Street Meat

In keeping up with election news, I came across this short blurb from the BBC live news stream.


"Refreshments in the voters' queue
"The BBC's Tulanana Bohela spotted this women making some good business selling water to thirsty voters in Mbale, eastern Uganda."She's selling the bags of water for 100 Ugandan shillings or 3 US cents."

I laughed out loud. Of course someone was selling water to voters standing in line! That’s simply commonplace. Then it hit me. It’s not commonplace everywhere. Let me bring you to everyday Uganda for a few minutes.

Wherever you are in line for something, someone is trying to sell you something. For example, waiting for a bus or taxi to fill, there are peddlers both inside and outside the vehicle shoving pretty much anything you could want in your face, asking if you want to buy them. This is not something that is unique to the abajungu, or foreigners, in country. Ugandans routinely shove things like water, soda, capati, sticks of meat (which are usually of questionable quality…), roasted cassava, etc. in both Ugandans faces and abajungufaces. People also walk the streets, especially in the evening, trying to sell these same things to people walking home from work in the villages or stuck in traffic jams in the cities. As I said before, it is simply commonplace. In fact, there is a town called Mubende about halfway between Kampala and Fort Portal, and it is a routine stop for busses and taxis, regardless of the time of day, to allow the passengers to get a snack. If you are not interested in an item, you simply ignore the person selling it, and if you are interested, it will probably cost you no more than 2000 shillings (less than $1). 

One of the best experiences I’ve had yet was sitting in a bus in the jam on the way back from our Kampala shopping day between All Vol and Supervisors’ workshop. We were hardly moving, as Entebbe road should really be at least four lanes, if not six, for how much traffic goes between Entebbe and Kampala each day. Peddlers were walking all around, trying to sell cleaning supplies, food, steering wheel covers, really anything you could think of. I was almost asleep when I heard a small commotion in the back of the bus. One of my fellow PCTs had opened his window to inquire about buying a map from a guy. They bartered, because a map should never cost 25, 000 shillings (~ $7.15), and soon the guy had several orders for maps at 10, 000 shillings (~ $2.85) a piece. Soon, at least half the bus, myself included, was passing money back to get a map. This poor guy was running alongside our bus for a good 10 minutes giving us maps, taking our money. He ended up making at least 100, 000 shillings (~ $28.60), maybe 150,000 shillings (~ $42.85) off of a bus full of soon-to-be teachers! We were all laughing at the slight absurdity of it, although we were very, very happy to have our maps. In fact, this happened again on the way back from Swearing In! That guy (I don’t think it was the same one.) made at least 50, 000 shillings (~$14.30) from us.

So if you come to visit me, be expecting to be sold things through windows, and perhaps even from inside the bus! Oh, and bring me some street meat, would you?