Just around the corner

The interesting thing about northern Uganda is that you never know what's around the next corner (work-wise as well as on the road).

Lately I have seen too many of these trucks overturned like on the photo.

Lately I have also seen too many crashes between busses, salon cars and matatus. Cracked and crystalised front screens, sometimes with people still trapped inside, stuck behind the wheel in a lethal position. Sometimes stained with blood. Sometimes a dead passenger wrapped in plastic lying waiting at the road side for his last destination.

The worst thing I watched lately was a salon car overturned on a marram road, where I saw the upper part of a 2-year old crawling out. It only took few seconds, but I held my breath untill I was sure that the child was in one piece.  I consider myself not the sensitive type, but my body reacts strongly when I see things like this.

I fear the busses (Gaagaa, Nile Coach, Gateway...) not driving, but flying from the district towns up country to Kampala on an hourly basis. When meeting them on the highway I lower the speed to a minimum to let them pass. It feels like being overtaken by a spaceship, while you try not to loose direction in the heavy slipstream. Yoy ask yourself how it can be allowed?! The Mundu in Arua has a good piece on why the busses are the typical cause of accidents and why it carries on - here.