May 13- Quiet Mother’s Day at Dinner & a Movie
Recovering from the drive to and from Embu took most of the next day, but my request for Mother’s Day was dinner and seeing “The Namesake” at the Junction, about 10 km. from our house. We had to walk through a bookstore to get to the cinema. After the wonderful movie, based on a book I had loved about an Indian family, we walked back through the Borders-like store and had to shake ourselves that we were not in Palo Alto… we were in Nairobi.
May 5th and 12th – Rick and Wendy work at the critically-needed Believe Begin Become business plan competition sites in Nyeri & Embu
Since 2000, TechnoServe has conducted annual national business plan competitions, now all branded Believe Begin Become (BBB), in 5 African and 4 Latin American countries. We were peripherally involved with the Swaziland BBB, and I’m integrally part of the team in Kenya until November 17th, the final award ceremony and the date we leave permanently for the U.S. The best submissions qualify for intensive entrepreneurial and business training with the intention that the business plans are well-prepared, bankable and implementable. Here in Kenya, TechnoServe is partnering with the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs (yes, in a presidential election year). So from April 28th through May 19th, there are 23 one-day workshops across the country to “train” and inform hopefully 10,000 18 to 35 year olds in how to participate in Believe Begin Become, Kenya’s 1st national business plan competition.
Arriving at the TechnoServe office at 7:00 a.m. for the last two Saturday mornings to then drive for 2+ hours, each way, over pot-holed roads is not our idea of a great time. But, Rick and I accompanied teams of people from TechnoServe, the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs and a youth-oriented marketing/PR agency to Nyeri and Embu, 2 provincial capitals. We spent 8 t0 10 hours both days helping at the Believe Begin Become workshops.
While the journeys and extra work days have been exhausting, they have also been incredibly insightful and inspiring from many perspectives. Karatina was one of the major cities we drove through, where there are 2 clients in another project in which I’m involved, Upscaling Growth-Oriented Micro-Enterprises. Nyeri is a provincial capital with well-known residents including current Kenyan President Kibaki. In the Kenyan national government, the President remains a Member of Parliament for his district so uses his extra powers to ensure Nyeri’s people are well-supported. Our BBB Program Manager, Wamuyu, and I believe her husband also came from Nyeri.
T.i.A. (This is Africa) has forced us to become even more flexible. Kenya is in its “long” rainy season, so the open-field venues for both locations were quite muddy. Rain threatened and actually briefly came down at both Nyeri and Embu. Pamoja was to have the stage set up, local entertainers, and an M.C. ready to begin by 10am at both venues. Both events started around 11:30 a.m. due to setup and other delays. Pamoja neglected to procure any required porta-potties. The field was so bad in Nyeri that our shoes wore half-inch-thick mud-coats for the whole day. Embu’s ground was less saturated. BUT without telling the Embu TechnoServe team, Pamoja decided to significantly scale down the event there because they had not received the Ministry’s promised payment. Their other excuse was that they were not staffed for 3 simultaneous provinicial-captial events, despite their being responsible from January forward. Instead, they sent a sub-contracted PR team to recruit attendees in a van with a loudspeaker starting late afternoon the day before through mid-day of the event.
Despite our scrambling to set up at both venues and starting 2 or more hours late, both events were successful in their own ways. Nyeri-area youth had been better recruited by the Youth Affairs Officers and Pamoja, so despite a very slow start, about 2,000 people attended the event during the day, with about 500 still enthusiastically entertained at 5:00 p.m.’s closing. Though only about 200 people attended in Embu, the majority stayed from about 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., even without lunch being served. Both events’ M.C.s were excellent, high-energy entertainers who kept the crowds engaged, yet managed to mention the sponsors, introduce speakers, and fit in our trainers throughout the day. At Nyeri, the music was so loud that it was very difficult to hear never mind answer the many questions from people with widely varied English accents (being their 2nd or 3rd language). Semi-professional volleyball games may or may not have been officially part of the Nyeri entertainment, but they certainly had unbelievably great players.
