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PEOPLE PICTURE LINK

We met a lot of people during our travels in Uganda. The people who are in the travel industry are extremely friendly. It's there livelihood! The only people we felt a little uncomfortable with was at the hotel we stayed at in Kampala, Hotel Africana. A couple of the waiters at this hotel's restaurant were really rude, and we also had an incident with a room attendant. But otherwise, we really liked the people we dealt with every day.

As for the general public, we didn't have much interaction without a guide so I'm not really sure how they are. On the flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, the flight attendants weren't out right friendly. We would say thank you for something, and they never said you're welcome. Or when we were walking around in the airport, we would say excuse me to get around someone and nothing was ever said back. No one was outright rude, but never very friendly either. It may just be a cultural thing.

We were CONSTANTLY stared at in Uganda. I think we got a very serious taste of what it's like to be a celebrity! I'm not kidding! As we were being driven around, people would literally stop what they were doing and watch us go by. It made you kind of uneasy, but I soon learned that the best way to cope with this was to wave to them. This would bring a big smile to their faces and they would wave back. Or sometimes they would be in shock that you waved to them and their mouths would just drop open. It made me feel really good to wave, so I did it all the time.

I asked our tour guide, Germina, why they were staring at us. She said it was because they are admiring us. They are admiring our white skin because they don't see it that often. They are also admiring our "wealth" because they think you must be very rich to come to Africa. Their stares were completely out of respect and admiration, not the jealous "I'm going to rob you" kind of stare. I guess you could compare it to why we stare at celebrities -- they are interesting to look at and they are most likely rich so we check them out. You kind of get use to it after awhile, sort of.

The little kids were really good at spotting you come down a road, and they would just wave and wave trying to get you to wave back. I always waved back! I asked Germina what they were saying after we drove by, and she said that they were fighting over who I was waving at. "No, she was waving at me! She likes me! No, she likes ME! It was me she was waving at!" This cracked me up!

Germina was a very interesting person to talk to. She had five children, two of them being her brother's children. It seems that her brother was killed a few years ago in a construction accident. Her sister-in-law has mental problems, so Germina's sister took two children, Germina took two, and her sister-in-law kept two. They take very good care of each other's families in Africa.

Germina has an education in the travel industry from an university. Her only travels out of Africa has been to Europe for work to promote traveling to Africa. She saw various sites while there but only for a day or two.

We got to meet one of her children, her son. He was going to school to also be a travel agent, and we picked him up after classes on our way to the hotel on the day we arrived. He was extremely nice, and we had a nice chat with him. Germina told us that when she got out of the university, she had no problem finding work. It's not like this any more, and she's worried about her son's future.

We also got to meet her sister briefly on the way back from Jinja. Her sister's husband is a doctor, and Germina wanted to get some stomach medicine as she had a heavy lunch with us. She said it would bother her later. Her sister was also very nice.

Germina told us many interesting things about the way of life in Uganda. Its seems that to supplement their income, people grow produce in their backyards. This provides food for the family, plus they sell it in their front yards to make extra money.

We learned from a walk we took with a ranger in Queen Elizabeth Park that people in Uganda can't own guns. How the government regulates this is that they teach certain people in a village how to properly use a gun. They are trained for one month and then the rifles are taken back. If the village is ever attacked, these would be the people who would defend it. They feel really sorry for our gun problems that we have here in the United States.

Along the roads, we saw people walking every where. The main mode of transportation is your feet or a very old bike if you're fortunate enough. Everyone seemed to be carrying something on their heads. No one wore deodorant -- just like we've observed many times over in Europe!

Most everyone we saw on the streets were dressed really nice. Men wore either a button down shirt or a polo shirt and slacks. Women mostly wore dresses. Most of the school kids wore uniforms, and we occasionally saw big groups without shoes.

One interesting notation I wrote down was a
t-shirt that I saw at Queen Elizabeth Park that said "Uganda is Back." A ranger at the park's entrance was wearing it, and it was remarking on Uganda's civil war and the travel industry.

Another notation I have is that it was neat to be in Africa when the Soccer World Cup was going on as everyone was really into it. There were a couple countries from Africa that had made it to the finals rounds, and it was on everyone's radio! Africans are big soccer fans!

Check out the link above of the people of Uganda. You aren't allowed to take pictures of Africans without their permission, so these are the very few that I have of the people. It's just culturally unacceptable. Enjoy!


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