Friends can be funny. Just when you think you know the sort of friend that is best for your kids, along comes someone unexpected in a clown outfit.
I’m thinking of Moses, the sort of character I’ll have to help you imagine. Think leaning back, way back, on his hot-rod chopper, so far back that he’s looking into the clouds, the clouds in the sky here in Uganda, a country that you might imagine wouldn’t have even one such bike among its millions of motorized wheels on the road.
Now think swimming goggles. And winter toque. And girls’ running shoes. And ripped jeans. And now imagine this Ugandan boy-man laughing like the wind.
He comes to the house every Saturday to teach the kids how to dance. (Usually he’s dressed better, which, you’ll see later, is a big deal around here.)
Sometimes, before or after the dance lesson, everyone gets distracted by the bike, though, and Moses has lately been seen roaring around campus with a couple of kids, my kids, – one sitting high on the seat behind him, one low on the gas tank in front – as happy as any kids on the planet.
The motorcycle, with its recent paint job, now looks like a high-flying American flag. And while riding on top of the colourful gas tank, eyes squinted, grin wide, Jon now likes to declare “I’m an American citizen!”
We’ll have to do something about this, obviously.
More so, this is the sort of amusement that might get one thrown in jail at this Ugandan university. In fact, my wife and I once sprung Moses from the holding tank that is here on the far side of campus.
That was the day when my phone rang and, on the other end, Moses said, ‘Mr. Thom. Come and get me. I’m in jail.’
For more on that, see http://thomasfroese.com/2012/dress-code-allows-casual-attire-so-why-this-senseless-harrassment/
To see the cartoon of My Bride and I getting Moses out from behind those bars, see here http://techstuff.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/20120514-standard-dresscode.pdf
And for more on strange but true friends, see http://www.thomasfroese.com/friends/