The Road to Mbarara

Friday we drove 4 hours west of Kampala to our home base for the next few months, Mbarara. The drive through the countryside was quite striking – very lush with green rolling hills. We stopped briefly at the equator for some iced coffee and a photo op. In the few days I’ve been here, I’ve become somewhat accustom to what it feels like to travel around – bouncing around the potholes and narrow misses with people, cattle, and oncoming traffic. At one point though, I alerted Ben to a huge animal perched at the side of the road – a water buck – that looked like it was ready to make a break across the street. Apparently, it’s rather unusual to see game out on the road, so I’ll count myself lucky for the glimpse and the fact that we didn’t hit it.

Today (Saturday) we got settled into our new living quarters, a very nice house with lots of space and decent breezes. The power hasn’t been on for the most part and seems to be on more at night than during the day. I got up around 11pm last night and found the lights on with the power back, having gone to bed early since it was so dark. I can’t sleep because there is some insanely loud festival blaring music and shooting off fireworks.

Mbarara does not appear to be at all affected by the floods in other parts of Uganda. Everyone seems to be going about their business as usual and for the most part, it isn’t all that different from what I’m used to – folks going about their routines of running errands, preparing and eating food, socializing, and preparing for the next day. Of course, there are also not-so-subtle differences as well and we definitely stick out. Walking through the market, people often call out “Muzungu!”, meaning white person or foreigner, and just seeing us and announcing it seems something of an amusement.

Sunday morning we walked into town with Ben carrying Ani in the sling and people just stared in disbelief that a man would carry a baby about town. The women, in particular, seemed baffled by this and I walked behind Ben and Ani and saw the women nudging their friends nearby to check out this bizarre occurrence. Who knows, maybe Ben can start a trend and give the ladies a little break. :)