Bellevue meets Kampala

Sorry its taken so long, but finally found time today to reflect back on the passage of our first week here. Everything takes longer than in the US, on Uganda time, and internet access has been very slow. But now we are in a better hotel with wireless in the room, so hopefully will be able to blog updates more easily.
Here is the first one:

Bellevue meet Kampala
It is impossible to describe the city of Kampala, capital of Uganda, certainly not from a blank page, so what if we compare it to a US city like Bellevue, WA…from satellite altitude they probably look similar in size and shape, both on a lake, hilly terrain with roads, schools, shops, parks, all the attributes a city should have. So now imagine you are in Bellevue and the following changes suddenly appear before your eyes:
The population goes from300,000 to 3 million. This would be like moving the entire population of eastern Washington into Bellevue. Then at night, 1 million of these people leave town to sleep and live somewhere else, roughly the entire population of Seattle. Uganda itself, about the size of WA, has about 10 times the population: 32million
Half of these residents are under the age of 15! Most are active in a religion, primarliy Christian and about 10% Muslim. Religious schools abound for all ages.
There are roads and traffic. Its bad in Bellevue, and many times worse in Kampala, every road we have 4 lanes on would have 8 lanes (I use the term loosely) of traffic, motor bikes, minibuses, cars, trucks. Diesel smoke abounds, horns toot, not in anger but as a steering aid, and the clearance between vehicles and pedestrians is measured in inches. Neither town has any form of mass transit. The streets are filled with potholes ranging from a basketball to a wheelbarrow in size, so traffic weaves around these obstacles like a school of fish navigating a rocky stream, never hesitating or complaining.
Buildings: Make all the buildings 10 stories tall or less, add dwellings of huts and business kiosks of sheet metal or crude but sturdy brick in EVERY open space between the present homes and businesses in Bellevue.
The celfone is ubiquitous, and costs about half of our rate, with received calls being free. Almost everyone has one. For those who don’t, provide a celfone kiosk consisting of a simple wooden shed/phone booth staffed by a young nicely dressed person who will sell you call minutes on her phone or minutes to “top up” your phone.
Food is plentiful, sold in simple stalls on every block, so buyers never have to go more than one block for groceries, and living hand to mouth, only buy what they need that day. Charcoal is also sold in bags for cooking. Goats and chickens free range all over town, grazing on anything that looks like food. Gardens are planted on any available patch of land, even between sidewalk and street there will be corn and beans growing.
Can you imagine all that? It’s mindboggling to be here, but each day, the chaos assumes a certain loose order, all so fascinating…
More later, including pictures once I figure out how to upload them…bill