Upstream without a Paddle

To recap - I let the kayaking paddle drift away after swimming during a lesson near class 4 rapid Easy Rider at the source of the Nile in Jinja, Uganda. The paddle sunk and was not recovered. It was a rare and important asset for my friends working at the local kayaking business.

I met the owner of the paddle, Safa. The previous day, we had had negotiated the price of a bike rental and I had learned many of his negotiating tactics. I was happy to have done business with him previously as we entered discussions regarding the paddle.

He recognized his upper hand and played on my guilt in negotiation. His argument was that I had forced Luke to take me to Easy Rider despite it being out of my league, I had lost the paddle due to negligence and ruined his business in doing so. As a result, he could no longer afford to eat or go to school. I was a bad man who had screwed him horribly. It would cost me $100 USD to remedy this. I was happy he started at $100 USD as this was where I had hoped to end negotiation should it end at dollars for paddles. But selfishly, I was excited about trying to acquire or build a new paddle.

First, I was going to buy a kayaking paddle on the internet and ship it to Uganda. I found base model whitewater kayaking paddles for $25 at Walmart.com but they don't ship to Uganda. I thought of shipping it home, then having mommy forward it to Ward in Jinja, then having Safa pick it up. Cost is $25 purchase + estimated $40 shipping + estimated $25 tariff, but best case timeframe is likely a month. Safa wanted reparations for lost income - $2.50 per day for the rental of the paddle. This was a deal breaker.

Second, buy a paddle from one of the local kayaking schools. They held firm at $300. Nope.

Third, buy fins and a medal pipe. Fishermen find lost rafting paddles and resell them for $5. I found two for sale, but I felt bad about it as I knew who the proper owners were. I found proper owned paddles for $10, and a pipe for $3. I was ready to buy when Safa said that the quality would be insufficient to replace the lost paddle which been a professional paddle. I didn't give into this argument easily, but he was right.

Fourth, my friend Fatia brought a paddle which belonged to a friend. I got her down to $40 for the paddle. Again, Safa objected to the quality saying it would break if you used it on the class 5.5 rapid Big Brother. To be fair - it was old and cracked, the shaft was fiberglass instead of medal, and it had two left fins - but the paddle I lost wasn't exactly perfect either. I took it to the water to test it myself. Eventually I gave it to my friend Tony who took it down Big Brother - he said he liked the paddle better than the one I had lost.
I was feeling like I had it, but Safa still refused the deal - willing to accept only $100. Luke said "I want paddle, but he - he only want money." I was solidifying my assumption that Safa was just trying to exploit the situation for a profit. I was very firm in my resolve to push the paddle instead of money.

Safa got angry and I thought he was going to hit me. He threatened to call the police - a clear bluff. Eventually the story of the lost paddle's origins came forth - Safa had washed an Irishman's clothes for four months and paid him $70 for the professional freestyle paddle. The waterproofing of the paddle had been ruined when Safa paid to have it modified from freestyle to whitewater form. Safa seemed sincerely hurt by my insistence and became very troubled. I'm so used to people starting with outrageous prices and then paying one quarter of that - but I was now convinced Safa had started with a fair price. I reasoned that I had pushed this ordeal far enough and we went to town together so I could get him $90.

I also bought some blades and a pipe and gave them to Luke. Despite being low quality, Luke will no longer spend 15% of his income renting paddles from Safa when he works in the kayak. And maybe his kayaking pupils will feel more comfortable having an instructor with a paddle.