Market in Uganda

This roadside market in Uganda sells all types of fruits and vegetables grown by women in their yards. These stands are found in rural areas and in cities, both large and small, all over Africa. And the prices are usually better than you would pay in the supermarket in larger African cities.

Aren't the hills in the distance lovely?

Me Driving a Matatu in Africa

I recently took a trip from Kenya to the Congo with friends and co-workers. We rented this van (matatu) and drove through Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. Notice how the steering wheel is on the right side of the vehicle. This is how the vehicles are in Kenya. They also drive on the left side of the road (like the British), whereas folks in North America drive on the right side of the road.

When we got to Rwanda and the Congo, I drove because no one else knew how to drive on the right side of the road like we do in the U.S. I enjoyed driving, even though the roads can be very bad with huge holes. I even enjoyed driving on the left side of the road in Uganda. We made it back to Kenya safely. You can see photos of the countries we visited on this blog.

Rwandan Mountainscape with Banana Groves

In Rwanda, many types of bananas are grown. Finger bananas, larger sweet (yellow) bananas and green bananas used strictly for cooking. When green bananas are stewed, they taste just like stewed potatoes.

People in Rwanda and other central African countries grow fields and fields of bananas to sell and many people grow a few trees in their yard for their own use.

Banana Grove in Rwanda

Rwanda, a small African country, is called The Land of a Thousand Hills. People in Rwanda plow every inch of these hills and plant tea, sugar cane, vegetables and banana groves, as seen in the picture. It's a very beautiful, but very poor, country.

Tailor Shop in Uganda

This shop, on the highway, sells clothes made by tailors. There is a woman sitting at a sewing machine under the shelter (click on the pic to see her better). The clothes on display are for sell.

If they want something made just for them, people can pick out the fabrics they like and the woman will make a dress or suit to fit the customer's wishes.

Mama with Children

Women all over Africa carry things on their heads. They also wrap and tie their babies to their backs. Women in different countries tie their babies on in different ways. This woman doesn't have her child tied on (usually it's just the infants who are wapped), but you can see the younger girl has a baby tied to her back.

It's common to see children aged four years and older carrying their baby brothers and sisters on their backs. Young children also learn to carry things on their heads. Water is carried most often, but they also carry firewood, baskets of vegetables and fruits and even school books.

Janine with her Jiko (Charcoal) Stove

Janine is a Professor of Law at the University of Free States in the Congo. She grew up in Cameroon, a central African country where they speak French, just as they speak it in the Congo. But Janine speaks English, too. This is the jiko stove she keeps on her back porch for cooking. The coal goes in the bottom and pots on top cook all types of food. Some people even bake cakes on their jikos!! The put the cake pan with batter inside a large pan and then put a lid on it, to capture the heat and bake the cake, or even bread. Not many people in Africa have stove with burners on top and an oven underneath.

Rose Prepares Green Bananas for Frying

Rose is a student studying law at the University of Free States in the Congo. She is cutting up green bananas and will deep fry them in hot oil. She's also cooking fried fish. There's a piece of white fish on the plate in the photo. Lake Kivu is a five-minute walk from the university so fresh fish is plentiful.

Rose is from the Congo and she speaks French, though she knows a little English, too. She and her friends like to dip their fried bananas in mayonnaise. I tried it and it was quite tasty. The entire dinner was delicious!

Mountain in Rwanda

Rwanda is a very small country but it is covered in thousands of mountains, like this one. Notice how the hill side is cultivated in rows of crops. With nearly nine million people in a 10,000 square mile country, very little land is left uncultivated. People live together in small communities. Very few of them live on the mountain sides where they farm. But each family has their plot of land on the mountain slope and they walk to their "farm" daily to tend to crops so their family will have food to eat and sell.

Casava Trees in Uganda

Casava, pronounced ka-sa-va, is the root of the trees shown in this photo. The casava vegetable tastes very much like potato and is cooked like potatoes are cooked; Africans boil them, fry them, make chips and french fries, stew them and cook them with different meats. Many people in equatorial Africa grow casava in their yards for their own consumption.

Driving Ugandan Highways

Banana groves grow on both sides of the highway in Uganda. As you can see, cars drive on the left side of the road and it's difficult to pass the big, slow-moving trucks when you can't see around the next curve.

Tea Fields in Rwanda

This photo shows the early morning mist that settles in the valleys of Rwanda. Tea grows very well in this fertile and moist country. Tea plants have lovely, light green leaves on top. When the tea is ready to be harvested, men and women move amongst the bushes and pick the most tender leaves by hand. The leaves are then processed and packaged, sometimes into the little tea bags you buy from the store. They're then exported to countries around the world. But this is where they get their start, in the gorgeous, misty valleys of Rwanda and other East and Central African countries.

Finger Bananas

These small bananas grow all over tropical Africa. They're called Finger Bananas because they're about the length of a finger, as you can see from my hand in the photo. They taste just like the larger bananas.

A bunch can have as many as 12 or 14 bananas. Three good bites and the banana is finished! A bunch like this one sells for about 25 Kenya shillings at fruit stands on city corners. That's about 30 or 40 cents U.S.