Africa time at its finest

Almost exactly 8 months ago, I first walked onto the Makerere Campus and began the process of finding a program of study, registering, and attempting to earn a degree from my time over here.

Several times last semester, after having gone through the archaic registration process, I attempted to get my student ID card. Each time, I was met with the same response: “not ready yet, try again in a few weeks.” I eventually gave up on getting the card last semester and decided I would just get it when I came back for my spring semester.

At the end of last week, just before the 4 day Easter Holiday, I again went through the steps of completing an outdated registration process. Here are the highlights of the process (I’ve probably forgotten a step or two along the way):

1. Fill out two hard copies of desired class schedule form
2. Obtain proof of payment
3. Obtain proof of receipt of payment
4. Make photocopies of everything
5. Take two copies of everything to Registrar
6. After “verification” by Registrar (pretty sure they never actually looked at mine), have class schedule form signed
7. Take form to different room in Registrar
8. Obtain slip showing completion of registration
9. Take slip to Faculty of Technology Registrar for signature
10. Make photocopies of completed registration slip
11. Return one photocopy to Faculty of Technology Registrar
12. Guard original copy of registration slip with my life

I remember complaining about the registration process at Iowa State a time or two...if I had only known then what I know now!

At the end of this process, I received instructions to wait for two days before going to get my student ID. On Wednesday of this week, I decided to try my luck. The result:

“Not ready yet, try again in a few weeks.”

Maybe they’ll have my student ID card ready by the time I leave in 7 weeks, but I’m not going to hold my breath!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I was telling this story - half joking/half venting - to a colleague over here and he reminded me that sometimes we need to keep everything in perspective and directed me to a webpage with these satellite images of the world at night (I've highlighted where I am on the second map):