How to buy a 'new' car in Kampala

In some of our previous blog posts we have mentioned ‘Suki, our trusty Escudo which has been chauffeuring us around Uganda.  She came to us about five months ago from a shipping bond.  Vehicles in Uganda are almost all imported (mostly from Japan) and then sold of as new at these bonds.  What new really means is that the vehicle hasn’t yet been on the pot-holed paths they call roads here.  Most vehicles don’t last more than 4 or 5 years before things begin to fall apart in a serious way.  Getting our little Escudo proved to be a nerve-racking experience.  To begin with, I (Stu, Deb decided that as long as it was green and ‘not too big’ she would be happy with whatever I got) went around with our friends Paul and Robert to more than 10 shipping bonds.  Each one of these bonds is filled with the slimiest of used car salesmen who are looking to make a cut.  They even follow you from bond to bond to try and explain why their vehicles are better.  We ended up having to go out several weekend in a row because we could only stand an afternoon of being heckled and pestered to buy vehicles that I would not feel safe with my enemy driving.

Finally, we came across a nice new-ish looking GREEN vehicle that matched everything we were looking for.  After taking so long to find the car, I wanted to move on it to ensure that it wouldn’t be sold to someone else.  When I inquired about what the next step was, I didn’t really know how to answer.  I needed to find money to pay for the car….in cash…and they wanted it in USD if possible.  I had no idea how I was going to find the money, let alone in dollars. 

Up until then, we did not have a Ugandan bank account and had just been withdrawing money from the ATM.  Finally with a little finagling, we managed to secure the appropriate cash, but walking around with this much cash, especially in Kampala, was terrifying.  It isn’t like you can hide it very well.  Because of the exchange rate, we ended up with a huge stack of bills.  When the time came to pay for the car, the bills got shoved down my socks, into pockets, anywhere possible for people not to notice we were carrying a big wad of cash.  

 

All I have to say is that we are so happy about our little car, and I would be happy to go through the whole ordeal again.

This is our backyard...

Ok, so backyard is a bit of a stretch.  One of the bonuses of Nikhil’s visit is that it gave us a little push to get out on weekends and enjoy what Uganda has to offer. After our weekend away in Jinja, Nikhil headed down south to check out the gorillas.   After his return, the two of us jumped into ‘Zuki and headed up to Masindi and Murchison Falls National Park.  After five hours and a couple wrong turns (we ended up on a 45 km stretch of horrible potholed road rather than fresh tarmac) we ended up at the park. 

We were instantly met by baboons, warthogs and birds.  These animals were literally on our doorstep, porches and tables.  The attraction of this national park is Murchison Falls which is the end of the Victoria Nile and the beginning of the White Nile, heading up through Sudan to Egypt, and the game drives.  

The waterfall is spectacular 100-foot drop.  Most impressive is the power of the Nile powering through a 20-foot gap. This area is ecologically important as it is one of the last homes of the enormous Nile Perch (I definitely need to get back up here for a fishing trip).  It is also home to many Nile crocs, hippos, elephants, waterbucks and hundreds of birds.

Our adventure in search of game started early with a 7am ferry across the river.  On the way we picked up Jimmy, our guide for the game drive.  Having not been on a game drive before, I have nothing to compare to.  However, the game driving up here is truly wild.  Not only do you drive your own car (the guide is in the back to help you spot animals), but you also get to go looking for the animals anywhere in the park.  

We set off on our drive and were interrupted by a traffic jam of antelope on our road.  We soon had seen so many antelopes that we no longer stopped to have a look at them.  We must have seen hundreds of them in the first 20 minutes.  We continued to drive and saw herds of giraffes, buffaloes and kob.  After about an hour, Jimmy asked us what we wanted to see.  Not knowing what to answer, we told him to take us to all of the best stuff.

