Me & Tanty outside the Kitsumi tombs.

Am tucked in under my mosquito net writing a few words before I force myself to sleep.

Today I traveled with Tanty, Ajward and Janaka. We hired a private driver (friend of the hotel manager) to tour Kampala. We visited the Kisubi Tombs where four Bugandan kings are buried in the largest thatched building in the world.

The building was very interesting, nice and cool inside. The roof was supported by 52 pillars that held up 52 reed rings that supported the thatch roof. The final three rings were black and symbolized the royal family.

Largest thatched hut in the world.

Tidbits…

• Bugandan tribe is the largest in Uganda
• 52 clans make up the tribe (150,000 people/tribe)
• Tribe members must marry outside their tribe
• tribe members may not eat the animal that symbolized the tribe (for example if a grasshopper is the animal symbol for your tribe and you are caught eating it – that will bring great shame to your family! I would think it would anyway, but am learning that’s just not so!)
• they cover their poles in fig-bark cloth in order to protect the wood from termites
• in the royal family the son takes his mother’s last name

Ceiling of the Kitsumi tombs.

English is the official language of Uganda…but that was often debatable! You have to have a deeply southern, slurred accent to be understood. But I was generally able to make myself understood. Swahili is also something people attempt to speak, but it is said of that language that…

Swahili was born in Tanzania,
grew up in Kenya,
got sick in Uganda,
…and died in the Congo.

Managed to get all of my shopping done today! We went to a local crafts market and though it wasn’t large, I was completely overwhelmed (might have been a little jet lag too)! Had to make a list and check it twice!

The driver kept pointing at hills and buildings and naming them – much was lost on his accent and the apparent face that he didn’t speak English. We stopped a mosque where Arjward was able to enter (I didn’t have the proper clothing). He took my camera and got some beautiful shots.

Beyond the road where we stopped to wait was a large, mostly grassy field where a couple of soccer matches were going on. I was drawn to the sagging wire fence to watch the matches. Occasionally a volleyball match would flare up and die out as the players were called into the soccer match.

I couldn’t help but think that this, so far, really summed up Africa – life in transition.

The field was a grassy area with rough wooden goal posts. At the far end of the field were off-center steps cut into the deep red earth. Participants wore everything from proper soccer kits to bare or stocking feet.

The buildings we passed on the way in bore the same patina. As though they were begrudgingly erected and maintained only of of necessity. One group of buildings (if tin roofs and walls of dubious origin could be called buildings) we passed on the way in teemed with life! It seems that it was a popular place to get space parts for vehicles. You could quite literally get anything there.