Sensory Experience

A couple days ago I was making my way through the center of town. At one point I had to walk through the old taxi park ("taxi" here refers to vans that serve as buses, a.k.a. matatus; the taxi park being the center point of departure for locations throughout the city and beyond), across a busy round-a-bout intersection, through a gas station and then across a supermarket parking lot. This involves weaving through a throng of taxis--so packed in that I don't even know how it's possible they are moving--and trying to avoid the boda-bodas (aka motorcycles) cutting through the mass. At the road I jump into a space between vehicles I feel brave enough to traverse before getting hit by whatever is coming (much like a game of frogger), which is only complicated by the occasional boda-boda driving on the wrong side of the road and my tendency to look the wrong way for oncoming traffic (because they drive on the left side). Believe it or not cutting across the gas station is even more complicated than the road, since there is absolutely no order to things and any vehicle could be coming from any direction, and the boda-bodas in particular seem to have no qualms about running you over. If accomplishing this weren't hard enough, I also have to be particluarly aware of my belongings because in the crowd is the easiest environment for pick-pockets to operate in.

Simultaneous to this whole experience I realize that the song playing on my Ipod is "La Valse D'Amelie" from the Amelie soundtrack, and I had to laugh out loud. What a contradiction! If I didn't think that I would be killed in the process, I would try to film the whole experience, add the Amelie soundtrack, and post a little mini-movie so that all of you could enjoy my oh-so-contradictory sensory experience of the noise and rush and adrenaline in the streets of Kampala, accompanied by perky, peaceful, French music. I find it highly amusing, but maybe you had to be there ;)

I would like to note, that no matter how crowded the streets get, I have never been bumped or pushed or shoved. This is not something I can say about Korea, where I'm pretty sure they make an effort to do so (especially those ajumas!). For this, I would like to thank the people of Uganda (as well as apologize for when my asian-conditioning occasionally reveals itself!).