride home as I was leaving.  As we drove she spotted some children’s medicine on my backseat and inquired about it.  She then revealed that she had a sick 5 year old daughter.  I deftly connected the dots and she left my vehicle with a bottle of children’s advil.  The trip to ‘Accurate Motor Garage’ turned out to be more of a mobile medical outreach than anything else.  Incidentally, there was no real billing process for the work done today.  As I left Material arbitrarily offered up 50 000 schillings as the cost of his labour.  When I did my best Ugandan expression of dismay when hearing a price of any sort he then tried to bolster his argument saying that he had to use the vice and the grinder which costs extra.  I reminded him that to use a vice requires no expertise, no electricity, and leaves no waste of any kind.  He backed off that and tried a few more times with other supporting arguments before he relented and took my offer of 20 000 ($10).  After all, when I leave ‘Accurate Motor Garage’ the thing I came for might be fixed but I have found that I leave with something that was fine on the way in not working on the way out.   

‘Can We Be Friends?’

People will ask, ‘Can I be your friend?’  Being unaccustomed to this I have been saying ‘yes you can be my friend’ but it comes with odd dynamics and a progression into friendship that seem rushed and unnatural.  We become friends with people if there is a natural attraction over time as you cross paths with someone.  I believe I have offended several people in answering ‘yes’ exchanging phone numbers and then not calling them.  I have offended others in saying ‘yes’ we can be friends but not giving them my phone number and others still by saying, ‘no’ we aren’t friends.  I try to explain that if our paths cross again maybe friendship will emerge but the explanation seems to really confuse them.  Bit of a loss on this one.  It’s kind of like the starkness of a request on facebook to become friends but this time its in real life.  Just the other day the young fellow cutting my hair asked if we could be friends.  I said, ‘sure’.  He was so happy.  He energetically clipped and washed my hairs and massaged my head.  Then as the haircut was coming to a close we entered a communication gap of some sort regarding the passing on of my phone number.  I was hesitant, because there is a good chance I won’t be able to follow through in any meaningful way, but I was about to give him my number when he must have picked up on my reluctance and his countenance fell and he became like someone who has just encountered a great loss.  I don’t really know what happened.  All I know is this seems to be happening with some regularity and I’ve got to figure out what I’m doing wrong. 

I’ve been working with Pastor Timothy to get a young 7 year old girl named Sharon seen by a doctor and go through a battery of tests to diagnose and treat a large mango sized growth on her lower lumber right across her spine.  It started growing when she was 2.   

We did an ultrasound, and Xray, and tomorrow bloodwork.  The surgeon has called it a ‘sacrococcygeal teratoma’ and said it needs to be excised.  The little girl is scared.  Her family is extremely poor.  They live on an island.  The father does not have any money.  Not even for transportation to join his daughter for the testing.  He doesn’t say much but he cried when he learned that there was a way for his daughter to receive some medical treatment.  The surgeon said that if it isn’t removed it will likely turn malignant and become an aggressive form of cancer.  Navigating the health care system here feels precarious.  Taking my car into ‘Accurate Motor Garage’ is one thing but putting someone’s life into the hands of a surgeon and a medical system that you don’t understand is another thing altogether.  Just a side note – from what I can tell surgeons the world over seem to share the common trait of having significantly enlarged egos.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post the similarities I noticed with used car salemen.  Here we have the ‘god complex’ following surgeons throughout the globe.  If he can operate successfully on this little girl while not taking advantage of us financially then I would welcome him to think whatever he wants about himself.  I’ll keep you posted on Sharon.