Jimmy promptly decided that we should then take a sharp right and drive to find the lions.  I stopped the car to make sure I heard correctly.  There was in fact no road to the right and the savannah was covered with trees and shrubs.  Jimmy told us not to worry and that if we wanted to see a lion, that is where they were.  On we drove on, we couldn’t find anything.  Then, Jimmy asked me to drive towards the pile of dirt about 100m away to see what it was.  It turned out to be a giant male who had just finished breakfast!!!  Then to our left, we noticed two more females.  We had hit the jackpot! We stayed in amazement for more than 30 minutes, just staring at these giant beasts.  We were even lucky enough to see three cubs with females.  It was absolutely amazing how close we were to these wild animals and how few other people would be see them today.

After our time with the lions, we drove on and saw hundreds more animals including schools of hippos and elephants watering themselves by the river.  We even got to see the incredibly rare Shoebill Stork (apparently people travel to Uganda just to see them… and other than this time, hardly ever seen in pairs).   

After the fabulous game drive, we jumped on a boat for a four-hour cruise up to the mouth of the falls.  The trip was a wonderfully relaxing way to enjoy the Nile, see the animals and birds and have a knowledgably guides teach you about the ecosystem.  

 By the end of our trip, hippos, antelope and warthogs had become the norm.  We hardly even stopped for many animals.  It is amazing that this is hear and so untapped.  I can’t wait to come back and see what else hiding up hear.

I haven’t been able to put all of my photos on the blog.  If you want to see the rest of my photos, they are available here http://picasaweb.google.com/114379842904288416190/MurchisonFallsAug2010?feat=directlink.

Back to the whitewater

So after our wonderful three-week sojourn in Italy, we thought we needed a vacation on our return so we headed back to Jinja with Nikhil to try our hands at some whitewater kayaking.  After our rafting trip we swore that we would come back to try our hand at some more paddling.  What a better way to spend a weekend then paddling in 25-degree water.  The best part is that getting dumped is a pleasure.  There is none of the shock from the water that we have in Canada.  

 We thought that we better get some lessons before we jumped into the big stuff and joined up with a kayak school run by a Scot.  Our instructors are worldclass paddlers who really know what they are talking about (check out one here…. http://vimeo.com/4665426).  We quickly went over the basic paddle strokes and began learning how to role.  Being that the water is so large, it is pretty important to know how to get back up.  The real question is not whether you are going to flip but rather how much.  After a couple of hours of practicing we headed out onto the water to try our hand at some grade ones and twos.  Along the way we practiced what we had learned in the morning.

Frustratingly, although I feel perfectly comfortable upside-down, I couldn’t quite get my boat back over on my own.  We definitely needed another day of practice so we headed out on Sunday to try our hand again.  We were joined by David, one of our instructors from the previous day, and Deborah’s new best friend.  We played around in for the first couple of hours and practised our roles and then headed off to the river to try our hands and some bigger stuff.

Although we are still very much beginners, we had a great weekend away.  I can’t wait for the next one when we can really start to feel comfortable in our boats.

The bed and breakfast is open…

We are frequently jeered for running a bed and breakfast out of our apartment because of how many visitors we have come and stay with us.  Needless to say, we are happy to take all the jokes because we just love having our friends around.  Although Uganda is a bit more inaccessible than Toronto or London, we have already had two visitors and have more coming in September. 

Our friend Nikhil decided to come and visit for two weeks before he started a new job in Amsterdam.  We were happy to play hosts and loved the many dinners and BBQs (Nikhil is a PRO!!) we got to share.  It is always so nice to have friendly faces around to share our world with.  

Sojourn in Tuscany

Tickets…check

Passports…check

Tuscan villa…check….whoa, wait a minute!  Tuscan villa?  Yes, Tuscan villa!  As July ended, we headed off to Italy for a three-week adventure that was to take us through many parts of Tuscany.

The idea of this trip started about 18-months ago when our friend John Schram bid on a week at the villa during a charity auction.  We had committed to joining in Italy but never really thought it would happen.  Yet here we were, on our way from Kampala to Cortona.

