On the road

When you stop to picnic in a national forest reserve on the side of the road, is that encroachment? Nevermind that there was a herd of goats grazing right next to us! The forest got me thinking that this could be a natural alternative to the oily fast food restaurants for long distance travelers. To the calm and shade of the trees, add benches, tables, rest rooms and decent, affordable eateries – and we might just have stumbled onto the idea of the year! Or not. Who will maintain the spaces? The National Forestry Authority? Uganda Wildlife Authority? Ministry of Tourism? Local Council? Just thinking about the bureaucracy is already too much drama. Anywho, it was a nice stop over – courtesy of grandpa Nyeko. Yiyi and I were headed to Purongo, Nwoya district, along with his Papi and Grandpa [we do not have a pet name for the Acholi Jajjas yet – working on it!]. We’d picked up a pineapple in Luweero and the entire drive the car smelt like it had been sprayed with pineapple air freshener...

We had been driving through the narrow marram road in the Madvhani sugar plantation for more than 20 minutes. The only people we saw were workers clad in gumboots and coveralls, some of them carrying machetes. The cane was tall enough to create a canopy above the car and dense enough to prevent us from seeing beyond a half a meter. I was convinced that every person who appeared and disappeared into the plantation was quietly plotting our demise. I half expected to find an ambush around each corner. You see, I had been told stories of how the plantation owners valued their cane almost as much as human life. I did not expect it to be so easy to drive around their estates – uninvited. But there we were – wandering around like we were the owner’s children. Tutu [the munaSummer from my previous note] was ever hopeful, as usual, that we were not going to succumb to some serial killer-ish end. Yiyi was, as usual, asleep from the moment we hit Jinja road 2 hours earlier. Jess [NOT Jesca!],...