Having spent a few days in Uganda last week, I thought I’d just mention a few of the differences that stood out to me.
The first thing I noticed crossing the border was the road - or should I say roads? They were so good! They had paved intersections! The distance from Busia, Uganda to Jinja is the same as from Busia, Kenya to Kisumu - but those are vastly different drives. From Busia to Kisumu is one of the worst stretches of road in Kenya, although they are starting to work on it. But this typically takes 2.5-3 hours for a 112 km drive, with the car/bus/matatu driving on the shoulder, on either side of the road. The drive to Jinja was so pleasant! The road was great, the matatu went fast. I was very impressed with the roads in Uganda.
As for short distance transport, the main mode of transport in Jinja was pikis, or motorcycles/motorbikes. We have them here, too, but they are known to be more unsafe and there are just so many bodas [bicycles that you ride on the back of] that you don’t need to take a piki. In Uganda, they call motorbikes bodas as well, which was confusing. In any case, I mostly rode pikis in Jinja, which is admittedly super fun, but less safe.
The currency in Uganda is a Ugandan shillling, which has an exchange rate of ~2100 USh to $1, versus ~77 KSh to $1. Basically it was really confusing to be juggling 3 currencies - I exchanged 4000 KSh for 100,000 USh when I crossed the border, and had some USD that I had been saving for an emergency. In hindsight it felt like I had been using the wrong currency at the wrong time - like while one guy let me pay for something in KSh that was initally USD for the exchange rate that I paid, another guy later overcharged me a lot when I tried to use KSh.. etc. It wasn’t a huge deal because I was able to get reimbursed for a lot of the trip expenses, but still kind of stressful. Eh.
This may sound hard to believe, but I actually saw a lot of different flora + fauna in Uganda! Things that looked like weird pine trees along the road… gorgeous flowers… pretty birds… even some eagles during the rafting trip! Apparently it’s common to see monkeys coming into Jinja, but I missed them. Overall: Uganda is pretty! :)
And I suppose the final comparison would be with the people! As I read by headlamp my first night in Uganda, Ugandan people are apparently some of the nicest in Africa [according to the Lonely Planet that Jess gave me just before I had to leave]. Perhaps reading this biased me; but the people did seem nice(r)! Nothing against Kenyans, but I have always felt like I was treated with a bit more kindness and less suspicion in Tanzania. (I have a friend who has also spent time in both countries, and we disagree completely on this.) I felt comfortable with the Ugandans I met, and I also felt like I could trust them, which is something I’m less likely to do in Kenya. Or maybe I was just less guarded because of the circumstances of this trip.. I don’t really know. Also, while many Ugandans do know Swahili, it is not their primary language, and it apparently has some bad associations with the former dictator Idi Amin and his soldiers. So it was strange to be on the matatu and not understand anyone.. but I did have some fun conversations in Swahili at the hostel I stayed at in Jinja. [This reminds me - Ugandans do a fist pump thing which I don’t often see in Kenya :)]
Anyway, rambling. I liked Uganda and would definitely like to spend more time there - although I doubt that will happen before I go home in June.
