My Stupid Genius Plan and the Ugandaness
A few of the folks in my group have had their gas tanks run out in recent weeks. I moved mine while rodent proofing my house (3 weeks no rodents, wOOt) and noticed it felt a bit light. I decided it would be a good idea to buy a small sized tank and have it ready so that if my gas ran out in the middle of cooking I could finish the meal, and not be forced to by a replacement tank that day. Buying a replacement tank means several hours journey and hauling around a 80 lb gas tank.
So last week I bought the small tank and set it in my kitchen area. This morning, while making my breakfast and heating my coffee, the gas ran out. I smiled to myself, admiring my own genius, and disconnected the regulator with the intent of popping it onto the other tank.
FAIL!!!
THE SMALL TANK HAS A DIFFERENT VALVE THAN THE BIG TANK!!!
I ate a single egg and piece of toast and drank my lukewarm coffee and departed for an already scheduled day in Masaka. (more on that later)
I found at the Total Gas station that had sold me the tank that they didn't have any regulators for the small tanks. I noticed they are listed for sale at 30,000 UGX on the sign. He instructed me to drive 45 minutes to Kyotera. (not the direction of my home)
Instead of listening to him, i decided to 0.5 kilometers across Masaka and check out the other Total Station. They have the regulator and I believe the woman told me 30,000 UGX, perfect!!! I hand her 40,000 UGX and she starts writing a receipt. About 3 minutes later she hands me the receipt and it says 40,000 UGX!!! I argue with her for a minute before grabbing the receipt and walking out.
So far this second tank has cost me 37,000 in fuel, a 60,000 deposit, 40,000 for a second regulator, and about half of this mornings breakfast.
Why don't they have interchangeable parts and why did I get screwed over on the price. TIA.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly 5 Year Plan
Several weeks ago I had a meeting with my organization in which I explained I was frustrated that I didn't have any real job responsibilities and that I wasn't really doing anything of significance. We resolved that I would start work on an organizatinal developement inititive that would seek to improve facilities at the school and increase sustainability of the operation. For several weeks we held meetings within our organization developing ideas, gathering information, and assessing needs. Some good things were coming together and I was excited.
I departed for Easter weekend in a good mood, but concerned about one thing my organization had said before I left, "before you go to America, we will write a 5 year plan." My organization has a tendency to write ridiculous business documents that do more harm than good. I had viewed the previous 5 year plan for school and it was rife with blatant fraud and made up financial figures. I let them know that I wasn't sure that was necessary yet and we should continue developing our needs assessment and more immediate plans.
I returned from my Easter holiday to find my supervisor Grace waiting at my site. It was after 6 pm and I had been traveling for about 8 hours. She invited me to attend a meeting in the morning. I arrived at the meeting to find that it was a meeting to write a 5 year plan, and that I was leading the meeting (surprise, surprise). This frustrated me at first, but after getting my footing and taking control we were actually accomplishing something by the end of the meeting.
I took some writting tasks for that evening and departed for home. The power was out when I arrived home and I had about 2 hours of battery power left. I decided I would wake up early and hopefully have some more battery life. I awoke to rain and the power still being out at 4 am. At 6 I started writting and as my battery was fading at 8 sent in the work I had done and instructions on how to proceed while I waited out the rain.
I arrived at the office around 11 to find two people had joined, and taken over the meeting. They were undoing everything I had worked on the past several weeks, brining up ideas we had spent an hour developing the day before and starting from scratch. I sat back and just watched, interjecting every now and then. I no longer cared about the 5 year plan and would be perfectly happy for a sub par document to come out of the effort. I knew I could push them in the right direction here or there, but didn't have it in me to seize control and impose my way on them. After all, we aren't here to do it for them, we are here to use our skills and knowledge to assist Ugandans in doing things.
At the time I thought the worst case scenario was a poor document, that had holes, and needed major re-tooling once complete. What I didn't expect was what they sent me via email on Monday morning.
In this document my organization ignores every problem we identified and most of the ideas we had in the meeting. The numbers come out of thin air. There are departments listed that do not exist at the school. It calls for 1.1 MM USD in order to fulfill its objectives, which include... purchasing, 110 Sewing Machines, 50 computers, a school bus, and my favorite, a BOAT ENGINE for the automotive mechanics program.
I could make this institution self sustaining by the time I leave for 10,000 USD, but they would rather take a gamble that some idiot in America will hand them 1.1 MILLION USD to build a new school from scratch.
I'm confronting them about it today, and this might be the end of my time in Masaka. It is about as big an insult to me as they could possibly levy. I've waisted 6 months of my life on their organization and if this 5 year plan goes forward I'll be complicit in their fraud and theft and that will be about all I've accomplished.
I've given them the benefit of the doubt in the past because I liked my home and didn't want to move but if they are serious about this document and insist on going forward with it to try to secure funding than they are "the bad guys," black and white, plain and simple.
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