During a three-week adventure in Uganda in 2015, I was without fail wearing my candy-colored lens as I explored this Pearl of Africa learning much about coffee with a client, Endiro Coffee.
While a mini-series (#Colorize_UG) was created with a handful of candy minimalistic images from Uganda, I would like to highlight one thing unique to this part of the world.
With the team from Endiro Coffee, we travelled several miles between Kampala, Iganga, and MBale in Uganda. The one road we were on, usually the only thoroughfare connecting cities, is a dusty and bumpy one that always brought us through various buzzling communities.
The brand-colored buildings, serving both as retail spaces and residences are what caught my attention, which led to a 3-post collage on Instagram.
Companies, from local cooking oil supplier to International brands like Pepsi, would offer building owners a free paint job in exchange for advertising space. Most took the opportunity for a nicer curb appeal and allow brands to tout their products & services.
Just know that what-you-see is not always what-you-get.
When driving through these communities, you can’t help but slow down for many reasons. For one, traffic observes no apparent rules and so there will be lots of slowing down and making (sometimes unexpected) sideswipes.
Then, there are the speed regulators on the road in the form of small humps. If you go through them too fast, your bones will get a good rattling. So, it became a good excuse to crawl through the sea of vehicles and pedestrians and capture photos of the sights (like I did for this post).
“Mzungu” was a common phrase I hear on the streets since I was with an American. And if you put a fair-skin-blonde-hair man behind the wheels to maneuver around potholes and bumps, the word “Mzungu” and honking become common notes in the symphony of traffic.
I found out that “Mzungu” is a term used to refer to people of European descent. It literally translates to mean “someone who roams around aimlessly” or “aimless wanderer.”
While we were never really lost in our wanderings to search for better coffee on this road with Endiro Coffee, I am glad to get lost in this culture God has added to His glorious creation.
Like in most of my travels, the trip to Uganda allowed me to meet the people behind the Endiro Coffee and gained insights to the marketing solutions I develop for them.
Click here to learn about the Branding behind Endiro Coffee.
DeSi9n HouSE 