Sat Jun 6, 2009
Today we visited Gaba. Edward drove us there. During the ride, as usually, we saw smoke and dust, and motorbikes carrying all kinds of stuff, in this case a large piece of glass, maybe 120cm x 120cm. A women fell from the boda-boda right in front of us when the motorbike started to move. She looked like very drunk. It took her a few seconds before she could stand up, then she walked away looking for another boda-boda, since the first boda-boda left without bothering to see if she was fine or not. It was quite shocking to see. The area where this happened is know for night life and vice. Gaba is next to the Victoria lake. It has a market, fishermen, and people doing smoked fish. The fish are placed in large grids (like 2 meters wide), and many grids are placed on top of each other, and all grids placed inside a large container with fire and smoke. The fish come out quite black. I think then the fish (or some of it) was peeled, and the eatable parts placed in a large platform, probably to dry under the sun. On top of this platform full of fish there were two women walking bare foot. They moved the fish around, removing bad parts. Dust from the road flew over them. Some flies walked in the fish. And some huge birds sometimes got lucky and stole a piece. The women threw something at the birds to scare them, but they just jumped back, not going too far away. I took some photos and Miquel recorded video, which he will post after editing. But I haven’t taken many photos here. I don’t feel so comfortable taking photos of poverty and the way people live. I don’t like the fact that I can take interesting photos because of the bad luck of other people. On the other hand, it can help people in developed countries see how unequally wealth is distributed in the planet… Suddenly, a strong rain started and everybody run quickly to find a protected place. Miquel and I knew it was coming, so we were already under a roof. A young boda-boda driver came next to me and made many questions, about the tribes in Spain and about soccer. He asked about Barça and Chelsea. Next we drove to visit the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi. A guy gave us a great tour. He spoke very well, with an amazing voice that could have fit in a movie. Inside the old king’s house he showed me how to play a game which he said was kind of old chess in Africa. It was easy to learn, but I guess hard to master. I hope I can play it again in the future. It’s played on carved wood with 32 positions, and 32 seeds for each opponent. He told us about the history of Uganda, the four kings buried inside the house, and traditions. We went to have lunch, and then we walked home crossing again the slums near our house. Immediately after entering the area, many kids started screaming “Muzungu! Muzungu!” which is the word used to refer to white foreigners. Small kids came running from every direction to see us and reapeated “hello! how are you?”. They smiled and laughed. Miquel was walking behind and lots of kids started holding his hands. Later they were holding mine too. If you haven’t tried dragging 7 small kids up the hill, I tell you it’s quite heavy :) Maybe 20 kids walked with us all the way through the slums. I don’t remember seeing such happy children ever before.
