Uganda Thoughts

So after residing in areas of Uganda for the past 2 weeks both city and small villages here are my impressions.

People have a good grasp of the English language, which helps a lot. Signs and newspapers are too. People here seem very friendly, when the smile it lights up their since they have such dark skin. when your in a dark room all you see is their eyes and teeth. Reminds me of a cartoon from my childhood. We stayed in a town where we had to drive 50 miles round trip on a very rutty dirt road. Whenever we passed anyone, anywhere, anytime they all took a moment to look at us. They looked like they have never seen a white man, and perhaps they had not. The children walk to school, however in one village I did see about 40 children on the in the back of a truck, they we the lucky ones.  They boys seemed shy but allot of the girls yelled hi and waved excitedly. One girl caught my eye as she flashed me the peace sign.

 

Bicycles are used not only for riding but transports fruits to the market. These markets could be 10 or more miles from the fields. They would load up as much as the bike would handle and push the bike the market. Kampala, the capitol is very busy and seems clean for a African city. The traffic at rush hour is a horror. They are very aggressive drivers and people on foot or bicycle do not have any right away.And everyone uses their heads to carry things!

 

Weather  has been very good with highs in the low to mid 80’s and low 70’s at night. However the sun will burn you good as your directly over the equator at an altitude of 1 mile. It rains every once in a while, but no real bad downpours.

Standing over the Equator

This may be a poor country, but they are not as bad off as other countries I have been, namely Ethiopia. At least here they have a reasonable balance of sun and rain which allows them a bountifully supply of fruits and vegetables. There are allot of herds of bulls for beef and the have really REALLY BIG horns. You could easily have a yard of ale drinking horn!

Very big horns

The National Bird of Uganda

Well departing tomorrow for Mongolia……later

Bear

Into Africa……again

Well I am trudging around Uganda these days and the people have been very kind. Putting aside the tragic history during the dictatorship, Uganda is a very lush country. I flew into the country and arrived at the Entebbe Airport. Ever hear of the Raid on Entebbe? Yes, that’s the place! Once I got all my luggage I traveled to Kampala which is the capitol of Uganda. The drive from the airport was a bit scary, typical African driving straight down the middle of the road!

After a day in Kampala, I was off to Masaka where I would be performing the installations.

That’s all for now….I need some sleep. My sleep patterns are really screwed up, 2 hours here 2 hours there…….

Bear