UGANDA

Uganda What comes to mind when you think of Uganda? Well, if you are like Roy and I, you immediately think of Idi Amin, “The Big Man” or “The Butcher of Uganda” which he’s called by Ugandians. This evil dictator became the President of Uganda and almost immediately created almost eight years of terror within his country. He also created images that were seen around the world of thousands of slaughtered men, women and children lying in shallow graves. Many predict his humanitarian offenses took the lives of more than 300,000 innocent Ugandians. Unfortunately for the citizens of Uganda, this period in their countries history, also stopped all forms of tourism. For decades now and even today one see’s few outsiders. So, with these awful images still sketched in our minds, you can imagine how sureal it was to be traveling the backroads, mountains and cities throughout Uganda with nothing but a guide, tent and sleeping bag, The pearl of Africa is the slogan of this beautiful mountainess country mainly because it land locked surrounded by other African countries. Uganda is a country of around 36 million people each belonging to one of the more than 56 tribes. Since each tribe has it’s own language, Uganda has chosen english as their main language to make communication possible for all tribes. The country is extremely poor in fact more than 50% of Uganians make less then one dollar a day. As we traveled for days throughout the country we were taken back by seeing hungry children in ragged clothes living with their families in small dirt huts. Vendors on the streets have wood holding up a sun torn cloth to cover their produce or meats that hang in the open air covered by the dust from the streets and flies. Although most people that live in Uganda never leave their village, travel is very difficult because the roads are mostly dirt covered and filled with ruts and rocks. The countries mainly agricultural and harvest sugar cane, coffee and tea. As we drove through town after town we were greeted enthusiastically by children running to wave to us even sometimes following our auto for blocks shouting with excitement. Since we were some of the few tourist in the country, we created a sense of excitement and curiousity for the locals. Old and young met our presence with a smile or a hello. Uganda people are by far some of the friendliest people we have met in Africa thus far. We spoke with many people here and each expressed hope for the future. So for now things are stable throughout this beautiful country. However, tribal wars can arise with the slightest turmoil. I have included a few images we captured of Uganda on the road. Our tour throughout the country was to travel high into the mountains in search of the ellusive mountain gorillas. More on that to come…