We were sharing the villa with John, Ashley, Josh and Julia.  We could not really imagine something more lovely.  To make matters more interesting, the week we picked for our visit happened to be when Cortona was hosting the Tuscan Sun Festival, a celebration of food, wine and music.

We could not have asked for a better week.  We got to relax and enjoy with some of our best friends, drink copious types of wine, cheese and pastries and enjoy all that Tuscany has to offer.  We participated in several of the organised activities including cheese making (which included an amazing 6 course cheese menu), winery tours and a ‘competition’ between Australian and Tuscan San Giovese wines.  

Aside from stuffing ourselves at the Tuscan Sun Festival, we also visited Lake Trasimeno for a visit to some ruins and a boat trip, Arezzo for an incredible antic market (think middle ages and then include original Rembrants and Dalis!), and of course the local area. 

The best part of the week must have been the food.  The restaurants were amazing.  However, we spent most nights in our place cooking with fresh vegetables and trying out wine from wineries we had visited or had been recommended.  Our wonderful chefs kept us stuffed to the brim.  We rapped up the week with a visit to a great restaurant in the countryside and got treated to some modern Tuscan.  All in all, we could not have asked for anything more.  It truly was a week to remember.  Highlights from the week are here http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/Cotona#

The end of the week did not mean the end of the trip.  After our stay in Cortona, we rented a car and drove through some of the top wine regions.  We took in tours in Montalcino, Montalpulciano and several days in the Chianti region.  We tried many wines we liked and many that were not so good.  The drives though were spectacular.  The scenary in the region was so beautiful it was a pleasure to just drive around.  Of course, visits to restaurants that serve a seven-course meat menu (http://www.dariocecchini.com/solo_ciccia_eng.html) are not too bad either.  Along the way, we also visited several medieval towns including Voltara and San Gimingnano, the medieval Manhattan (so named because of the 14 towers surrounding the town).  Photos from our road trip are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/TuscanRoadTrip#

Sadly after four days, we had to say goodbye to Josh and Julia and were on our own in Florence.  Deb has been trying to get me to Florence since she visited with her sisters ten years ago.  The most amazing thing about Florence is the architecture.  Every building you look at is steeped in history.  It is not hard to imagine what life would have been like there 500 years ago with the Medicis.  We stayed in a small apartment outside of the downtown about 250 meters from the Arno.  The apartment was perfect for us.  It has a nice kitchen (and Deb loved cooking with all the fresh Italian food stuffs!), had a coffee shop nearby and was close enough for us to walk into town.

We spent four days leisurely touring around visiting the many churches and squares, a byzantine synagogue (very unique), and of course the art galleries.  Florence is known for the Academia and the Ufizi, two of the most famous art museums.  Even though neither of us are really into renaissance art, we had to visit.  As they say, when in Rome…. It did not disappoint.  Seeing the best of the best is so much different than the rest of the renaissance work.  The pieces here are really in a class of their own.  Photos from Florence can be found here http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/Florence.

Having taken in more art than we had seen in the past 5 years, we headed south to Siena to visit Lucia (a friend from my Masters in Brighton) and take in Palio (this is the horse race at the beginning of the last Bond movie).  Palio is a spectacular event that is hard to explain and whose continued existence is difficult to comprehend outside of those who live in Siena.  For the Sienese, life stops for five days, twice a year for this 700 real old ritual.  The race itself is a 90 second bareback race around the central square.  For the winner: a coveted silk banner (the palio), for the losers: utter humiliation. 

Siena is divided into 17 town districts or contrades (there use to be 42), each with their own traditions, symbol and colours, and its own church and palio museum.  The streets are lined with the various flags and plaques clearly drawing battle lines for the different quarters.  For five days, the contrades come together to protect their horse, their jockey and their pride. 

