Some observations

I feel I need to flesh out my description of the country. While I have still seen very little, what I have seen is worth noting. It is the rainy season here. Violent storms are rare I'm told, although those that do occur can produce hail that is spectacular and rip off the roofs of houses. The contruction outside Kampala is mostly 1 story. Those buildings in city under construction share a common thing not seen in the US--the scaffolding outside the building, often six stories high, is made out of wood: pine, eucalyptus, bamboo. There are round crossboards, 3-4 on each level to stand on, making working on them something that requires a sure-footed balance I lack.

As we leave the city, the overwhelming color, red, is diminished. Think Sedona without the buttes and mesas (Uganda is relatively flat, a plateau at about 4,000 ft). Now with the city fading behind, the sky stetches out forever, a light pastel blue dotted with flat-bottomed clouds with huge collums of white cotton piled on high. I am made to think of paintings I've seen of rocky coastlines with the surf blasting high in the air, the image frozen yet full of water and potential violence.

The road stretches out in front, a long straight ribbon of red, an orange corona hovering over it. To the side, green, low brush dotted with banana, pineapple and mango trees, some with bright red and yellow flowers. There are tree farms (I am sure these provide the foundations for the scaffolding I mentioned), and houses, homes, all along the road. Only one deep, but every 100 feet or so another structure. I ask Big John, who has come here 4 straight years, to explain the ownership of land. He tell me that anyone can get a plot of land from the gov't, and if they make it produce, it is theirs. That explains the piles of red clay in some spots without a building, the piles of bricks in others. The people make their own houses including the building materials for them. Those already occupied all have chickens, and tethered cattle and goats--for some reason staining to get out of the lush green and onto the road. Corn, banana trees, Irish and sweet potato, greens, zucchini and squash all take the place of what would be yards in the states. Functionality is all.


It all reinforces the economics of transportation. Without the road the people cannot get to and from the locations where social services exist, and for those that produce from their small plots an excess, they provide access to markets.

All for now.