Tour Guide, Kampala, Uganda
| 4 mins read
Uganda is known as the Pearl of Africa. Why?? A pearl is something of great rarity and value, unique, and we are that rare and valuable big thing, Uganda.
An experience in Uganda is an exploration everyone ought to try out. On arrival at the airport, our guides are always waiting there with company posters to welcome you; they are always sure to engage you in a conversation like Hi, have you been here before? how was your flight? What is that thing that caught your eye to want to check out Uganda? So you will feel welcome and immediately feel at home. Usually, we try to greet you in our local language, commonly Luganda, so that you can learn and again feel welcome. The greeting is 'webale kujja' which is "you are welcome" in English. 'Osibye otya' or 'wasuze otya'. The former means "how was your day" or basically "how are you" and the latter means "how did you sleep" or a "good morning" greeting.
When you start getting into communities, you will find that people give you a look and a smile, which is welcome and shows that you are a special guest. For the kids, "wow, muzungu wuyo", it is a pleasure to meet the muzungu they see on TV. "Bye, muzungu", they will say, waving to you. Muzungu means brown person.
Well, here it is in our culture that we are mindful of what kind of clothes to put on, it is looked at as an abomination to put on skimpy clothes mostly by the elders, that is why even in the sunniest season you'll find most people on whole long body covering clothes. Though it is not exactly absent, people put on shorts, mostly in cities and towns.
Food: I am convinced you will really love to taste our local food, chicken in steamed banana leaves, banana itself put in banana leaves and steamed, it is called matooke. Food in Buganda is given a lot of respect, quite funny, but that is culture. In that, you will find people kneeling to peel matooke; after it is peeled, it is arranged in a basket wrapped in banana leaves. We have many cuisines that are great to see, taste and learn about.
In Uganda and mostly Buganda, a girl or wife does not hug her husband's father; it is abominable and believed to cause disease and mischief. You always keep a distance from your partner's parents—a wife from the husband's father and a husband from a wife's mother.
Have you heard stories like when you see a snake, cross your legs, that when you cross your legs, you're hindering it from moving, you are tying it? This helps when brought to general survival methods. When you stand still, the warmth from your body emitted from movements will be put to a standstill, and the snake will probably not locate you; even still, when you are not making movements, you're probably not a threat to this reptile. Uganda has a lot of stories you'd love to hear.
How Kampala came to be named that way. Do you know the impala antelopes? They are found in Lake Mburo National Park and Kidepo National Park in Uganda. Kampala is situated on a hill, and initially, on that hill, there used to live so many of these antelopes, the Impalas. People used to refer to it as the 'Hill of Impalas. In our local language Luganda. It is 'Akasozi k'empala'. Here in Uganda, we like cutting short sentences and words since way back. Instead of 'Akasozi k'empala, they started calling it K'empala. With time pronunciation changed into Kampala, thus being formally called Kampala. Explore the beautiful country Uganda, The pearl of Africa.