First Day: Navigating Public Transportation In Kampala

As many of you know, I was in Uganda in 2009 with American Jewish World Service on a volunteer program for seven weeks. For most of the time we were in a quiet village in the Tororo state in southeast Uganda. At the very end of the trip we were in Kampala for 2 and a half days. With that experience I thought I knew what I was in for, but Kampala is a beast I am very slowly figuring out. I arrived Wednesday night, got my luggage and along with Jen, another AU student working with BRAC this summer, found our driver. He took me to Paul’s place which is also where I’m staying this summer.

It was late so there isn't too much to tell about that first night. Paul lives on the outskirts of Kampala fairly close to the BRAC office. As far as I can tell, we’re the only white people in our immediate neighborhood. His place is inside a gated area where several house/apartments (not sure which to classify them as) face a common courtyard/parking lot. He has 2 bedrooms, a living room type area, a kitchen and a bathroom. Recently the power surged and he lost lighting. The electrician fixed every room, but the second bedroom. Hopefully the landlord will fix that soon, but for now I have a mattress set up under a mosquito net in the living room. Electricity seems fairly consistent, but we did have a brief outage Thursday night.

The two most exciting things, though, is that the shower has hot water through an electric heater: you have to flip a switch to activate a heating 10-15 minutes before showing. I was prepared for bucket baths and while a small part of me was a little excited at being very conservative water like 2009, overall I am thrilled. The other great thing is that he has a water filter. He said it kills about 95% of whatever was in the water. I think I’ll risk it since bottled water is so wasteful and costly.

After my first day at the office I went deeper into Kampala to get a sim card for my phone and a USB dongle for internet. I made a few probably cliché first timer mistakes. I got in a mini-bus taxi that took me much further than I intended and dropped me off in less than helpful part of Kampala. I walked for a long time until finally finding a promising cell phone store. What I needed wasn't there, but the lady nicely directly me to the Orange store (where I was going to get my internet stuff) and to the Airtel store where I was getting my sim card. It was getting late and I needed to get back to the office since Paul was likely waiting for me. It was approaching rush hour and I wasn't totally sure how to get the right mini-bus taxi so I took a boda boda.

A mini-bus taxi goes down a specific route, but I have yet to find a good guide or map of these routes. They stop every so often to try to get additional passengers and to let others off. These are big vans that hold about 12-16 passengers. So far all the information I have found is right, the authorities have actually been able to limit the passengers so it’s not super crowded at least in Kampala. I’ve read outside of Kampala you still have mini-buses crowded with passengers, their stuff and often an animal. In Kampala it seems for a short trip you pay 500 shillings (approximately 20 cents) and longer trips are 1000 shillings (~40 cents).

A boda boda is a motorcycle taxi. These guys are even less regulated and often a little bit more expensive, but they are EVERYWHERE. You negotiate the price with them, climb on and off you go. I was incredibley hesitant about them and am still a little terrified, but getting more comfortable and more resigned to that fact I’ll need to use them. Since mini-bus taxis don’t go everywhere and they get stuck in the “jam” you more or less need to take motorcycle taxis most places. Private hires (a.k.a. the taxis we’re used to in the states) cost a lot. From what I understand over $10 and likely near $20 per ride. And then of course there’s the option of a driver but that would be well over $50 a day and the cost of gas. Obviously not options on a non-paid intern grad student salary.

Boda bodas often hang out at stages, which are a group of riders who pay a fee to a stage boss. The stages are said to be where to find slightly safer and more accountable riders and if something happens you can return to the stage and talk to the boss. Then there are free agents  in a manner of speaking who just ride around picking passengers up. I’ve been told these guys are often cheaper, but are more reckless and have no accountablity at all.

Sometime this weekend I’m going to get a Yamaha helmet for about $35 and I’m only using boda riders who operate at stages and going to try to pick riders who wear helmets. Still less than my ideal mode of transport, but hopefully those precautions will keep me safe.

Back to the story… I got a boda at a stage and tried to tell them where I needed to go. They weren’t sure, but finally the rider took me to another stage where 6 guys gathered around to look at the address and discuss where to go. In the end they figured it out and I was on my way. It seemed like a long trip and they were all so helpful I expected to pay the equivalent of 5 or more dollars. When we got there he asked for 1000 shillings which is 4 dollars. Turns out I overpayed by about $1.25. Oh well.

After some boring details we were off to the grocery store, but first ate some pizza. The grocery store seemed to be an area with nicer homes and I assume more expats live there especially because it was all expats eating at the pizza place. I ordered a marghertia pizza, which actually meant a straight cheese pizza, but it was actually quite satisfying. The store seemed to have quite a good selection and a good majority of items I might want were available. Most things were near U.S. prices—not sure if it was because items like milk, yogurt and butter are less common in Uganda or if it’s because this is a more expat friendly grocery store that could charge higher prices. Some items were clearly more luxury, like tea. The local brands are a fairly good price, but there are some exorbitant prices for brands we’d recongize in the U.S. like Twinings. Name brand cereal are definitely priced at a premium.

After the store, Paul called a boda we used earlier since apparently the stage near the store isn’t very good. Unfortunately only 2 riders came and not three so Paul and I had to share while holding our bags. Definitely not my ideal in an already less than ideal situation, but in some ways I felt more safe since I was in the middle.