Sunday, October 18, 2009

BREAKFAST IN KAMPALA

Uganda Log: Sunday 18 October 2009




We went to breakfast at 7. Breakfast is included, along with health club, pool and maid service. It is really a great set up and would have been perfect for Nate's needs had his scientific DNA materials arrived from Fisher Scientific. Now his team will have to regroup later to complete the data collection.

Bidding farewell to Luis. He will be heading back to the University of Chicago and will return at a later time to do the DNA analysis.


We were on the road by about 8:30 and what a road it was. Just getting out of Kampala was a major accomplishment. I road shotgun and held the map. Our goal was to circumvent the market district but an unexpected one way street forced us into a chaotic venture that made driving in Rome seem like a drive in the country. People, bicycles, motor scooters, taxis, buses, other motor vehicles of all sorts were flying everything. Since Uganda was once a British colony we were driving on the left side of the roadway. So Nate was sitting behind the wheel on the right and floor shifting with his left hand. We were hoping a avoid as many right turns as possible because traffic control devices were practically non-existent. Navigation was a challenge for me since the streets were seldom marked so we just had to count the blocks and depend on our sense of direction. Somehow we made it out thanks to Nate's amazing driving skill. Thankfully he spent 11 months in Uganda while studying for his PhD in 1999 from the University of Hong Kong. However he did seem to be a little relieved to finally get on a straight road heading west across country toward the DRC border. The colors of the landscape, the structures and the people's clothing were remarkable. We saw a man, dressed in his Sunday suit, walking his goat on a leash. Another man riding a bike; he had a full-sized bed frame strapped to his back. Another was carrying a goat on the back of his bike. Nate told us he observed a man carrying a dugout canoe weighing several hundred pounds—on his head! I quickly came to realize: this place is a little bit different.

No comments:

Post a Comment