Normally I prefer to just pass by capitals when I have to change buses or fly in to them, but this time I had to arrange visas to Burundi and South Sudan which both took a couple of days, so I ended up staying with a local family in a nearby village called Kisimbiri for a couple of nights, before I found out that I had a friend working at the Norwegian Embassy in Kampala who I could stay with.
I got to join the weekly waffle and brown cheese party at the embassy and explored the markets and the tombs of Burganda kings which was closed for reconstruction, but the security guard kindly took me in and explained the interesting history of the site.
The Burganda King’s Tombs under construction
Kampala felt like a really safe city, probably because if someone steals here, the local people sometimes beats the thieves to death. Literally. When we me and my local host was walking out of a shopping center there was a Sudanese store owner who apparently had shouted “thief”. What happened next was that women were rushing away and young men were rushing in to beat the man up. After a few minutes there must have been almost a hundred people around, shouting and beating the man. My local friend just told me that by the time the police will get here, the thief is probably dead and no murderer will be identified and arrested as so many would have contributed to his death. A harsh reality, but my host told me that there were very few thieves in the city because of the risk they would be taking. After spending four days in the city I was ready to get out and see what the country side had to offer.
