Kampala, on Foot

 

Hold on to your bag, run when the group runs and don't lose sight of the person ahead of you!

 

This is the survival strategy I quickly adopted while navigating downtown Kampala on foot behind Edith and Alyssa today. Viewing the city from out of a taxi window is one thing, but being caught up in the exhilarating cacophony of swirling crowds, honking horns and pushing, pulsating traffic that engulfs you as soon as you step off the taxi is an entirely different experience! And a far more interesting one.

 

 

Nothing beats the impactful "this is where I really am"
feeling of stepping off a taxi and into the raw reality
of the living, breathing urban streets.

We weren't actually in one of the downtown taxi parks, as it may have sounded from the video, but from the sheer volume of taxis we wove among while crossing the streets we may as well have been! At times the traffic flowed quickly enough that you had to wait for gaps to cross. At other times, however, the congestion was so much that weaving in and out between the many bumpers and grills was more like walking through a very crowded parking lot...except with more vehicular motion involved.

So what was I doing here, dodging taxis and boda bodas on a quest through the middle of Uganda's capital city?

 

Good question.

 

(To keep riding along for the day's whole intriguing journey, please click "Read More.")

 

Today actually all started out quite tamely, with a quiet morning of helping Jjaaja Rita at the Baby House, teaching the preschoolers and preparing the classroom for redecoration. But as I stood there passively after class time, scotch-taping sticker crafts to the off-white walls, a knock sounded at the classroom door. There stood Alyssa, come with a message: "Edith is taking us to on an errand to town this afternoon!" Yes!

And so we came to find ourselves there, having the time of our lives just being in the thick of the city. Market shops on one side and boda-lined, rainy streets on the other, we walked the cobblestone sidewalk until eventually diving into a long corridor of fabric shops. The whole place was filled with colour, walled with vivid prints on every side. Before I could get brave enough to snap a picture, we emerged out on the other side of the block and turned again to go into a mall-like area of more crowded corridors.

The stores and vending areas were carved out of the sides of the hall like nooks, the walls of which were completely covered with merchandise. Usually each store would be separated off from the main corridor by a counter. At the last counter, a salon beside which women sat in chairs while their hair was being plaited, in the hall we stopped for Alyssa to buy material for getting her hair braided sometime.

That finished, we climbed up a set of stairs and took off towards a craft market, a quieter place set above a less busy street. The cow horn salt and pepper shakers that I bought there are pretty cool if I do say so myself!

Our last errand of the day involved meeting Edith's cousin to help pick out invitations for a wedding coming up for two of the Bible School students. As we walked towards the printing shops to look through sample albums, we passed people sitting on the broad sidewalks selling everything from fresh mangoes and passion fruit to on-the-spot manicures and pedicures!

Finally, every mission completed, we somehow ended up back in a taxi heading home to Seguku Hill. What an afternoon!