What should be a simple drive across town is never simple here. In fact, driving across Kampala is never boring!
We have unforeseen delays, bizarre encounters and plenty of interesting sights to make the school run a fascinating trip!
Here are some photos of what has come across our path on some of our school runs. Enjoy the experience from the comfort of your armchair! Imagine some of the sights, sounds and decision-making challenges which are part of a daily drive in this developing city of East Africa!
It is not uncommon to see trucks loaded to the brim as I drive along the narrow, hilly roads of the city. The truck in the photo below was full of matoke (savoury bananas) with the added bonus of a matoke-seller sitting on top of his wares!
Getting stuck behind a truck like this can mean a frustrating delay, since they trundle laboriously uphill.
The temptation to overtake conflicts with the very real knowledge that over-taking uphill, with limited visibility, could be disastrous, as mini-bus taxis and motorbikes have a nasty habit of zooming into our path without warning. I don't want any collisions- so I often hold back and end up driving far slower than I would like, where others might be bolder and get ahead!
Here's another example- but this time it is mattresses loading the lorry right up to the hilt:
The sights we see make me smile sometimes. I know in the UK we joke about people going on holiday with "everything but the kitchen sink". Well, in Kampala, you can take the kitchen sink too!
All you need is a friend with a motorbike- and you can transport that legendary kitchen sink wherever you would like it to go!
Just to illustrate the point, I even saw ANOTHER kitchen sink zipping past me on the back of a "boda" motorbike this week!
On a different occasion, a motorbike carrying a broken motorbike pulled up next to me in a traffic jam!
Driving to school last week, Ben calmly pointed out that the cyclist travelling along beside us had strapped his gun onto his back so that he could steer his bike more easily.
Now this is not something I would expect my children to point out if we were driving along the route to school in England!
I passed my phone to Ben to snap a shot:
Another morning, a table drifted past us, held on by the passenger on the back of the bike!
Sometimes it is animals who block our way.
We don't have any zebra-crossings in Kampala (not that I've noticed so far!) but there is an unspoken understanding that cows have right of way. Cows are such a precious commodity here and it would mean Trouble, with that capital T, to hit one- so we always stop to let cows saunter across the street:
Cows aren't the only animals we encounter on the Kampala roads. There are often goats who get in the way as we drive.
But some goats are luckier than others- instead of hanging about on the muddy streets, some goats get to ride in style across town! Esther grabbed my phone to get this photo of a goat on a motorbike a couple of weeks ago:
Some mornings, we have delays caused by the terrible road surfaces. Last Friday, I came down one bumpy, single-lane track to discover a vehicle stuck right in my way- with no way around for me to continue the route to school.
My passengers alighted and tried to assist by placing rocks under the back wheel to stop the car slipping on the mud.
But all attempts were futile. Time was racing and I needed to get 5 pupils to school as soon as possible.
The road was too narrow for me to turn around- so I decided to make a detour into the nearby field. Then I thought I would be able to back-track up the hill and take an alternative route to school.
The children got out of the car and watched as I turned- but then I realised that the pot-hole leading back up to the muddy track was at a terribly steep angle. I was worried that the car might rock to the point of tipping over!
Maybe I was being melodramatic, but I definitely lacked the confidence to manoeuver our huge vehicle back into the correct position for continuing our journey to school.
In a flash of inspiration, I called one of the MAF pilots who lived close to where I was stuck and asked him to come and move the car for me! At this point in the morning, Andrew was already too far away for me to call on him. Thankfully, the other MAF pilot could make it to us easily- and came to rescue us while I took photos from a safer vantage point- OUT of the car!
As irony would have it, just as we got back on track to return the way we had come from, the stuck car was finally moved!!!! With a little bit of patience, I could have continued on my way without all the drama- but things just weren't working out smoothly on that Friday!
We drove a different way and of course, I was then running late. I was keen to get going as quickly as possible.... BUT then I encountered a huge grader machine on the other muddy track that leads to school! The driver seemed determined to block the road and to lumber along as slowly as he could... ARGH!!! What a frustrating drive to school!
Here's another example of some of the interesting road surfaces we contend with, depending on which way we choose to drive as we pick up or drop off other MAF kids on our school route:
And when it rains, like it did last week, even the tarred roads become unrecognisable. They are transformed into slippery pools of mud, spreading out like lakes of liquid chocolate:
With all of these challenges, I shouldn't be surprised when our car breaks down.
The wear and tear on our fabulous, fearless car gradually takes its toll. Scenes like the one pictured below, on the side of the road, have sadly been my experience a few times in Kampala already.
This break-down happened on a hill about 1 km from home and the mechanic had quite a job to identify the problem before our car could be towed back home...
Once parked back in our driveway, some very curious and excited boys had fun investigating the problem and examining the workings of the engine:
However, I had to laugh at the slogan on this learner's vehicle:
"Divine Brother, Defensive Driving School".
What a great catchphrase! Firstly, because we all need Divine help to stay safe while driving and secondly, because it is VERY wise to learn to drive defensively - especially within the context of some of our Kampala challenges :-)
