Up, Up and A...rua

Like in New York State, where anything outside of New York City is considered “upstate”, in Uganda, anything outside of Kampala is considered “upcountry.” While I don’t necessarily support the New York bifurcation, it does make a bit of geographic sense. In Uganda, whether you head North, South, East or West out of Kampala, you are “upcountry.”

A few weeks ago, I headed upcountry to orient Soroti, Lira, and Arua districts on our upcoming couples HIV counseling and testing campaign and form our district coordination committees. These were half day meetings in far-away places, which means that, in total, we spent more time in the vehicle than in the meetings.

A lot can happen when you spend that much time in a vehicle. Mostly, a lot of road work. I had the pleasure of two types. The first, never ending speed humps, spaced just barely over a car length apart. Exhibit A:

And, just when you reach the top of the hill and are about to breathe a sigh of relief at their cessation...Exhibit B:

Repeat for 20km.

The second type of construction was the never ending dirt road. You know, the one that runs alongside the road under construction, crossing back and forth over the latter when you really can’t avoid that person’s house, that steep embankment, that body of water. It rains a fair amount in these parts, and so the dirt road is actually the dirt river for a sizeable length of the journey. Exhibit C: Every once in awhile, while you’re negotiating one of these mud road rivers, you find another vehicle coming at you, head on, their driver’s arm muscles similarly bulging as they grip the wheel, their shoulders similarly hunched over, their brows similarly furrowed in deep concentration as they try to keep the vehicle on track while remaining unstuck. Neither party slows down nor shifts sideways, and it crosses your mind that this could become a problem. And then, at the last possible second, steering wheels are cranked left, and your Prado misses “Danger – Petrol” by 4 millimeters.

There’s also the part where we stopped on the side of the road to buy live chickens, but that’s a different story.