Thoughts on today's purchase

I found myself buying a knife I didn't need from an old man today.  

The vendor was a tall, thin but not fragile man wearing traditional clothing - a colorful textile wrapped around his midsection, clunky big sandals made out of old tires with the classic and colorful knitted hat with an ostrich feather poking out the side.  I didn't need the knife but it was a better option than the bow and arrow sets he was also showcasing.

Walking to the town centre with no intentions of buying a knife.

At first, I didn't want the knife or the bow and arrow.  But I looked closer.  The knife is a handcrafted piece with old, perhaps recycled metal on an old wooden handle.  Old in the way that it has character and a new life, not old as in finished.  It's in an elegant case made out of cow's skin.  It was simple yet beautiful.

He didn't leave me as I waited outside the food stall for my boda boda driver.  He just stayed and sat with me.  We made small talk; he laughed and was pleasantly amused that I could converse with him.  I can't get into any kind of deep conversation, but I am proficient enough to do extended greetings, ask him where he is going and tell him where I'm going.  I liked this guy.  He had a warm smile and worn skin from the strong sun and years of herding cattle in the outdoors.  Years likely filled with numerous nights sleeping in kraals out in the open air, protecting his herd in the bush.  Years dodging or engaging in the cattle raiding, road raids and flying bullets.  Years of surviving food shortages and famine.

Getting closer to the city centre.

I kept thinking about his history - he survived Amin's soldiers who came up here to kill those 'uncivilised' folk who didn't wear clothes.  Perhaps he knew some of the men who were buried alive or shot dead by Amin's murderous thugs, murders that are now memorialized a short drive from my home at the site of one such slaughter.  There are no names or lists for me to see - only the crosses and memorial set up by one Italian missionary who decided that the loss of life must not be forgotten.  Memories of those murdered are certainly in the hearts of those loved ones who survived but what about the rest of us?

Memorial to those in the region who died at the hands of Amin for being 'uncivilized'.

We foreigners here today are forced, demanded by ourselves and our humanity to know the locals, their lives and engage with the past.  Because of this memorial and our interactions, both big and small with elders like the knife selling man, we learn the story of this land in which we live.  This small interaction today doesn't is a far cry from the deep 'engagement' I speak about above.  But my consideration of his life makes him more human in a world where so many people's dignity and humanity are lost, forgotten or denied. 

Pigs roam the fields where elephants once grazed before Ethiopian traders captured their tusks and destroyed their population.

I don't know much about this man; my language skills aren't that good.  But I do know that he appreciated it when I told the boys who took his bow and started playing with it to stop and give it back to the man.  Boys out of school and draped in western clothing.  I know they may have just been playing around but I also know that it was disrespectful for them to take what he likely made and is trying to sell and play around with it - play around with his livelihood.  

I do know his name.  His name was Lokul and he wore clothes - traditional wear - but wear nonetheless.  Maybe is some way Amin won.  Maybe I'm romanticizing his life.  I don't know.  

The Knife.

But what I did learn is that I wanted the knife.  For about $0.80, I bought the knife - no price negotiation.  It was worth it and will probably be worth a lot more to me later as a small token of my life here.  

Another view of the knife in question.

And for the bow and arrow set.  I don't know how I would bring ten arrows and a bow back home.  But just in case, I asked the shopkeeper to help me translate and told the man that if I'm ever in the market for a bow and arrow...and can find a way to bring it home...I will spend about $3 and buy that bow and arrow set.