If you ever visit

We may come from different places around the globe, and we may have different stories about these places. Most people choose to only tell the good stories about where they come from, I am not those people, because good or bad, I can’t change where I come from. Here is what you should know about my home area if you ever visit.

I come from the Eastern part of Uganda, on the famous ridges of Mount Elgon. Naturally, it’s a beautiful place blessed with amazing physical features like Mount Elgon, which is endowed with wild life, an awesome weather, fertile soils, and great people who value culture and tradition more than anything. It is known as the Masaba/ Elgon region. It’s people are famously known for carrying out public male circumcision which initiates teenage boys into manhood.

The circumcision takes place every leap year and the process is usually accompanied with thunderous drums which are known as ‘Kadodi’. The ‘Kadodi’ drums and dance is now the most famous cultural dance in the country as people now use it on political campaigns, adverts, parties among other Celebrations. The colourfully distinct sound that instantly draws people’s attention together with the energetic ancestral dance moves, is what makes people leave whatever they are doing and follow the melodies of the drums.

I specifically come from Sironko district. It’s the forth last district towards the Kenyan boarder. My home is located in the great Sironko valley. The Sironko valley is a place surrounded by four ridges from East, West, North and South. The four ridges all come with a different effect of rain so, when they alert you about rain from a specific direction, kindly run because they know the damage it may cause. The rain also never surprises the natives because they can see it come down the ridges, this gives them ample time to remove what has been drying under the sun, put out basins and tanks to collect water or even get shelter. Going to Sironko is less than an hour from Mbale town.

Much as a taxi is licensed to carry 14 passengers, taxis to Mutufu or Budadiri (where I come from) carry excess. A seat that is meant for three passengers can carry four or five passengers. The squeezing discomfort is what you will have to bare with until you reach your final destination. When you leave the tarmac road, you will have to endure with the overwhelming dust in the dry season or the the sticky mud in the rainy season. If you are very unlucky, the car will not make it out of the mud and you may have to walk for the rest of the distance or grab a Boda boda which can throw you down anytime.

The inflation, corruption and poor service provision in most African countries have made people sharp. But people from Sironko have become Sharper. Despite the tight traffic on the roads to Sironko, the drivers have found numerous ways to dodge or bypass traffic. The cars that drive to these places are in poor mechanical conditions but they are overloaded and keep on the road 24/7. The traffic officers make all attempts to do their job but this is how some of the families survive so in the end, they can’t afford to do their Jobs Catholically as they should.

The drivers have devised means to break the road rules. The drivers have mastered the specific traffic check points on the road and even when the officers keep changing the positions, the drivers will always outsmart them. Towards the check points, the driver or conductor will ask the excess passengers to get out of the taxi, he will get them Boda bodas to ride them past the check point so that when the taxi is stopped by the traffic officer, it has the required number of passengers. The taxi will later pick them up from a safe distance and the game will go on for as many times as the check points. You will require a lot of patience and understanding to go through it all.

Alternatively, there are these big trailers that carry stones from Moroto and kapchorawa districts. These trailers work for a company known as Tororo cement. Over the years, the trailers have caused numerous accidents on this Highway. The drivers are inhumanely reckless that they will never stop for whatever reason. Traffic police never stops them because in the past years , a traffic police man stopped one of the taxis that was driving infront of a trailer and the driver in the trailer knocked down the taxi leading to loss of lives. From then, the traffic officers signed never to stop a taxi or any car once a trailer is before or after it. The taxi drivers now have made it an advantage to drive either between the trailers, after them or before them to avoid the traffic. In such situations, all your discomfort will not be solved till the end of the journey.

The conductors from these taxis never seat and if you are unlucky to seat near the exit, you will face it rough as the conductor’s whole body will be weighing down on you. It is worse during Christmas time in that, the boot will be full and passengers may have to carry their luggage on their laps. With all the commotion, you will have stuff allover you and you may have to carry other people’s stuff on your laps for the sake of their comfort and your own.

In these same taxis, there are no seats for children, most children will seat on the laps of the person they are with, if your neighbor has two or three children, it is protocol that you carry one on your laps. Complaining is not allowed, or at least people have mastered the rules so, they simply blend in. If you quarrel or complain, people will look at you, shut you up, or ask you to choose who to leave the taxi. It will be awkward and you will have to silence your mouth and comply. The number of taxis that move in this direction are also very few and run on the same rules. You can’t get out or wait for another as it maybe the same or worse.

At your final destination, you will leave the taxi suffocating from the odd smells of business men who have been moving up and down town all day or, your legs, hips, bums and shoulders will be fatigued and paralyzed from the tight squeezing against other passengers.

If you ever visit, Just comply and enjoy your visit. This is Uganda.

Happy 2019.