Some funny, random things. Rick and I were the only white people—“wazungu” in Swahili—for perhaps many kilometers around Nyeri, and were two of three in Embu (with a Peace Corps volunteer). Some attendees introduced themselves to us—one asking permission from our colleague—because we were the first white people they’d ever met. One little boy came up to touch my back. Several children shook Rick’s hand. Virtually any child that saw us stared. On a different note, for the good of the Nyeri show, I stripped off my official event polo behind the TechnoServe car, put on my long-sleeved shirt (brought along for warmth), and handed Francis, the M.C., my slightly-sweaty shirt so he could look official for the event’s start. Pamoja’s own official t-shirts did not arrive till later. More than a few people in the audience were clearly stoned. One crazy girl put her purse on the registration table, took out, sprayed on, put back her deodorant, then walked away. Finally near the end of the Nyeri workshop, I heard the M.C. to whom I had given my polo shirt, call my name. My colleagues and he forced me to get on stage and dance next to several pretty young women, the singer, himself and his colleagues. For some reason he gave me the Kiswahili name “GaCheri” which my colleagues translated to something like “frequent visitor”. I definitely proved the saying “white people can’t dance” and in fact discussed my lack of skill with these same colleagues afterwards.
Overall both events certainly served their purpose in helping youth understand that they can create their own businesses rather than be unemployed or barely subsist in the “informal” economy. Lots of people came back with friends, asked questions, and seriously studied the application and workbook* despite the entertainment and volleyball.. As we left both venues, no BBB applications were thrown away on the ground or in the trash. These young people recognized this opportunity to better themselves.
*I created a very abridged version of the student manual from the JA Company program, with help from my Kenyan JA contacts, as a reference guide to supplement the workshops.
The drives back from both Nyeri and Embu seemed endless, particularly after a long day mostly on our feet. It is truly amazing that there are not even more accidents on roads. Speeding drivers pass barely in time to miss oncoming traffic. Almost-invisible pedestrians cross highways at random places but especially near Kigurai and other slums where there are shabby stalls or kiosks and matatu drivers pulling over all of a sudden without signaling. Near Nairobi we saw a camel dressed up to give rides being led along the side of the road. Nairobi traffic is scary: 2-lanes become 3 or 4 lanes just because… Ironically we heard Paul Simon singing a song on the radio from “Going to Graceland” with an African chorus. All I wanted to do was scream and get out of the car. But we survived. In fact we concluded the Nyeri trip with a wonderful Indian dinner and lots of beer at Open House, one of our favorite Nairobi restaurants.
May 11 – Kitengela (fantasy world of glass) and other shopping and dining adventures
Over the last few weeks, Rick and I have regularly gone out with Anna and Greg, who are contractors for TechnoServe and other NGOs. We’ve had some wonderful meals and finally found some unique gifts. In fact, Anna and I have expanded another TechnoServe volunteer’s list of shops and restaurants to create a guide for “the discriminating VolCon in Nairobi.” We plan to update it as we explore new places.
On Sunday, May 6th the four of us drove out to an ex-pat artist’s glass factory cum guest house and garden fantasyland. The last 10 to 15 km of road was a short version of the worst of the previous day’s experience, but with retail therapy at the end. The glassware is different from Swaziland’s Ngwena products. And definitely the factory compound was just like Anna’s description: Gaudi meets Tolkien. Mosaic glass covered most paths, walls, and buildings. Wild statues and shapes mostly in mosaic glass were around every corner. We met the eccentric artist herself, a 2nd generation talent whose son has also inherited her skills. Greg commissioned her to create a glass panorama outlining the distinctive Ngong Hills, a beautiful vista just outside Nairobi. Though Rick was bored out of his mind, we strolled, gawked, and purchased some unique gifts. Our next stop was the Talisman restaurant in Karen where we had a delicious late lunch around 3pm.
Purely for the sake of research, Anna and I met the following Wednesday for another shopping exploration of her favorite gift stores. We hit about 10 shops in 3 different malls scattered over Nairobi, had great success with more retail therapy, then picked up Rick and Greg at TechnoServe and drove to La Rustique (only open 1 night a week for dinner). We sat by an outdoor fire while drinking red wine, chatted with the owner, then moved to the covered veranda for a fabulous dinner. Definitely worth a return visit.
On the rainy Friday night, Rick, another VolCon, and I had no luck getting a taxi back to our apartment when Anna came by to pick up Greg. We accepted their offer of a lift home with a stop for a drink nearby. Unfortunately we ran into the worst Nairobi traffic we’d yet experienced. After sitting stuck, turning onto different badly obstructed streets, and being stuck again for almost 30 minutes, we decided to turn totally around and take the only open road to downtown Nairobi where we went to the Norfolk Hotel (100 year old colonial landmark) for “bitings” (aka hors d’oevres) and a local cocktail, Dowa (vodka, limes and honey served over ice--yummy). Rather than sitting inside the Lord Delamere, Norfolk’s official bar with a colorful past, we sat outside on the veranda. Apparently Lord Delamere was a notorious drinker among the Nairobi colonials. He supposedly got drunk regularly, shot up the bar, then shouted, “Put it on my bill”.
