Reflections on leaving Uganda

There have been so many occasions over the last four weeks that we have sat by ourselves or with others commenting on how wonderful Uganda is - perhaps part of it is that we knew very little before we came but had some preconceptions that were way off the mark. We had not realised that much of the country is incredibly beautiful - the area to the west and southof Kampala is quite lush and fertile with forests as well as farmed land and the north has impressive savannah like plains. We had also no idea that the Nile was such an impressive river with amazing rapids and waterfalls. The natural beauty is enhanced because it is still very undeveloped in tourism terms. Although this makes things harder to negotiate in a practical sense, for example there are only a handful of tarmaced roads in the country and many of the places we stayed had no electicity the unspoilt physical environment more than compensated for this.

Equally important has been the amazing friendliness of the people. Other backbackers have said that it feels very unlike other neigbouring countries as people here have not started to haggle with the few tourists that there are and are so welcoming that you always get a full Uganda style greeting which says hello but also asks how you are before anything else. There is a lot of poverty in Uganda but not real starvation we have been told as very many people farm small holdings and because the land is fertile they can feed themselves even if there is not enough grown to earn much extra income. We felt very fortunate and privileged to spend 7 days with our guide Moses as he was an exceptional person who wanted to talk about people and ideas.The best time was the walking trek we did with him when we walked through many villages and he talked to us about life for the subsistance farmers. He himself was the 10th child of a subsistence farmer and there was no land left for him so he found his way to become a guide with an eco tourist company. We had many discussions about how Uganda needs to develop but how important it is to hang on to traditions, particularly the strong sense of commmunity. There are no easy solutions and lots of pitfalls ahead but he had an inspiring optimism and such strong values that had a strong impact on us. We hope to stay in touch although our worlds are so very different.