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exercising has been a bit of an adventure here in kampala but it’s actually been quite a bit more stress-free than i imagined. we have a pool, and although i am the world’s worst swimmer, it didn’t take long before i could put in a half hour of laps. and my knee thanks me for any non-impact activity that i can do. bicycling is absolutely not an option for me. i’m leery enough of wide-shouldered roads in the US. here it is a whole nother* level. pot holes, washed out shoulders that were still there this morning before the rain, bicycles with their crazy cargos, and the traffic…forgetaboutit. so running it is.

i was not excited about my first trip out, imagining the stares and the pointing. i despise being the center of attention.** so it was a pleasant surprise, and almost disarming, when the locals hardly paid me any mind at all. if i had been here longer before i started running i probably wouldn’t have been so surprised. people are very laid back and have better things to do with their day than be surprised by the white guy running down the road.

i started off by running on the railroad tracks, since i was still terrified by the traffic and hadn’t gotten used to it’s being on the wrong side of the road. and i would probably still be going back and forth on the railroad tracks if it weren’t for peter. peter was a regular taxi driver for us before we got our car. he told me that he was a boxer and that he went jogging a lot. i told him that i had just been running that morning and that we could go jogging together sometime. the next saturday, paige and i wondered what her phone was doing ringing at 7am. twice. it turns out it was peter looking to go for a jog, and we haven’t missed a wknd morning since.

he kicks my ass. through the hypoxia, i have gotten to know a lot of the city, especially the hills. locals are happy to point out all the hills of kampala, and peter points them out to me by making me sprint up them. then we do exercises at the top. cool boxer exercises. i’m a lot more comfortable dealing with the unique hazards of the road, now, but i still maintain a healthy degree of vigilance because it wouldn’t be fair to paige if i got pummeled by a speeding taxi.

i’m starting to get to know some of the boxers, and plan on doing some photo stories of their training and competition. the first few pics of them are up in today’s new photo gallery. i’m having a hard time convincing them that i’m more interested in taking pictures of them than learning how to box. i’m almost as good a boxer as a swimmer.
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*i think that this should be correct usage and should be included in real dictionaries. someone get on that. i have heard NPR employees say this, and that’s all the proof i need.

**in situations were you’re supposed to get attention, then i’m all for it. i’m all about participating in sports for the glory of success. but i prefer to be fairly anonomous about the rest of it. oh wait, i have a web site and a blog. damn.