A walk to the lake

Thursday April 7th
After a good night’s sleep, we woke to a cloudy day which was slightly humid. It rained for about an hour. We watched TV in our room for an hour or so after breakfast, relaxing. We found an interesting documentary about various successful businesses and industries in different African countries. Two new sugar cane factories had been built in Mali; there is a new village project in Madagascar raising silkworms and spinning the fibre; gold is becoming much more important in Ethiopia and a group in Benin had managed to successfully source clean water for 18,000 people They said that holding public meetings, keeping technical & financial areas separate and operating transparently had caused the project to succeed.
As we were going to be flying again in the afternoon, we decided to take a walk, hoping to reach the lakeside. We set off walking up a hill past hotels, and really posh houses with tall walls topped with barbed wire, razor wire, cast-iron spears, or electric wire. Many had large gardens with plenty of flowers and trees. We saw many walls covered in creepers. The most popular plants appeared to be blue convolvulus, pale lilac and pink bougainvilleas white and orange trumpet flowers, jacaranda trees, Brunfelsia and a very unusual-looking 2-dimensional palm tree. Further over towards the lake, we walked past a large convent, several schools and a huge Roman Catholic Church.
Down the hill on the other side, we started passing through small villages whose dirt tracks were lined with dilapidated shacks and small shops, very similar to Tanzania.
Eventually we did manage to find the lake, and came across a lot of small fishing boats close to a fenced-off area housing what looked like some kind of small factory. A young man came up to us and started talking in excellent English. He actually knew where NZ is and even Wellington! Most people we have talked to in East Africa think that it is in Europe.
He said he had come from his home village to Kampala to study at Makarere University, but was taking this year off as he’d run out of money. He said that he took odd jobs and helped the fishermen to try to earn some cash so that he could start up his studies again. 100,000 Makarere University has a staggering number of students, 10,000, and they wish to increase this number by 10,000 per year up to 2015!
He told us that the building was indeed a factory that makes boats from fibreglass, much more up-market than the usual wooden plank ones. Next door to it is a Fisheries Training Institute where you can study a diploma for 2 years and then get sent to one of the lakes in East Africa to try to help the fishing industry.
The fishermen were catching Nile perch and Tilapia, but mainly small ones. The Ugandan government is going to close the lake for 5-6 months. It wants to help the fishermen to set up shambas during that time to grow their own food – but of course, they’d have to start well before the date of closure, because it usually takes several months to grow a crop of any kind!
We went for a walk past the Institute, ending up on a narrow rocky promontory. From there, we had some interesting views of the coastline and many islands. There were two camels inside the institute’s fenced enclosure that are used to give tourist rides on one of the beaches. Our friend pointed out Museveni’s house, Imperial Beach, Kampala’s water treatment plant, and the council buildings.
We wandered back to Entebbe, trying to hint that he could now leave us. However, he stayed close, showing us where he lived. We decided we’d better share some lunch with him, so bought fantas and samosas at the supermarket and sat on a seat in a small park just across the road. He actually seemed quite reluctant to eat with us, so I decided he hadn’t really been trying to cadge a free feed!
He eventually left and we continued sitting there watching the passing traffic heading to and from the airport. A couple of female goats and their kids were grazing the grass, and I was a bit alarmed when one of them took off across the road in all the traffic. The others had to follow, of course! We were amazed at how many UN vehicles kept passing by, in both directions, and how many had just one occupant. Sometimes a UN minivan would go past, and at least they usually did have a few passengers.
A drunk came and started talking to us, saying some rather strange things, so I was quite relieved when he decided to move off. He said he was so poor he could only afford ‘wine’. He showed us a plastic bag full of a pink liquid which he was carrying inside his jacket wrapped up in brown paper.
We decided to stay at the hotel until the time came for us to head to the airport. Once there, we were surprised to find that you have to go upstairs to check in. The lady at the desk in the airport lounge said to me, “We meet again!” That was quite funny!
Our boarding passes mistakenly said that the time for boarding was 5.30, an hour later than the real time! AT first I thought they’d delayed the flight, then found out that it was going to depart on time.
On asking in one of the bookshops if one could buy stamps at the airport, I was told that if I gave her my postcards, one of the other ladies would take them to the post office for me and buy the appropriate stamps. So that’s what I did, and I do hope the four I sent actually got posted!
We had some rather nice coffee there in small cups, then went to the gate to await boarding. The other passengers were mainly men!
We were flying with Ethiopian Airlines to Belgium via Addis Ababa. The Boeing 757-200 had excellent leg-room, a real plus for Bruce. All the other planes were too cramped for his long legs. He gets so uncomfortable.
There was quite a long break at Addis, and we wandered around the many shops at least twice, enjoying looking at the rather fancy-looking clothing on display. Unfortunately most of the garments had no price-tags, and I found out that they were quite expensive!
One of the ladies’ restrooms was not in a very good state of repair – the soap dispensers were only hanging on by one screw, the taps were wobbly and everything looked rather dodgy! There was a newer one in another part of the terminal.