the color of Uganda

Uganda is full of beautiful vibrant colors.   You see all these wonderfully bright colors in flowers, the bright and intricately-patterned fabrics of the dresses the women wear.  You see all sorts of colors when you look at all the lush vegetation. When you go to the markets you are bombarded with color.  All of the produce and fruits are these great colors.  There is even beautifully colored wildlife life to see like giraffes, zebras, all kinds of pretty birds, chameleons and tons of other brightly colored lizards, and hundreds of beautiful insects.  

Even with all these very bright and exciting colors, the most common color though seems to be brown.  Maybe what I am calling brown you would call red, but for the sake of this blog I'm calling it brown - or at least some shade of brown.  I had no idea there were so many shades of brown.  Earthtones are everywhere.  You see the same browns everywhere you look from rusting corrugated tin roofs, burnt clay brick homes, mud huts with thatch roofs, dirt roads,marrum (the red-brown colored soil/rock layer covering Uganda), brown aging grass that is cured by the sun, the foods we eat, even the color of peoples skin.  I was a shade of pink when we moved here, but even I have changed to a shade of brown now.  Brownish red color is the most common color in Uganda.  It is everywhere.  

This color is what I think of when I picture Africa.  When you see a movie about Africa, or pictures from the news, or from a book or magazine, you always see these browns.  Sometimes when it hasn't rained in weeks or months I can find myself complaining about the brown dust that covers everything, gets into my eyes and mouth, blows in the windows and covers the floor, furniture, and bed.  But I do love the brown dust that blankets all of Uganda.  There is something about the brown that you just can't help but grow to love.

marrum