April 5, 2012
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Angry Birds
By now 90 percent of the world has heard about the viral game called Angry Birds. It is a quirky game where you launch different types of birds at pigs that allegedly stole eggs and ate them. I love the game. If you ask Lizzy I am "semi-addicted" to it. Thanks Facebook for adding it to the lineup of games for play on the biggest social media website in the world!
Anyway, I have been acting like those stupid little birds lately. I get sooo frustrated with how the culture here in Uganda is to get as much money as possible for a service. I really miss having a set price for something and not having to negotiate or get taken advantage of. Oh Meijers... I miss you! Sadly this is something that is common all over the world. The US has had some distance from accepting what happens everywhere else and keeps its own way of doing things. I guess in some ways that is good, in others... not so much.
As we are building the clinic in Pallisa/Agule we have had to acquire TONS of materials, literally. I have had to negotiate for everything. I swear I could have gotten a better price on toilet paper, just kidding! Every piece of material had a starting price and after bickering for sometimes 30 minutes, a final price. For example, one day I bought timber, a 2x6 for 16,000 shillings. The next day, I found another person who ended selling me the pieces for 14,000 shillings each. It is an annoying game of finding suitable vendors and beating them up in prices. It was an hourly challenge to say the least.
However, sometimes it did not go the same way. There is always someone who thinks the white man has unlimited supplies of money. Those same people think they are due a portion of that unlimited supply. So they intentionally hike up their prices in hopes of taking advantage. One particular example comes to mind...
So Pallisa is a smaller town. There is limited supply of different things. One particular thing is Eucalyptus poles that are used for general construction. We use them for holding concrete forms up, for scaffolding, even for making ladders. They are pretty much needed at every job site. Well Pallisa has a limited supply. Typically they are pre-cut and for sale at some vendor, just like timber. But Pallisa is not that way. After using our limited contacts, we were told that they were only available if you went to the forest to get them yourselves, paying someone for the poles and cutting them down. We found this out by some random guy and his two buddies who volunteered the information in hopes of selling them and benefiting as a third party salesperson and as the labor to cut them down. So after having them hop in the bed of the truck and directing us to the forest, we approached the swampy land having the necessary wood available. The "volunteer", our random buddy who gave up this information, decided he would do us a "favor" and negotiate the price for the poles for us. Lucky us! After a good 5 minutes of discussion, he comes back to the truck to inform us of his "great" price he negotiated. He quickly stated a price, but in the same breath said another, higher price. Realizing that he did not raise the price first for negotiation. Instantly I was perturbed, as you can imagine. He said "the price is 5,000... 10,000." Obviously I do not go into situations like this deaf, dumb, and stupid. I knew what the going rate for these poles was in Kampala, as a reference point. So I knew that he was trying to pull a fast one. So I called over the woman who tends the forest. She was a very pleasant woman. I asked her how much and she politely answered... "they are 3,000 each." By now, I was annoyed by our buddies who came to "help", but first I arranged with the lady to get the necessary amounts I needed. Once I was done figuring that out with her, I tended to our friends... I got out of the truck to talk to the guys. Two of them were still in the bed of the truck. I said to them that they are deceptive and cheats. I was ashamed of their tactics of trying to take money. So I rebuked them and ordered them to get out of the truck so I could leave. That's right... I left them several miles from the town, opposite where they met us!
Now I knew that I had to come back and get the poles. I was just trying to get my point across. When we came back, those guys had helped cut and haul the wood to where we could load. So after loading, I gave them a lift back to town. Now I did not pass up the opportunity to give them another piece of my mind. I was very direct and told them that there should not one price for a Ugandan and another price for a white person. That is called stealing. I paid them a minimal amount for the 25 minutes of work they did. And I felt pretty good that I could teach them a lesson about life. I hope they tell others!
We are going back soon, to Pallisa. They all know what we are doing. They know where we are working. They know why we are doing what we are doing. I am excited to know that these people see the goodness of Christ. Even though we have shenanigans in how we teach people to act honorably. We are all quick to explain that we are just servants of the Kingdom. That through the providence of our Lord Jesus Christ a blessing has been given to this area. That this blessing will offer relief for people close to their home. So now a seed has been planted! I am praying for it to fall on fertile ground!
Chad Neeley
Volunteer Construction Coordinator - WWCS USA/Uganda
