Weapons

Me with the guards at the Stømme Office.

One of the first things I noticed when I arrived Uganda was the armed men in the airport. They looked serious and I didn´t want to be in any sort of trouble with them. But it was an airport, and it is probably specially needed in places like that, I was thinking. But no, weapons are just as normal to see here as dogs are in Norway. They are everywhere. You pass armed people in the streets, in the shops and they sit on sofa-looking benches in the back of these big cars. I was watching a football match with "girls under 20" Uganda vs. Rwanda, and even there a whole army came and surrounded the field. There was probably not more than 100 supporters at the stadium.

People in Uganda think it´s funny when I say that the police in Norway usually don’t wear weapons. That would never work in Uganda. (Not yet at least, because there is too much weapons among the civilians.) Anyway, when I figured out that the armed people are there to protect us and not to kill me, they weren’t that much scary anymore. Only a little. When we are going to use a mini bank now, we are always looking for one with armed men outside. Then we know it is safe.

We were surrounded by this heavy equipped army at the "girls under 20" - fotball mach between Uganda and Rwanda.