Kampala

Kampala---fabulous city! Situated on several hills, Kampala is the capital of Uganda where over one million people live. Although the city itself has many buildings, the many trees and flowers help you not feel like you’re in the middle of an actual large city. The hills also keep you from seeing—at once—just how large the city is. And the city center itself is not that large.

Here's a few views of the city, In the first, you can see the city center area as seen from leaving Mosa Courts. In the next shot, you can see the entrance to Mosa Courts. finally, there's a shot of the Uganda Parliament entrance.





The majority of the population is Christian, with small population of people who are Muslim. English is the official language, but most of the people I worked with over the week speak several (up to four or five) languages.

The people in the city, of course, are just like anyone else in a city. Although people do walk much more here than in Texas or Tennessee. If you don’t have a car, taxis are readily available (and inexpensive by American standards), but we needed a taxi only one evening to get to a restaurant. We had a driver each day for getting to and from the ILI, and one night when we went to the Indian restaurant, Mimi’s friend picked us up in her car.

The other mode of transportation is by Boda Boda. Basically men who own a motorcycle or scooter are parked at specific locations throughout the city, and they provide a taxi service. We took advantage of this on Friday after walking quite a distance, all down hill, to the crafts market and super market. Carrying a few things we’d bought, the long walk back to the apartments, uphill, did not seem like the most appealing idea. The ride on from the shopping center back to the apartments on a Boda Boda cost only about sixty cents each. (Mimi road traditional female style, side-saddle, (yep, on a motorcycle; they have a special foot plate for side-saddle sitters) but I, loving to be on the back of a motorcycle, straddled the seat.)

Wildlife? Well, it’s not like a safari experience, of course. But we’ve encountered some wildlife. The first morning I was here, I woke and saw quite a unique bird outside—a marabou stork. It’s huge (taller than a flamingo but not as tall as an ostrich), and has quite an odd appearance. You can see them flying, solo, above the city in a vulture-like flight pattern, searching for garbage to rummage through. Interesting birds. Here's a shot of a maribou stork sitting atop a large tree. (The pic doesn't do the bird justice, but it's worth a look.)



Our other, um, encounter, was quite amusing. I think it was Monday night. We were both sitting in the living room after the man had come to spray the bedrooms for mosquitoes. Having waited a sufficient length of time, Mimi went to her room to change for dinner. Suddenly, a creature was circling overhead—in our room! At first I thought it was a bird. But no, it wasn’t a bird. A huge moth? Could be. And all the while, I’m yelling at Mimi. Then I see the webbing on the wings: a bat! Whoa! I ran into Mimi’s room and closed the door as we decided what to do. She decided we needed help.

Mimi went down to the front desk (remember---about four flights of stairs by the time you take them all), while I waited an kept my eye on the place the bat had squeezed into at the top of the curtain. (Don’t you know that poor creature was terrified.) Finally, Mimi returned with a man carrying a stick. He finally coaxed the bat from hiding, but neither of us saw the thing fly out the window. (Mimi wasn’t looking; she was safely about thirty feet down the hall outside of the apartment. I was safe—just standing in the doorway to our place.) We searched literally high and low and finally concluded the bat indeed must have flown out of the window. Whew.

Speaking of those stairs, huffing a bit more than usual after a few flights of stairs, I have checked, and indeed, the elevation here is over 3,000 feet. The weather’s been wonderful with highs probably no higher than the upper 80s, and lows each evening about 70 degrees, dropping probably to around 65 before morning. The first few days were the hottest, mostly because of some humidity, but a short rain on Tuesday dried out the air.

In all, it’s been a wonderful city to visit. I would not hesitate to return for a short or even extended stay. The people are welcoming and friendly, I’ve always felt very safe, and I know there’s so much more to learn here.