We were inducted in to the Valdimontone (mountain goat) contrade and stayed with them for most of our time there.  There are specific rituals and practices that happen leading up to race itself.  The horses are allotted to districts by lot, there are four trials to race and of course the festivities.  There are three feasts in each contrade honouring the horse and jockey.  We attended the final feast, a six-course meal fed to over 2000 people dining in the street!!!

The day of the race is a stressful one.  The contrade march in their horses to singing at the top of their lungs.  The largest men stand at the front, chests pumped out, protecting their horse and jockey just as footmen going to war.  It is truly a freighting affair.  The order of the horses is in an ancient ritual of lots.  After which, the horses are called one by one to the starting line, a rope hung across the dirt track.  The jockeys all poke and prod each other and the horses trying to ensure that their enemies horses will be too agitated to focus on the race.  It can take up to an hour to get all of the horses in the right place.  Our race must have been reset almost 10 times.

When the horses are told to leave only to be called back in order, the jockeys give and take bribes of up to $500,000.  The bribe may be to start slowly, to bother an enemy or even to purposely loose.  The only rules that exist during the race is that a jockey can not touch another jockeys reins.  It is an all out war with horses and anything goes.

Although Montone didn’t win, neither did their enemy so it was not a complete loss.  This years winner was Tartuca (turtle), Lucia’s unlce’s (and frequently our tour guide) contrade.   After the race, we retreated to the district for some consolation drinks and to watch the race again (the locals can watch each race 100 times and it was on loop without commentary for 24 hours).

Sadly, we were off on an early train to Rome for our flight back the next day.  Our three week tour had come to a triumphant ending.  We were back to Kampala and a life of matoke, Tusker  and pork.  Some times you don’t know what you miss until it is gone.  Siena photos are here http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/Siena02#

A trip west

Now don’t get me wrong… we love Kampala.  But after weeks of black exhaust fumes, countless piles of trash, loud nights, we needed a little break.  So after very little planning and a desperate need to see what else Uganda has to offer, we jumped in ‘Zuki (our semi-reliable Escudo) and headed west.  The four-hour drive to Fort Portal took us through the rolling Ugandan countryside with equal doses of roaming cows in the road and waving children chasing the car.  The drive proved to be far easier than anticipated thanks to huge investments in transportation from the Chinese resulting in new roads around the country.  We had beautiful views of huge tea plantations, fields of papyrus, and the beautiful Rwenzori mountains in the distance.

We decided to stay at the beautiful Ndali Lodge, which lies on the rim of an extinct volcano.  The lodge is owned by a British family who have owned the land for almost a hundred years.  Staying here was a bit of an indulgence but we thought we had earned it.  The lodge currently owns more than 1000 acres and produces many of their own fruit and vegetables, vanilla, and meat.  It was so nice to be served fresh local produce that didn’t consist of sweet potatoes, plantain or stewed chicken (don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE this stuff though).  The site itself was absolutely lovely.  There is very little better than having sun-downer cocktails overlooking a beautiful valley with huge mountains in the background.

The real reason to head out to Fort Portal wasn’t just for a relaxing weekend away.  What we really wanted to do was check out Kibale (pronounced chi-bal-eh) National Park.  The park is renowned for their chimpanzees.  It is estimated that there are about 750 chimps in the park, divided between several different communities.  The park is also filled with many other monkeys (different from other primates as they have tails), forest elephants, small antelopes, and many many birds. 

Upon entering the park, the roads were covered with baboons (it turns out that they are a bit of a pest here).  The first thing I noticed was that they are far less mangy in real life.  The distinctive calluses on the monkey’s bums were not nearly as large.  That being said, for some reason, baboons seem so unappealing.  Not soon after we arrived, we could hear the birds everywhere. 

