This was our first trip to Uganda and although we had heard that the Ugandan people were amazing and super friendly, the dark skies and lack of lighting at the airport had us all a little hesitant to accept these friendly and casual people at first.
It was past 11pm Ugandan time and we were wiped out. Here we are in the back of the driver's vehicle on the way to our hotel. The flash was a little too bright. ha ha.
We checked in to the Sunset Motel in Entebbe, just a ten minute drive from the airport and were greeted by some extremely friendly people named Grace and Jacki. We checked into our room and were too hyper to retire for the night but knew that our driver would arrive early the next morning so we took super quick showers and tucked our adorable kids into their beds that were fully equipped with mosquito nets. Aren't they adorable?
We awoke the next morning to a delicious breakfast. Our driver, Simon, arrived early to get our luggage and find out where we needed to go before going to the Ranch. We could hear the busy sounds of the town around us and I kept being distracted from breakfast to check out the birds I heard cawing in the distance. We thought we had found a true treasure of a bird: A pied crow....only to discover that these gorgeous birds are as popular in Uganda as an American Robin is in the States! ha ha. We saw thousands of them throughout our trip to Uganda. But hey...it was our first time seeing them so we were stoked!
Simon drove us through Kampala to a Money Exchange Market. It was quite eye opening as we drove through an extremely busy town. Boda-Bodas were EVERYWHERE. If you aren't familiar with these, they are small motorcycles that hold two adults (we saw some carrying two adults and a small child) and they swerve in and out of traffic like you wouldn't believe. They are very dangerous and are the leading cause of vehicular deaths in the country. We saw vendors selling everything from bananas to shoes to toilet paper and sodas on the street. I have a hard time saying, "no" to someone who is trying to get me to buy something and a man outside my window was very insistent that I purchase some newspapers. Thankfully our driver sternly said "no!" and drove off. The man didn't return to my window. Within minutes of driving on the red dirt, my heart strings had been pulled. Oh my word.
Simon went with Greg to exchange money and the kids and I took in the sights and sounds of the people around us. There were people and vehicles EVERYwhere. No set lines on the road made it extremely chaotic and nerve racking. Sitting in the passenger seat in the front left of the vehicle, watching the chaos surrounding me, I became quite tense on my first trip through Kampala. We eventually drove through the chaos onto a less busy road.....but this road had the biggest, bumpiest pot holes I have ever seen. Drivers in Uganda communicate much differently than we do. Americans use their horns to indicate warning or anger but Ugandans use their horns and turn signals to communicate with boda-bodas or pedestrians ("Hey! I'm right here...just so you know!") and turn signals ("Hey...I'm going to go to the right in front of you in order to get around this HUGE pot hole in the middle of the road..."). They are constantly swerving and honking and using their turn signals to communicate with each other and it was quite fascinating after I realized all of the dynamics of those on the road. Men riding bikes while carrying sticks, women carrying their precious babies on their backs while carrying large jugs on their heads, boda-bodas, children heading to school, teens carrying jerry cans, oncoming vehicles....the chaos is unnerving and beautiful all the same. Everyone has a place to go to....a task to complete....and they move steadily with such strength and grace.
The people clothed in white in the photo below are the Traffic Police. They point at cars as they go by and the cars must stop. They make quite a presence on the roads everywhere you go.
Our first trip was to the Ekitaangala Ranch to stay at the African Hospitality Institute, aka: Maggie's. Stay tuned for stories from the ranch....
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