Part IV
These two photos were taken on my first drive to the town of Yumbe, 90km north of Arua, where I will be doing most of my work in April and May. This shot is probably of Maracha, a town en route. This is a pretty typical shot of the main street of one of these small towns (although you should keep in mind there's nothing typical about a skinny white man in the passenger seat of a Land Rover taking pictures) - dirt road, bikers, pedestrians, yellow signs advertising the South African telecom company MTN, etc. The second photo shows a couple of bikers in the side-view mirror on the same drive. It's worth mentioning here that the roads range from okay and paved to atrocious, washboarded and full of potholes that could destroy a car or truck. These towns are also much closer to the Sudanese border, where the weather tends towards dry and hot. There is a steady stream of semi-trucks streaming north into Sudan, where there must be some serious demand for what Uganda is selling. I should also take this opportunity to describe the mixed traffic. On the highways (and the "highways") there are cars, trucks, lots of motorcycles, even more bicycles, and even far more people. No one adheres to any dotted lines or shoulder demarcations; this is truly the open road. Driving in a car means constantly honking to warn slow bikers and walkers up ahead that you're barreling through. That way, women with massive loads on their heads can skip to the side of the road, and men biking with 50lb. charcoal loads have time to swerve into the ditch.
