Fort Portal, Crater Lakes and other Ugandan tourist attractions.

Considering the pace and amount of hiking we’d completed over the week, we decided yesterday to take it easy. Instead of completing any further work (which I’m doing today instead), we headed up to Fort Portal. My Brandt guidebook describes Fort Portal as “one of the most alluring town in Uganda”. And while it was well paved, I’m not sure how it acquired that high qualification. My impression was of any other Ugandan town.

However, it does have a few factors in it’s favor, including beautiful views of the equatorial glaciers, its proximity to a pygmy village, some very nice game reserves, a beautiful road west of town which descends from the plains of East Africa and into the forests of the Congo and the Crater lakes.

Unfortunately the glaciers were obscured by clouds and thanks to the guidebook’s inaccuracy on the Kasese - Fort Portal distance, we didn’t have enough time to see the pygmy village (which I was having some ethical issues with anyway, it’s been described as a “human safari” and not enjoyable to either party), the game reserves or the beautiful road descending from the plains into the Congo.

So we had to settle on biking around the Crater lakes, which was actually quite nice, though perhaps a bit rushed. Apparently the crater lakes were formed as part of the rift geology when this part of the world was being torn apart (geologically, not politically, that’s a more recent development, relatively speaking). Incredibly steep banks fall into a series of lake no more than a kilometer in diameter, all set amid rolling hills. Unfortunately, it had rained that day, and the roads were basically clay, so traction was a challenge. I also ended up with the one Ugandan bike without gears and poor brakes, so hills were also a challenge...both ways. But this gives me a clue as to why Ugandans are always pushing their bikes up hills instead of pedaling. Those bikes are all steel, and about three times the weight of my bike. And they often have a load of plantains (likely weighing 100 lbs). I’ll never think of them as wimps again.

Today is Sunday, and therefore a day of rest. It’s funny, I would’ve thought after two months with a Christian organization, some of their faith might start to rub off on me, but I’m no less an atheist/agnostic than I was before. I’m not sure if it was because I was exposed to Christianity at an early age, and then followed it up with a good dose of philosophy? Or if it’s simply because I find church services to be kind of boring and uninspiring? Either way, thanks to this lack of spiritual awakening, I have no inclination to go to church today, despite living in the diocene guesthouse, living next to the bishop and working with a man (Yona), who attends two congregations on Sunday and is trying to build a church for one of them (all donations gladly accepted). Instead I’m spending the day updating the information collected last week, planning next week, washing my clothes and researching the nutritional value of matoke (again). It seems like it should be healthy, but I’ve heard from two separate sources (both unreliable), that it’s nutritionally bankrupt. Anybody out there know anything about the nutritional benefits of matoke?

However, one thing I can’t argue is how readily plantains and bananas grow here. They are the fundamental base of the diet. In fact, one observation I made while doing the community mapping for Kaswa was how close the people in the villages are to the earth. Based on the food I eat, and the crops I see, I would guess that 99% of the food consumed by the villagers is grown by them. The houses and structures they build are mud and wattle (I don’t know what wattle is, but from what I’ve seen, it’s basically tree trunks and branches). The trees are planted every year for this purpose, as well as to provide firewood. (I would like to think it’s also to help prevent erosion, but farming practices seem to indicate erosion isn't really considered). The only outside materials they use is cement, piping, corrugated steel for roofing and some foodstuffs. And batteries and radios. So funny to be walking along a foot path, surrounded by simple houses and farm land only to come across a guy walking along, carrying his 70s style radio listening to a soccer (“football” of course) match between Manchester United and Chelsea. In response to queries, I keep saying Man U is my favorite team, when really I have no idea who any of the players are, an certainly not how well they’re doing.

Anyway, I’ve obviously got too much time on my hands as I’m starting to ramble. So I’ll stop here.