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Africa Stories ..................................................................................................................... These are stories from or about Africa.It is a combination of our experience in Africa, and what some people in the West know about Africa We will try to keep posting stories from and about Africa on this page
1. The SafeWay Story A couple of weeks ago I went to a SafeWay store in San Jose California. I do love visiting convenience stores because there is always something to laugh about. You always get something amusing, funny and exciting at the convenience stores, and this day was no exception. My main reason for going to SafeWay was to wire some money to my family in Uganda through Western Union. When I got to the Western Union area, I picked up the money transfer forms, filled them up and gave it the the agent who was very earger to serve me. Very good customer care huh!!!! When I gave him my forms, duly filled, he asks "Where are you sending the money?" Uganda in Africa was my reply. He then goes to his computer and searches on his records for close to 45 seconds. After what seemed like eternity going through his records, I see this look on his face like a kid who is lost and needs to be given directions to stores. Then he asks "how do you spell Africa?" I spell it for him and he is like " Sir I can't find Africa on the list, I don't think we do money transfer to Africa?" When this new buddy told me this, I immediately knew what was going on. This gentleman was no different from many people in the United States who don't know where Africa is. They have only heard about it on the news on CNN, or one of the news channels. Or sometimes on the Discovery Channel.They don't know that Africa is a continent not a country. So I politely tell him to check under U not A (for Africa) and he would find Uganda on the list of countries that is served by Western Union. This guy was so surprised that I knew more stuff on his computer than he did. But ofcourse I couldn't blame him but instead I went ahead to tell him about, the fact that there are over 60 countries in Africa, with more than 200 languages and hundreds of ethnic tribes,yet with all these many groupings, people still live in harmony with each other. I told him about how when I was growing up, we spoke close to 8 different languages in our house because in my extended family,my dad spoke one language, my mom spoke another, my auntie spoke another, and we lived in a city speaking another language, yet the official language was another. This gentleman was so amazed yet delighted to learn about the diversity in Africa. He appreciated the geography that I got to teach him. Ranging from the stories about river nile, to egypt, to everything he wanted to know including the kenya masai maraa. That is Africa !!!! Sorry am not a great story teller, but there will better stories in our more stories link soon. | | |
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