Our neighborhood

Every neighborhood in Kampala is "mixed use" as far as I can tell. Ours is typical. Paul and I occupy the middle class, in our finished apartment building with electricity and running water. To our right are what I think of as the mansions. That's the top photo. They have columns, wide porches, and a lawn with manicured shrubs (one day someone was mowing the lawn and I went out to try to smell the freshly-mowed grass but couldn't catch a whiff). No one lives there, so they're rather mysterious.

Directly across the street from us (second photo) is what looks to me like a village. There are concrete huts with metal roofs around a dirt courtyard. There is no electricity or indoor plumbing. It's interesting to note that the whole area is quite clean. There is very little junk or trash around the houses. There is, however, an area right next to the houses where they appear to throw their trash. The goats and an occasional cow spend their days rooting through it. It's ironic that this village without any modern services is at the base of two cell towers. You can see the metal fence surrounding one to the right foreground of the second photo.

This contrast is typical everywhere you walk. Mixed in with the different types of housing are small storefronts or even just wooden stands along the roads where women are selling a few tomatoes and other vegetables.

Although I think of the village houses across the street from us as poor, they're not as poor as some. You're moving up in the world when you have concrete rather than mud or scrap boards for your house and metal rather than thatch for your roof.
Karen