Let me tell you about what happened to me this morning.  Well, actually, it all started last night.  We have been staying at the Bush Fire guest house in Jinja, the second largest town in Uganda.  They have electricity here and I’ve been working on the computer a lot trying to put together a policies and procedures manual.  So anyway, Shem got a call from his sister for us to come and have a party to celebrate Andy’s recent circumcision.  Without a direct route, it would take about 5 hours for all of us to get there by public transportation.  We decided it would be much easier for just Shem and Andy to go, leaving the girls and I behind.  Now the house we are staying in is nice by Ugandan standards.  It is made of brick with cement floors and an iron sheet roof.  It even has a ceiling (instead of just looking up to the rafters).  Plus, of course, there is running water and electricity...a real plus in this country.

So here I am, alone with the girls in a nice house but the neighbourhood is crowded and a bit rowdy.  Shem said the community got together a while back and chased out all the thieves but it used to be a pretty tough place.  Even now when the World Cup (soccer) is on, I can lie in bed and tell when someone has gotten a goal because the shouts of the neighbours are so close.  It also doesn’t help that they are banging on what sounds like mental drums after their team scores.  What I’m trying to say is there are a bunch of us all packed into this area and it doesn’t really have the best safety record.

It’s very dark outside and the girls and I are eating a delicious supper of peas and rice when I hear someone banging on the outside gate.  Then I hear the gate squeak as it swings open.  I hear the garage door rattle and open.  There are bars on the windows and the only other exit is also through there.  So we have nowhere to go.  I think maybe it is Robert, the college kid who is funded by Bush Fire and lives next door.  After calling out to him once, then more fervourently the second time, he answers.  It seems that one of the Bush Fire people is bringing a child to the hospital and needs to keep their car in our garage for the night.  They have called and asked Robert to open things up for them.

Sure enough the folks come and they are going to stay the night in a  nearby house.  They will be back at eight the next morning.  So I put the kids to bed and take a shower.  Just as I am stepping out, a man’s voice growls at the window.  After I peel myself off the ceiling, I realize it is Robert again.  I yell at him.  He goes away but I am shaken.

It is in this mood that I have to go around in my night gown and lock up the house.  Usually Shem does this job but he gave me a thorough briefing before he left of the locks, bars and braces.  So I bar and lock the garage door.  Then I bar the house door and padlock it as well.  Next, I close the inside door.  I decide to leave the kitchen light on to make it seem like people are still awake.   Then I close and bar the inside security door at the hallway leading to the bedrooms.  I also make a mental plan of escape if a person gets through all that.  I will take the kids and go into the back bathroom, meaning the thief will have to go through two more doors.  Then, however, we would be trapped because of the bars on the windows.

You may be laughing by now, and so am I, but I certainly wasn’t then.  Between the security briefing by Shem and the scare from Robert I was on edge.

I went to sleep.  When Shem is not here I get to sleep with the fan on.  So I slept sounding and woke up at 7:15 the next morning.  I woke up to Kana brushing off my bed?!  She told me she was, “Brushing off the bugs.”   I remembered the people were coming after the car soon so I rolled out of bed to unlock everything.

In the light of day all the bolts and locks did seem a bit excessive.  So I padded to the front door in my bare feet.  There was something is sticky on the floor.  When I get back to my room it feels like there is mud on the bottom of my feet.  I look and sure enough my feet are covered with muck.  I glance down the hallway wondering what it could be.  The house is usually clean.

Then I see it, or rather them.  Tiny flies are all over the floor.  My foot print is in the middle of thick layer of their little bodies.  My feet are covered with the smashed up bodies of dead flies.  There is a deep coating of small flies all over in the hallway... all over the house.  I had left the lights on to feel safer and the flies where attracted to the light.  The bed is covered with them.  I hadn’t left the light on in my room, but the window was open and the security light outside must have attracted them.  When I try to brush them off they stick together on my hand and on the sheets.  I go out to the kitchen, again where I had left the lights on, the counters are covered.  It is like the plagues of Egypt.

At first I try to sweep them but it only makes it worse.   I realize that I will have to mop, squeezing the mop out with my bare hands.  There is nothing else left to do.  I slowly, methodically begin to mop the house and then...wash my feet!

I’m having coffee now and writing it all down.  Somehow that makes me feel better.  Shem will be home soon.  He and Andy will have all their stories to tell as well.  That’s what it is, the hearing and telling of each other’s stories.  Please tell me yours.  Just because you have carpet and no bars on the windows doesn’t mean your life is boring.  We each have a story.