Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary

A boy brings a note from Boniface Malumba, the student on the bus, inviting Garrigan to visit. The messenger is one of the boys who directed Garrigan to the compound when he first arrived in Mbarara, and is Boniface's brother, Gugu.

Garrigan has lunch with the Malumba family. The house is quite nice by local standards; there is even a black-and-white TV. Mr. Malumba is a retired official who had been Chief Headman for the Directorate of Overseas Surveys, and he tells Garrigan about his early work, surveying the country as part of the "triangulation" project, mapping Uganda and the rest of Africa.

The Malumbas are not from the Mbarara area; they lived near Kampala, and only moved here when Mr. Malumba retired. He is not a fan of Idi Amin; in his opinion, the new leader is no better than...