Finally we toddled home with the traffic much diminished. Another trying evening…
April 30 – Our Jungle Trek to Visit our Distant Relatives, the Chimps
Our final morning in Murchison Falls Park was probably our most exciting 3-hour animal adventure since we rode elephants in Zambia and drove quietly a few feet from strolling lions in Kruger. Rick and I walked through the jungle for almost 3 hours--about 5 miles--with a guide. At one point I half-thought that our guide was actually just walking us in circles because he wanted us to feel that it took a long time to find the chimps. However, we realized he knew what he was doing when we approached the troop of maybe 15 chimps and they escalated their hooting and hollering in the trees above us to scare us out of their territory. Our guide had warned us to “hold our ground”, standing tall and confident unless a chimp came close, in which case we were to crouch submissively, eyes down, and pretend we were eating. Never under any circumstances were we to run. If we ran, the chimps would chase and kill us. We thought he was exaggerating until we saw the chimps aggressively shaking the trees, knocking down branches, swinging above us screeching and howling. At one point their hooting indicated that they surrounded us. A few minutes earlier we had seen a small colubbus monkey fly through the treetops. Then we heard horrible screaming and growling. Four-feet tall from head to toe without raising their long arms, these chimps killed the colubbus monkey as we stood beneath them. Thank goodness chimps think humans are intimidating, because our guide told us they are 5 times stronger than humans. If chimps ever figured out how wimpy we are, people could never visit them in their jungle home. We can certainly understand where man gets his territorial, tribal traits.
April 30 – Strange Sights on the Road Back to Kampala, Uganda
Just after leaving Murchison Falls National Park, in the town of Masindi, we saw 15 Maribou storks lined up along the roof peak of a building.
We gave a ride to Dennis, a UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) guide from Murchison Falls who needed to go to Kampala then onto another city to take a 3-week course on birding. Dominic told us that his “civil” guide association always invites the UWA to join but this is never reciprocated by UWA.
The drive from the park back to Kampala took less than 4 hours, hurtling down roads so pot-holed that the remaining tarmac was only one lane wide. In many places, the road edges were so worn down they looked eaten by a gigantic animal. Dominic took the flying-over-potholes strategy on the road back vs. slowly, carefully avoiding them for hours on the way to the park… We had a couple of adventures with “road diversions” where all the dirt detours are totally unmarked. Sometimes we were forced to back up for hundreds of feet to find a less steep shoulder to track across. One time at an obstruction consisting of 2 huge pavement rollers, we bribed a guard just to let us inch past the construction equipment. We saw a double trailer truck over-turned on the road, likely hitting one pothole too many to maintain control...
The views contain many colors and textures:, lush, tropical, green rolling hills and valleys; brown thatched-roof kraals built of wattle and daub; women in brightly colored clothes; heads bearing large loads of bright goods; clay-pot-red dirt sidewalks, fields, and termite hills of all sizes; grey sacks of charcoal topped with straw lined along the road; multi-hued garbage strewn everywhere; rickety wooden kiosks selling tired-looking vegetables; entire homes and stores painted with advertisements such as Celtel (red and yellow), Safaricom (lime green), MTN (sun-colored), Omo Detergent (black and white stripes), and Sadolin paint (royal blue).
April 30 – What Varied Items can be Carried by One Bicycle?
Throughout the bumpy journey on the 4-hour ride back to Kampala, we saw many, many bicycles carrying some of the most amazing loads: one baby pig, 2 goats, 100 pounds banana leaves, 20 empty Gerry cans, 8 banana bunches, 6 sacks of veggies, 6 stacked crates of empty soda bottles, 3 suitcases, 3 enormous charcoal sacks, 2 huge sacks of potatoes, a giant load of used clothes, a small hardware store’s worth of household items including mops and brooms, a bundle of about 30 sugar canes about 6 feet long and about 30 pieces of 8 foot long lumber.
April 29 – In Murchison Falls on evening game drive
We relaxed most of today, disturbed only by hippos laughing all morning then 7 baboons below the veranda and a large lizard almost in my purse during lunch.
