Roads, Roads, and Roads

I mentioned in a post I made after we drove up to Gulu how amazed I was at all the work being done on the road from Kampala to Gulu. After spending several days in Gulu, I was even more amazed at the work being done. All the major roads and many of the less important roads had been graded in Gulu. The main road from Gulu to Juba in South Sudan is now paved except for the center of Gulu where they are working full speed ahead. I was told by one of the drivers that the entire road will be paved by December and I have no doubt that this will happen based on what I observed. I even found that the smaller roads we take to visit one of Beth's and my sponsored children who lives way out in the bush had been graded and they were working on culverts.

Dora, one of my friends who is a former WVU staff person at the Children of War Center, said that the other reason so much work is being done is that the President of Uganda is running again next year and so he has the full court press on completing these road projects so he can use them as reasons that people should re-elect him.

On the ride down to Entebbe every once in a while I noticed these coiled pink tubes lying on the side of the road. I did see them on the way up to Gulu, but assumed they would be used for water or gas or something else. I couldn't believe it when my driver said those tubes are for the fiber-optic cables that will be running the length of the highway from Kampala to Gulu. Wow! I am astonished by the changes I have seen over the seven years that I have  been coming to Uganda!