Human Frog'ging in Kampala

After passing a few non-descript towns by bus, I rolled into the sprawl and congestion of Kampala. It could very well be there are more potholes than people here. The capital city of Uganda is shaped like a giant toilet bowl. On the one side of the upper lip is the main street of Kampala Road dotted with the usual banks, hotels and shopping. There are also scores of barefoot begging children and women carrying babies walking back and forth or plopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Meanwhile down on the bottom of the 'toilet bowl' where the exhaust fumes and people collect, and all the main roads seem to lead, bringing with them the honking buses, mini-vans and motorcycles. It's mayhem with everyone rushing and trying to squeeze in, and get nowhere fast. It's funny going down the 'toilet bowl' costs 300 Ugandan shillings as the taxi mini-vans cut their engines and let gravity take over but charge 500 shillings for going up.

Whether it's day or night, you try to avoid the mini-vans, cars, buses, bicycles, motorbikes, and people who are trying to avoid you as you cross the street and negotiate the traffic. It's sort of like a human version of "frogger" (That arcade classic game!) as vans back up without looking, motorcycles zip on the sidewalks and multiple cars merge in on a single lane. It's totally nutty.

On the bright side, for an African capital city, Kampala is remarkably safe, even at night. Plus, the Ugandans are very friendly and have a charming habit of beginning or ending their conversations with "ey", which the best I can tell means "yes", "it's all right", "no" or "too bad."

Off to Nairobi this afternoon. Visited the charming colonial town of Jinja yesterday. The source of the Nile River where the water flows out of Lake Victoria, taking three months to get to the Mediterrean Sea.