The drive from Kampala to Mbarara

After staying the night in Kampala, I was supposed to be picked up at 10:00 a.m. at the hotel by a university driver to take me to Mbarara, my host city. The driver ended up coming at 12:30, which, I'm told is normal here. Like Brazil, time is fluid here and I've already heard that it's not so important when someone arrives but that the/she safely arrived at all. That being said, I now make sure I have a book with me at all times and have already powered through quite a few.

Mr. Silver was my very chatty and helpful driver who shared a lot of information about Uganda with me during our six hour trek south. Although the distance to Mbarara from Kampala is only about 150 miles, regional challenges and complications like bad roads, continuous police checks, heavy traffic, animal/herd crossings, limited passing lanes and construction significantly slows everybody down and makes driving fairly unsafe. "You will see lots of interesting surprises on our journey today," Silver said to me as we started out.  And I did.

Amidst heavy traffic while leaving the city, I saw flocks of goats being expertly maneuvered through traffic. When minibuses would stop to allow passengers to get on and off, mobs of street vendors hawking all kinds of food, drinks and reading material would pounce on new potential clients. Along the way we saw herds of cows and goats and I'm told that zebras are common. Silver stopped several times to buy sweet potatoes, beans, rice and fish from the many roadside vendors. Halfway through the journey, as I was trying desperately to stay awake, we stopped for "lunch" at 4:00 p.m. and enjoyed a buffet which contained foods mostly unidentifiable to me but I ate them all as I was more than a little hungry by late afternoon.

Finally, we arrived in Mbarara and after a quick stop at an ATM and a supermarket for some water, Silver dropped me off at the campus apartments where I'd be staying. Once again, the jet lag reared its ugly head and instead of sleeping I became intimately acquainted with the night sounds of the city such as howling dogs, cat fights, overactive roosters and club music pumping into the early morning. A day full of interesting surprises, indeed.