Lemming Day

There's a week to go till the Kampala Marathon. The last couple of weeks haven't gone exactly as planned and I've had to cut a 32 km and a 26 km run down to half marathon distances. So preparation hasn't been ideal, but I reckon I'm in pretty good shape anyway. The key thing on Nov. 25th will be to avoid getting dehydrated and to avoid getting run down in the traffic.

 

Speaking of traffic, I've seen some horrible traffic accidents on my running route lately. Kampala traffic is getting increasingly hectic and insanity seems to rule. In Uganda, patience is culturally a very important value and you don't get far around here if you don't chill. But for some reason, as soon as these incredibly patient people get into a vehicle or onto a motorcycle, all that changes as they enter an unreal race, with no winners and a lot of injured and dead losers.





Lemming

A friend pointed out to me that most of the chaos in the traffic stems from the fact that getting a driving is not a problem as long as you can pay the fee. There are absolutely no controls in place to ensure that the receiver of a permit has even the faintest idea about traffic law and rules. My friend is right of course, and I agree that the lack of controls is a big part of the problem. But the complete disregard of everybody's safety inclduing their own, is still a mystery to me. I mean, do you really need training to realize that you're probably going to kill yourself or somebody else if you pull out onto a busy road without looking left and right first?

Friday is by far the worst day to be in the Kampala traffic. I guess that 'the-end-of-the-week-bad-traffic-phenomenon' is a very common thing in most busy cities. However, Friday in Kampala doesn't just mean more jams and more waiting time, it also means lots of accidents. I think of Friday as 'Lemming Day' as people on this day seem even more willing to kill themselves than on any other day of the week. 

 

I think I'll make Lemming Day one of my weekly resting days from now on.