Dominic took us on a late afternoon game drive which started with a cranky bull elephant, flapping his ears and shaking his head as he chased our car. As we headed back to the hotel a baby elephant darted from the bush into the road in front of our car. He screamed, we screamed, but after slamming the brakes and swerving around the frightened little fellow, Dominic kept driving. We knew that where there was a scared baby elephant, close behind would be a big angry mommy elephant.
Birds, birds, birds: black bellied bustard bird with a long ostrich-like neck, banded swallows, mourning doves, starlings, sparkle mouth bird, northern carmine bee eater, fire finches, hamerkop which build the biggest nests, couriers, cross ibis, palmnut vulture, northern red bishop, crested crane (Uganda’s national bird), squacco heron, yellow ox peckers (both on and off giraffes’ backs), African pied wagtail (tail short in mating season), white browed coucal, water thick-knee, terns, sacred ibis, fish eagle, grey heron, rosy-patched shrike, chowgra, pyack-pyack, 1000s of swallows which feed on the millions of lake flies in season, and a wattled lapwing.
Animal sightings in between elephant incidents: huge herds of waterbuck and oribi, a bushbuck, a large hippo crossing the road ahead of us, warthogs backing into the drainage ditch where they sleep and a huge herd of Cape buffalo.
Most unusual: 2 groups of giraffes 15 in 1 group & 20+ in 2nd rounding-up for the night to protect the young and each other from predators.
We ended the day serenaded at dinner by 2 frogs “boiping,” definitely not ribbiting. It was so odd back at the Humura Hotel in Kampala for one night. Every time I heard a car going by, my 1st reaction was “it’s a hippo growling.”
April 28 – Game Drive and Nile Cruise in Murchison Falls Park, Uganda
Our driver/tracker, Dominic, took us on a game drive from about 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. After we returned, briefly relaxed in our room, and had lunch, he drove us back to the Nile where we cruised on a river boat up to see Murchison Falls. Thank heavens we had a seasoned captain because the wide, hippo-and-croc-infested Nile was made scarier by rain, thunder, and lightning for almost an hour. Our intrepid boat was about 30 feet long with a tarp-like cover to shelter about 10 passengers. But the torrential rain blew almost horizontally, so everyone was soaked. After stopping twice under trees—a better shelter from lightning than mid-river--we eventually reached the view of Murchison Falls, then soggily drifted back down to the ferry crossing. Despite being sopping wet for 2 out of the 3 hours and more than a bit scared by the weather, the cruise was definitely worthwhile.
We saw a wide variety of animals on both trips: and so many bird species it was amazing. I’ll just list as many as I could jot down:
· Birds seen just today: Maribou storks, white egrets, Senegal plover, fish eagles, Pyack-pyack birds on elephants’ backs, grey heron, goliath heron, saddle-billed stork, Abyssinian hornbill, African darter, Egyptian goose
· Hundreds of antelope-related creatures: Jackson’s hartebeests (including 2 males in battle), bushbucks, oribi, waterbucks, Ugandan Kobs.
· Over 150 hippos including one badly injured and one which roared, open-mouthed about 10 meters behind our boat
· 20 crocodiles about 25 meters away
· Primates: baboons and Pattas monkeys
· Usual suspects: giraffes, lioness, twin baby elephants, warthogs
· 1st time ever: a jackal!
It is clear that when we return to Nairobi, we must purchase an East African bird book if we are ever to remember the tens of species we observed.
April 27 – Ferry Across the Nile and Dinner with Elephants
Our car and we boarded a 2-engined, flatbed ferry which pushed us across the Nile River from the jungle side of the park to reach our hotel on the savannah side. Among the 7 vehicles and probably 30 people on the boat was a truck so weighed down by about a hundred yellow “Gerry cans” full of banana gin that it could barely get on and off the ferry. It crossed my mind that this local moonshine fermented from a certain species of banana--could create a spectacular fireball if hit by a spark from the nasty diesel engines. However, we safely crossed the Nile, disembarked from the ferry, and drove to the Paraa Safari Lodge. Self-promoted as the “jewel of the Nile,” it was a truly lovely hotel, well-integrated into the green and golden surrounding landscape.
