My Road

Bukoto Market Road

If you step out of my house, you arrive at Bukoto Market Road. At first glance, there is nothing particularly unique about this road – it is the usual dusty, many potholed road that you find all over Uganda. However, having lived here for some time, I started thinking that this street can provide you with pretty much every service you could possibly need, it just isn’t that obvious to the untrained eye.

One of the first things you notice is the market itself. The stalls are filled with an abundance of tropical fruits and vegetable that people pay a small fortune for in Waitrose, from ripe and delicious avocados to sweet and juicy pineapple or bundles of green bananas known as matooke. There are small cages filled with squashed looking hens to provide eggs laid right there on site, fresh tilapia fish from Lake Victoria and butchers selling every last part of the animals for meat (to be honest, I try to avoid even looking at the butcher’s – it is quite gruesome to a veggie like myself and gives off a horrendous stench due to the lack of refrigeration).

As far as entertainment is concerned, you can drop into any one of the dozens of local bars along the road. I can walk to at least 5 within a couple of minutes. My favourite is the Beer Garden, which has shady areas for an afternoon tipple and some decidedly scary statues inside that can take you by surprise after a few Tuskers! More recently, The Upper Ends Terrace has opened up only a few footsteps from my house, and the waitress has been well trained in the art of chopping off the head when I order fish and chips. In November and December, local vendors drop by offering fried grasshoppers – a local delicacy. Should you wish to continue into the wee small hours, you simply walk next door to the nightclub, which blasts out R & B music most evenings. If premiership football is your thing, then there are countless small bars with Ugandans gathered around small televisions or big screens of their favourite English teams. If you get the munchies later on, then you can pick up samosas, a chapattis on the corner and of course the famous the famous Rolexes. To the uninitiated, a Rolex is not an expensive watch, but some fried eggs rolled into a chapatti with some chopped onions, cabbage and tomatoes and fried on a pan over charcoal. Kampala’s very own version of the kebab shop!

After all this food, then a bit if exercise is surely in order. Running and cycling down this road is always a bit hazardous, due to the number of matatus, bodas and potholes, but there is also a gym above one of the small supermarkets. I tried out a few of the aerobics classes in the Sunrise gym and it wasn’t too bad, but obviously not on the same scale as the Kabira!

There are a number of local clinics, where the medical equipment and hygiene levels resemble something out of the dark ages. One of the shacks has a sign advertising counselling for rape victims and I also spotted a clinic offering HIV tests. In the UK, I understand that you are strongly advised to go through counselling before even taking an HIV test and even having being tested can have adverse effects on your health insurance and all kinds of things. Sadly, in Uganda, HIV rates are high, and not everyone has access to testing and treatment. I can’t imagine having to go through such a traumatic experience as that in such dismal conditions – and yet it happens on my doorstep every day.

Anything and everything can be fixed in Uganda. Nobody throws anything away unless it is absolutely done for, and even then, somebody would probably be willing to try and sell the parts for a few hundred Shillings. At the top end of the road, you can witness a total lack of regard for health and safety as you see a metal workshop, with sparks flying across the open street and the workers rarely wear any sort of protective clothing. Electricians tinker with appliances so ancient looking that you wonder whether they were originally powered by steam. Roadside mechanics can fix up your car at bargain basement prices if you’re willing to take a chance on their level of expertise and the quality of the parts. Numerous hardware stores are fully stocked with every type of not, bolt and screw and sell the widely advertised paint. Tailors use old fashioned Singer sewing machines to make and repair garments.

Bukoto Market Road can also take you by surprise. Who could guess, that in the midst of all this, are a couple of art galleries that sell paintings that go for hundreds of dollars? Just off the road, there is a studio where a collective of artists sell their work. Inside the galleries, the artists have depicted and interpreted Ugandan life for us, in vibrant colours and larger than life.

If you do decide to stray from this road, there are a number of public transport options available. If you’re feeling flush, you can take a private hire, which is better known to us as a taxi. For short journeys, boda bodas (motorbike taxis) provide a more economical option and are the perfect way of dodging through the busy Kampala traffic. If you want to use a helmet, you have to bring your own, but Ugandan ladies have no problem with riding through the streets side saddle. If you have time on your hands and don’t mind getting up close and personal with your fellow passengers, then you can take a matatu. These battered and crowded minibuses can take you to the furthest reaches of Kampala for about 10p. Again they are not known for their great safety record, as the drivers are somewhat kamikaze and fail to use their indicators. Don’t expect to see an organised timetable or route map though – if you wish to know where they go, you have to ascertain this information from the conductor, who yells the directions of the window in rapid Lugandan.
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If all of this has persuaded you to pay a visit, then you will be happy to hear that there is a hotel, so you can stay as long as you like. I don’t imagine the nightly rates are too high and you could probably secure a booking even in high season. I’m not sure I can vouch for the comfort levels and bathroom facilities – I haven’t been inside, but it does look pretty basic, but I am sure it would offer a very interesting experience!