Old Kampala

Right, so today was old Kampala…

I started with the Mengo palace which is where the kings of Buganda used to live. But before that, little anecdote, I chatted with a boda boda driver, when I told him I was from Jordan, he jumped up telling me people from the Middle East scare him! So I had to convince him we are not all scary ones!

Anyways, the Mengo palace was ok, not much to see as the building itself is closed but the surroundings are impressive… One very uncomfortable place to be is the tunnel… (Picture enclosed), inside the tunnel is a path with small rooms a bit higher up (second picture enclosed) now, during Idi Amin’s time, the palace was used as a army casern. This tunnel was where arrested people (some of them) used to be kept… 

This is how it worked:

People were brought in there and placed in the rooms above. The pathway has a couple of centimeters of water in. From time to time, soldiers would come in the rooms, stand there and push people into the pathway where high voltage (or depending on their mood I guess) electricity was passed to electrocute them…. Not a nice feeling to be in there. This was in the 70s during Amin’s rule. Obote who came back to power afterwards still used it. It was finally closed ONLY in 1985….

But on the light side of things, the view from the Mengo hill is beautiful!

 

Then we went to the Namirembe cathedral (Angelican). It is up another hill, beautiful view and the building is quite nice as well (picture enclosed as well!). There was a wedding in there so couldn’t get far into the cathedral but again, wide grass patches all around the church where people were just laying down, reading, meditating… Great vibe….

We wanted to see this famous mosque that Idi Amin has started building and left to rot unfinished for years due to the lack of funds… And in such cases, who comes to rescue?! Kaddafi!! So the mosque could be finished when Kaddafi pumped in money to make what looks like a piece of crap in the middle of a beautiful grass patch! It hideous!! (Picture from far enclosed as well). We didn’t even stop to try to get in, too ugly!

Then home sweet home, I cooked a Ugandan style mjadarah, had dinner on the balcony and tried to organise the coming days....

Tomorrow is pure shopping; craft market, flower pots, and another open day crafts market at an international school... And who knows, if we have money left, we’ll continue!! Ehhehe This part worries me a bit as there is so much local crafts I’d love to buy!!! They have wonderful things! So make it quick if you have requests!!!

Anyways, I will have to go now... ciao ciao!!!