So since I arrived I have been asked if I wished to drive in Uganda (my British licence allows me, or so I’m under the impression of, to drive abroad). The advantage here in Uganda is we colonised them properly and they drive on the right side of the road (we didn’t do such a good job in America…) so adjusting should have been relatively simple. Here you also insure the car, rather than the person, so anyone can drive – which makes things a little easier than in the UK.
Unfortunately life is simple, so nor would driving in Uganda be. The first hurdle to overcome as I sat behind the wheel was working out how to drive an automatic. Manuel cars are very rare here, and also very expensive, so most people drive automatics. It reminded me of a time I was test driving a car a few years ago. It had one of those gear boxes where you have to push down to get the car in reverse (this was news to me). After fifteen minutes of not being able to move this car (the salesman had just given me the keys and pointed me in the right direction), I called a friend, who managed to explain how it worked.
In an automatic to put it into drive, you need to press the break (that didn’t seem logical to me, but maybe that’s why I don’t design cars). After getting it into drive Gerald kindly reminded me I wished to reverse out out the drive, rather than drive into the house, so I quickly switch to reverse.
The second hurdle to overcome is the roads. Now we taught them to drive on the right Sid elf the road, but sadly we didn’t teach them to build roads. They have gone with a more impressionist approach than the traditional straight and flat that the Romans so kindly left us with. Roads here follow more of a wave pattern, so if you get sea-sick you probably want to avoid driving in Uganda.
The final hurdle to overcome was ‘hit and run’ (did you ever play the Simpsons game hit and run?) here in Uganda we didn’t teach them road manners. If you want to turn at a t-junction onto the main road in the UK you wait patiently for a non-BMW driver to allow you to come out in front of them (sorry). Here, you simple drive out in front of someone and expect them not to crash into you. Otherwise you don’t go anywhere, and can enjoy an afternoon of car-spotting, with a queue of angry Ugandan drivers behind you.
The motorbikes add another dynamic, but I shall discuss that in more detail in my next post.
