We had this constant joke in Uganda about the man with the key. It always seems in some parts of Africa, whenever you have a task that needs to be accomplished, that there is a man with a key that is necessary to accomplish this task, and he is missing.
In Uganda, when we were tiling the floors of the bedrooms at the Chimp House, the tilers came, on the scheduled day, with all of the cement and all of the tiles, but none of the tools and told me, grim expressions on their faces, that they could not begin work.
Of course, the man with the key to the room with all of their tools was “gone.” Considering at the time we were rushing to finish before Debby got home, it was especially annoying, but it wasn’t the last time!
When leaving Goma and staying in Gisenyi at the Kivu Sun, I went for a super early morning swim, and had to endure the freezing cold mountain-lake air afterwards, because there were no towels available. The man with the key to the towel cabinet was “gone.”
And now, here we sit, waiting, for another man with a key.
Which, hopefully, will be retrieved today!
If anyone wants a funny look at the life here, Dr. Ian Clarke, a nifty friend I met in Uganda, wrote a book called, conveniently, “The Man With the Key Has Gone.”
I’d definitely recommend checking it out!
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