{"id":454,"date":"2012-12-26T08:50:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T08:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/?p=454"},"modified":"2013-01-01T03:29:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T03:29:37","slug":"coming-to-terms-in-uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"Coming to terms in Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is <\/em>one of the great natural spectacles of the world, when over a million wildebeests and hundreds of zebras and Thomson\u2019s gazelles join them.\u00a0 It is a feast for the eyes for tourists and a real feast for the hungry hyenas, lions, crocodiles and other carnivores who trail them.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0(Daily Times, 26 December 2012<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

It is said that one goes to West Africa to view the diversity of human cultures and to east Africa to see wildlife.\u00a0 Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda are renowned for their wildlife.<\/span>\u00a0 Kenya is home to the Masai Mara National Park and, just across the border in Tanzania, is the larger and more famous Serengeti, both renowned for the epic wildebeest annual migration. It is <\/span>one of the great natural spectacles of the world, when over a million wildebeests and hundreds of zebras and Thomson\u2019s gazelles join them.\u00a0 It is a feast for the eyes for tourists and a real feast for the hungry hyenas, lions, crocodiles and other carnivores who trail them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Uganda is regarded as a great tourist destination in Africa \u2013 it has nearly everything that a visitor would like to see: waterfalls, rivers, lakes, mountains and wildlife.\u00a0 The last includes the few remaining mountain gorillas in their natural habitat, who live a precarious existence here as well as in neighbouring Rwanda and Congo, all wracked by poverty and conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

My own encounter with Uganda last year was a bit scary.\u00a0 In fact it was the low point of my African trip, for a number of reasons.<\/span>\u00a0 My bus dropped me in the centre of town after a six-hour ride from Kisumu in western Kenya over a bad road.<\/span>\u00a0 Very exhausted and looking forward to a good night\u2019s sleep after a hot shower, I took a taxi to my hotel.<\/span>\u00a0 The taxi dropped me in a dark and deserted street full of empty trucks with two to five storey buildings on either side.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling very vulnerable alone in such a place at a late hour in an alien city, I quickly made my way to the hotel reception on the third floor. \u00a0The lift was not working and the lights were out in the stairway.<\/span>\u00a0 The hotel receptionist was very unhelpful, should I say dishonest, as regards the exchange rate. The hot water tap in my room was broken and the phone did not work.<\/span>\u00a0 When I was given another room next day, again the water tap in the shower was defective.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

My attempts to use my credit card to buy air tickets were unsuccessful. The ATM machine would not recognise my debit card and I was told by two travel agents and one airline office: \u201cWe do not accept credit cards in Africa.\u201d It did give me a scare, for I had a long way to go.\u00a0 But this was not true, for I was able to use my credit card in all the other African countries I visited.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I wanted to buy a new memory stick for my camera, I was sold a used memory stick as new, that too at an inflated price. The salesman had not even cared to delete the photos.\u00a0 It was almost certainly taken out of a stolen camera. Judging from the photos, a young white couple had been deprived of not just their camera, but also their valuable collection of photos from their visit. <\/span><\/p>\n

I took a trip around town at the back of a motorcycle taxi.\u00a0 Though a bit dangerous, it was not just the cheapest but also the best way to see town, giving me 360 degree views.<\/span>\u00a0 I asked to be taken to Makerere University, which was a highly regarded institution before, and for some years after, independence from UK in 1962.<\/span><\/p>\n

My motorcycle-taxi was stopped at the gate by 4-5 policemen lying on the grass next to a receptionist\u2019s cabin.\u00a0 They smiled at me and asked why I was there.<\/span>\u00a0 Instead of answering them, I walked straight towards the female receptionist and asked her if I could go inside to have a look at the \u201cfamous university\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0 As that did not appear to be sufficient reason for her to let me in, I added that I was a former university teacher from Pakistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last point was considered a valid reason to allow me in, but I was told that my motorcycle will have to wait outside.\u00a0 And because the campus was too large for a walking tour, I was advised to hire one of the many motorcycle-taxis waiting outside the gate, which were the only ones permitted to ply within the campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, my campus tour was to take place on the back seat of an \u201cauthorised\u201d motorcycle-taxi, while my old driver waited at the gate with his \u201cunauthorised\u201d motorcycle-taxi.\u00a0 It is a rather big campus with old buildings, humming with students moving around, some strolling, some rushing. The atmosphere was not very different from universities anywhere in South Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

More interesting than the tour itself was my conversation with this motorcycle-taxi driver.\u00a0 His was a tragic personal story but perhaps not exceptional for Africa. Speaking in a very melancholy tone, this soft-spoken man told me that his mother died of AIDS after his father had deserted her with him and his younger sister.<\/span>\u00a0 Helped by some very kind people and in constant danger from some really bad ones, he struggled on behalf of himself as well as his sister to stay alive and keep out of harm\u2019s way.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I disembarked at the campus main gate after the tour to switch motorcycles, the policemen at the gate waved me to see them.\u00a0 When I did, they asked if I liked what I saw, and then asked for \u201cdrink money\u201d. All they got from me was a smile, many thanks and a quick goodbye.<\/span>\u00a0 I resumed my tour of Kampala, for there was much else to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Razi Azmi<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is one of the great natural spectacles of the world, when over a million wildebeests and hundreds of zebras and Thomson\u2019s gazelles join them.\u00a0 It is a feast for the eyes for tourists and a real feast for the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}