Uganda – Solo Female Cycling Around The World

“Mzungu, Mzungu,”

I hear joy hollered from the road side as I cycle past raising my tired arm from the grips of the dusty handle bars struggling to form another droopy hand wave. It is possibly the 137^th wave of the morning as the word “mzungu” imprints into my psyche. Uganda is the most welcoming joyful country I have pedaled in some time …although technically speaking these insanely happy people are calling me names, I chuckle to myself. I then pull over to the side of the road to say hello to the elated road side crowd and to take photos of more uniquely bizarre creatures. A pair of 3 foot birds with protruding double chins are stumbling around the lime green terraced hillside amidst long horned cattle. The birds are acting like drunken sailors avoiding bovine obstacles in search of a drink.

“Hello my name is Madame Mzungu”,

I say as I stretch out my freshly freckled arm to greet the brothers who are standing to the front of the group. Their rounded faces, sparkling front teeth and crab apple cheeks are uncontrollably grinning. Their dark shiny eyes dance as their bellies humorously jiggle. The morning light shines through the younger brother’s iridescent curly black hair. His brown Barrack Obama t-shirt is proudly tucked over his belly into his jeans. His torso shakes uncontrollably as he laughs at my introduction.

My new name, Madame Mzungu is a joke of sorts to keep me sane and energetic amidst so much well meaning roadside attention. Choosing to self entertain and give up on cycling too many KM’s after the 138^th kind, welcoming, sweet person of the morning insists on hollering for me to stop to say hello from the road side. I try to remember something I read about Uganda as I stop once again to chat with new friends. In the 1980’s under the bludgeoning rule of Amid, Uganda was put on the map for mass killings and giving all Asians 30 days to evacuate the country. The Ugandan spirit has weathered well although due to it’s past, the country still sees far fewer visitors then neighboring Kenya and Tanzania. Therefore, everyone is happy to just have a visitor to chat with.

“No Madame…”

The man wearing the Barack Obama shirt says laughing so hard he can hardly catch his breath to continue…

“You see, during the time of colonization, Ugandans had a hard time pronouncing the European peoples given names and invented the word ‘mzungu’, it means white person. The word has been past down from our ancestors and people laugh when they say it because it is a funny word to get out of the mouth”

“Oh…right on, Madame Mzungu is happy to hear that, although I am more pink then white due to my equatorial sunburn”, I say peering at my sun baked hands as the contagious sound of the young man’s bellowing chuckle uncorks my laughter. I feel in that instant how unusually funny I must appear in his eyes, standing over a bicycle with neon pink skin, taking photos of a herd of long horned cattle, his dinner. After a chat about Barack Obama, a hugely popular man in Africa, how to care for healthy cattle, how much we all like matoke, Uganda’s traditional cuisine of boiled plantains with peanut sauce, I say my goodbyes and pedal on heading over the dusty but lush terraced hillside towards the Rwandan border.

Somewhere in far western Kenya in the village whose name I did not catch I was adopted, taken in by a hard working nurse named Margaret at the local mission clinic. Clients with malaria, dysentery, typhoid, some 9 months pregnant line the cement porch of the makeshift hospital, a series of concrete and wooden buildings with sporadic electricity. Patiently, the villagers wait for their turn with Margaret.

Margaret, her plump spirited smiley face and shiny short curly hair tends to everyone who comes to her for care. 24 hours a day Margaret works caring for the communities health concerns. Margaret sees me on my bicycle near the entrance gate and she openly invites me to camp on the clinic grounds inside an extra delivery room, a wonderful shelter from the rain soaked humidity that echoes from the rain soaked hills near the Kenyan/Ugandan border.

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As the full moon sparkles through the cracks of the wooden window, I set up my tent listening to Margaret preparing the room next to me. She is bringing large blue plastic jugs of water, numerous candles and mopping the floor with a grassy stick. She beams with anticipation going from my room to the next as she tells me she is expecting to deliver a baby because the full moon is good for new babies. I fall fast asleep.

In the morning, I open the door of the delivery room where I camped and peer into the open cracked wooden partition of the room next to me. I smile and say good morning to Margaret and a group of glowing new mothers, grandmothers, sisters and cousins taking turns holding their newest community member. Margaret tells me that the new baby girl is very tiny but strong with a good heart, Margaret had delivered the baby by candle light. I mention how well I slept and that I didn’t hear a thing. Margaret tells me that Pokot tribal women did not make noise when they deliver and they do not use drugs.

I thanked Margaret for the too short of visit and offer her a thank you gift of hydration salts, paracetomol and ibuprofen for malaria fever that I had in my bags. I say goodbye and cycle towards the Uganda border.

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After the border formalities, I pedal to Jinja delighted by the Uganda welcome. The Uganda spirit equally as kind of the Kenyans with an extra splash of sunshine, the children wave and holler hello and the adults flag me down to say hello. Musical beats of African drumming and rhythmic hip hop pound out of every available shop. You have got to love a group of folks that always seem to feel like dancing, I think to myself as I cycle and smile at folks hanging out by the shop doors dancing while sitting, bopping while selling fruit, and singing while driving by me on their motorcycles.

If Africa kindness and good times stay this pleasant it might take me quite some time to pedal through Uganda into Rwanda for there are an awful lot of wonderful people to meet along the way.

Category: Uganda

Madame Mzungu

Friendly+Uganda=Too Much Fun!!!