Mobility means adventures.

So, now that we have a car, we can go on adventures, right!? Husband came home, Wednesday of last week at about noon saying, “Get dressed! We are buying a car today and you are driving.”

Yeah! My house arrest is over! Yeah I get to drive where there doesn't appear to be any traffic laws.

It is essentially a work vehicle which will take Stephen to all the places he needs to go to manage this or that project/business/whatever. Managing the family property in Bukuya now requires another level of scrutiny, so, ease of movement has become much more necessary.

Only, one small issue. I am the only one with a drivers license. Here we drive on the left side of the road. Driver’s controls all switched around. So, I have to drive in this madness. Saturday, I experienced the range of madness that exists out there. There is Kampala and Jinja Road that leads from Kampala. This road is traffic jam central. Then there is the road that runs from Kaligi to Mukuno. My husband’s home and gardens are on this road as well as one of his businesses. This road is paved but very dangerous because since it was paved the edges of the road have receded and broken off, many places have deep ravines you could fall into and the road itself is only wide enough for one car to pass in many places. Additionally, it is heavily used by cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. Then there is the road from Mukuno to Kisoga and Katosi. It is not paved. However, there is currently a company working on constructing a paved road through there. On Saturday we drove all these roads.

When I drive I have to get Stephen to tell me what the traffic laws are in the moment. It’s been quite the married life experience. On the road from Mukuno to Katosi after a rain, I’m driving through a stretch that has been flattened by the construction company and it is simply a wide stretch of slick red mud.

Stephen tells me, “drive in the middle of the road” I look at this span and respond, “Where is the middle? It all looks like the middle.”

On the way back from Mukono to Kaligi, after an excellent dinner at a neat, nice place with wide open spaces and freshly washed windows--This feels amazing in a place where grit and dirt and dust are the norm—Stephen tells me, “I’m going to drive the Mukono to Kaligi Road.” The cops aren’t out and somebody who knows the road should drive it in the dusk/dark. I was relived and happily took the passenger’s seat and buckled everyone in. Then he started driving that road. Naturally Stephen is trying to avoid a head on collision on the right, while a train of cars drive with their brights on. On the left side, where I am sitting, I see the pavement end and a ravine approaching me head on. I scream brace my arms and legs and we bounce hard into a pothole. Then there is the motorcycle we are about to hit and the guy on a bicycle who is barely visible next to the blinding headlights of oncoming traffic.

The twins are in the back, “Mommy, why you screaming? Mommy, you scared? It’s really bumpy.”

Sorry girls, “Mommy just scared. It’s okay. Sorry, honey. I’ll relax and just let you drive.”

Only problem is that I wasn’t drunk nor did I close my eyes. Not even 2 minutes later…I’m screaming again.

The next ravine approached, this one was much deeper and I screamed again as there is this terrible thud and a long, horrible scraping noise, as we come off the road completely and land in somebody’s grassy yard. Somehow we avoided the cycles and the people or they avoided us.

I’m panting. My heart is pounding. And Stephen is getting out of the car and telling me that I am going to drive. I agree. I get out and the car doesn’t appear to be broken. I had to calm down a bit before pulling out on the road again and obviously something was wrong. We pulled off again on a fat muddy space in front of a dark building and realize we have a flat tire. We assess the situation and realize our new to us minivan’s back hatch-back door doesn’t open and the nut to release the spare tire is in that door frame and we don’t have a jack. Otherwise, I was getting the tools out to get this done. So, Stephen took a motorcycle back to Mukono to get a mechanic to help us. The mechanic brought his own jack and worked through the issues. We examined the tire and there was a 2 inch tear in the sidewall of the tire.

What did this cost? I saw money coming out of the wallet left right and center but was afraid to ask.

Dinner for 4: 28,000 UGX = $8.50

What the mechanic said he was charging for the job when Stephen got him at the shop: 3,000 UGX = $ 1

What the mechanic charged after he found a Muzungo in the car: 11,000 UGX = $3.34

Lesson learned: priceless

We proceeded down the road much more cautiously. I told Stephen, “I don’t care how slow people think I am, I prefer that to an accident, someone killed, a fine or a broken car. Because all that is a whole lot more expensive and terrible. We are lucky that we just had a flat. Also, we are not going to drive this road at night until we are seasoned at driving it during the day. And we need to take defensive driving lessons.