Let's Go for a Walk

My goodness it has been a long time! I wonder if anyone has noticed...

Rainy season is back upon us. It started at 2pm on Wednesday when the heavens opened and brought down torrential rain upon all of Uganda. Well, not only rain. Some areas experienced such harsh hail that the crops that had survived the very hot weather were crushed by the foot of pea-sized hail that fell. Those poor farmers.

Corey and I have been talking about walking along Ggabba Road for many months now. We drive back and forth along this hub of activity at least twice a week and I am forever admiring the shoes and dresses that are fluttering in the wind. 80% of them are castaways from our corner of the world, having arrived in huge shipping containers, but I often ask Corey why it is that these dresses and blouses never made it to a shelf at a mall near me.

Yesterday, we decided that if it wasn't pouring we would walk the 5km along Ggabba Road from the furniture market back to our house.

Apollo picked us at 10 as per usual and we went to the furniture market to purchase a small night table with drawers for the guest room. This furniture market is about a block long and is just furniture. Piles of beds and sofas and desks and shelves, all lined up along the side of the road. If you look a little further in, you'll see men cutting the wood, banging the pieces together, and sewing the upholstery for the sofas. With all this rain, the cushions are rather wet because only the expensive pieces get covered with tarps. It amazes me that the furniture doesn't get broken or stolen. It seems so easy to strap a king-sized bed frame onto the back of a motorcycle that I would imagine that theft would be rampant. But no-one touches the pieces.

After some negotiations, thanks be to Apollo, we ordered a small piece to be made and picked on Wednesday. While he was negotiating the price, Corey and I were talking to a quiet furniture maker (as opposed to the loud young men who were trying to charge us double for our night stand) about the traditional chairs that everyone sits on in Uganda. They are just basically three pieces of wood nailed together with a reed seat but they are really comfortable.

"How much?" I asked, bracing for the worst.
"You give me 5,000."
"5,000? Each?"
He nodded, hoping to make a sale.

I bought two. 5,000 is about $2.50. Now I have to build a box and ship them home. I figure that if I paid $5.00 for two chairs, I can pay $30 shipping to get them back to Canada. They are even cheaper than the relax chairs that I mailed home from China!!

 "Why can't you collect stickers instead of chairs?" Corey asks. He thinks I am nuts which I'm sure I am.

We put our chairs into the van and asked Apollo to drive over the hill to Uchumi, about 1km back toward the house. As we arrived, I told him that he was just dropping us there and we would walk home. He laughed. When he saw that we were going to get out, he asked "Sure?" which is the Ugandan equivalent to "Really?" We thanked him and jumped out of the van.

My first stop was a dress shop called Kyaligonza. There are three such shops that make dresses with beautiful Ugandan fabrics. This one is very small and not the best. There is another one on Kibuli road that is bigger and seems to have a better variety of dresses. I will have to get Apollo to stop there one day to have a quick look. I am on the hunt for a black and white dress to bring home. I won't wear it here because the water will turn it rust and black but the black and white dresses that the women wear here are stunning. I tried on a green dress and Corey said I looked like I had cabbages on my shoulders from the way the sleeves were made. Obviously I did not add a cabbage dress to my wardrobe.

We ran across the road to Le Petit Village where there is a butcher, a small import store and a pastry shop, La Patisserie. We ordered coffee, a sausage roll to share, and a little cake each. The coffee was really good and I liked the sausage roll but my cake was stale and dry so I didn't eat it. There were beautiful looking breads but as we were at the start of our walk, we didn't bother to buy one. The place was full of mzungu, European mostly, and there were lots of languages being spoken which was nice but I always feel weird in places that are catering to mzungu. The bill was very expensive and the experience was "fair-fair" so we both agreed that we wouldn't return.






Our next stop, after running across the street again, was to the best shoe shop I have ever entered. The Ugandan women wear unbelievable shoes and this must be one of the places where they get them. I tried to put my feet into one pair and after my toes stopped cramping, I had to lean on Corey to try to heave my body up to stand 8 inches taller than normal. It didn't happen. I did manage to find a pair of platform red vinyl shoes that I could have worn and would have enjoyed if only on very rare occasions but the price was 100,000 ($50) which I know is mzungu price so I left without my awesome Ugandan footwear.

