Kampala, Uganda

We got in to Kampala at about 11:15pm local time last night and met a few of the Rotary representatives. We weren’t exactly sure who the people were (were they host families? local rotary members? volunteers?), but they were very gracious and welcomed us to Uganda.

We then split up into two cars for the drive from Entebbe to Kampala. The cities aren’t more than 25 miles apart, but due to the condition of the roads it took us about an hour. When I say road conditions, I really mean driving conditions because the roads themselves were just fine. But traffic laws seem to be mere suggestions for most drivers in the area. Mopeds and motorbikes are very common, but they are small, slow, often lack lights and even more often are driving on the wrong side of the road. Because it was a Saturday night, there were also tons of people walking along the roads (both sides) within inches of the passing traffic. No one seemed particularly alarmed, so I tried to act as if people weren’t almost dying at every turn. Complicating matters further was the recent string of heavy rainfall in the area, which has disemboweled many of the street lamps.* All in all, it was an entertaining drive :)

* Not sure if it was because of the lack of street lights or if it’s the norm, but drivers here do a sort of ritualistic flickering of their bright lights at night. It wasn’t quite Morse code, but it was something similar. It kinda goes like this: “Hey, buddy, I’m gonna flick my brights so that you turn yours off.” “Hey, I see you flicking your brights, but I’m not turning my off.” “I see that the flicking of my brights has had no effect on your brights, so I’m just gonna leave mine on. Deal with it.” “Oh, now you’re leaving your brights on? Fine, well, here come a few bright light flickers and then I’ll continue to burn your retinas with my brights!” “Dang, those are bright. I need to hit the brakes HARD to make sure I don’t hit that person/motorbike/stray dog crossing the road.” Something like that.

Anyway, we get to meet our host families today. Exciting! We still don’t have a good feel for the itinerary, but that keeps things interesting. I'll add a few photos from the hotel/etc as soon as I get a consistent connection. 

Enjoy!