We quickly picked up a guide (with a gun to ‘protect’ us from the forest elephants) and jumped back into the car and drove to the area of the forest where the chimps were last seen.  After only a five-minute walk, we could hear the chimps banging trees, calling to each other and playing around.  Within ten minutes, we had our first sittings of our nearest relatives.  These animals are truly astonishing in their human-like behaviour.  I know that this should not be a surprise but when you see them communicating, playing and running around, you really can see where we all came from.  It was a truly humbling experience.  We got to stay with the chimps for about an hour and a half, observing many different family members from the newborns to the grandfathers.  The young chimps are a bit freaky but older the chimps get, the more they look like humans.  Deb swears that the silverback (alpha-male) looks exactly like her dad (this is a complement John!!!).  

After our visit with the chimps, we thought we had earned ourselves a break so we headed back to the lodge to relax a little.  Besides, the England – Germany World Cup game was on that night and Paul and I still needed to locate a place to watch the game.  We got very lucky and the lovely owners of the lodge invited us to a BBQ at the ‘country club’ on the other side of Fort Portal.  Deb and Melissa decided to stick around the lodge for some spa time and cocktails.

The country club was not anything what we were expecting.  Instead, it was a bunker placed in a large field in the middle of a sprawling tea plantation.  The club was owned by a Irish expat and the ‘bar’ was filled with a variety of international football fans.  Unfortunately most were disappointed by the result.  However, the BBQ was to die for, with beautiful ribs and many trimmings.

The next day we went for a lovely little walk around one of the crater lakes with a local guide.  The lakes are actually the craters of volcanoes.  The walk therefore took us around the volcanoes rim.  Not remotely scary as the volcano is long extinct, but an interesting tidbit.  The walk was very nice and the guide showed off many local birds and talked about rural life in this part of Uganda.  

After a hearty lunch we were on our way back home, or so we thought….Our car decided that it did not want us to leave this beautiful area.  About 6 ks down the dirt road, the car decided it no longer wanted to work.  It quickly became clear that the alternator was not working and we would need some repairs.  We slowly got the car into a garage only to learn that we would need a new alternator.  As Deb, Paul and Melissa all had to get to work the next day, I was unanimously elected to stay the night in Fort Portal to wait for the car to be fixed.  As well that ends well and I was back on the road by noon the next day after the right parts where shipped up from Kampala overnight.

This trip reminded us where we are living and showed us how much we have to see around Uganda.  We can’t wait for the next adventure.

Home sweet home

Deb here - yes, we admit it; we’ve been bad at updating the blog. Apologies. Here’s the first – all about getting our home set up here in Kampala – and we hope to add more updates soon ;)

wicker furniture

So, we live in a great two-bedroom apartment on Kololo Hill. It took a while, but we finally feel like we have really set-up our new home with furniture, curtains, plants – the whole lot. And we’ve recently acquired a roommate, Melissa, so we are having a blast.

Setting up a home in Kampala can be either really fun or really frustrating. It depends where you sit on the ‘design your own furniture, make your own curtains in Uganda’ scale of home decorating. We found it really fun, most of the time. Our couches and coffee table are stained wicker. We got them from a part of town called ‘Gabba Road’ which is essentially a road lined with stalls of people selling all matter of handmade furniture: wicker furniture, soft couches, beds, tables and chairs, etc. You just walk up and down the road trying to find what you like while trying not to look too interested. However walking up and down the road with Stu yields many people interested in us. Since Jesus was a carpenter, and most Ugandans think Stu is Jesus, we had many people wanting us to ‘bless’ their furniture. But we did go looking for furniture with my ‘Ugandan Father’, Haj, who is a private hire driver I was introduced to through a colleague. Haj takes me around town at night and in the rain and is a very sweet ‘father’. He always makes sure that he is dropping me somewhere safe and that Stu or a friend is waiting at my destination, otherwise he waits with me. When I told him we were looking for furniture, he insisted on taking us to make sure we got good quality at a good price. Which we did – and we had a blast together. Just picture me, Stu and a 60 year old Ugandan man walking amongst hundreds of half made couches deciding on which is the most stylish and would suit our apartment the best and which fabric is most durable and easiest to wash. It was kind of like the three stooges! We purchased a coffee table, a two-seater, and two one-seater brown stained wicker couches with an ‘african print’ fabric.


