Just a typical day really. Frantic phone calls, lots of meetings, a new housemate, a blown tire and no milkshakes.

I was called to ameeting with the folks at St John’s and I asked Fred to go with me to get a feel for how things work. He was happy to go. I find him to be very excited about anything that has anything remotely to do with computers. It’s a sickness, his fascination with computers. Completely unhealthy, and exactly the way I started off, which I guess means that the ends justify the means. (Because I’m well adjusted and mostly sane). =P

We took measurements of the classroom and talked about what kind of furniture we’ll need to fit 30computers into the little computer room.

I spent hours tonight measuring computers, figuring out how much area a typical student needs (24″ deep, 27″ wide) and translating all that into Keynote so I could mess with the room layout and order proper tables.

I made everything to scale (120pixels=1foot) and it was cool seeing it all come together (on paper at least). There’s plenty of power (lightning bolts), and assuming I can get 4’x9′ tables made instead of 4’x8′, the classroom should come together quite nicely.

Here’s the final reult: St Johns Layout.

Ronnie (cargo agent, not thief) called and told me the tax issue had been sorted out and I needed to pick up this shipment today or they were going to charge me like 680,000UGX (like $340) for storage fees. Per day. Oh, and the taxes were going to be $350, and the processing and handling charges were going to be another $150. Spending $500 for a shipment of 30 donated laptops and tons of donated network gear is one thing, but $340 for a day of storage is just insane. Looking  at the clock and realizing it was 1:00, I did the math and realized I could just make into Entebbe by 4:00, get the shipment and be back by 8:00, which was well after dark. Driving at night is risky (“dark road”) and doing it with thousands of dollars of computer gear strapped to the roof is even riskier.But I was determined to avoid the storage fee, so I set my mind to the task, leaned into the accelerator, and feeling the truck’s turbo kick in, I just knew

*POP*

*HISSSSSSSS*

*thup thup thup thup*

*HISSSSS*

IMG_1392

It was a sign. Or a spiritual joke. Like

Satan: “Let me spear a six-inch piece of metal through his tire. That’ll send him off the deep end.”

God: “Fine. Go ahead.”

I know. Not funny, but the fact that my tire blew right next to a kind-hearted mechanic who worked for the Ugandan army is pretty darned funny. Jon-Paul was a mechanical wizard. He really knew how to change a tire. He used leverage and fulcrum techniques and a big rock and between him and Fred, who insisted on helping as well, we were back on the road in no time, but I knew Entebbe would have to wait. We really needed to fix the tire. Heading off on a six-hour drive in Africa without a spare is dumb.

So I called Ronnie and asked him to repeat the storage charges (I’m masochistic that way) and he told me it was 80,000UGX, or like $40. Not 680,000UGX. Either I need Q-Tips, or we got the frequent importer discount.

Either way, we’re headed to Entebbe tomorrow for shipment #2! I’m pretty excited! Thanks for the donations!