You, Gander!

Have a gander at these photos from my Christmas trip to Kampala.


Kampala is built over 7 hills, one of which used to be home to Impalas and gave the city its name or so Jackson tells me. The hill in the distance on this picture has a new large mosque under construction on it. Others have Catholic and Anglican cathedrals. The hills make the place look very different from Nairobi.

This is one of the best kept pit toilets I have ever seen. The leaves in the bowl are ‘local toilet paper’ I was told. Fortunately I had some of my own.

This is a room in a home I visited. The whole place was unfinishe: the three piece sofa set (in animal skin pattern with doillies) was sitting on the red earth, the windows were filled in with bricks pending availability of glass (or funds for glass). This… was where the chickens lived.

This is how you cook Matoke (green banannas): wrapped in bananna leaves and steamed. Its the staple food in Uganda and much more tasty than Ugali (Sorry Kenyans, it has to be said, the Ugandans even make better Ugali, which they call Posho; grinding it more finely and steaming it the same way as these banannas) …

… and this is how you serve it. I’m told it goes hard as it cools so its important to keep it warm, but the most common solution to that problem is to eat it! (Actually the Matoke in this picture is at the back and the stuff you can see peeking out from under the bananna leaves is sweet potatoe)

Here’s the spread for lunch on Christmas day which I spent with Jackson’s family at his parent’s house outside the city. We have Matoke (of course), Sweet potatoes, (Irish) potatatoes, chicken, beef and avocado!

The men sat together at one end of the room.

The women at the other. (Spot the difference)

Here I am with Sylvia, Philip and Philip’s wife whose name I’ve, sadly, forgotten. Maybe someone will remind me in a comment…. guys?

One big happy family! I felt very welcome.

The kid posed nicely by his bike as the family told him to; everyone assumed I was taking a picture of him, I just wanted to get the sewing with copper wire to mend a leather saddle. It seems to say a lot about life here.