A WALK IN THE PARK

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.  

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.

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.

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. 

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.