There will be several short ‘Travel Notes’ from me but here is the first. I went to Uganda after 36 years but not in the type of situation that I had wanted- I had gone for a funeral. However, I managed to see a bit of town and country in between prayers and receiving people at the funeral.The population has trebled; now at 30 million and suggesting the struggle for survival is intense, with failing services, intense traffic congestion on the roads… but five new 5 Star hotels for the tourists and the business and conference circuit, but located in a busy urban scrawl that seems to have been missed the attention, possibly, by the city council. There are several new buildings in Kampala, some noticeably bigger and smarter than a vast number of smaller ones that have sprung up in the city and its surroundings. Does this reflect progress and prosperity? All that investment must suggest that there is a growing market. The Ugandan taxi driver, a Baganda who took us around was quite proud of the achievements. He was driving a neat and clean taxi, over 20-year-old Japanese Toyota, which was working very well.

I spoke to around 10-15 Ugandans during my stay. Only two, both Makerere academics were around my age but a little younger. The majority of Ugandans are very young. A ‘muzungu’ friend said that over 95% of Ugandans were under the age of 15. Imagine the demand for goods and services in a country where the population is skewed towards the very young. The young were everywhere, offering to clean your shoes, carrying your shopping, clean your car windscreen or selling anything that catches your fancy - I was offered the type of goods that are all very normal in developing countries.  The area of central Kampala was a treat and very nostalgic. But you only had drive out of any of the exits, and you saw uncontrolled growth - a few shanties, overcrowding, cars and trucks parked precariously, hundreds of minibuses ( Japanese, of course) doing a brisk trade - all full of passengers at all times. Owing to acute congestion, normal buses seem to have been taken out. There was only set of traffic lights (donated the Japanese, I was told) that was visible and working. All other traffic lights seemed to have been removed! There were no police with crisp and brilliant white armbands to guide the traffic…. it was mayhem. However, the minibuses with crazy and aggressive young drivers whiz their passengers around with alarming efficiency… you stay out of their way or otherwise suffer scratches on your vehicle. There was no traffic police or enforcement for bad parking. If you parked badly, only you suffer - the bumps and scratches on your vehicle was the penalty or the fine…The predominance of things Japanese was highly visible. But many cars, motorcycles and scooters, were in good condition suggesting recent importation. They must have the money to pay for them. The taxi driver said that loan capital was abundant and terms of payment, while strict, were affordable. However, there were serious penalties for default. Taxi drivers have been known to lose their homes, which were pledged as collateral. Second-hand prices were very high — a ten-year-old high mileage large car could fetch £4,000 to £5,000 i.e. five times the UK price.Makerere University has at least 7 new faculties and many new departmental buildings, but roads are again, in atrocious condition, with raw human waste from one sewer, flowing down and covering one of the roads. Maybe it was just a bad day but the sewer did time itself very well to greet me on my visit. My old student hall of residence does not appear to be maintained, at least externally and the old Northcote and New Halls were identified by yellowish-grey-streaky colour- having not been painted for ages. Northcote is now Nsibirwa and New Hall looks like an old warehouse.  So is Makerere going downhill? Far from it, but there are new “universities” including private ones which have offered immense competition. Makerere is reported by lay observers as expensive but no one referred to it as low on standards. Only, the private universities seem to have multiplied suggesting there could be a problem with qualifying criteria to register new universities. The old Asian rafikis could start one at any time. I have been thinking of a plan to help them raise money.

The Ramgharia Sikh Primary School has been vandalised after being out of use for over a year- the lease expired and the surroundings have deteriorated so much that a school is no more viable on that site. The Khoja Shia Ithnasheri School has been demolished to make way for commercial development. Norman Cinema is now a church and Odeon has been converted into an ice cream factory. The Aga Khan School is running, as is the new Aga Khan University, a testimony to the Aga Khan’s continuing commitment to the country. Arya Girls has survived, Norman Godinho Primary is dusty yellow but running. It was sad to see my primary school, the Sikh school, in such a sorry state. We used to have a stunning green field opposite the school for sports - it now hosts hundreds of shabby and densely packed market stalls…all very busy. Old Kampala Sec School is still running and in very good order. I did not see Kololo, it was too much out of the way and time was short.

The traffic congestion in Kampala has led to every road out of the city being used to bypass the congested centre, leading to gridlock at most key points. There are no reliable traffic lights except for a major junction on Kampala-Jinja Road, a traffic-monitoring complex that has been donated by the Japanese as I have stated earlier. In the UK we refer to the illicit use of side roads to bypass central traffic as “rat runs”. Kampala could offer many lessons to rat runners in the UK and USA/Canada. This means that all side roads are densely clogged, with a 10-hour gridlock almost every day. On one day, a journey from Norman Cinema to the Sikh Temple, along the steeply sloping road, down the valley and uphill to the temple took 40 minutes.

Life goes on. Almost perfectly, it appears. People are said to be happy and enterprising. Many hundred small traders and street vendors prefer trading to manual jobs. 

The current worry is about a vast refugee influx from neighbouring Kenya; it seems to have started. That worried me a lot. Add to this the concerns over breaks in the running of the trains to Mombassa – how is a landlocked country like Uganda going to cope with the disruption of its key transport arteries?I did not see a single beggar, no one had rags on their bodies… and no one (compared to New Delhi) harassed you persistently for a ‘gift’ which stands for the sale of a useless item. There was a sense of dignity even amongst the street vendors. They made a discrete approach, offered you’re their wares and left you alone if one was not interested.The best thing I witnessed was a remarkable degree of Press freedom. One of English dailies was criticising President Museveni’s credentials for acting as a peacemaker in neighbouring Kenya - how could he have credibility, the paper seemed to be saying, when he has failed to manage tribalism at home? Museveni had warned Ugandans to stay away from Kenya on one day. Two days later Ugandan trucks and buses were burnt in Kenya. Two drivers were burnt or hacked to death. When I had read the president’s warning, I was rather alarmed but obviously he knew much more about the risks than I did!

It is not up to me to comment on how they run their country. Population growth has caused huge demand on resources. The youthfulness of the population meant that out of 10or 15 or so Ugandans that I spoke to, none had been around at the time of the Asian expulsion. Critics point to high level of spending on defence and growing corruption. I wanted to take a picture of my old hall of residence but a security guard ‘officially’ demanded Shs 500/- (about 18 UK pence) as the ‘fees’ for taking pictures. Just look! How much money are they losing by setting such a low chargeable rate for taking pictures! I am joking- the money went straight into his pocket. Don’t even think about proof of payment.

When I told the people that I was returning after 35 years and was a former ‘expellee’ they thanked me for going back and all said,” Welcome Back”. Maybe I was too quick to draw conclusions but no one made me feel unwelcome or showed a racist streak. Uganda has changed – there is vibrancy, expectation and most importantly motivation.

More later.