Then we headed to ‘Port Bell Road’, another area of town to get our bed set and kitchen table. Port Bell has a row of carpenters who can make just about anything you want. They are quite good a reproducing items from a picture. It was very funny when we said we were looking for a bed and the carpenter pulled out an Ikea catalogue!! We decided on a sleigh-bed type design with two bed-side tables. I also designed a dressing table, stool and mirror combo. Our kitchen table and chairs are also quite beautiful in dark chocolate brown. The last piece of furniture we’ve had made is a high buffet table (?). I actually have no idea what it’s called, it just a narrow 18 inches x 4 feet table that is bar height, I think. Either way, it looks great against the wall!

At my 'dressing table'

The final touches to our apartment were to get some curtains made. It’s very expensive to get ‘real’ curtains made from the furniture/fabric store (and they are quite heavy and outdated), so we decided to go on our own curtain making adventure. We found out that the beautiful African fabrics can be found at Kyembe (chi-em-bay) Market. So Stu and I headed off with our window measurements. Kyembe Market is like a hardware store meets electronics store topped off with a fabric store. Except I use the word ‘store’ lightly; it’s actually a mesh of streets and alleys with stalls crammed into every space. Some stalls sell all manner of hardwares for building or fixing; others speakers, car radios and televisions; and others fabrics and sewing machines. We walked around, trying not to stick out, as not many ‘muzungos’ (white people) shop in this market.

We ended up at a tiny shop about 10 feet by 6 feet stacked floor to ceiling with the most colourful and beautiful fabrics. We were greeted warmly by Sakira and the 8 other women in the shop who were busy sewing on their old Singers. I was in heaven. First, we had to pick the fabric, which is actually quite hard and I, of course, was being picky with the colours. Shakira pulled one fabric after the other off the shelves and we had a fun go at, “no too green, no too brown, too printed, not enough print”, etc, etc. We finally settled on a fabric for the bedroom, only to find Shakira did not have enough of it, so she sent someone on a run through the market to find more. In the meantime, I had to explain to Winnie the tailor/dressmaker (who’s mother coincidentally is named Deborah, so we were instant friends) that I wanted curtains with loops. “Loops? Why loops, what about hooks?” was Winnie’s reply, and we had a debate on the aesthetics of loops versus other forms of curtain hangings. In the end, my loops won out. Then we had to give the measurements. We measured our windows in centimetres but Winnie works in inches, so Stu started on a lesson of converting cms to inches. Then we had to figure out how much fabric we needed and how best to use the 6 yard bolts to make curtains approximately 2-3 times the length of our windows (standard curtain making procedure...Mom knows what I mean!). I was utterly confused and there was Stu, knee deep in fabric, arms outstretched, going on about “lengthwise, rotate, sew, cut”... I wanted my curtains to look great; Stu wanted to get the most curtain out of the least amount of fabric. My attempts to match the pattern between the two curtain panels was thwarted by Stu’s desire to squeeze 18 feet of curtain from 18 feet of fabric not taking into account seams, hems or...the loops! Geesh... Just picture the two of us and 8 Ugandan women stuffed into a tiny colourful space going around and around in circles of centimetres, seams and loops. We attracted an audience. In the end, we settled on something, but I wasn’t quite sure what.

Winnie, Deb and Shakira in the fabric shop at Kyembe Market

Our balcony and plants as the sun is setting

I went back to pick up the curtains a few days later, and they were absolutely great! Shakira and Winnie are now our go to gals for anything tailoring and I’ve taken my roommate there for curtains. We have a blast with them and have plans to make many more things for the house.

So there you have it. Home sweet home. Now you just need to come visit so you can see our furniture and curtains in person!

Kisses from Kampala,
D and S