Oh the joys of public transport in Uganda. Yesterday, I completed a 12-hour day on the bus (a trip that takes 5-6 hours by car). Three of those hours were in the terminal and inching our way through
the insane traffic to get out of the city. On the way, each person is delivered home much like a city bus system … they yell: “stop here” in their native tongue and the bus pulls over. And of course, we have to make snack stops (4 of them), as you see here: drive through African style. It is a good way to help the people in more remote areas with an income as the crowds rush to the windows to convince you to buy from them (live chickens, fried bananas, cassava, roasted meat on a stick, fruit, chapatti).
The highlight of the trip happened after dark. We were about an hour from Kitgum when suddenly, without warning … darkness … the headlights just went out, boom. At this point, I was already desperate to be home: “Now what?” It’s not like there are repair shops along the way. We were traveling a bumpy dirt road away from everything. So, the bus driver gets out, looks at the headlights, gets back in, shifts into gear, and carries on like it’s the most normal thing in the world. I thought: “YES! My kind of driver”. What else could he do? Anyway, it added some humor to an otherwise tedious ride and we all arrived into Kitgum safe and sound!
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