Is it a donkey!?

I’ve met so many great people, both travelers and locals, with amazing stories. This last week I’ve learned so much about the politics and culture of Uganda and the natural wonders that are to behold. Last Thursday and Friday I all have the staff and I went to a conference at the local university. They put us up in a resort, gave up really good food and several supplies to take notes or whatever. The conference was on conversation of medicinal plant species in Uganda, so the topic wasn't that interesting but the conversations that I had with the attendees was. Several of the people were talking about the recent proposition made by the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni (as a point of fact I haven't met a single Ugandan who has said that they voted for him). He thought it would be a good idea to sell the Mabira National Forest to sugar cane producers from India. There has been a major our cry from all side, but especially the botanists that I was working with from Makerere University at the workshop. When I was talking to one of my staff, Hadijah, about the age you need to be to vote she told me "it depends on the regime, with Museveni even the cattle vote." It is amazing how far behind political corruption can keep a society. Another topic that I talked to some Makerere faculty about was their decision to strike. At the time of the conference the lecturers wanted a pay increase so they were on strike. Some lecturers are given a house, a car and about Shs12,000,000 ($4,200) a month depending on their position; I talked to the head of the biology department. The salary alone is 170 times more than the average Uganda. Currently, the lectures have been on strike for 2 weeks and have forced the university to be closed and it is not closed till mid-October.  When we were walking for the campus cafeteria for lunch during the conference I passed a guy with a Tahoma Little League t-shirt. I was shocked. I'm 9,000 miles away and I still see something from Maple Valley.

After the conference I went to the recording studio of Medie, who both works at my NGO and is a recording artist. It was a pretty cool experience. On the way there the door to the taxi broke and got stuck shut, so as we got to people's stops they had to climb out the window. Everyone laughed when they saw the muzungu climbing out the window. Monday was a workday; I'm basically now just organizing and completing the projects that I started. On Monday night everyone was really happy to go home, when the sun went down it marked the start of Eid al-Fitr, which is the end of the month of fasting Ramadan. I live in an almost entirely Muslim neighborhood and as soon as the sun went down the party started. Eid is a three-day celebration with the most celebration happening on the first day, this year it was August 30th. Because of these there was no work on Tuesday. I spent the day going to Kampala with some people who I work with who are not Muslim and I went to dinner at the family house of someone else I work with who was celebrating the holiday. It was a very fun day. Wednesday was the first time that we needed to go to the field on the same day that we have training, it was exhausting. But training is always very fun and informative so it wasn't a problem. Thursday was a workday in the morning, but I left the office a bit early because I was going to a hostel in the city to stay the night then head out in the morning for a safari. Kato (the office administrator) offered to take me because he had his boda with him that day. There is no other experience quite like riding a boda-boda through Kampala at rush hour.  The hostel was really nice; it is on a very quite 7-acre compound on the outskirts of Western Kampala. So many bazungu (Europeans). We woke up bright and early to head out to Murchison Falls National Park for the weekend. I met some great people from all over. In my car there was a Swiss guy, a German guy and two Belgian girls (which turned out to be great because they gave me several tips on places to go and see when I am going through Belgium on the way home). None of us knew each other, except for the Belgians. In the other car were 8 people and was, as they said it, ‘Africa’s first all Jewish safari.’ 6 of the people in that car were from a Jewish organization that placed volunteers in developing countries, another guy who happened to be Jewish and working in Kampala and the 8^th guy was a Baptist missionary. So the other car was really 7 Jews and a Baptist missionary, we were joking that it sounds like the start of a bad joke. All 8 of them were Americans (Two Floridians, Two New Yorkers, a Virginian and Three Californians). When interacting with them I came to the realization that nobody interacts quite like Americans.

On the was to the rest camp in the biggest national park in Uganda we hiked to the Murchison Falls, and I was able to stand about a yard from the water until the guide decided I was too close. The water was so loud, it was amazing. The guide told us that these were the most powerful falls in the world; the entire Nile River is forced through a 7-meter gap in the rock. Definitely one of those “once in a lifetime” experiences; but this trip was full of them.

The rest camp was nice, we stayed in Safari tents that were basically a hotel room but instead of plaster walls there was plastic coated canvas. When we got to the site they warned us about hippos and warthogs coming to camp, but I thought nothing of it and through it was one of those liability things. We spent the evening just talking and playing cards, it was really fun talking to all of the different people. When night fell you began to see some things moving near our tents. Sure enough the warthogs and a couple of hippos had wondered into out campsite looking for food. During the night I slept pretty well, until I got woken up by what sounded like someone waking through very heavy snow: munch-crunch, munch-crunch. It was very loud, when I looked through the netted window flaps of the tent it turned out that the hippo was about 4 feet from the tent grazing. It was so cool being that close to an animal that weighs about 3,000lbs.

In the morning it turned out that the hippo left a nice gift in front of my tent. Got to love nature.

We needed to be up early to see all of the animals that would be out feeding for our game drive. 

We crossed the Nile on a ferry to the animal reserve and saw so many things I cant even name them all.

I took some 400 pictures of lions, elephants, giraffes, some 15 types of antelope, any of 20 kinds of birds and several kinds of monkeys. As we got off the ferry we saw out first animal, a waterbuck, and the 60year old Jewish woman from New York shouted, “Is it a donkey, why do they have a donkey?” Everyone laughed, it was hilarious. 

The game drive was around 3hrs, in the afternoon we headed back to the camp to get lunch and get ready for the boat cruise on the Nile that we would go on in the evening. The cruise went from out campsite use to the Falls on the Nile. Many more birds, monkeys and hippos. After the cruise everyone was very tired.

This morning we woke up early to head back to Kampala but not before seeing the only rhino in Uganda at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. We saw a mother and calf, which were resting in the heat of the day. These massive animals looked so peaceful. I slept most of the way back to the city; I had a lot of fun over the weekend.

I cannot believe that I only have 10 days left, time is flying!