This section is composed of a series of six e-mails, that Rohit has written back to friends and family from his adventures, while in Africa!
Backpacking Through Africa
Jambo!
By now I have driven thru the entire the breadth of Uganda & back, so here I am with my
IMPRESSIONS OF UGANDA
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Just as you cross the border into Uganda, one sees these hundreds of men in Pink shirts
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The “pink shirts” are drivers of 2 wheel taxis (called boda-boda) You can ride on the back of a bicycle, a moped, a scooter, or a motorcycle – quaint, eh?
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Little children are the MOST adorable in Uganda: they wave to us as we drive by with both hands in the air & both hands waving
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Adults too wave at us and hold up the universal sign for Peace – occasionally one of them will even yell out Peace!
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Smiling people all over
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But why were there so many coffin shops in Eastern Uganda?
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Most school uniforms are bright pink! And then some navy blues and dark greens
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Thick dense jungle foliage (in parts) – very Equatorial
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The country has billions of banana trees – it seems the wild trees are banana trees too
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Lots of papaya, pineapple, jackfruit, sugarcane & maize
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The cattle are very distinct in appearance with loooong starting-out-straight-and-then-curvy horns
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Most rural homes are round: made of mud & cow dung with a thatched roof
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Yet there are LOTS of brick kilns
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…and patches of burnt fields – apparently to prepare for the next season
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Bags full of coal standing by the roadsides (for sale)
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Storks! On top of buildings – in downtown! In the fields! On garbage dumps! EVERYWHERE! (very very strange sight to see these huge birds all over – flying & landing!)
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The national daily – New Horizon – has signboards/billboards at most lampposts: and they are ALL updated DAILY with “Today’s Headline” – pretty incredible!!
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At truck stops hawkers come to sell you chicken-on-a-stick!
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In Kenya they were selling Tusker beer everywhere, here it is Nile Beer (but its still about beer
, i.e. all the hoardings, signage, walls – everything is a commercial for Nile Beer -
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE RIVER – yes I swam in it!
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Crossing the Equator – Did you know: Water poured down a bowl (e.g. toilet flush) flows clockwise in the North & anti-clockwise in the South! And straight down at the Equator! You can actually see all three behaviors a few meters apart from each other, how about that?
Watch the toilet flush next time while I’m gonna go back to my
travels…
Kwa heri,
_Rohit!
P.S.
Vicarious is not the word for the day , ‘Asante’ is! (meaning Thank You in Swahili.)
