Day 44 Lunch with Cattle, Boys and Brickmakers

Wednesday January 26^th. Up early yet again. Still have laryngitis. Today was a public holiday, for Heroes Day and the city was quiet. We stopped at a fancy mall to go to ATM machines. We got scanned like we were going into an airport and there were guards with big rifles all around the mall, even at 6:30 in the morning!

Today was a really long truck drive and a still can't talk to people. So, I had lots of time to look out the window, marvel at what I was seeing and remember, even if I didn't feel great, I was lucky to be here. I also had lots of time to think and reflect. So here are a few of my thoughts and reflections.

As we drove through Kampala today I noticed there was lots of smog, and when we got into the country I realized a lot of it comes from the burning of grasses and clearing land. I wonder what future there is for the wild species the way man is encroaching on the parks. As we were driving towards chimpanzees and gorillas I was constantly reminded of habitat reduction and destruction. There are people, farms and villages everywhere. There are too many people.

We stopped for lunch by the side of the road right beside a herd of cattle with incredibly long horns. Then we were met by a group of young boys, who were minding the cattle and who were quite intent on watching us and waiting for leftovers, I suspect. We gave them that, plus large empty water bottles that they want for hauling water and one Canadian couple gave them some notebooks and pencils. We took lots of photos of them. They were polite and well behaved. Our guide asked them why they weren't in school and then remembered that it was a holiday. However the kids couldn't explain why they had the day off or what the holiday was about.

Also there were a number of people across the street making mud bricks. I walked over and talked to one of them. He was very interested my camera and I took some photos and showed him and he told me about the process of making the bricks.

En route we saw lots of fields of tea and bananas.

In much of the Africa I have seen foot power is the basic means of transport. Then comes bicycles. Malawi and Tanzania use lots of bicycles and carry everything on them, from bunches of bananas to bags of cement, from a friend to big bundles of firewood or sugarcane. Here is Uganda small motorcycles are very popular and perform similar duties. We have seen up to four! adults on a small 125 or 250cc bike.

Kenya and Uganda have three new roadside businesses. One is the making and selling of metal doors, presumably for security on their homes (most of which look like they have nothing to secure). Another is the selling of plain wooden box coffins. I wonder if that has to do with the AIDS death rate. And the third one, is battery charging. It looks like lots of people have cell phones but no electricity in their homes! So there are little shops that charge batteries and devices for a fee.

We finally wound up at Simba Safari Campgrounds. Fairly nice place in the middle of nowhere. Late dinner and then to bed.