Saturday, trip downtown on my own

Since I've been promising this for a while, I suppose I'd better actually write it. I fear I built up Saturday too much, and it won't really be nearly as interesting as it sounded like it would be. Oh well.

So, I started out by going to see the apartment, my only other prospect besides the nice but very far house in Nakasero. This one isn't super close (definitely not walking distance) but more manageable, and doesn't put as much traffic as humanly possible between itself and work, like the place in Nakasero did. Anyway, the people with the big house there decided not to renew their lease, so it became a non-option.

Anyway, I got there via special (as I've said, what we'd consider a cab) with Benon, one of the drivers I know from Jon and Sarah who stages near the bottom of their hill. He's really nice, and is actually who drove me in from Entebbe, also. I took a special on my own to see the other house, too, but it's still a bit new. Anyway, he remembers me, and knows Jon and Sarah well, so he knows their house and such.

So, I didn't have very good directions to the place, and the landlord was pretty hard to understand over the phone. He and Benon ended up talking and working out the directions, though even so, Benon was a bit unsure of where he was going. But eventually we found it, and the landlord was a polite older guy with a Rolex (I noticed this the next day, when I was handing him 1.4 million shillings...). The apartment itself turns out to be currently occupied by a woman involved in this same sort of work whose name I recognized from the housing email list (although I think her name came up because of a bigger place in the same compound, from when there was somebody else coming to work with Jon around the same time as me). Anyway, she was really nice, and had done some work with Question Box, though had to stop because of her other work. She knows a lot about it, and we're going to meet at some point while she's still here; she's got some documents that could be helpful, and advice on (e.g.) getting jobs here, and (e.g.) writing oneself into funding proposals and grants and such (that is -- if Question Box got more funding, some of that would be to pay me to keep working for them).

Anyway, so the conversation with her was very beneficial, in addition to seeing the place. It's a little studio, attached to the landlord's house, I think. It's got its own entrance, own bathroom, etc. The kitchen (such as it is) is pretty limited -- it's basically a little sink and counter, with a freestanding electric burner thingy, small fridge, and electric kettle...so, no oven, but that's alright. Most of the staple foods I make (uh, rice, pasta, different pasta, beans) and vegetables I'll make are stove-requiring. And yeah, lunch is provided on the weekdays at work (so in that respect I'm getting paid, by the way). But yeah, I was introduced to the place at 800,000 shillings/mo, which seemed alright ($380/mo), especially compared to the Bay Area. After I looked at it and told the guy I'd let him know as soon as possible (he wanted to know soon), I went about the rest of my day (see below). Later I got a text from Benon saying the landlord called him (I guess because they understood each other better? Didn't still have my number? I don't know) saying that he'd misspoken and the apartment was 700,000 -- about $330. Maybe he took my not having called him yet as indecision, I don't know. I told him I'd take it, though, and went the next day to pay him. I paid him two months rent on Sunday, which was why I was carrying 1.4 million shillings, which was a little uncomfortable (and the only time I'll probably ever hold more than a million of any currency...).

Getting to work won't be too bad...I'll have to walk (maybe)/special/boda (to be avoided) to the main road, and from there I can get a mutatu (also called a taxi; a bigger van that follows a route) to the bottom of the hill where Jon and Sarah's house and the office are. Should be pretty inexpensive, maybe a couple thousand shillings ($1) total each way, or so. Also, Jon talked to Rose, and it sounds like the budget should permit about 300,000 ($150) total for me for transit, which should pretty much cover my commute.

So anyway, after I got back from the place in the early afternoon, I decided to go downtown for the adventure, and also to get a new phone for my voice number, as discussed a couple of posts ago. This started with a walk down the hill to the bigger road, which was really my first time just walking around on my own. I felt a little uncomfortable, a little out of place, but it was alright. I got on a mutatu there headed downtown, which cost 700/= (about $0.35!) to go all the way there. It was crowded (about 7 or 10 people in it?) and somebody had a big bag of potatoes (Irish, as they call them), but not uncomfortable. I'll post a picture of one sometime, they're distinctive, these flat-fronted Toyota vans, painted white with blue checkers.

Anyway, the downtown area is really crowded. It transitions pretty quickly from the big state buildings and Western-style hotels to the dense, market-y area that comes a little later. People and traffic were both pretty thick all over, including in the roads. There were a ton of little shops and street vendors. I tried a bunch selling phones, and gradually got better at it...at the start they were asking like 100,000 for a pretty simple, plain phone. I got one place down to 55,000, but tried some others; having that one was helpful at the others. Anyway, the guy had definitely suggested the phone was unlocked, and it turned out not to be (carrier-locked to Zain/Celtel -- and I already had an MTN line, and kind of had to use them since they're Grameen's partner; theyr'e also what everybody has so it's cheaper). He told me about an unlocking joint, and it sounded cheap enough I was willing to do that -- but (according to them -- and they seemed to know what they were talking about and have the tools to do unlocking) that model couldn't be unlocked by them. So then I went back to the place I bought it, where the guy was going to let me go up to the slightly higher end unlocked version of the same thing that sold for 80,000+, but he'd do 75. I got him down to 70,000 (which he had to ask his boss about!), so I felt like all in all I'd done reasonably well for myself, haggling-wise. It was, after all, a brand new unlocked handset for like $35 -- not bad at all. Simple, yes. But well made (and with a built in flashlight!). It uses the non-US GSM bands (it's dual-band) but, oh well, the times it's most useful to me will be outside of the US where I don't want to carry my iPhone and/or use a separate line for data.

I also withdrew some of the cash I needed to pay my rent downtown, and some more at the Barclay's bank near the house/office. That reminds me, one thing I've noticed here -- not just downtown, but everywhere -- I've probably seen the most and most visible and biggest firearms here I ever have before, and that's including Alturas. Now, these aren't people just casually carrying them, of course, but there are armed guards all over the place -- it's weird, especially given how little crime I hear there is (or maybe that's why?). A lot of banks, fancy houses, stuff like that have guys outside with old-looking rifles, sometimes, or sometimes fairly modern-looking assault-type rifles like AKs, or sometimes big pistol-grip pump shotguns...it's a little intimidating, but seems very casual. I guess it's not too different from cops or security guards with pistols in the States, just more conspicuous (and accurate and powerful).

Anyway, the day was pretty exciting, though I don't think I've conveyed it all that well. I got a mutatu back to the main road near home and walked back, as well. The upholstery was leopard print, I couldn't help but notice.

Well, I've been typing all day, so that's going to have to do it for now. Hopefully next time I'm someplace interesting like that I'll have the nerve to a few pictures for you (I didn't really this time, I felt a little weird about it -- and likely will continue to, but I can probably manage one here and there).