Uganda: 1; Jody: 0

I think I lost my first round dealing with local authorities in Uganda. It’s a little bit difficult to explain what it is like dealing with people in authority here. I have slowly been collecting paperwork required to register as an organisation our education work with schools here. One of the hurdles was to get a letter from the local district office. Before I can go to that local district officer I need to go and see the district head of security for the area. A few months ago I approached the district head of security and discussed very clearly what I was doing and he gave me a long, ridiculous list of letters required from people and paperwork I needed. It took me a long time to get these letters. I even had Catherine helping me by following local officials to a local drinking place to get them to write a letter.

Alas, two weeks ago I had all the paperwork I was asked
! I handed it in, only to be told a week later that it was in a folder but not bound. They could not look at the documents until they were bound. I corrected this ov
ersight on my part.

Yesterday I was called back to this official’s office and presented with a long list of more letters and paperwork to gather. I then received a long lecture on how I needed to follow protocol. I asked for this official list of what was required, I said I needed this in writing. He then proceeded to give me a long lecture, how he didn’t have to answer to me, how he didn’t have to prove anything and I had to do anything he asked me to and he wouldn’t clear our paperwork until he got everything he personally wanted. At this stage I found it difficult to bite my tongue, I may have mentioned something about him just wanting to waste my time, didn’t see the point of
a lot of what he was saying, and then walking out of his office.

Consensus around me is he wants a bribe. And is going to make my life pretty difficult in the meantime. But he ain’t getting one from me!