Infrastructure

(on our way to Entebbe, flying between night and day)

I've always taken pavement (or "tarmac," as it's called in Uganda) for granted.

Not anymore.

(Kampala traffic--this is supposed to be a two-lane road entering a round-about...)

Pretty much the only time we saw tarmac was in Kampala, where it was buried under masses of cars, bodas (motorcycles), and pedestrians. And of course, the obligatory "In your face Chicken-Place" salesmen.

We also drove on tarmac on our way to Murchison Falls.

Otherwise, the roads looked like this:

(on the way to Kasana Children's Center)

Well, not exactly like that. That's actually a really good road.

In fact, I lied. Most of the roads we drove on looked like this:

(A two-lane road, undergoing "repairs," in Murchison Natl Park)

Or worse. On our way to the camp and during the game drive while on safari, we were pretty much four-wheeling the whole way.

I have some pretty awesome bruises from bouncing along the roads of Uganda.

But infrastructure is not completely kaput there! In fact, they even had a ferry across the Nile.

(fairly empty Nile ferry...which spewed waves of black smoke...)

Plus, they do have signs warning you to drive carefully on the really bad roads.

(The way down to see Murchison Falls)

I knew I was growing acclimated to Africa when I heard my first reaction to this sign:

"Who drives a sports car in Uganda??"