1. Your car doesn't look good today sir! - I found out that residents here have to regularly get their cars checked up. One would think that it's about fuel efficiency, pollution and safety. But it goes one step further than that. The car needs to look good too! It's uncanny how none of the cars here have dents, scratches or broken windows.
One of our conversations extrapolated this rule to people, making plastic surgery and make-overs less of a choice. Funny yes, but also a little creepy.
2. No street food, no begging - The most typical attribute of the developing world, the street vendors tugging at you for selling food and every weird thing possible, don't exist here. Vendors do call out at the muzungus, but from their properly registered shops, or permitted trading areas. Same goes for the beggars, though some manage to practice it discreetly. And then you wonder, why does the capital city not look crowded and chaotic like you expect it to be?
3. Spic and span - I haven't seen a huge army of people cleaning up the city, nor have I seen too many dustbins here, but this city is strangely clean!
Elves.
4. Helmets, uniforms, traffic rules - People follow rules here, mostly. How weird is that??
5. Umuganda - Every last Saturday of the month, the whole country does community work for 3-4 hours, called Umuganda. Great way to get people together, build the sense of community. Also a great way to bring the whole country into a dialogue and to do publicity, as we did in a project I'm working on. I did Umuganda too! Was greatly laughed at by the village community and carried half the usual weight of water, only half the way, but still did it.
One would wonder how many people actually do the work.
If people are working, there's no need for cars on the road right? I wouldn't dare to drive my car with those tyre bursters on the road. And the police is not friendly that day!
Sometimes I get the feeling of too much control and artificiality, especially when I went to Kampala and was exhilarated to see the chaos, but wouldn't say I mind the niceness :)
One of our conversations extrapolated this rule to people, making plastic surgery and make-overs less of a choice. Funny yes, but also a little creepy.
2. No street food, no begging - The most typical attribute of the developing world, the street vendors tugging at you for selling food and every weird thing possible, don't exist here. Vendors do call out at the muzungus, but from their properly registered shops, or permitted trading areas. Same goes for the beggars, though some manage to practice it discreetly. And then you wonder, why does the capital city not look crowded and chaotic like you expect it to be?
3. Spic and span - I haven't seen a huge army of people cleaning up the city, nor have I seen too many dustbins here, but this city is strangely clean!
Elves.
4. Helmets, uniforms, traffic rules - People follow rules here, mostly. How weird is that??
5. Umuganda - Every last Saturday of the month, the whole country does community work for 3-4 hours, called Umuganda. Great way to get people together, build the sense of community. Also a great way to bring the whole country into a dialogue and to do publicity, as we did in a project I'm working on. I did Umuganda too! Was greatly laughed at by the village community and carried half the usual weight of water, only half the way, but still did it.
One would wonder how many people actually do the work.
If people are working, there's no need for cars on the road right? I wouldn't dare to drive my car with those tyre bursters on the road. And the police is not friendly that day!
Sometimes I get the feeling of too much control and artificiality, especially when I went to Kampala and was exhilarated to see the chaos, but wouldn't say I mind the niceness :)
