the wildest.

It was my first trip to Uganda. The last week of my trip - I had been running my tiny little world for 3 weeks, and I think I learned more in that time than I learned in my last year of college. I'm sitting in my office, with my trusty (adopted) watchdog at my feet and in walk 5 gigantic men. I mean, they were huge. Each one probably the size of two of my brothers. I had my confident manager self on, so I welcomed them in and asked what I could do for them. They proceeded to begin asking invasive questions about my office.

"Madam, we are from the police department. How many non-Ugandans are in your office?" "One. Me." (surprised faces) "Do you have a work visa?" "No, a tourist visa." "Madam, you are not here legally." "Yes I am, I work for the United States Agency for International Development. The United States Government." "Mzungu, if you don't have a working visa - you will be in violation of the Ugandan immigration rules. We will be forced to report you to the police."

At this point, my dog is barking at the intruders (yes, thank you Tequila!!!), and my driver Big John is standing intimidatingly in the doorway. I realize that these men are not as scary as I thought, and then I raised myself to my full height, and told the men, "Gentlemen, I am on my way to Kampala in the morning. I will check in at the American Embassy and then I will send a copy of the visa to the police office." (that's the police) The men left, and a few staff came into my office to ask me what went down. I explained what the men said, and my team said, "Oh those thugs just wanted Christmas." (meaning they wanted $$$$!)

Of course, I had to report the 'incident' to my boss, as well as our US Government counterparts. it was totally embarassing that I never asked for their names or identification - I was cowed by a few idiot thugs. Can't believe I was so naive! I was grateful for the presence of Big John and Tequila, though. As were my parents when I told them the story. Big John always took such good care of me!

here's the police barracks I would have gone to if I had answered those thugs the wrong answer: