At first the change of pace in Africa was refreshing but now its getting ridiculous at times. In the US, we are always in a rush and we always have to get things done at warp speed. Well here it doesn’t quite work that way.
So yesterday we decided to have lunch at a restaurant called Oasis of Life, a “British-European Cuisine” place. I really wanted to just have a regular meal and something that was fulfilling and tasted good. So we get there at about 1:30pm…..The other 3 girls ordered spaghetti/pasta dishes and I ordered a chicken/potatoes/vegetable meal. Why did it take an hour and a half for our food to come? And it’s not like we had bread or a salad to munch on in the meantime. I was like did they go out back kill the chicken and then bring it to the table? It was so ridiculous because we had to get back to work…but again there was no point in even being mad. In the US you could complain and maybe they’ll discount your food or even make it free. Here they would probably smile or laugh at you if you got mad for that. And to add insult to injury the food wasn’t even good. The pasta was mad overcooked and sticky and my dish didn’t really have any flavor. Oasis of Life my ass…..Never again.
Just in general the theme here seems to be waiting for someone. Like one time at work a guys told us he’d be back in 5 minutes. 2 hours later he showed up to talk to us about TASO stuff. We told the guy here at the guesthouse that we’d need our breakfast by 8am (latest) so we could get to work by 8:30….here he comes at 8:25 (only after we asked him about breakfast around 8:05) with eggs, fruit and tea….not even a Continental breakfast. It’s clearly a cultural thing and this is why black people have CP time so ingrained in our culture. But this is like another level of CP time. Its gonna take much more time to get used to.
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lol. this is proof that CP time originated in africa. thank you for proving my hypothesis correct. its funny because my professor is nigerian and she shows up to our 2.5 hour trip like 40 minutes late daily. then she giggles and jokes around for about 20 minutes. then she tries to jumple 2.5 hrs worth of work in the last hour. i think it really must be an thing with african culture. i get annoyed with her so i cant even imagine how annoyed and frustrated you must be with time over there. wheeewww!!! sorry the food was bad too. do you have a mailbox or something. maybe i can mail you some seasoning if its possible or not to expensive. anyway, hang in there sombo.
ReplyDeleteLMAO! CP time originated in Africa and is clearly in our genetics...we can't help it! I have a mail address here at TASO but imma try and just tough it out wit the food LOL...thanks Lenny!
ReplyDeletei had a teacher who said it was a purely european thing to deal with specifics in time...but yeah thats craziness, 10-15 mins late, i can deal, but any more than that is excessive
ReplyDeleteSombo your blog is so entertaining at the same time a reminder of how it used to be while I was there. I am so glad you are having fun… from the previous fellows I heard that Oasis of life was closed..i was really sad. I am glad they are still open. You guys should try their fish dishes it is so good…their fish and chips and their fried tilapias …we used to go there a lot despite the wait…. One of the timely restaurants we found in Mbale is Dawate it is right across from Happy supermarket. It is an Indian place their food is delicious and you get your food under 30min usually. We used to go their a lot for lunch since it is closer to TASO. You guys should try it out… keep up I’m loving your blog.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Meiti
Thanks for the tips Meiti! We actually went to Dawat for the first time this Saturday...it was delicious!! So good! I'll definitely be going there again! Thanks for reading :-)
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