Kampala calling...

So, here I am in Kampala, Uganda, in the middle of a wild rainstorm! I have never heard anything like it - the loudest, most savage pelts of thunder followed by slicing lightening. The water surges in rivers down the muddy roads - all locals flee for shelter. Sensible. I have no such patience & plough on through; I'm fairly used to my fair share of rainfall on Dartmoor after all! Alas, this is no westcountry drizzle. Within seconds I am soaked through. Shrieks of laughter at the silly 'Mzungu' (whitey) from all sides. Arms folded tightly across chest, head down, homeward bound. & it's hilariously funny! As is my new favourite way of getting from A to B... the boda boda, a motorbike 'taxi'. Having just purchased my very own helmet I now feel like an authentic gung ho Kampalan as I zip my way through the streets tucked in behind one or other of the zillion boda drivers which clamour for your attention at every corner (although I don't have two children and a chicken clinging on to me and I implore my drivers to “mpolampola", go slowly, which is perhaps not the style of your average passenger here). It is by far the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get around and is exhilarating... but of course is probably not the safest. My drivers so far have all been very good at going slowly and carefully, so don't worry Mum I am being cautious!

And what of Kampala itself? It is a city of hills, hurry, noise, dust, laxity, fervour and fever. A cauldron of bustle and bedlam. Without order, rule or system, so it seems. Roads for ravaging, potholes for dodging, careering boda bodas to circumnavigate. From abjection to luxury in a leap; from a shack to the Sheraton. The city fizzes with vibrancy - just as it languors in lethargy.

Hightailing it from a history of horror, through energy and enterprise. No need for finesse, it is blatant and blunt; it thrusts, brazen and brutish and bawdy and bold. It has a rhythm which resounds in the beat of the streets, in the night chorus which never sleeps, in music blasting, people singing, dogs barking, cockerels crowing. Reluctant to let you rest, it is alive and won't let you forget it!