Journey to Kampala

So, the next morning, we started the 5 or so hour trek to Kampala. Fortunately, the roads were paved and our bus was super comfy—padded fabric seats and only two people per seat! We stopped at the equator for a touristy opportunistic photo op. And to get eaten by a camel. So, at the equator, they had a little mini tourist town complete with a yellow line following the equator, gift shops, a chance to watch water spin different ways down a drain (for a fee of 10,000 /= (which I think is the sign for shillings) of course), and a camel! Where the camel came from, we had no idea. Oh, also, they had bathrooms with toilets. It was great. We went to go see the camel (who was just chilling there, I’m not even sure if he was tied to the tree or not), and a guy came out to tell us that it was 5,000 /= to take as many pictures as we wanted. Totally worth it :) Apparently the camel thought I was really interesting because whenever I would get near him, he would start biting (gumming, really) my arm, hair, shoulder, etc. I have pictures on facebook. We finished out our journey to Kampala and arrived at our hotel, which had air conditioning and wifi!! We felt so spoiled.

Kampala is huge. Not geographically—the actual city size is pretty small. There are several “suburbs” too (which are pretty much indistinguishable from the rest of Kampala and from each other), which gives the city a little more breadth, but what makes the city so huge is the abundance of tall buildings all packed together, the crazy traffic, and the pace. Everything moves so much quicker in Kampala than in Kigali, especially the motos (or boda bodas here) that decide to use the sidewalks as roads. Especially while you’re walking on them. Speaking of sidewalks, there are so many street vendors here. Especially at night. We would walk down the road our hotel was on (the roads have names here too!) every night to get Rolex (more on that in a bit), and we would walk past—and almost step on—several street vendors selling everything from clothes to shoes to peanuts (groundnuts here) to pirated copies of movies. We’d also walk past small children—and I mean small like babies—begging on the sidewalks. Apparently parents put their kids out to beg here, maybe because they think they look more pitiful and innocent? I don’t know. But it was so sad and frustrating that they would do that. It’s hard to tell if these families are professional beggars or what, and I don’t know if there are really any programs to get families like these off the street, but it was crazy to see what were probably two year olds sitting on the street in ragged clothes with their hands held open just waiting for someone to take pity on them. Of course we’ve been instructed not to give money out. It sets an expectation for other muzungus (white people/foreigners) and perpetuates the stereotype that we’re all rich and can just throw money around; it reinforces the idea that begging is profitable, and it’s bad for development. I know at least in Rwanda that if children are truly orphans like they say they are, then the police will automatically take them to an orphanage, but once you mention that idea they stop following you immediately. So it’s interesting. And sad.

The reason we went out late at night, though, was Rolexes. Not the watches, mind you, but the food. I don’t really know how they got their name, but they are the best and cheapest things in the world. Rolexes are chapatti (Indian flat bread, as I’ve come to learn) and scrambled eggs cooked flat rolled together like a breakfast burrito, kind of. We ate those for dinner every night along with juice, chips, and/or cookies from a gas station (excuse me, petrol station) on the way home and managed to make a profit off the stipend we were given.

Another thing about Uganda in general, there is so much trash everywhere. Rwanda is ridiculously clean, we’ve come to find out. The roadsides everywhere—from urban Kampala to relatively rural Kasese—are covered with plastic bags, bones, bottles, scraps, and whatnot. It will be weird but nice to get back to a super clean country.