Experiment: In Progress

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The other public transport we use are boda bodas, motorcycles which zoom around the city at all times making “bodabodabodaboda” sounds. Probably the most lethal form of transportation ever invented, especially in rush hour – you have not experienced Kampala without riding on a boda in rush hour, weaving in and out of cars with your legs just barely brushing the huge matatus. Prized for its flexibility and ability to navigate quickly in traffic jams (which happen everyday, including Sunday), bodas are an indispensable part of public transportation. Legally, bodas can only take one person in addition to the driver, but we usually travel in twos. Take your pick: squeezed between the driver and your friend or at the back, ready to bounce off if the driver zooms over a particularly large pothole. Boda drivers are notorious for quoting ridiculously high prices to mzungus. I often ask to see what price they give me, even though I know the local price. Helpful if you tell them you would give 500 more shillings than the negotiated price if they drive safely and slowly. But don’t forget, boda drivers have to pay 70,000 shillings a week as rent; most of them work day and night, often sleeping on their bodas on the side of the street.

Oh, by the way, there are only 60 registered bodas in the city of Kampala.

And rumour has it that 4 to 5 people die each day from riding on bodas.

The last day I was in Kampala, there was a crackdown on boda drivers, no wonder everyone was wearing a helmet and driving super fast to escape the police.

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Speeding around Kampala (and indeed the whole country, or maybe even the continent. At least I see them in Rwanda and Tanzania (called dala dalas) also) with little regard of traffic rules and human safety, are the mini-buses called matatus or taxis. Goes to most places in the city for a cheap price (less than 50 cents), they are officially public transport. The one we usually take back to the hostel even had a number: 800 – Kikoni, Makerere. Most have their end station in the city centre, congregating in the new or old taxi park (the old taxi park is like a sea of matatus, it’s a small wonder that we finally learnt how to find our matatu).

On about half of them, you can see peeling Japanese writing, evidence that they are mostly imported old trucks. It seems like they haven’t been fixed since being imported, often you find a thick black smoke following them around.

When walking on the side of roads, you get a cacophony of honks and beeps, telling you a matatu or boda boda (more next time) is coming and wants you to get on. I have yet to figure out how the locals know which matatu is going where….sometimes the door guarding/money collecting person (conductor) shouts out the destination, but most of the time the people just flag them down and get on without asking. Tell the conductor “stage” if you want to get off.

Legally only 14 people (including driver and door guarding person) can get on, but as you can guess most of the time, it’s at least 16. One time in Mbale, we had a 8 person matatu with 16 people seated inside, go figure.

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As I was getting out of the car, I bumped my head (as usual…).

“Sorry! Sorry!” said Moses, the driver, while patting my head.

The sorries here seem more for sympathizing than apologizing. They are ubiquous: when you drop something, when you slip on the road, when you fall while hiking…

Usually, my reply would be “it’s ok, it’s not your fault.” What else can I say?

(sorry is used as usual in the English context also)

Living expenses in Kampala in Ugandan Shillings

exchange rate: about 1 USD to 2050 Ugandan Shillings

by the way, there is no way anybody is willing to exchange Canadian dollars here…

rent in bwaise: 20,000 per month

school fees (public): 60,000 to 80,000 per term (3 months, 3 terms per year)

renting a boda boda: 10,000 per day, 70,000 per week

renting a private hire taxi: 30,000 (old) to 60,000/70,000 (new)

minimum wage: 60,000 per month, 2000 per day

sex worker in Bwaise, worked at hotel: 1000 per day

sex worker income: 20,000 per day (from 2000 to 5000 per person)

tailoring job: 2000 per day, someitmes not paid

makerere university: 1.8 million per term (more or less depending on which faculty you are in)

pineapple: 2000

avocado: 300 to 500

rolex (egg and chapati roll): 800

gas: 2400 per litre

water: 1.5 L, 1000

beer: 2000 to 3000 when going out, 1700 when bought at supermarket

matatu ride from centre to hostel: 500 to 800

camera: 370,000 to 450,000

making a tailor made dress: 30,000 for the sewing, 20,000 to 40,000 for material

soda: 600 to 1000

biggest note: 50,000

smallest coin (I’ve seen): 60

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Gunshots. Buring tyres. Angry mobs.

Riots have been consuming Kampala for the last three days. It was surreal to go through town on our school bus and see people pointing and shouting at us in such an unfriendly way. When one classmate took out her camera, the crowd on the opposite side of the road got aggitated. Our teacher immediately shouted, with a new note of urgency, for us to hide our cameras to “stop provoking them.” Some of my classmates were caught in the middle of a riot and couldn’t leave the internet cafe they were at. Smoke, shouting, gunshots, and more shouting. The battle of the people against the police raged on for hours before they could safely get on a taxi and go home. We passed by the centre yesterday evening; strangely quiet and ghostly, especially when Friday nights are always bustly in a friendly atmosphere.

From what we can gather (most of the news is in Luganda), it’s a combination of tribal tensions, anger against Museveni, high unemployment rates, all sparked by a visit to a youth conference the Buganda King wants to make this Saturday. Power struggle between the Buganda King and the King in the region where the youth conference is held; discontent with how most of the government elites are from the Western region of Uganda where Museveni is from; youth that are extremely loyal to the Buganda King; youth from another region who oppose the Buganda King… anger that has been brewing for three (or seven, our informant can’t really remember when a riot of this scale last happened) years erupts admist all the chaos. So far, roughly 21 are dead and 69 injured; 550 are arrested. Yesterday, riots started at 8 am and ended in the afternoon, then started again at 2 am. I can still hear gunshots going off every few minutes outside the hostel.

Rumours have it that the students at Makerere University want to strike against the 80% increase in tuition. Last time there was a strike, cafeterias were looted, chaos ensued, and 2 died. Currently, campus is closed and no strikes have started, yet.

Another round of gunshots and a stream of running people from outside the window.

(post written on Saturday)

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The Ugandan sorry

Public transport: Matatus

Public transport: Boda Boda

Kampala pours (rain): banana leaves, plastic bags

Electricity outages

The Ugandan what

Our daily food

The hostel

The mosquito nets

The cold showers

The Ugandan speech

The fruits

The Mzungus

The taxi park

“Cheena”

The permanent African “tan”

The malaria medicine: Lariam

The lessons

The roads

African dancing

crafts market

Religion

Atheist

Rafting the Nile

Ringing cellphones in lectures

tbc