My housemate, Kate, and I went to get chapatti. Remember, chapatti is the amazing Ugandan tortilla that is one of the best flat breads I have ever put in my mouth.
Our house sits on a hill and if you go down the hill, it is slums on either side; this slum area is appropriately called "the go down". The go down has probably 8 chapatti stands, so we didn't think we would have any trouble getting a chapatti.
We went to the first stand. I walk up and say nothing, but the guy says "not yet" . . . not yet what? . . . i was really confused. So, I ask him what he is talking about, and he just repeats himself. So, i finally deduce, that although he has a table full of dough balls (that just need to be rolled flat and put on the hot plate), he is not currently making chapattis, even though he has a customer willing to buy them.
So, we go across the street (literally) and there are 2 guys frying up chapattis. We ask them for 6 chapattis and they say "yes, 3,000". Now 300 Ugandan Shillings is about $0.15, but the guy directly across the street and the other stands I have gone to sell chapatti for 200 which is about $0.10. So, the price difference is very small, but I hate being taken advantage of, so we say "no! we can get it for 200 just up the road" and walk away. They don't even stop us, even though they know we will get it for 200 elsewhere.
So, we go to another stand. Once again, this stand has rolled up dough that is ready to be rolled out and fried. There are 2 guys behind the counter and I make my order and they stare at me. From my experience here, when people don't understand you, they just stare. So, I repeat myself slower, and the guy says "It's over." And I was like, what!?!?! . . . He said "its over" as if he was breaking up with, but that couldn't be it. And the dough was there, so they can't be finished making chapattis . . . then finally the guy that I bought chapattis from last time I came to this stand showed up and said they would fry some up for us.
It was mind boggling that people at these shops were so unwilling to fry up chapattis. I mean, they are chapatti stands frist of all. Second, these things are really cheap, we are in a really poor area, and I doubt they get many orders that large. So, this should be a great opportunity to get some business and keep business from us. The capitalist mindset just really has not set in among the chapatti dealers of the Naguru go down of Kampala. Not to mention that once again, I am having communication breakdown left and right!
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Thought you should know, I giggled while reading this whole thing. Oh, poor Adam! Props for the title too. It sounds like a Monty Python sequel.
ReplyDeleteI ran into the "not yet" issue frequently in Mukono (which was rather frustrating since after a long days work all I wanted was some chapat!) I once mentioned it to a local friend and she said something about taxes and time of day. Too early, and the police apparently might charge a higher tax than they do in the evenings so while a stand might set up at 3pm, they might now start frying til 6 or so, depending. I'm not sure how much validity there is to all this; if the tax is real and if its even enforced, but I thought it might be an interesting thought to share.
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