Left is right -- we're driving!

We spent the weekend practicing driving in our new (used) Toyota Rav 4. Why are we practicing?

First, here is the recipe for Ugandan roads: Combine huge potholes; the stray cow (or entire herds); people walking, walking, walking within inches of your side mirror; bicycles piled high with jerry cans; goats grazing in the ditch; construction to supposedly fix the potholes; little kids rolling a bicycle inner tube along the shoulder. Take all those and stretch them out in a line to make a road, then add cars, boda-bodas, trucks, buses and taxis, each zooming to get around each other and the potholes -- and out of the way of oncoming traffic. For spice add the fact that there are no lanes or center line, and that trucks and buses are overloaded and speeding. And everyone is honking.

Then there are the boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis). They come up on your right, left, in front and behind, and sometimes they are going in the wrong direction. Almost everyone we know has hit a boda man, or been hit by one; side mirrors are mostly cracked or missing. And if you hit one, a crowd gathers because everyone figures they will get paid off by the car driver for siding with the boda man. Or so we've been told.

And there's that bit about driving on the left. (But those of you in Bath with us going to Harry Potter's home or whatever it was will remember the fun of that!) We've pretty much got that down (we think).

And almost every time we have gone anywhere of any distance we see major accidents. We aim to avoid being the victim of those!

So REAL the question is, why did we get a car with all this danger around us? We've been using drivers and walking, which is great. But this is not an easy city to get around in, and we were extremely tired of using drivers for every little thing, plus it is expensive. We can still hire a driver, but use our car, if we feel like it. Mainly it gives us freedom.

For example, yesterday we drove to the Gaba Market on Lake Victoria. We had no idea what to expect, we just went. And it was great: fisherman with loads of fish, a woman selling dead grasshoppers (they fry them), ferries to islands in the lake (see pix - the ferry says "In God all things are possible" -- presumably even this ferry arriving safely), even a medicine man selling vile looking potions in bottles displayed on the hood of his car. We asked what was in them and he said it was medicine made from trees and herbs. Then he slyly looked at Bill and said they would make him "strong." And he didn't mean his triceps.

Also, we went to a play -- it lasted 4.5 hours, mainly in Luganda though they swore it was in English -- just because we could.

Above Bill is holding the worry beads, which are now hanging in our car. So we are well protected.