Thoughts from Some Long Walks

The past two days, I've spent a lot of time exploring Kampala on foot. So much so, actually, that my legs are really sore. That's a bit sad, I know, but there are a LOT of hills here!

Thursday, I took the day "off" from research (only making calls to contacts), and headed into the heart of Kampala to walk around and learn the city. Through the day, I ended up wandering from the dirty, dusty, crazy (and also fun!) lower market and taxi park area to quiet, serene avenues of the upper hill to the parking lot for the MPs (Members of Parliament) for the State of the Union address…where I got told to leave rather quickly! I really, really enjoyed walking around, though it was a walk only Bill Bryson or Paul Theroux could describe adequately. So I won't even try. I ate lunch at a local restaurant of sorts (a huge plate of rice, matooke, and beans for just about a dollar!). Most importantly, I found myself much more comfortable with the street layout in "downtown" Kampala, or the Kampala city center. Some highlights of the day:

○ I got a great view of the main mosque and Namirembe Cathedral from the top of Nakasero Hill!
○ Passing people on the side of the street (there is rarely a sidewalk), I always make the mistake of yielding to the right to an oncoming person, which always leads to the awkward dance in front of each other. Driving on opposite sides of the street causes problems for pedestrians as well!
○ I managed to get mingled in with some schoolchildren, who were very willing to talk to me. The asked my opinion of Obama, and were very glad to hear I voted for him.
○ The Ugandan Army really takes defense of the parking lot at the State Building seriously! I counted 8 anti-tank weapons, at least 50 AK-47s, and a sniper on the roof of several buildings. I'm glad I left the area quickly!
○ The newspapers here are fascinating; there are probably 5 major dailies and most tend towards tabloid. In the past few days, there have been screaming headlines about a sodomy scandal alleged at one of the main Pentecostal pastors in the city. It's essentially a fight between rival pastors (who may or may not have introduced the allegations) apparently, but it's definitely being played out in the media. I've really enjoyed reading the New Vision every day (the most reputable paper here).

Today, I departed early to catch a taxi to the city and then walked three or four kilometers to Makerere University, the main University in Kampala and in Uganda. I will attend worship at a service for relocated Northern Ugandans there on Sunday, and wanted to scout out the walk. I also had a short meeting with a research contact there. It was really interesting to see a University here…definitely a different atmosphere than the Kampala city streets. I walked up to a vista at the Faculty of Food Science and was able to see many of the outlying hills of Kampala. Then, I walked back to the city (stopping for lunch in a small restaurant), and visited All Saints Cathedral this afternoon, which is the headquarters of the Church here. It's not especially interesting for my research (they tend to have very anglo-catholic worship services), but it was definitely a place I had to visit. I had a great time talking with the office staff there and had a productive meeting with several worship leaders and priests.

I know that the updates of my journeys aren't especially interesting to most of you, so I've decided to try to do a short anecdote or story or description of something here every day or so. I hope that many of these will relate to your travel experiences (in Africa or elsewhere), and they'll be fun for me to write. I also promise I'll keep them under four hundred words…I know I tend to write really long posts.

So, today the topic is the minibus taxis! Many of you have experienced them all of the world. I've enjoyed riding them for several reasons:
a. They go everywhere! I've taken them to town, to outlying suburbs, and to Namugongo. Next week, I'll take one to Jinja. I still haven't figured out how to take them for short journeys, but they're great for the long ones! There are literally tens of thousands in the Kampala area.
b. They are CHEAP!!! I pay about one dollar a day for transit 10 km round trip to town and back. That's really pretty good. Moreover, they really can't charge a "mzungu" price…according to one of those economics laws I don't remember, if everyone is paying the same price and knows the price being paid, there is no way to price discriminate.
c. They're surprisingly easy to ride! The only difficulty is finding the one headed to my destination.

On that note, I'm definitely going to get on one going to the wrong place at some point…the conductors shout the destinations so quickly that it's very, very hard for me to understand. If/when that happens, however, I'll just have to get back to Kampala to start over and will consider it part of the journey.

That's all for tonight. And thanks for reading!

Will