All week we have had two drivers – Joseph and Peter. Joseph has very good English, so we’re able to particularly ask him a lot of questions, and it’s really interesting to see where the cultural differences are, as they negotiate us safely around the incredibly bumpy roads!
He’s been interested to see what we take photos of, says we seem to “love children” (so maybe Ugandan children are more about function?), wonders why we find it strange that live animals are strapped to the back of bicycles, and doesn’t understand why we’d need 3 lanes of traffic going both ways – and why are we always rushing around “being busy”… good questions! I’m not sure he’s keen to live in the UK – just as well I guess!
Meantime, in all the chats about mobile phones, Joseph has one of his own, a Nokia, which rings quite a lot (not too much worry about drive/talk here) – which he says is particularly to keep in contact with his family – who he may not see for 3-4 months at a time (not unusual) – this week he’s been able to stay with them, although he picked up Malaria.. but has been taking injections and carrying on. Joseph also has a Kindle (B&W) – onto which he downloads many books, and also reads lots of information, particularly the BBC news, and he runs a chicken farm and a bricklayer “project” so looks for information to help him learn about that… his latest acquisition is ducks, so he’s reading up on duck husbandry. I asked if he ever went on YouTube for that, but he said mostly books.
