Farewell Kampala (2)

Travelling is one of the most fascinating and stimulating aspects of living in a foreign country, and Uganda doesn’t disappoint. The GaaGaa Bus Company terminus in Kampala is located on the opposite side of the road to the lorry ‘park’ where lorries are loaded for journeys east to Kenya, north to Sudan as well as through the length and breadth of Uganda. At 5.00 pm, the atmosphere there is thick with dust, diesel and petrol fumes. Chaos reigns. On the roadside are piled boxes of every shape and size, crates of bottles, hundreds of rolled up foam mattresses, steel rods for reinforced concrete, sacks bulging with goodness-knows what, and much other totally unidentifiable baggage.

Soon after 5.30 pm our 3 cardboard boxes and 3 cases were taking their full and unscripted part in the chaos - 5,000Ush* for the boxes and 8,000Ush for each of the cases to go on the bus with us the following morning. But the three air-freight barrels wouldn’t fit into the bus so, over the road into the melee of the lorry park. Richard, our Ugandan transport advisor negotiated the lorry driver down from 100,000Ush for each barrel to 200,000Ush the lot. Allan was outraged ‘It’s only 20,000Ush for a bus to carry me to Arua!’ He managed to negotiate down to 120,000Ush for all 3 barrels. It felt like a bit of a triumph, but it’s salutary to discover a barrel is worth 6x more than you are! But the most important issue of all – will they actually get to their rightful destination?

*about £1.50