Tuesday in Kampala

This morning I reluctantly hauled my tired body out of bed at 6am, having pressed snooze on my alarm nearly twice. Last night I’d gone to bed early intentionally only to have fell asleep to awake to someone messaging my phone. Not only was it someone who knows better than to contact me at 9:30pm, I was rudely awakened and took a bit to fall back asleep. A half hour later my phone rang again…being awakened once again I told my friend I was sleeping and would talk to him in the morning. After struggling to fall asleep for the 2nd time, again a half hour later the phone rang! By this time I was over tired, having tried to fall asleep, forcing my exhausted body to stay in bed instead of giving up and getting a novel to read. Informing the last friend that called that he’d woke me up as well and I’d talk to him in the morning, I twisted and turned for nearly an hour, too tired to fall back asleep but not willing to get up. By that time it was near 11pm and 5:45am comes fast!
Leaving home around 7am, I headed for my 10 minute walk down the hill to get a taxi at Entebbe Rd. I waited for about 10 minutes; frustrated with myself for not leaving home earlier as taxis get hard to come by the later you leave home. I called a boda and had him drive me to the nearest stage in Zzana, about 500 meters up the road, Kampala bound. There I boarded a taxi and headed to work.
Arriving in Kampala, I got off at the soonest stop, joining in the ‘Walk to Work’ campaign, finishing the trek uphill to church. Once at church, being once of first to arrive I turned on the power, booting up my computer and wiping the dust off my desk. It was Tuesday, meaning an inevitable day of meetings, it always happened that way!
Sure enough, it began with the Pastor’s Meeting, and as I caught up on emails our Lawyer arrived to meet with myself and another pastor to work on our Work Permits. From the meeting with our Lawyer we bounced to a staff meeting lasting 2 hours.
Lunch break with some of my local food favourites brought me with a novel to enjoy some quiet time as I read, relaxing with lunch and taking my mind off the business of the Tuesday. Immediately after lunch I went into another 2 hour meeting with some of our leadership event planning the rest of our year.
As I finished up my day around 5pm, logging of my computer I began talking with one of our local pastors. An hour passed and yet our conversation continued on God’s goodness and faithfulness when we give our complete trust to Him and Him alone, reaping the rewards and living in the joy of the Lord; I was so encouraged and uplifted! Attempting once again to head home from church with the excuse to get home before it gets dark (by 7:30pm) I was again side tracked with a chatting with 2 more close friends who came for worship practice…another hour passed and by the time we realized it dusk had set and they were late for choir practice but we all parted ways so encouraged and uplifted!

As I headed for the taxi park, I reflected on the fellowship after work, which had kept me at church an extra 2 hours, not wishing it had been different. Empty taxis were not to be found, and the ones that were there sat in jam until they could leave the park. Along with hundreds of others, I waited for an empty taxi heading to my direction to come by. When the first once came, it was mayhem, people cramming in and I was just too late as the last seat filled ahead of me. I returned to waiting along with the others once again. Another taxi came, and as it filled, the driver was not to be found, he’d went off somewhere, so instead of waiting for a taxi, we waited in the taxi, dealing with hawkers coming up, trying to sell airtime, groundnuts to much on, and trinkets of poor quality. Eventually our driver returned and in the 15 minutes it took us to get about 50 meters out of the taxi park, our driver had nearly run over a dozen people and I was surprised we hadn’t rear-ended anyone yet. He slammed on the brakes at one point and as I was seated in the seat behind the driver, just behind the engine, everyone was jolted good and hard and my legs were burnt on the engine cover, it being hot from driving all day. That’s one of the problems with being tall… it’s harder to fit into a taxi with not much leg room!
Leaving the park and being dodged around because of our lovely deep Kampala potholes; we nearly ran over any other pedestrians that attempted to risk their lives crossing when jam was lifting and taxis were not patient. If you didn’t move fast enough you’d have been crushed under many passing taxis. We hadn’t driven more than 150 meters out of the park and I was praying something serious. I hadn’t been in a taxi with a driver so dangerous since last year in Uganda, and that one trip I remember nearly cost both my friend Evelyn and myself our lives along with the 12 other passengers. I was scared at this point, praying for this driver to be careful and that God would give him peace, giving us safety on the roads home.
Jam. Everyone here understands that term VERY well. It’s a daily re-occurrence both in the morning and at night. That is what happens when there are hundreds of taxi’s commuting into and out of Kampala’s metropolis from early in the morning until midnight, every day of the week. As we sat there, loud music from a band playing in the back of a lorry was somewhere behind us in the jam; open air preaching from all sides, and not just preaching but shouting came and went, catching the attention of all. Many dozed as we sat, including myself. Hawkers passed up and down the rows of taxis in the jam selling bug spray, airtime, groundnuts and roasted corn along with more cheap trinkets. And we sat there, hot, sweaty, tired and crammed.
About 45 minutes later when the traffic police gave our side the signal to, all taxis roared to life, and rushed to get past before the signal changed for us to stop once again. A poor boda guy had been stuck in the jam with taxis and stood with his overturned boda and a heavy burlap sack of rice or something lying on the street. I wonder how he managed with the mayhem of about a hundred taxis rushing to get past the clock tower.
Thankfully a man sitting behind me reprimanded the driver for his dangerous driving. We knocked a pedestrian, hearing a loud clunk as we turned a corner… but there is no stopping, you continue on, hoping that person was able to be ok and not hurt. I continued praying for safety and that the driver would have peace, I was terrified with his driving and that’s rare for me, I’m usually pretty calm with their habits, used to the craziness of it all. Our driver tonight was a case all on its own though!
Weirdly enough as we passed through Kibuye roundabout, heading down Entebbe Rd, our drivers driving calmed considerably, and I was wondering why he was going so slow, all other vehicles were passing him up. Than a smile was brought to my face as I realized my prayers for the drivers’ peace had been answered, he was the most careful driver of all on the road at that point! As we neared my stop about 15 minutes later, another taxi passed in front of us and as most have something written on the back window, this one in front of us had written on the back window ‘Pray for us’; I chuckled to myself reminding myself that you never pay attention or actually never even know what is written on the back of your taxi, so I wondered if those in the taxi in front of us really needed those prayers, praying for them anyway! God had turned our scary situation into a humorous one, with answers to prayer.

I was nearly home having hoped out at my Lubowa stop. A boda crossed the road and I explained to him where I lived, hoping on and directing him as we made small talk, happy I was nearly home after a busy 13 hour day. It was a fabulous day, filled with great, productive meetings, encouragement by brothers and sisters in Christ before leaving church and than an interesting and eventful taxi ride home!
Praise the Lord for His mercies endure forever!!
Now however, it’s 10pm and I need to get to bed, tomorrow comes fast though I get to sleep in not having to work till noon!!
Goodnight!