Monday, December 22, 2008

Back in Uganda



So basically the story is that I cycled down to Lilongwe, Malawi. And had many adventures and so forth. Then since it's almost Christmas, I found a safe place to store my bike and got on the bus. I traveled three days and three nights to finally reach Kampala, Uganda.

This is a picture of Dad from when we went to Jinja, Uganda, in July and I discovered the macro button on my camera. If you look carefully you can see he cut himself shaving.

When my two older brothers graduated from high school and moved to the United States, Dad presented each of them with a razor. The thing is the new kind of razor blades are the biggest scam ever. Everyone knows it doesn't cost Gillette $1.45 to make a razor blade. When Dad saw that soon you wouldn't even be able to buy the older style razors he bought extra and stored them for when his sons started to shave.

Somehow, though, I missed this little coming of age ceremony when I graduated.

Anyway fast forward a decade. I'm living in Fremont, California. I work as an engineer for a computer company in Silicon Valley. Dad and Mum are visiting.

Dad sits down next to me on my bed. "Son," he says, "You know how when you graduated from high school I gave you a razor?"

"Uh... No Dad." I respond, "That was only Noel and Jason. I never got a razor."

"Oh," says Dad. He looks relieved. "Well it turns out the new razors with the three blades give a better shave." Dad stares at the wall for a moment thinking. "I don't know. Perhaps it could also be they use lower grade steel in the thin blades these days. It seems like the thin blades don't keep their edge like they should."

"Ah well." He says as he puts his hand on my knee and starts to stand. "It's no use trying to kick against it."

Anyway. Family. Merry Christmas.