um, whatever you want to call this

If you see water on the ground and it hasn’t rained in the last few hours, its probably some sort of urine. My boda drove thru some on one of the main streets. Thankfully he could slow down cuz he saw the pipe positioned to spew over the road. As Bryce remarked, you couldn’t pay me enough money to walk down in the ditches along the roads.

Im learning a lot about rugby and cricket and football(soccer). Henry, the south African, just gave me a history lesson of south African sports before and after appartide. They have quite a bit of pride in their teams’ abilities. And a serious rivalry with the aussies and new Zealanders. Im watching rugby now. It is a man’s game; no pads and few regulations about tackles. Until the ref blows his whistle, they keep passing, and running, and tackling. Even after a tackle to the ground, they keep crawling or pass it to the next guy to run and get tackled. Or they run with someone hanging off them trying to take them down. It has less talking and more actual play time than American football. And no tight pants. William Webb Ellis started the game of rugby from soccer in the English town of rugby. I kinda like watching this game. Henry promises to make me into a rugby fan before I leave.

Its amazing what control money has over our attitudes and outlook. Money is one day late getting to us and of course most of us are out of money. We all give into the pot to keep the household going as we wait for the payday. That’s just how we live. So we all sat at our favorite coffee shop javas as we heard that the money would be late. And morale fell. Come-on people, its only money. Its not even gone, its just late. We still have food and water and a place to sleep inside mosquito nets. Why does money affect us so much? I have a few theories. 1. It’s a cultural sign of status to be able to buy whatever you want. 2. The lenders are ruthless about deadlines and then there is your credit score. Didn’t the song “secret agent man” criticize the practice of giving someone a number and taking away their name? in our society, we are defined by our credit score to a large extent. What we are able to get or buy is based on your credit score. Im sorry, I am not a number. I envy the Ugandans some days. They love on almost nothing and they are happy. I refuse to be defined by my wallet. So now the last theory 3; Honor. It used to be dishonorable to have debtors or to not be able to pay them. Back then money was just one part of the honor system. I think that connotation of honor to paying on time and being solvent with money. i doubt one of these theories fully explains why money controls our morale, but a mixture might.

After dinner I decided to buy us all a big box of wine since I did still have money. So jp, Bryce and I sat around watching tv, drinking cheap wine, laughing, and bonding. Oh, and I got to introduce them to leverage since most tv here is reruns. These are the good times. Band together and laugh or go sit alone sulking. Your choice.

oh, and there were parots at the shop yesterday. small gray with bright tails. so pretty and so smelly.