Page 52 - July - Sept 2023 Edition

THE EQUATOR
Where hemispheres meet!
There are only 13 countries in the world
where you can take a photo of yourself in
the southern hemisphere AND in the northern
hemisphere at the same time. One of these
great photo ops is right here in Uganda--just
70 kilometers (43 miles) from the edge of Kam-
pala--on your way to Lake Mburo and Queen
Elizabeth national parks, and on your way to
visit our beloved gorillas, Rwanda, Congo, and
all-things west.
At the roadside line-marker, you can position
one foot in the south, and the other foot next
to it--in the north--and suddenly you’re the
center of the world (or at least you’re standing
on it).
In 2002, AidChild (aidchild.org) received a
grant from USAID, and brought water and
electricity to the equator-village while creating
the first coffee shop and art gallery at the
equator-crossing, spawning an arts and crafts
destination. More than twenty years later,
AidChild still has a shop here (including one of
Uganda’s few galleries of original art, a garden
cafe’, and a plastics-recycling-collection
point), just a few steps north of the line, do-
nating all its profits to scholarships for students
living with HIV. Try a FREE Equator Chocolate
when you buy a cup of coffee or tea at
AidChild, too. There is also a unique demon-
stration point where you can see how water
swirls and drains differently in each hemisphere
(some claim it’s a trick, you decide), making
this a quick-pic-stop, or a fun and educational,
shopping day-trip from the city.
FREE Where else can you have one foot in winter,
and another foot in summer? Here in Uganda,
Equator Chocolate several roads cross the equator. Currently,
markers are on the Kampala-Masaka Road,
with every purchase of the Ibanda-Kamwenge Road, and one soon
a coffee or a tea at the to be reinstalled on the Mbarara-Kasese
Road near the main gate of Queen Elizabeth
Equator Shop National Park. And there’s one more on a tiny
uninhabited island in Lake Victoria—just south
on Masaka Road of Entebbe. (Gregg Tours offers a short boat-
tour to Equator Island, +256 773 219115)
The 12 other equatorial countries are: Colom-
Kampala bia, Ecuador, Brazil, Sao Tome and Principe,
Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic
Masaka Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Mal-
dives, Indonesia, and Kiribati.
To plan your own equator visit on Masaka
Road, check out aidchild.org/equator, or the
www.aidchild.org/menu hashtags: #UgandaEquator #EquatorLine.
www.chocolate.ug AIDCHILD EQUATOR SHOP
AidChild: 0780-282697 A few steps north of the equator line on
Equator Chocolate: 0783-104217 Masaka Road. +256 780 282697
info@aidchild.org www.aidchild.org/equator
@AidChildEquator (f i)

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