Tugende!

(Tugende! : "let's go!" -- what I say to Jonny when I hop on the back of the boda-boda)

I’ve been meaning to mention Prossie, a girl my age who I met on only my third day in Uganda. I had a lovely time talking with her, and I was really amused at the “American” phenomenons that she asked me about, such as rushhour traffic, the Pentagon, camping, and picnics. She asked me if I like exploring and climbing mountains. “Well yes, in fact, I do!” What else does she learn is “American”, I wonder? I told her I was excited to try the fruit in Uganda (the pineapple rocks, the mangos are awesome), and she explained that her favorite was “wotahmerron” (not quite having adjusted to the accent, it took me a minute to figure out what she meant).

She also asked me about the taxis in America—“can you fit 18 people in your taxis?” Ha. You see, there is no public transportation system in Uganda, even in the large capital city Kampala. Instead of having bus routes, the roads are overwhelmed with VW-van-like taxis. Other than being painted with a blue checkered strip that runs along the side of the van and a blue T inside a circle which designates the registered vehicle, all taxis are privately owned.

I had to explain that our taxis were much different than the Uganda taxi vans which have four rows that can each fit up to 4 grown people, not including the front bench with the driver. While capacity is officially (and legally) 18, many more children can fit in there when piled on the accompanying adult’s lap. Our friend David recently was in a taxi which broke his record from personal experience—24 people. And that wasn’t including the chickens—inside the taxi. (Seriously?)

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Recently two girls from our group were traveling on a boda-boda when a Ugandan police officer pulled the boda-boda driver over. The Ugandan officer was very friendly with the girls, asking them if they were enjoying their time in Uganda. “You know, two passengers at a time are not allowed on a boda-boda, why do you not want to take two separate bodas?” This is the first any of us have ever heard about multiple riders being illegal—like I have mentioned in other posts, I’ve seen entire families on the bodas, and even livestock being transported on laps (desperate times, desperate measures, I guess). The girls explained that he was a contracted driver they had hired for the day, and that they preferred to travel together. The friendly Uganda-copper didn’t give them much of a hard time, but wished them a safe journey and let them go on their way. Later when one of the girls was telling her host family about the event, they explained that the copper had been especially nice since she’s a white person. In fact, apparently Museveni, the current president of Uganda, recently passed a law which includes a 6 month penalty of imprisonment for “frustrating and investor.”
“What the heck does that mean?” I asked.
“Upsetting a Muzungu (white person).”
Woah. I was so stunned I didn't know what to say.