We took a walk after breakfast today. It was warm and muggy
and the skies were threatening rain. I could hear the thunder in the
background. Eric warned me we might get rained on but I was still game to go.
Truthfully, a cold rain sounded very inviting, though unfortunately, it never
came. I could not sit around another day, as it had been too long since I had
my heart pumping. I was starting to feel “soft” so jumped at Eric’s offer to go
for a walk.
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| Eric porch |
I put on a skirt, T-Shirt and running shoes. I’m sure I
looked a silly sight but I did not want to offend by wearing shorts and it was
much too muggy for long pants. Almost immediately we were “off road”. I have
heard of Eric’s adventures before…heading off on his mountain bike trying to
find every hill to ride in the city and enjoying the challenge of getting lost
in small villages. At least he has been on this trail before. It is steep and
rutted and unfit for car or mountain bike for that matter.
We are close to 3,000’ elevation and so it’s easy to start
breathing hard almost immediately. We hiked through the endless red dirt piles up
to the top of the hill to get a better view of Lake Victoria, which lies some
2-3 miles away as the crow flies. We hiked to a chorus of bird songs and odd
noises but rarely saw the creatures making them.
Up and over the top we went and down into a small community
of houses being built. They all seemed abandoned. I was unsure which projects
ran out of money and which were laying dormant until the new work week. The
walls are made out of stone and cement mainly due to the threat of termites. I
did get to see my first termite mound, which was HUGE! Apparently the locals
like to eat them when they are ready to fly. Unsure if they taste better then
or not and I’d rather not know.
We wound down trying to aim for the Lake but this would
prove to be much too far away with no straight path leading there. Instead we
meandered through people’s back yards trying to find a road back out and up. We
started to see small children playing in tattered clothing curiously watching
us. They waved and said “Hello” for the most part and some even jumped up and
down in happy surprise pointing at us shouting “Muzungu! Muzungu!” (White
person! white person!). We smiled and waved back. We finally came across a
small dirt road which we followed as it seemed to go in the general direction
we wanted.
We also started to see many more adults. They did not seem
as interested to see us. We received hard long stares and no smiles. I was not
sure if it would be appropriate to smile and say “Hi” as we were clearly in a
Muslim section of town. I asked Eric if I should walk behind him. He chuckled
at the comment though I was half serious. This was obviously a poor section of
town not often seeing Muzungus taking a Sunday stroll down the streets. Eric
seemed unconcerned and said it was OK to nod and ½ smile of they made eye
contact. I did though still did not get any form of acknowledgement from either
men or women.
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View of downtown Kampala from hill top
Restuarant |
We stopped at the town center, which consisted of 6 shacks with
a few hand painted signs open for local business. There wasn’t much of anything
going on though one sign advertised cell phone air time cards. People didn’t
look like they had enough money to eat let alone buy an air card. Men sat
around chatting until we walked up and then they just stared. The kids
initially kept their distance watching us in small groups for safety. The road
was only fit for foot travel or Boda Bodas (small motorcycles) which kicked up
heavy red dust as they drove by.
Eric told me I needed to try a lemon drink. He ordered 2 for
us as well as handful of “sweet’s” in the form of small suckers before fielding
a phone call. The shop owner looked
concerned and kept asking me if we would take it with us or drink it there. I
was not sure what he was asking me but I started to realize it had to do with
the bottles. The glass is worth money and he was worried we would walk off with
the bottles after we were done. Eric then stepped in and said we would drink
them there.
I asked about how to give out the candy. This is also Eric’s
favorite thing to do on weekends during his long Odyssey rides. He finds a small
town center, buys a soda for himself and candy for the kids then passes the
candy out. He instructed me to wait until we catch the children’s eye and wave
them over. You could tell they all wanted to come as they nervously looked at
each other and then back to us. Some started towards me when I held up the bag
but then turned back and hid amongst their peers.
One young boy decided to be brave. I saw his eyes get wide and a smile cross his
face when he realized we had “sweets” in the bag. That’s all it took and then
Eric was mobbed. The children all said “Thank You” respectfully. Eric tells a
story of passing out candy in one village when a boy grabbed a candy and ran
off. A woman ( not his mother) reprimanded him and made him return to thank
Eric properly. They are a proud people and very respectful.
We then headed up the road towards home. We passed women
working the fields, chickens and roosters running all over. We passed brick
makers busy at their task of putting a mud cover over the circular stacks of
bricks to hold in the heat of the fire burning in the middle. This is to dry the
new bricks out. These men seemed interested in hollering to us. They waved
laughing as we passed. I suppose we might look odd walking there for no
particular reason.
The already narrow dirt road quickly became a path wandering
through fields. There were crops of corn, beans, potatoes and some wild
tomatoes growing in the weeds. We even saw Jack fruit trees which looked more
like giant fuzzy green tumors growing from the branches. There were even
pineapples which are apparently much sweeter and have little acid in them
compared to their USA counterparts.
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| Sorry stuffed Lion. The closest I'll ever come! |
Eric pointed out some other plant that I cannot remember the
name of. It is a form of a white starchy root sort of like a potato. Eric tells
me people don’t like to eat it because this is what was fed to the slaves at
one time. A stigma still remains attached to this plant. It also has little
nutritional value if any. Remnants of white fibrous balls lay strewn on the
ground where we walked. Eric pointed them out to me stating this is sugar cane,
which the farmers chew and then spit out. I was amazed at how good all the
crops looked. The leaves were green and not eaten by bugs.
We finally managed to pick our way back to the main road and
back home. The final treat was seeing a tree full of Weaver Birds. These
amazing looking birds were of the brightest yellow plumage with red eyes, hints
of red in the feathers around the face and spotted black on the wings. Very
striking! They hung upside down off balls of woven grass flapping their wings
wildly and squawking for the attention of the females. Apparently they mate for
life. The prettiest nest gets the girl so to speak.
That was only a few of the amazing birds we saw though I
might save that for another entry! I wish I could give detailed accounts of
everything I saw today but I would bore you to death! I did not bring a camera
for the main reason of threatening rain and on the advice of Eric. It is
impolite to take pictures unless one asks permission. I feel like I need to get
to know the people before I start snapping pictures that may not begin to
represent who they really are.
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| Another view of Kampala from a hill top |
I am amidst a whole new color wheel of sights and sounds….it
is really hard to take it all in…I will try and hope to in time.