One of the first to arrive for dinner, we were seated on the second-floor veranda overlooking the Nile in fading twilight. Between us and the hippos lolling and laughing in the river was a steep, brush-covered woods edged by a “fence” of thick poles set firmly into the ground about a meter apart. No standard, chubby hippo could get through. However, as we waited for dinner, a huge family of 5 elephants neatly stepped over the poles, crossed the lawn and headed for the lobby. They were much too tall to get through the door. In fact if they extended their trunks, the elephants could almost reach us on the veranda. Unable to share our food, they lumbered to the hotel’s water hole, aka swimming pool. The guards knocked sticks together to annoy the elephants who eventually found less noisy environs. Excitement over…
April 27 – Domestic and Wild Animals along the Wild Ugandan Roads
Traveling from the outskirts of Kampala to the national park’s borders, we saw the longest- horned cattle we’d ever seen, making the Texas long-horns seem puny. Truly, some horns stuck out 3 feet on either side of the cattle heads.
Tall, red-dirt anthills dotted all the roads and in the fields, sometimes several feet high and sometimes like small heads sticking above the vegetation. The hills’ occupants, white ants and large termites, lived harmoniously and symbiotically together. The termites were the hill-builders and soldiers who were called up to defend any attack or repair any damage. The white ants were the imperial colonists whose queens literally directed everyone in the hill. Humans are not the only master race…
Before we entered Murchison Falls National Park, the largest in Uganda, Dominic drove us into the Ziwa White rhino sanctuary. The 3 of us left the car to walk about 15 minutes into the bush. We stopped merely a few meters from Bella & Kori, two very pregnant rhinos who were guarded by Umoja, a bull rhino imported from a US zoo. He substituted for the babies’ father who was busy siring more babies on the other side of the sanctuary. There was no barrier and only a short trot between us and them, so we were lucky they were not cranky.
Within the hour we were inside Murchison Falls Park. While Dominic obtained our entry passes, we observed the strange antics of an orange-headed and tailed lizard. The gamma lizard darted quickly from one spot to another, pausing to bob his head up and down several times, then took off again at a fast clip. We would see many of his cousins throughout the next few days. Passes purchased, we entered the Murchison Falls’ main gate.
We stopped for a walk to the 45-meter high Murchison Falls, accompanied by a park guide who seemed to appear out of nowhere from the forest. Here the many hundreds of feet of the Nile River (the so-called Victoria Nile) actually narrows dramatically down to a narrow gorge. There the water is almost choked to descend dramatically in a combination of cascades and falls, with lots of mist hovering above.
Relative to the Ugandan highways, our 35-kilometer, hour-long drive to our hotel seemed short and calm, interrupted only by animals feeding at sunset, including: a tortoise, many Ugandan Kobs (similar to an impala but unique to Uganda), warthogs, a Cape Buffalo herd, some Jackson Hartebeests, waterbucks, hippos, a small crocodile, baboons, and to name just a few variety of birds, e.g., guinea fowl, fish eagle, African parrot wagatail, and yellow weaver.
April 27 – Bad Roads in Beautiful yet Raw Countryside on the Way to Murchison Falls
Except for the highway from Entebbe to Kampala, no other Ugandan road reminded us of Swaziland or South Africa. At best the roads are bumpy and at worst they have so many potholes that drivers must decide to either slowly and carefully play dodge ‘ems or just fly across, ignoring them. Dominic, our fearless driver and animal-tracker for the next few days, gave us the experience of both driving strategies which led to nausea, bone-rattling or both. In fact, the experience was sadly reminiscent of the terrible Tanzanian roads from our 1997 safari. In some places, 2-lanes became 1.5 because the edges the road looked as if some bizarre animal had taken bites out of it. Farm tractors, donkey carts, fume-ridden diesel trucks, and modern cars all shared the tarmac, which turned to dirt shoulders then ditches within a couple of feet of the vehicles. The scariest part for me was how closely people walked along all these roads. We even saw a baby crawling in the dirt only about one foot off the road, with no one around to supervise or rescue it.
Other depressing observations included the barefoot, ragged people, especially children, typical dusty red dirt everywhere and mud shacks with no running water. In contrast, in Kenya we’d see clean, nicely dressed people emerging from the same type of miserable hovel. Another curiosity in all the cities, towns, and villages are the brightly painted, advertising-bearing buildings. Bright red for Celtel and yellow for MTN-Uganda wireless cell services. Lime green for Safaricom wireless or Kenya Commercial Bank. Omo detergent, Sadolin and other paint companies, Senator or Bell Beers, and many other companies’ logos and colors were repeated across the countryside. Adjacent to them were twig, tin, and plastic-built kiosks selling fruits, vegetables, auto parts, furniture, you-name-it. And weaving along everywhere were the bikes, carts, bodabodas, matatus, and pedestrians always in a hurry to pass the vehicle or person just ahead.
