The Real World

Outside your parents gates and protection the world is different. Here in the big cities in Africa it is important to be very careful when walking around town. The crime rate is very high here in Kampala, where the Bishop and I have been staying this past week. Pick-pocketing is the most common offense. It very easy to get pick-pocketed because when walking around town people are in close proximity with one another

Today the Bishop and I had business to attend too in town. A young gentlemen named Alison accompanied us. Alison is a friend of the Bishop and also a student studying computers. I have been teaching him computer science the past couple days.

While running errands with the Bishop we came across something we could not complete right away. The Bishop wanted some receipts and asked for them to be printed. Unfortunately the printing would not be done and able to be picked up until 7:30pm. So the plan was for Alison to stay behind and pick up the printing, then make his way back to the Bishops house. The three of us were planning on traveling to Arua tomorrow, where we will catch a plane to Sudan.

While reading the newspaper the Bishop saw an article about the con men and woman of Kampala. He pointed it out to me, and told me some rules of thumb. He explained how since there are so many people in town, if you see the same person 3 times, you are in trouble. He further explained the process these con men and woman undergo while attempting to rob you. What they typically do is take a piece of cardboard and fold it in half with a United States $100 dollar bill on the outside. It is usually a fake $100 dollar bill, and the idea is to make it look like a wad of money. Then what they do is throw it at your feet, and scream “God is with us my friend.” Normally when a person unexpectedly sees a wad of money they are stunned. Realizing this, these con men and woman take advantage of that moment of absentmindedness. They tell you to follow them to a place where it is less crowded so they can split the money with you. It makes a matter of seconds to get from the main road to a back alleyway, and once there they will rob you properly. The Bishop also told me about the dangers of riding the motorcycle taxies, also called bodaboda. Bodaboda is made up word in the Swahili language that means motorcycle taxi. Around 10:00pm the van taxies are finished for the night, however the motorcycle taxies continue all night. The problem with the bodaboda is you never know what kind of person the driver is, especially at night.

By the time it was 8:45pm, and we hadn’t heard from Alison, the Bishop and I began to wounder what the situation was. After the trying to call Alison many times without an answer, he called back. Alison told us that there was a situation with the man on the bodaboda. He had taken Alison to the wrong place. Alison should have realized he was being trapped because the man was offering such a low price for transporting him it should have raised suspicion in his mind. We could overhear the argument Alison was having with the man, telling him that he needs to leave, threw the phone. Suddenly the line went dead. The Bishop and I began to worry. He tried calling Alison back several times, but no answer. Without knowing what else we could do, the Bishop had everyone gather in the front room of his house and started praying. Alison had been conned. At that point we didn’t know whether Alison would be robbed of everything on his person, or if he would even survive the night. It was a very intense prayer lasting around 10 minutes. Just after the prayer ended the Bishop's phone rang. It was Alison. The police found him and rescued him from being conned. After being reassured everything was now okay and Alison was safe. The Bishop raised his hands and announced, “The Lord has heard our prayers.”

Alison, Bishop Peni and I