It had been raining most of the night and as I left my home, it was still drizzling. It was a sexy drizzle; not too much to make you hate walking out your house at six in the morning! There was no wind at ground level but I could see the birds gliding up above.
I loved walking in the rain, though I hated the mud clinging to my shoes. Walking in the rain gave me pause to appreciate all of creation and really discover how beautiful Uganda truly is. When it was drizzling, all kinds of birds came out to pay homage to their creator; and possibly to also catch a few flying insects while at it.
When it was drizzling, most people stayed indoors so human noise was to a minimum. So one could hear many of nature's sounds. Curiously, though, birds were content to glide quietly, not even the sound of their wings flapping was heard. Excepting, of course, the smaller ones with their short, energetic wings flapping overtime just to keep a goose match beat.
I walked toward the main road, carefully skirting puddles and smudges and sludge on the used-to-be tarmac lane. Whenever possible, I walked on the verge, on the grass, watching carefully where I placed my size eleven shoes lest I step into someone's toilet efforts!
I turn the first corner and pass a stray dog sniffing in the bushes, disturbing a brownish bird and causing it to take to the skies. She looks at me without judgment and then spreads her legs to pee. Because I was brought up like that, I look away so as not to embarrass her.
Meters away, I hold my breath as I pass the first latrine. For the millionth time this year, I wonder at the logic of putting a latrine at the roadside in a middle-class neighborhood! I grew up believing latrines were meant to be at the back of houses so visitors and passersby could not see you to or from your private business! Latrines at the back also saved visitors the embarrassment.
I keep holding my breath passed the second one which is placed a few meters away on another property and think: did these two landowners sit down and one say; hey, let's build our latrines by the roadside and close to each other, that way, they will stink for anyone who dares pass near here…!
As I reach the next junction, a squirrel comes scurrying out of the underbrush and quickly crosses the dirt track. It is wet but looks happy and I smile at it and thank God for all the magic that is creation. Just as I turn the last corner, a motorcycle driver (we call them Boda Bodas, a contraption of border-border as the first few to commercially operate as public transports—though mostly in the beginning they were used to smuggle smugglers, were on the Uganda-Kenya border) sees me and immediately turns-- in the middle of the road without first checking if he was safe; expertly avoiding some cow shit but driving over some dog pupu.
I debate a little whether to board him and decide, what the hell, it's drizzling and I got time to keep; my fitness class started in twenty five minutes and there was no telling when I would get the second one on this fine morning. It is curious that when it was raining, public transport drivers were always in a hurry, like they did not want their vehicles to get wet or something, so it was always hard to find transport. The other reason was that everyone who had to be somewhere on time had to board so as to avoid getting wet.
I brace for the spokes splashing water on my Reeboks and Denim legs and sit, adjusting my poncho. I tell him my rules and we drive off. My rules are simple: No heroic stuff, no overtaking on the wrong side of the road, no risk taking just because he had the right of way and no over speeding. I also advise him to keep checking his mirrors before he does anything at all. What I really feel like saying is, 'Anything stupid' but I don’t say it and besides, it's no use as they are always doing something stupid. And that is not an exaggeration or condescation.
Because I am big, tall and ugly, a lot of people usually listen to me and he was no different. Just after the Amber-court roundabout, there is a valley that usually fills with water, cutting of some of the road; and after huge down pours, completely submerging the tarmac. He slows down and I lift my legs high in the air to avoid the splash. I notice there is a sewer rat floating in the murky water and shudder a little, hoping no one drives by and splashes me from this pool.
As we pass, a heron swoops down and settles near the pool. I wonder if it's going to feed off of the dead rat and reduce my respect for its species. And I did not care whether this was judgmental or not. But whatever it was going to do, a kite easily picked up the rat and flew away whence it had come.
It took me fifteen minutes to reach the club and in that time I must have seen maybe a hundred birds, most of which I did not know. I saw browns, blacks, blues, whites, grays, yellows and several mixes of the above.
At the club, none of my clients had turned up but I was not disappointed. Instead, I dedicated that hour to nature and myself. I watched the blue-gray sky, black in some places and watched floating clouds taking a morning stroll, peering down at lush vegetation and fresh waters below. A stray dog was struggling to pull something out of a clump of bushes and then it started chewing whatever it was it was. I thought I saw a tail and some legs and wondered if dogs were meant to eat lizards. Many creatures were not doing much to earn my respect this morning, I thought with a wry smile.
From somewhere, a monitor lizard appeared and the dog, after barking half-heartedly, ran off. Up in the sky, storks and kites were ruling the air and most of the littler birds were flying closer to the high tree tops. One—perched on high branch, I thought it was a kite but for my own selfish reasons decided it was a hawk, spread its wings as if water-bathing, surprising the hell out of me! All my life I have always seen birds do this while it was very hot and the sun was very bright.
I wondered at that as I remembered the more than three hundred species of birds (on Igamba Island alone!) I tried to estimate the number of different birds in the whole country and came up blank. I marveled at the different fishes in the lakes and rivers just as I also always marveled at the maize and beans growing through the cracks in the pavement and the tarmac on the side of the road!
I looked down and saw a worm slithering on the ground and pulled out my camera, ready to snap a great moment. But the moment never arose. Birds refused to cooperate with me…and then I realized for the moment to occur, I had to stay hidden or away from this place. And that is how I realized human beings, left to their own devices, would completely and utterly deplete the whole world of all its good things; birds, animals, fishes, reptiles and even fellow human beings! There I was waiting to shoot a bird catching a worm, while maybe impeding the very act I was trying to capture! I started to re-evaluate my importance as a human being in the scheme of things.
