En route Kampala

I woke up to a cool rainy morning after another night with much less mosquito stress than the first, another strong Ugandan coffee, and a very pink Yoghurt.

It’s Monday morning.

I was picked up by a very friendly Jonathan, a lift organised for me by my Uganda Mama Sharon (more on her later - but for now… she works with Andre, my other Pops from Pretoria).

Jonathan and I chatted about language, radio, politics, roads, coronavirus and more. He paused here and there for me to snap a photo or two - one of which was of the massive Marabou Storks I wrote of earlier. eek.

I listened to some local music on Sanu FM 88.2 and sat in bewilderment of the green surrounds of the new expressway to Kampala.

I also smiled a lot as we passed some interesting road signs, reminding me of some interesting signs we used to joke about in the UAE.

A visual beauty was a road sign with a picture of a car, any normal car, but with little stick figures sitting on the boot and on the roof, with a caption:

“Slow but safely”.

Another was a road construction sign reading “We promise to be fast”.

“Promise”… how thoughtful and cute of the construction people, seemingly taking the road users’ convenience into consideration.

The greenery as usual was a big underline in my notebook - and in particular the nurseries.

Now, anyone who knows me well enough (or not even that well), will know that I adore plants and have a few of my own.

I love a good nursery. I love spending time in a place whose focus is on plants, even though I don’t always end up buying any.

Now… here in Uganda, in a car, on a highway, on my way to the capital city… it was as if for the whole journey I was in a nursery.

All along the road, the gorgeous greenery you see are for sale.

Rows and rows and rows of plants in their own individual bags, ready to be sold to any interested buyer.

(Which I later found out that not many Ugandans care too much about plants in this way - boo).

My photos of these aren't great as they were taken while moving.

Nearing the city, the traffic just got worse and worse. I know properly understood why I was advised against driving in Kampala.

There are just no rules.

At a circle, you just kind of keep crawling in until eventually you squeeze your way in, changing lanes, you kind of just keep crawling where you want to go until you eventually squeeze your way through.

There is just no logic.

And in between all these cars slowly creeping around each other, there are zooming motorbikes filling all the excess spaces between vehicles.

One thing that you HAVE to give to anyone driving in Kampala is that they MUST be SO, SO, patient.

Jonathan sure was - not once did he flinch or get irritated by the insane tactics of driving, people pushing in every second and struggling to push in anywhere himself; but I suppose that is his norm.

As we struggled on centimetre by centimetre, my eyes looked at everything in extra detail.

All the while the Massive Marabous and Kites and other birds of pray just riding the winds above, perching on telephone poles and snacking on bits of anything along the streets.

There was also a LOT of carpentry happening along the roads - outside on the muddy sidewalks.

As you look you see planks and planks and planks, a few meters further the planks are assembled into skeletons of couches or beds, then a few meters further, foam and stuffing, then leathers and materials, and then a little while further the final products - gorgeously finished couches and couches and polished bed frames and more couches.

No factories, no warehouses, just there, on the street, normal everyday lounge furniture.

Then we got to the amazing house that would be my Kampala Base.

I met Emmanuel who helped me carry my bags to my room, and being an office during the day, I worked alongside the girls of the house - Sharon and Patience, and Rachel showed me around the Kitchen and the house and the ins and outs of staying here, as well as starting our daily Luganda lessons at lunchtime.

She showed me the Matoke that they picked from the plantation on the property (Ugandan green Banana eaten like Mashed potatoes - a little like Plantain) and also invited me to try some Binyanya - a tomato-like fruit.

It tasted a little like a mixture of tomato and passion fruit, with lots and lots of seeds.

Although the kitchen was amazingly stocked, I went with Sharon to the Logogo Shopping Center to stock up on some groceries - super excited to be able to cook my own dinner again!

My first night locking up the house, settling in and catching up on some MasterChef Australia (Because they have DSTV in the house! Score!) after first admiring all the birds around the garden and helping some dragonflies find their way back outside, was wonderful.

I made myself some penne arrabbiata, had a nice welcoming cold shower (I didn’t know how to get hot water yet - but it’s very me to have a cold shower on the first night in a place… I don’t ever remember a time staying in a new place and not having a cold shower for the first night) and slept so soundly.

This house has mesh in front of all the windows, so I could have them wide open and not stress about those mosquitos getting in!