Yesterday, I met friends for lunch, and was driving back to campus for the Sunday evening Eucharist. I didn’t think that the traffic police worked on Sunday evenings; I was wrong. An officer waved me over.
I was interested to see why he pulled me over: they don’t have speed guns, I wasn’t on the phone, and had my seat belt on.
He waved me over because my windscreen (windshield was cracked). This is how the conversation went:
Officer: Did you know that your windscreen is cracked? I’m going to write you a receipt [ticket] for it.
Me: I did know; I’m sorry; I just purchased the vehicle from another missionary [trying to drop hints].
Officer: You did? Me: Yes.
Officer: It’s illegal to have a cracked windscreen [probably true, though you’d never know it from the state of windscreens here]. I’m going to write you a receipt for 60,000 shillings [$24], and you pay at the bank.
Me: OK; which bank? [because sometimes the government makes you use a bank that doesn’t have a branch in Mukono; I was wondering when I was going to have time to pay.]
Officer: Diamond Trust [ugh – no branch here] or Stanbic [yay – branch here]. Me: OK, thank you.
Officer: Let me see your driving permit. [I handed him my new Ugandan driving license; I have to confess that he examined it for what seemed like longer than necessary; I assume he was processing the fact that this mzungu had a Ugandan driving license!]
Officer: What country are you from? Me: the US.
Officer: The US? Isn’t it bad to have a cracked windscreen in the US?
Me: Yes, it is [not getting into that in Virginia, it depends on how big the crack is and whether it impedes your vision].
Officer: You take me to the US sometime.
Me: [laughing] I’m going in September.
Officer: Good; you take me.
Me: Will you fit in my luggage?
Officer: OK, since we are friends, I won’t write you a receipt, but you need to get the windscreen fixed.
So, no fee to pay, but now I need to get the windshield fixed. Ah… the joys of ownership… but the liberty I feel, and the ability to easily visit my students at their placements, is well worth it.
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