African Holiday: The First of a Few

Happy New Year to everyone! Amanda and I are getting settled back into our work after spending about 2 weeks away from our normal schedules here in Kampala. There are two main chunks to this entry, an overview of our time with Amanda’s parents, Dave and Teresa, and a longer story about the start of our safari. Hopefully, we’ll find time to fill in the gaps for everyone in the coming weeks.

Amanda and I met Dave and Teresa in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 30. We came out two
days earlier (the 28th) so that we could check into our guest house, learn the city, and just have a bit of a “holiday” on our own. It ended up being a pretty good plan because we became familiar enough with Nairobi and the taxi system to feel at ease when we picked up Amanda’s parents from the airport. The next day, Sunday, we spent half of the day with Imbumi Makuku and Cindy (Heinz) Neal at Imbumi’s church in the Kibera slums. On Monday, all four of us went into Nairobi for a few hours and stopped by the US Embassy Memorial in honor of the people who died in the 1998 bombing. We also stopped by the safari company to check in on the road conditions, since the Masai Mara had seen about 3 weeks of consistent rain, causing part of a bridge to wash away. The next three days were spent on safari, which is the story I’ll get to in just a second. Anyway, after the safari, we boarded a bus for the 13 hour trip back to Kampala. Honestly, the trip back was luxurious compared to the journey there; the second bus had a much better suspension system that made most of the potholes disappear. Our time in Kampala included a bunch of different activities: we went to our church together on Sunday, walked the roads to Amanda’s school, and ate meals with the other missionaries who have become our friends, the Hoyts, Sinclairs, Heather, Gambles, Nichol, & Ebys. Before the Drissells left on Tuesday we walked up a big hill overlooking Lake Victoria and visited the future site of Westminster Theological College & Seminary (my current project). But let’s go back to the safari…

When we went to Sana Trekking on Monday, a really nice company representative, Agere, said the roads were muddy but passable, so we were all excited at the opportunity to visit the Masai Mara. In fact, had we tried to go a day earlier, a key bridge wouldn’t have been repaired, so we would have been turned away. Before we left the office, Agere said our safari driver would meet us at our guest house at 8:30 the next morning to drive us back to the office, where we would meet the rest of the party.

At 7:50 AM on Tuesday morning, I get a call from the front desk saying our driver was waiting downstairs. As I walked down, I was somewhat surprised (because “African time” is never early) but somewhat pleased, as this would lead Dave to feel like the company I picked was on top of things.

I walked downstairs, “Good morning! What’s your name?”

“I’m called Michael. And you’re David?”

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you Michael, but I didn’t think you were coming until 8:30, so we’re not quite ready yet. Can we get about 20 more minutes?”

“Sure,” he said, “the driver went out to get some petrol and will be back in a little.”

I walked back upstairs and informed everyone we had to get a move on it. Sana Trekking isn’t on time, they’re early!

At 8:15, Dave, Teresa, Amanda and I were downstairs. The driver was outside and everyone was excited. Dave and I withdrew our cash from the guesthouse safe and he gave $500 to me. Everyone else was milling around, getting their last minute things in order.

“Let’s do the payment now and then we’ll load everything into the van?” Michael said.

Sounds good, I thought, I had the cash there and didn’t particularly want to hold onto it, so I said, “Sure.”

Michael and I stepped aside, I gave him the cash, and he wrote me a receipt. He didn’t have the $40 change he owed me, but I wasn’t too worried about it. They were early!

We finished loading the van and started towards the office. It was an absolutely beautiful day and everyone was excited. Right before the office, Michael hopped out of the van to get our change while our group continued towards the company. We met Agere again and chatted about how nice of a day it was, how the rain had held off, and the animals we wanted to see.

Agere motioned to me to have a seat and opened up a book between us.

“So David, are you ready to pay for the safari?”

“We already have. I paid Michael at the guesthouse.” I smiled.

Agere looked confused. “Who’s Michael? I don’t know a Michael.”

Our hearts sank like a $1000 worth of quarters in Lake Victoria. This wasn’t happening. Other EMI people had used this company. They had a decent brochure. They were early!

Dave, Teresa, and Amanda started repeating these phrases: “Michael was at the guesthouse.” “He said he was with your company.” “He wrote us a receipt, see, it’s here!” “Michael knew the driver. They were talking and laughing together.”

Agere: “I don’t know Michael. No one named Michael works for this company.” Agere got on the phone and talked with the driver in Swahili, but it was quite difficult to decipher since we don’t actually speak Swahili. He got off the phone and said things we don’t remember. Agere and two other ladies started asking me for the emails that I brought to the office when we had come earlier. I didn’t have them but didn’t understand why I needed them either. They had seen them yesterday!

One of the ladies said she had to see the emails, so we walked over to an internet café to retrieve them. After she saw them, we walked back to the office and she explained what she thought was going on: the company employees had never seen my emails. Apparently, one person within the company, Nancy, was corresponding directly with me and then deleting the emails from the company server. Here’s why and how: In the safari business, people can earn a commission if they bring tourists to the safari company. I had corresponded directly with the safari company since it came recommended from my friend John, so the company was making all of the profit. Nancy decided she had a plan for getting the commission. She collaborated with Richard, aka “Michael,” to show up at our front gate on the morning of the safari. Nancy got all of the details right, my name, our guest house, the safari package and cost, everything except the 8:30 pickup time Agere and I agreed on at the office. In fact, Richard (“Michael”) even convinced our driver that we were his clients. Apparently, this hadn’t been a hard sell because Richard worked for the company in the past. And the receipt he gave us for the $1000? Well, Richard had left over receipts with the company name and logo used to check out vehicles, not to give clients.

So how did this happen? You may wonder, “How was she deleting emails from the server without people noticing?” Well, in Africa, internet and electricity are expensive, so why pay for them if you’re not using them all of the time? It appears as if someone at the company would go to the internet café a couple of times per day to check the email. There wasn’t a huge chance that someone would see my email one minute and then see it missing the next.

The end of this story is really the beginning of the next. Despite some hesitation, we decided to continue with the safari as planned. Agere and the other employees assured us that this was really an internal problem and wouldn’t affect what we were doing one bit. The only thing we needed to worry about was “having a good time” someone told us. And we did. I want to end this post for now, but I’ll leave you with two pictures. The first is of us getting pulled through the mud by a tractor (a common sight on this trip) and the second is of the sunset we saw on our way to the campsite. Enjoy!