Tuesday, February 8th, I made the biggest purchase of my life. I mean "biggest" in so many ways.
1. I have never spent so much money on any one thing, except for education, but that's an awesome intangible thing that no one can ever take away from a person (except for maybe by degenerative mental illness or something)
2. I have never owned any one thing that made me feel so (unwantingly) responsible, with so many legal implications and what feels like a gajillion strings attached
3. I rarely purchase things that are not easily carried, granted this thing will move on its own and with all my worldly possessions in it, but usually the stuff I buy fits in my backpack, a large suitcase, a guitar case, on my body, something of that sort..maybe this is tied to that overwhelming feeling of unwanted responsibility
For 8.5 million Ugandan shillings, I bought myself a 2-door black 1998 Toyota Rav-4. I still feel completely strange about it.
This purchase was no small feat either. It took nearly a month and the time and efforts of many people. First, I had to put the feelers out....ask different people about buying a car in Uganda. Feel out prices, models, and all the various strings attached (insurance, licenses, selling the car when I leave, etc. etc.). This way, people were aware that I was at least theoretically interested and I was doing my research on the possibilities that exist and what it would seriously involve.
Then, after some contemplation and various discussions, I decided to make the inquiries real. I notified different friends that I wanted to buy a car, please help me look. I told them that I wanted a small short chassis (what they call 1-door here) 4x4 in the range of 4-6 million shillings. 4-6 million shillings would buy me a junker and all kinds of grief probably, but I had to start low or they'd start bringing me stuff in the double digit millions....something I was not willing to pay.
One day, Boaz took me to a bond lot (where car owners drop off their car to have a middleman sell it for them for a cut) to look at a bunch of different cars, mostly Rav-4s. At this point I learned that there are only so many of the type of car I'm looking for....Suzuki Escudo, Mitsubishi something, Pajero, or Toyota Rav-4. I was told Pajeros overheat and lose value quickly, it won't sell well. Mitsubishis...I can't remember why, but they're also no good....also bad resale value. Suzukis and Toyotas are probably the most reliable vehicles, but Toyotas have the advantage of being very commonplace in Uganda (meaning, I can get it repaired and serviced all over the country, no problem and people like them, so it will sell quickly and for a good price). Suzukis are more rare and harder to sell. So it was set....we were looking for Rav-4s....now I was also starting to talk in the range of 6-8 million shillings.
Eventually, I recruited Lutale's help. I asked him to look at cars for me....I didn't want the sellers to see me. Once they know a "muzungu" wants to buy the car, they quote high and refuse to negotiate. They think money grows on trees in our cold countries of fat lonely people (ahh, stereotypes). Lutale had his friend Abdallah help and the next day, they found the car that I eventually bought. They negotiated the price down from 11 million to 9 and then drove it over to Makerere for me to see. It looked nice enough to me, but I needed a professional's opinion.
The next day, we took it over to the UNICEF offices and Mark had his driver take us to their mechanic. Islam, a kind of intimidating looking old man who'd probably scare me if he ever smiled, had his mechanics give it a quick look-over. They reported back that it was in fairly decent condition, the airbag light was on and the back tires need replacing, but it was generally good. Islam told me he'd value the car at 8-8.5 million.
I tried to get an idea for what the airbag problem could be and learned that it could be anything from a small wire misconnection to the airbags are gone to the computer has serious issues and this is just symptomatic. With this information, I told the seller maaaaaybe I'd pay 7 million for it. My argument....it's worth 8, but it's got all these things that have to be fixed, so with all those costs...if I buy it at 8, fix it, in the end I will have spent what it's worth...not to mention, we don't even know how much the airbag problem could cost. This got us to 8.5 million.
Then we took it over to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), where I had their transport people take a look at it for me. Festo, the transport captain, looked it over, had his mechanic look it over, had some of the drivers look it over; meanwhile, they murmured amongst themselves, jibbering away in Luganda. I had no idea what was going on, but I fed Festo some of the back story....how we started at 9 mil, went to the UNICEF mechanic and they said this and that and now we're at 8.5. Festo pitched 7.5 as the guys poked around at things under the hood. They told me all the main things were there though. The body is good, the engine is good, it's just little things here and there....he pulled me aside and asked me if I had the money, said I could buy it at 8.
