The Million Dollar View

A nice relaxing day in Kampala today. We all went to Church this morning visiting 3 different Churches. I went with Debbie, Mike and Chris to the Baptist church where our friend Francis (one of the Tiger Teams social worker) is a youth pastor. It was a great service mainly in English. After Francis drove us into town to join the others at Fang Fangs for a Chinese meal. This was a welcome change from our usual meals.

We returned to the guesthouse by Boda even Helen!!!!!! She was very nervous of the journey but when we arrived jumped off the bike with the biggest smile I have seen from a white person and the words 'that was awesome!' She wanted an immediate return trip. The rides on this moped are probably very silly but great fun. The frightening thing is when the driver puts on a crash helmet but does not offer you any protection!

Whilst my room was being cleaned I visited the Cathedral above us on top of Namirembe Hill. Only a short walk but what a view over the city and looking into the heart of African. A million dollars is an undervalue of the view. I sat for about an hour just taking it in. Basking in the brilliant sunshine, the peace it was just amazing.

Kampala is such a city of contrasts. Sitting on top of the hill the city looked beautiful basking in the sun. Many trees and rolling hills in almost every direction. You could just hear the buzz of the city from the hill top but the most dominant sound was of birds calling. Looking up into the clear blue sky to see birds circling very African style.

Then my eyes fell down to the city and you could see the slum areas. People living on top of each other with hardly any room to move. Little sanitation, rubbish left to accumulate everywhere.

Yesterday we (the boys) visited one of the slum markets. We had passed it almost every day. We split into to groups to stand out less. Ha! 4 white people ranging in height from about 6 foot to me at 6 foot five not stand out! I think we could have been seen from the space station being built!

It was an experience. The first thing was the smell. It reminded me of the markets we used to have some years ago. As a child my dad would take me to the local market for the weekly fruit & veg shop, this market was not much different only bigger. Not only did it sell fruit and veg but clothes, wood, sand, electrical goods almost anything you wanted. There were barber shops, fish and meat sellers and the smell of all that, sweat humans and rubbish was almost overpowering.

The people were welcoming and threw us a cheery hello, what may have been said in Lugandan is any one's guess. I think they felt it was amusing to see white people in this area or perhaps they thought it was meals on legs!

Flies were everywhere particularly on the meat and fish. You could not escape the smell even sucking airwaves. Probably a mistake a blocked nose would have been a better option.

Turning a corner we were greeted by a truck taking meat to the market including the severed head of a cow. Darren thought it winked at him as it went by.

We walked through the market down to the railway track and walked along this for a while until we realised we were going deeper into the slum. We made a tactical withdrawal and our way back out to the main road. The mass of people moving about the area you just do not see in England and is hard to imagine.

The guesthouse strap line is 'The Million Dollar View' . So long as your eye doe not wonder too far it is a million dollar view, but stray and you see the slums and the hardship suffered by the large mass of the population of this city.

Simon