A Whole New World

With 43 days left in country, I was unsure if I would have any new perspectives of Uganda.

I look at Kampala as a hustling and bustling city, fast paced with little time just take in ones surroundings.

I look at the surrounding towns and trading centers as laid back with little motivation to complete things… Especially when the rains come.

Well, it just took an adventure with my iPod to get a new perspective.

The other morning I was walking through the one part of Kampala I used to loathe the most. 

The taxi park.

While vital to the infrastructure of Uganda, the taxi park takes people all over the country, from the cool southwest to the arid north.  The taxi park is crammed and jammed with matatus waiting for passengers eagerly wanting to go to their destination.

This crowded place is where many Volunteers credit their missing money and phones. 

While it is essential to Uganda, it is a place we often avoid.

At least I do.

Or I did.

Recently as I venture into town, I simply bring the essentials. 

Money in my bra and my iPod strapped in my armband or also taking residence somewhere alongside the money.

Back to the other morning… There I found myself, outside the taxi park.  The sun was still rising, unveiling the hidden layer of smog.  The park was quiet.  The engines were barely humming.  Matatus were in organized rows, of which I am assuming function for the first thirty minutes before chaos and jams take over.

While I usually find myself preoccupied with cat calls and men pressuring me about my destination, even though I know exactly where I need to go, that morning I felt like that scene in Singin’ in the Rain where Gene Kelly is just doing his own thing.  Or like the scene in Big Daddy with the invisible sunglasses.

With my ear buds in place, no one or nothing was going to stop me or stress me out. 

Listening to Britt Nicole rock out to her song, “Safe” or having Ed Sheeran serenade me with “Thinking Out Loud” put me in such a calming mood in what can quite frankly be one of the busiest and most stressful places.

As I meandered in the middle of the streets watching bodas zip by and people hurriedly moving to their taxi, I was in my own world.  My euphoric state could not be brought down and if someone dared, Sam Smith was singing in my ear to bring me back up.

It has been 887 days since I first laid eyes on the taxi park and I remember being overwhelmed and thinking to myself, “How will I ever manage this on my own.”

Oh that’s right.

With my iPod.