Driving about in my automobile

The big thing in my life recently has been buying a car. At first, I had no intentions of doing so, particularly as the combination of the chaotic traffic, numerous pot-holes and meandering pedestrians makes driving look a little ominous. Then when you start to read into the Bradt guide book, which mentions the precautions you should make in the case of running over a snake (basically to make sure it is dead and to close the windows so that it can’t jump up and attack you) it all seems like a bit of a bother. However, when I started looking into the cost of hiring a car when my parents come, it seemed like it may be worth the while after all. So after looking at a few different cars, I eventually made my decision and am now the proud owner of a shiny blue Rav 4. I think it’s the girliest of 4X4s, which suits me! Now I have a funny tale to tell you about buying the car. A friend of mine recommended a reliable mechanic to have a look at the different cars I was looking at. I agreed to meet him at the car park outside the club and school. Now, bearing in mind that this meeting depended on two different Ugandans arriving on time, I decided to sit by the pool, armed with a book and i-pod to entertain me during the almost certain wait. Imagine my surprise when my phone rang exactly at the time agreed! I had never seen this guy, so asked him to get out of his car and wave at me. He told me that he was on the car park and was getting out of a silver car. I spotted him immediately and wandered over to introduce myself. He seemed a little surprised by my stream of questions about the car and was hardly over talkative. When I asked him what I should look for in a car that I intended to drive ‘up-country’ to Queen Elizabeth Park, he replied that I should get the one with the sun roof so that my passengers could stand up and stick their heads through to get a good view of the animals!!! And I had been expecting to get answers about the engine or technical things that I have no clue about. About 20 minutes later, my phone rings again, and the girl who I eventually bought the car from tells me that she has arrived. She drives onto the car park, so I tell the guy to follow me. He obeys, but still seems a little bit reluctant. We open the car bonnet and he has a look inside. A moment later, my phone rings again with his number displaying – by now I am totally confused. I ask him if he is calling me and he says no. I make some comment about the mobile phone networks being in such a mess here. I do, however, answer the phone. Only to discover that the man I had been speaking to for the past half hour was not the mechanic, but a random taxi driver, who also happened to have a silver car and to have arrived at exactly the same time. Needless to say I was a little embarrassed by this point. Luckily for me, he was not offended by this mix up and continued to look at both cars for me. A week later I had collected a ridiculous amount of Ugandan Shillings from the bank and was given the keys. So I am now trying to find my way around Kampala and am getting more adventurous by the day. It is truly amazing not to have to get the death trap boda-bodas any more. Petrol is quite expensive here – about a pound a litre, but am reasoning that if I nominate myself the designated driver on Fridays and Saturdays and drink water instead of wine, I will surely be winning, as wine is considerably more expensive by the litre, although I guess the tank takes about 60 litres and even at my very worst, I don’t think I ever drink too much more than a couple of litres (that’s glasses mum, if you’re reading this) of wine in an evening! I am also starting to make sense of the maelstrom of traffic. It seems that because there are really no rules, then you can do exactly what you want and nobody really gets angry. People aren’t really aggressive, so let you pass or in at junctions where in Britain you would get honked to death for the same manoeuvres. I do find it helpful though, to remember the Ugandan Highway Code –

There really are no rules, but the trucks rule the road, next come the big buses, followed by the matatus, after that are the big land cruisers and so on, then smaller cars and finally, right at the bottom of the food chain, are the pedestrians. The only exception to the rule, in this survival of the biggest, is the boda boda, which weaves in and out of traffic, virtually knocking over pedestrians and cutting up each and every sort of vehicle.

So my final question goes to Mum and Dad, who arrive in less than a fortnight: Who’s up for driving?