Monday 28 January 2013

Koboko Is Now Home

We have arrived in Koboko which will be our home for the next 6 days.  What was supposed to take 8 hours took approximately 10 hours.  This is not bad considering you have to factor in African time.  What surprises us along the way is the amount of people out walking on the roads or sitting and visiting under big trees into the late hours of the night.  All that they have is the moon to light their way.
The first thing we learn about Koboko is that the power supply has not yet reached the town.  There is either generator power or solar power.  So people either go without power or you will get power for a few hours a day based on what the generator can supply.  We have to remember that the generators run on gas and the cost is very high.
Our hotel is basic, but clean.  We have running water but bathing will be done in a plastic basin with either cold water or hot water that arrives in a container to the door of your room.  The choices for lunch are Chicken, Goat or Beef and a side of rice or fries.  I thought not bad at least there was options.  When we went for dinner and my partner asked what was available the answer was "chicken or beef with rice or fries".....his face fell when he realised that these were his only options for the next six days.  I quickly realised that what was left from lunch was what was available for dinner, so the smart thing to do was to eat what you wanted for lunch and hope you were lucky for dinner.  I know |I am pretty smart.
Koboko is a small town of red dirt roads and bustling people.  Everywhere you look you see women walking by with buckets of fruit or vegetables on their head, kids walking goats, men riding their bikes with packages on the back and Boda bodas (Ugandan motorcycle taxis)flying by.  There is drug shops, phone charging shops,  simple shops that sell some clothes, shoes and a few accessories, and shops that sell basic food needs.  On the sides of the road you can easily pick up fruits, some vegetables, and eggs.  What is hard to imagine is that the people selling their goods  have walked miles  from their home just to sell a bit of produce from their garden so that they can have money to feed or school their children.
 
 
There is also something else we realised very quickly and that is we stand out like a pair of sore  thumbs.  Not only are we white and let us not forget we just left winter in Canada, so white is an understatement, but me and my partner stand about 5'10 or taller.  We are the subject of lots of staring and many conversations.  To bad we don't speak the local language as I bet you they would be saying "what happened to those people they look dead".
 

Koboko is home for the next 6 days and we are slowly absorbing it.   Stay tuned next post will update you on our visit to our first Sacco. 

2 comments:

  1. Great update, looking forward to your progress!

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  2. Great pictures and and after our skype conversations, these pictures have given me a better idea of what you were talking about. What does goat taste like?

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