The seller was stubborn though, he stayed at 8.5 for days. They had fixed the airbag problem, said it was just the wiring. Eventually Festo did a quick look around the market for me and told me I should buy it. Even at 8.5. I was getting slightly frustrated by this time anyway. I'd been in Kampala for nearly 3 weeks, when I'd hoped to be back in the field right away, and it seemed the car was more trouble than it was going to be helpful. I just wanted a way to move through the parks! All this effort was overwhelmingly discouraging. So I did it, I called Abdallah and Lutale and told them I had the cash, let's buy the car.
The next day Abdallah and the seller came to meet me at UWA. They took another look at the car, at the papers, at the fat stack of cash that I'd brought tied up in two rubber banded bundles and stuffed into a used envelope come from Benjamin in Germany via the U.S. Embassy's diplomatic pouch and started to fill out the paperwork for me. Festo, Abdallah and Rodney signed as witnesses, counted and paid over the cash, which Innocent (the seller) tucked into his left sock and pulled his tight jean leg over and then lastly, I nervously signed while Abdallah took photos on his phone camera because my little Freecycle hand-me-down had decided to stop working again.
Photos of this momentous moment taken by Abdallah on his camera phone:
Witnesses sign
I sign!
Post-signing and feeling awkward.
There I was with some papers, 8.5 million shillings no longer burning a hole through my pocket, and a car sitting out in the parking lot. I never felt more uncertain of what I had done.
I was unsure whether or not I'd made the right decision. Was I really one of those? A car owner? Had I gotten myself into more trouble than I was bargaining for? Not to mention, paying huge chunks of money for all that grief? Cars come with all kinds of issues, costs, accidents, repairs and servicing, fuel and emissions, not to mention eventually, inevitably, the thing will come to its resting place, leaching into the soils, back to where it was ripped out of the bowels of this beautiful Earth. I never thought I'd be buying a car, let alone, buy my first car in Uganda!
But there it is, sitting at the UWA office in the safely guarded parking lot, waiting for me...bizarre.
This Saturday, I will take it for its first test drive.....a good 7-8 hour roadtrip to Semuliki National Park out on the western border where the Semliki River winds its way, dividing Uganda from the DRC. For a month it will live in the parks with me, amongst the lions, the leopards, the elephants and kobs, the chimps and the mountain gorillas.
I think it needs a name.
1. I have never spent so much money on any one thing, except for education, but that's an awesome intangible thing that no one can ever take away from a person (except for maybe by degenerative mental illness or something)
2. I have never owned any one thing that made me feel so (unwantingly) responsible, with so many legal implications and what feels like a gajillion strings attached
3. I rarely purchase things that are not easily carried, granted this thing will move on its own and with all my worldly possessions in it, but usually the stuff I buy fits in my backpack, a large suitcase, a guitar case, on my body, something of that sort..maybe this is tied to that overwhelming feeling of unwanted responsibility
For 8.5 million Ugandan shillings, I bought myself a 2-door black 1998 Toyota Rav-4. I still feel completely strange about it.
This purchase was no small feat either. It took nearly a month and the time and efforts of many people. First, I had to put the feelers out....ask different people about buying a car in Uganda. Feel out prices, models, and all the various strings attached (insurance, licenses, selling the car when I leave, etc. etc.). This way, people were aware that I was at least theoretically interested and I was doing my research on the possibilities that exist and what it would seriously involve.
Then, after some contemplation and various discussions, I decided to make the inquiries real. I notified different friends that I wanted to buy a car, please help me look. I told them that I wanted a small short chassis (what they call 1-door here) 4x4 in the range of 4-6 million shillings. 4-6 million shillings would buy me a junker and all kinds of grief probably, but I had to start low or they'd start bringing me stuff in the double digit millions....something I was not willing to pay.
One day, Boaz took me to a bond lot (where car owners drop off their car to have a middleman sell it for them for a cut) to look at a bunch of different cars, mostly Rav-4s. At this point I learned that there are only so many of the type of car I'm looking for....Suzuki Escudo, Mitsubishi something, Pajero, or Toyota Rav-4. I was told Pajeros overheat and lose value quickly, it won't sell well. Mitsubishis...I can't remember why, but they're also no good....also bad resale value. Suzukis and Toyotas are probably the most reliable vehicles, but Toyotas have the advantage of being very commonplace in Uganda (meaning, I can get it repaired and serviced all over the country, no problem and people like them, so it will sell quickly and for a good price). Suzukis are more rare and harder to sell. So it was set....we were looking for Rav-4s....now I was also starting to talk in the range of 6-8 million shillings.