At the T intersection with Muyenga Road, we weaved around the traffic and kept moving up Ggabba. Lots of little clothing shops and shoe shops where we looked in the windows or I stopped to touch the dresses but nothing caught our eye and we moved on.

The side we were on eventually had no sidewalk so we crossed again (I am amazed at how good we are getting at road crossing.)  We entered the new JohnRich Cheap Store that has opened and it is quite impressive. Big aisles, bright light, and everything is clean. Corey bought some batteries and a bottle of water. The service was incredibly friendly and helpful which is not always the case.

I was able to stop and look at four dress shops that always have outrageous neon dresses hanging outside. There was a polyester elastic dress with First Nations designs on it that made us laugh as it seemed so out of place. It was new so somewhere, someone is dyeing fabric into this pattern for dresses being made in China and then sent to Uganda. I tried on a white jacket with big roses on it, XL, but again from China so my arms couldn't even pass into the sleeves. The woman who was selling the jacket was laying on the floor of her shop and she watched me but said nothing. A big change from the usual "sticking to the mzungu like glue" that we experience. I think because there are few mzungu in this area, the sellers aren't so worried about making a sale to one. We are just another customer who may or may not buy something. No big deal!

Onwards we went, now looking for a roll of garbage bags for the kitchen garbage. The rule here is that even though you found something once, it doesn't mean that you may ever find it again. You would think that garbage bags for kitchen pedal garbage cans would be as easy to find as the garbage cans themselves but you would be wrong. You can buy the garbage cans very easily but apparently there is a national shortage of bags. We walked along the strip of electronics shops where you can buy any small electronic appliance, refurbished and ready to go (our fan was bought from a place like this and it is amazing and quiet and perfect!) and ducked into the ShunFa grocery store. The only lights in the shop are from the outside through the open front doors and from the fridges in the back. It is a very dark and narrow place absolutely filled to the rafters with everything except rolls of garbage bags.

Upon exiting the ShunFa, we walked along the chicken and butcher stalls (quickly, the smell is rather pungent) to another little shop that has always caught my eye with awesome coats. There were coats out but the door was closed and no-one was around to see the other coats inside. There was, however, another little shoe booth next door and a great pair of flat with Apple apples on them. Unfortunately they weren't in my size but I found another pair of brown heels that fit. He asked for 50,000 and I offered 40,000 which he quickly accepted (which means I paid too much) but $20 for a nice pair of leather shoes is fine by me. It probably meant he didn't have to sell any more shoes for the day to meet his quota.

We stopped for lunch at Le Petit Bistro (it was obviously a day for French eating establishments) which always comes highly recommended on Trip Advisor but neither of us was all that impressed. Corey fish was overcooked and my fillet was very rare and so tender that it was softer than tofu. I found it unpalatable. The chips were delicious though!

We passed over the "wetland" and through the plant nursery then stopped at the Foodstuff Grocery Store where again, the service was amazing and the owner showed Corey exactly where the rolls of garbage bags were kept. We bought three rolls and will return there again!

Up the hill, across the road, and off Ggabba we went down Buziga Road. This was the most treacherous part of the walk because the road is narrow and there are many blind areas. I saw a collision between two bodas on this road where one driver was knocked out and had to be dragged off the road and the other had his leg all bashed up. We walked quickly and in single file, facing the traffic so that we could see what was coming at us. Left onto Lukuli Road and past the fruit and veggies stalls, the Dollar Supermarket (where shopping is fun!) and toward Buziga market.

We made it home just before 3 and Edigga was sitting on the wall, waiting for us. Apollo had dropped the chairs by our front door and left about 4 hours before so I hope Edigga hadn't been sitting there every since that time! I imagine he called Apollo to let him know we had made it back so that they didn't have to send out a search party for us. Edigga went out at that point and was gone for the rest of the day. I hope he didn't have to stay around just to wait for us.

It was a great walk and it was nice to be able to explore along the road that has only ever been experienced inside a van. There are no shops that I would return to specifically except for Foodstuff to get our garbage bags. What a find!

Because it is rainy season, we thought it would be cool and cloudy. It didn't get as hot as it has been but it was very sunny by the end of the day. We were both cooked by the time we got home and poor Corey has a sunburned head now. It's the first time he's been out without his hat. Poor guy.