Claude (the world's most forgetful volunteer) is currently wondering around topless (his preferred state) and although I generally advise that this is not good etiquette in Uganda, it’s actually a very good thing today because when he was wearing a shirt, it was his favourite one, the one with naked women on it.
We're currently on a weekend away and as you would expect, he’s losing things around the hotel. I
was joking with the barman yesterday and advising that he didn’t give the room
key to Claude since they only have 1 key for a dorm with 6 beds. I explained
that if they found any items lost around the complex, it probably belonged to
Claude. By way of an opportunistic response the barman cheekily pointed to some towels he
had found abandoned. I recognised Claude's instantly. When I next saw him I told him where it was. This morning at breakfast Claude came to me, having totally forgotten the conversation, to tell me that his towel was lost…
Last weekend he misplaced something substantially more
valuable: his watch. It is a very expensive model, went out of production 50
years ago and is a family heirloom (I didn't even bother to ask why he thought it was a good idea to bring this to Uganda). Considering that Claude's family are
members of the French aristocracy, I dread to think how much it was worth! He thinks he lost it when we went to visit a swimming pool. The trouble is that it's taken him a full 4 days to notice that he doesn't have it and so he could have lost it anywhere! Nevertheless Claude decided that he would go back to the hotel where we'd been swimming and speak to the cleaners
(who would have long since fenced the watch if they had ever had it) as well as
offering a monetary reward on the local radio station to anyone who could
return it. I’m not sure I’ve met anyone here who listens to the radio yet.
As
you would imagine, the watch has not yet been recovered...
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