We stopped for lunch in a large town named Masindi at the New Court View Hotel and Restaurant, which was neither new nor had a view of a courthouse. Our driver told us it was run by an old British woman. I suspect some of her guests were visiting their family members at the large Masindi prison (a main source of revenue for the town). However, most people in the restaurant seemed to be tourists like us, taking a break from the bad roads. We did enjoy decent food as we sat quietly in a structure with a thatched roof, low cement walls, and flowering vines creating the upper walls. Then on the road again…
April 23 – 26 – Next Impressions of Kampala, Uganda
Our colleague and we stayed at the Humura Hotel because of its free wireless internet (we just needed to use special codes lasting 1 hour) which lasted until Monday evening. After that, the Humura’s internet never connected again while we stayed there through May 1st. So instead, we worked at the Business Center in the Kampala Serena Hotel, the most luxurious, largest hotel in the city. In fact Queen Elizabeth II will occupy the Presidential Suite (rumored to be US$8,500 per night) when she leads the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in late Fall 2007. This Serena, part of a high-end international hotel chain, has one of the truly loveliest lobbies I’ve seen: stone, marble, earth tones, water ponds, fountains and falls. It has the most exquisite native sculpture I’ve seen in Africa to date. One of the Serena’s restaurants, The Explorer, is decorated with old trunks, canoe paddles, dark paneling and black and white photography that one could imagine in use when Stanley, Livingston or Speke explored Africa prior to colonization. However, according to the restaurant’s history, an Italian immigrant was supposedly the first Westerner in Uganda.
In contrast to the Serena’s current beauty was the story our colleague told us. The Serena was re-built from the old Nile Hotel where Idi Amin used to torture victims. Erastus told us that supposedly people could hear the torture victims’ cries that would go silent about midnight, presumably when they were killed.
As soon as we landed in Uganda, memories of Entebbe and the Idi Amin fiasco associated with 1972 Munich Olympics began to haunt me, prompted by the movies “Entebbe” and “Last King of Scotland.” Uganda and the city of Kampala have come a long way since the 1970s. Even with or despite the semi-democratic government, the people’s energy has enabled Uganda to move forward dramatically and become a leading economy in Africa. Though some of his nepotism and other negative traits are still present in Africa, Idi Amin’s ghost seems to have been laid to rest in Uganda. In a way the Kampala Serena’s replacing the horrors of its predecessor symbolizes Uganda’s progress.
April 22 – First Impressions of Kampala, Uganda
The drive from Entebbe Airport into Kampala was almost as long as the short flight (less than 1 hour) from Nairobi to Kampala. The Uganda government has cleverly landscaped and re-paved the road to take advantage of the area’s views of huge Lake Victoria and lush rolling hills and valleys. Kampala originally was built on 7 hills and now occupies 25. The vistas remind us a lot of Swaziland with a bit of green Singapore thrown in, especially with the daily rains.
We were driven to our small hotel, Humura (means “get rest” in the Ugandan language) where we met our TechnoServe colleague, Erastus. We immediately dropped our bags into our lovely, quiet room overlooking a small, green valley with banana palms and corn growing, then went to a late lunch in one of the outdoor cafes in the old, colonial, Speke Hotel in nearby downtown. Speke was evidently a famous East African explorer along with Stanley and Livingston. The restaurant was overhung with huge trees (like banyan, with lots of air roots) and opposite a lovely hillside park. We were very surprised to see Maribou Storks (remember Babar?) resting on top of the nearby buildings.
Kampala is much safer than Nairobi. However, the drivers and pedestrians are just as crazy if not more. There are many more cyclists carrying multiple people and piles of goods. Matatus (the mini-bus and taxi combination) are out-crazied by the BodaBoda motorcycles which act as small taxis, weaving through traffic, across sidewalks, in opposition to the flow of cars. They often bear 2 people sitting sideways--sometimes a mother and child, often dressed for the office in dresses or suits--in addition to the driver. Of course virtually no one wears a helmet. The term BodaBoda is slang for Border to Border. These light motorcycles used to be a key mode of smuggling from one border of Uganda to another. The bicycles and BodaBodas replace the many human-pulled carts in the cities. Donkey carts are reserved for the countryside.
After we spent a couple of hours house-hunting with Erastus, we returned to Humura Hotel for a quiet dinner in the outdoor courtyard café. Despite the urban setting, the quacking (yes, like a duck) and croaking of the nearby froggies was loud but nothing compared to the almost deafening whir of cicadas.