Eventually, I recruited Lutale's help. I asked him to look at cars for me....I didn't want the sellers to see me. Once they know a "muzungu" wants to buy the car, they quote high and refuse to negotiate. They think money grows on trees in our cold countries of fat lonely people (ahh, stereotypes). Lutale had his friend Abdallah help and the next day, they found the car that I eventually bought. They negotiated the price down from 11 million to 9 and then drove it over to Makerere for me to see. It looked nice enough to me, but I needed a professional's opinion.
The next day, we took it over to the UNICEF offices and Mark had his driver take us to their mechanic. Islam, a kind of intimidating looking old man who'd probably scare me if he ever smiled, had his mechanics give it a quick look-over. They reported back that it was in fairly decent condition, the airbag light was on and the back tires need replacing, but it was generally good. Islam told me he'd value the car at 8-8.5 million.
I tried to get an idea for what the airbag problem could be and learned that it could be anything from a small wire misconnection to the airbags are gone to the computer has serious issues and this is just symptomatic. With this information, I told the seller maaaaaybe I'd pay 7 million for it. My argument....it's worth 8, but it's got all these things that have to be fixed, so with all those costs...if I buy it at 8, fix it, in the end I will have spent what it's worth...not to mention, we don't even know how much the airbag problem could cost. This got us to 8.5 million.
Then we took it over to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), where I had their transport people take a look at it for me. Festo, the transport captain, looked it over, had his mechanic look it over, had some of the drivers look it over; meanwhile, they murmured amongst themselves, jibbering away in Luganda. I had no idea what was going on, but I fed Festo some of the back story....how we started at 9 mil, went to the UNICEF mechanic and they said this and that and now we're at 8.5. Festo pitched 7.5 as the guys poked around at things under the hood. They told me all the main things were there though. The body is good, the engine is good, it's just little things here and there....he pulled me aside and asked me if I had the money, said I could buy it at 8.
The seller was stubborn though, he stayed at 8.5 for days. They had fixed the airbag problem, said it was just the wiring. Eventually Festo did a quick look around the market for me and told me I should buy it. Even at 8.5. I was getting slightly frustrated by this time anyway. I'd been in Kampala for nearly 3 weeks, when I'd hoped to be back in the field right away, and it seemed the car was more trouble than it was going to be helpful. I just wanted a way to move through the parks! All this effort was overwhelmingly discouraging. So I did it, I called Abdallah and Lutale and told them I had the cash, let's buy the car.
The next day Abdallah and the seller came to meet me at UWA. They took another look at the car, at the papers, at the fat stack of cash that I'd brought tied up in two rubber banded bundles and stuffed into a used envelope come from Benjamin in Germany via the U.S. Embassy's diplomatic pouch and started to fill out the paperwork for me. Festo, Abdallah and Rodney signed as witnesses, counted and paid over the cash, which Innocent (the seller) tucked into his left sock and pulled his tight jean leg over and then lastly, I nervously signed while Abdallah took photos on his phone camera because my little Freecycle hand-me-down had decided to stop working again.
Photos of this momentous moment taken by Abdallah on his camera phone:
There I was with some papers, 8.5 million shillings no longer burning a hole through my pocket, and a car sitting out in the parking lot. I never felt more uncertain of what I had done.
I was unsure whether or not I'd made the right decision. Was I really one of those? A car owner? Had I gotten myself into more trouble than I was bargaining for? Not to mention, paying huge chunks of money for all that grief? Cars come with all kinds of issues, costs, accidents, repairs and servicing, fuel and emissions, not to mention eventually, inevitably, the thing will come to its resting place, leaching into the soils, back to where it was ripped out of the bowels of this beautiful Earth. I never thought I'd be buying a car, let alone, buy my first car in Uganda!
But there it is, sitting at the UWA office in the safely guarded parking lot, waiting for me...bizarre.
This Saturday, I will take it for its first test drive.....a good 7-8 hour roadtrip to Semuliki National Park out on the western border where the Semliki River winds its way, dividing Uganda from the DRC. For a month it will live in the parks with me, amongst the lions, the leopards, the elephants and kobs, the chimps and the mountain gorillas.
I think it needs a name.
No comments:
Post a Comment