Travelogue from Uganda

[Duck on Wheels]

Just back from a week in Kampala, Uganda. No, I didn't take my Bike Friday with me. "Tuesday Weld" stayed safe at home, and I stayed as safe as I could in the chaotic traffic of Kampala. I managed not to get run over and not to fall into any "mzunga traps" (up to meter-deep potholes and open sewers in the roads. "Mzungu" (feminine: mzunga), I was told, translates to "easy living" and is anything from an admiring to affectionate to ironic nickname for visitors from wealthier countries, the sort of folks who don't know how to keep an eye on the road so as to avoid potholes and open sewers, or how to balance on sewer banks while traffic wizzes by just millimeters away . I did observe a lot of local cyclists. Also lots of "boda boda" -- small motorcycles; the name refers to the service of selling rides to people crossing borders where you have to walk a considerable distance over a no-mans-land from emigration control on one side to immigration control on the other. Only a fraction of a percentage of boda boda drivers had helmets, none of the pedal-powered cyclists, and none I saw carried extras for passengers. None of either bike category, not a one out of the thousands I saw, were driven/powered by women. I did see women as bike or boda boda passengers, but only sitting side-saddle. Straddling the bike (a lot safer!) is considered unfeminine. I could have opened up a whole new world of female cycling if I'd done some hill repeats on "Tuesday", wearing lycra and helmet. Maybe if I visit again some day. I did, while waiting for the shuttle back to the airport, see a wire sculpture of a female cyclist in a display case at the hotel. Too bad it wasn't for sale. Here are some pictures. Not great quality. The traffic shots were snapped through the window of the university transport van, moving. The wire sculpture was snapped with my cell phone camera through the glass of the display case. Look at the size of the loads being hauled on those pedal bikes! That's sugar cane on the one, I think, and obviously bananas on the other. I also saw some loaded with about 100 kg worth of water in cannisters, or stacks of lumber, furniture, even one with a big truck tire loaded on the back.