Boda Of The Week

Scott here.

Sally said I could post every once in a while on our blog. She wants me to post about my work, our clients, life here, etc. Serious stuff and all in due time.

But for now, allow me to introduce a new feature of Come One, Kampala – the BODA OF THE WEEK!

A “boda” is a motorcycle taxi used throughout Uganda, but especially in congested cities like Kampala. They are incredibly cheap to ride (about a quarter to go completely across town) or hire to run errands. Most bodas are cheaply made and spit out unbelievable clouds of blue smoke. Kampala is among the bottom 15 cities in the world for air quality and boda exhaust is certainly a significant contributor.

Bodas are also responsible for many deaths and injuries in Uganda as they are largely unregulated. Pretty much anyone can buy one and start waving down potential customers. They drive on the right side of your car, and the left. They sneak up on you and sit in your blind spot. They drive into oncoming traffic. They fill in every available inch of the roads. Traffic lights don’t trouble them, neither do general “rules of the road.” In the jungle that is the “Ugandan Highway System” bodas are the monkeys that throw their own poop. After they light it, and themselves, on fire. While naked.

But enough with the negativity! The boda “industry” employs tens of thousands of Ugandans who might otherwise have no income. They – hypothetically - decrease traffic congestion because you can fit a dozen or more bodas into the footprint of one car. They give regular Ugandans a way to get from place to place quickly and cheaply. And they transport stuff as well. Sometimes huge stuff.

So without further ado, I present the Boda of the Week!

This industrious boda and passenger were spotted last Saturday morning about a mile from our apartment. Most bodas are about 5 feet long. Not this one. A solid 25 feet, tip to tail. Going almost 30 MPH in heavy traffic and getting ready to make a sharp left turn.

Luckily though … (1) the passenger’s cloth baseball hat and flip-flops look sturdy enough to protect him in the extremely unlikely event of a crash, and (2) the front of the ladder is loosely festooned in high-density, impact-resistant plastic wrap.

As my old Young Life leader used to say, “Fun is First, but Safety is a Close Second.” In Kampala, safety doesn’t even make it to the starting line. But they get stuff done.

See you next week!