May 18th 2007

Jambo! (Swahili for Hello!)

Today I got my first real taste of Kampala. Black fumes, street vendors, honking, four white people and what seemed like millions of Ugandans, languages I couldn’t understand, shouts of “American?” pronounced Amer-E-can, boda-boda’s and taxi vans coming within inches of each other, Ugandans weaving in and out of traffic barely being missed by the vehicles – pure chaos to a Canadian’s eyes, perfectly orchestrated by the Ugandans. The roads are clay-red and pot-holed, and it’s a fight to get up the street whist attempting not to hit other people or get hit by a passing car. Not only do cars come at you from a direction you don’t expect (British system remember) but because all the drivers are speed-demons they are passing on the wrong side. When you cross the road you basically take your life in your hands; if you get stuck between to Matatus and they get too close to squishing you, you have to bang on the side of the car. Lovely. Happened to me twice today.

The city was sticky and hot by mid-afternoon, I would guess 25 degrees with little wind. I came close to grabbing a pair of scissors and chopping off my hair, what was I thinking coming to Uganda with long locks, silly Mazungu (white person)! Most people smile and say Hi or Good Morning, everyone has curious eyes, as of course do I. Just as in any big city in Canada, you see all kinds of people, from the very poor, who lay on blankets on the street, selling old sun-bleached books, pens and bootlegged videos, to business people dressed in nice suits, briefcases in hand. Many women are dressed in beautiful African-patterned outfits, all have their hair and nails done and most wear heals.

Lots of stores sell bottled water, and you can easily hop into any bar and grab a nice cold Nile beer to cool yourself off. I was able to buy a cell phone today (absolutely everyone has one here), which cost me 90000 shillings, about $65 for a new Nokia.

Upon returning from downtown, we had a bit to eat before heading to meet the “African Hearts” boys. A typical meal from a restaurant includes rice with beans and chapati, which resembles a thin pancake, or fries and chicken drumsticks, or matoke (a banana-like paste) with groundnut sauce or goats meat. Corner stores carry more typical Western food, but not a very large variety. Street vendors have goat-kabobs, matoke, passionfruit, oranges and mangoes. Many people sell grasshopper, a yummy treat apparently. I’ll let you know once I’ve become brave enough to try it. So far I’ve enjoyed all the food, and wow is it ever cheap. A person could easily get by on $10/day and be quite satisfied.

Now for the best part of my day. Natalie, Peter and I walked to the place where the African Hearts boys stay. These boys, between the ages of 6-19, are all orphaned and live together under the care of a couple of young adults. I walked down a dirt road to where the boys were warming up their instruments (they have formed a brass band!), and immediately the boys started running up to shake my hand and introduce themselves to me, “Hello, nice to meet you, I am Moses, what is your name?!” It was unlike anything I’ve experienced. All these beautiful faces, all speaking perfect English with thick Ugandan accents, all wildly intelligent, sincere, and truly pleased to meet me. We’ve all heard the stories about the big brown eyes staring up at you, curious, perhaps a little shy, pulling at your shirt, instantly tugging at your heart, drugging up emotions – well, I was not emotional, shockingly. I was surprised. I will be completely honest although it may reveal my naiveté and show some hidden biases, but I could talk to these kids on a level I never imagined would be possible. Their English was fantastic (in many cases more proper than mine), their understanding of the world was expansive, and their familiarity with Western culture almost disturbing. I say disturbing because there are certain things I had hoped wouldn’t take root, such as pop-culture (they decided to call me Nicole Kidman, oh jeeze!).

We had to walk to a nearby school in order for the boys to perform and I instantly had two boys on either side of me holding my hands all the way there, apparently a typical Ugandan thing. Briian on my left is a sweet, soft-spoken 14 year-old who plays the trumpet, and the boy on my left is 19, plays the drums, and is ‘Mr.Slick’, a smooth-talker, extremely smart, already asking if I want to go clubbing (I thought he was 16, and far too much like my brother – Scott, you would have been instant friends!). The boys asked me so many questions; What is Canada like, how big is Victoria, are you religious, what denomination, what did you take in school, what do you want to be in the future, how long are you staying, what do your parents do, what are your siblings like, do you like boxing or play football, what is your favorite football team, and on and on. For two hours at the school we talked and laughed, sang Akon songs, they rubbed my arms and compared our skin, they put on an amazing performance and wowed us completely! Natalie and Peter recorded a demo CD for them and hopefully I’ll be able to send a copy to Canada shortly.

Must get going, talk to you all soon,

~Nicole