June 16

One of my new favorite things to do is to go and get my shoes cleaned. These guys set up outside barber shops and clean and repair shoes. There's a couple of dudes in Wandegeya (the suburb where Makerere is) who I've been getting to clean my shoes. It's kind of fun . . . you just sit there and shoot the breeze with these dudes and they clean your shoes (or repair them if you need it) for only 500 Ush (about a quarter). I told them that I usually do it myself, but they are so good at it and so fast that I can't get motivated to buy the stuff here, and since I didn't bring my kit from home, I'm happy to support them. I think they like me, and we generally have a good time laughing at the ladies who are wearing some sort of ridiculous sport sandal while their heels are being repaired. This really fat bitchy lady came to rip the guy a new one about not having her stuff done in time, so we had several laughs at her expense after she took her newly repaired and cleaned shoes away while still wearing the goofy nike sandals with a business suit. That was fun.