I believe people are the same everywhere. There are families who love one another, people who go to work to support their loved ones, meals eaten, parties to celebrate successes, mourning to deal with losses. Sin problems like addictions, jealousy, and stealing are everywhere. People are the same everywhere.
How things get done can differ drastically from what you consider normal. Like going to work may mean digging by hand for a living, driving a lorry, teaching seven year olds, or even being a boda boda driver. Your Sunday dinner may look very different than someone enjoying a meal from Tanzania or even Spain. Or even the normal time you eat dinner. Transportation could mean your feet, a bicycle, a motorcycle, a boat, a car, a bus, a plane, a subway… Weddings could be a grand affair or a simple ceremony. Burials could be a short speech graveside or two days of gatherings celebrating life. Or even getting electricity can be different.
Electricity
Beverly laughing as the device tells her it failed once again.
Previously, I was living in New Mexico, in the United States. There we use electricity, then the company sends us a bill telling us how much we used, and we pay it. Either electronically online, by sending a check in the mail, or going to the company in person to pay.
Electricity works a little differently in Uganda. A monitoring device is given to each home (or each electric meter on the property) and you pre-fill it, paying first then using the electricity you already purchased. When your prepaid electricity is about the run out the device emits a loud beeping sound. You then get your mobile phone (it is common in Uganda to have money on your mobile phone, they call this “mobile money”) and prepay for more electricity. When payment has been processed, you get a text message back from the electric company with a code. You enter this code into your monitoring device to fill it back up, the beeping turns off, and then you are good to go until it gets low and beeps again. Sounds pretty straightforward, right?
As with everything in life there are hiccups at times. This week when the device started beeping we were getting ready to eat dinner. Beverly stopped what she was doing, purchased more electricity on her mobile phone, and received the code to refill the device. She entered the code and the display said FAILED and started beeping again. She tried four more times, failing each time, before we decided to eat dinner. The beeping continuing from behind the closed door. She continued to try many, many more times getting FAILED notices each time. The electricity ran out and lights went off. There is a solar panel on the property that powers a few lights for times like these so it was not pitch black inside. After about six hours of entering the code, the machine finally accepted it and refilled the meter. Lights back on!
Both locations have electricity you pay for and, yes, how you do that differs a little. I do not think one way is better than the other because the end result is the same. How things get taken care of may be different where you are but things still get done, right? Is there just one way to do things?
