Waiting in Kampala

I picked up my daughter Holly last Saturday at the Entebbe airport and we spent much of the week exploring Kampala. I’ve only experienced the jam-packed, noisy, hot, and dirty parts in the past but with more days of exploration we found wonderful restaurants and cafes on shaded patios and great performances. We tracked down almost all the art galleries in Kampala. The best performance was at the Ndere cultural center where three dance troupes from Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi performed with traditional music. There were string instruments, a xylophone, and lots of drums. The dances from each country were very different. The Rwandans were tall, slender, and their movements were sinuous. The Burundi men carried huge drums on their heads and were able to drum and dance while carrying them- it was the kind of performance that makes you gasp. The Uganda dancers did quite an astounding amount of shaking (especially bums). My son Max was supposed to get in the night of the 21st but had the misfortune of flying through Frankfurt. His first alarming email suggested he’d be in on the 26th at the earliest as thousands of travelers were in lines that were 6 city blocks long waiting for bookings. He met a woman with 2 small children who had been in the airport for 5 days and saw multiple episodes of police being called to break up scuffles between passengers vying for places in line and escalating arguments between airline staff and passengers (he said the staff always won). In what seemed like an amazing stroke of luck, he arrived via Addis Ababa only a day late. So we have made our way to Mbarara and then to Lake Bunyonyi. It is Christmas morning, sunny and in the mid 70’s; I am on the deck of our furnished tent looking out onto the lake and listening to birdsongs and the occasional wafting Christmas carol. The photos are of Father Christmas and two dancers. Happy holidays to all!