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Here’s a question for you: Is it correct to visit a country like Uganda and to write only about its birds? I don't think so. I photographed the children above in Kampala, the capital, on the last day of my trip. Like all the pictures that follow, it was taken from the back seat of our land cruiser.
What crazy-busy places Ugandan front yards are. I saw babies being bathed, animals being gutted, meals being prepared,
chairs being re-caned, laundry being hung to dry, you name it -- all in the narrow strip of dirt fronting the road.
I took this picture of sidewalk shops in Kampala just a few hours after Hassan and I saw Scaly-breasted Illadopsis (and chimpanzees) in green Kibale National Park. The contrast between the two scenes couldn't be greater, and yet when I think of Uganda, both images -- one densely urban, the other dense forest -- come to mind.
As does this one, which shows bright yellow and green jerry cans for sale at a village store. I saw Ugandans carrying them everywhere outside of Kampala and other cities -- boys, girls, men, women, on foot, on bicycles. They used them to transport water.
Kampala's hilly streets were choked with taxis, trucks, motorbikes, and other vehicles -- and full of pedestrians -- when we made our way to the airport. We made only halting progress, and more than once I looked out the side window of our vehicle into a ocean of idling, tense traffic and was surprised to see a man and a young woman cradling a baby on a motorbike only inches away. --C.H.
See snapshots of mammals and places Editor Chuck Hagner visited in Uganda in December 2006.
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