Sights in downtown Kampala

Here are some sights from downtown Kampala that I noted while riding in a car on the way to do some shopping:

Young men selling MTN airtime cards for cell phones to passengers in cars/ matatus while they are stuck in traffic jams or waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

An 18 wheeler long haul lorry passes thru the space where seconds before there was a man in tattered clothes pushing a wooden wheelbarrow filled with pineapples he will sell. Immediately after the truck cleared through, the same space was filled with dozens of matatus and bodas, all full of passengers leaving the center of the city. There is no order or queuing, the bodas dart in and out and the matatus are often two in a “lane”. No, there aren't marked lanes on the roads in this left hand driving country. The main rule of the road is “give way to anything bigger than you”.

Traffic island sometimes are the stand of choice for self-appointed preachers, screaming out their message over the din of traffic, radios and sidewalk hawkers. The sides of the roads do not have sidewalks in most places and are filled with people “footing” as they can't afford the matatu fare of $0.50. People will walk miles to go to work or to school. Not many obese people in the general population.