Well, it's been quite a day! Didn't start off that well - last night I gave up in disgust with my computer - it had been working perfectly until after we came home from the training, and then it fell apart and refused to do things properly. We were going out to someone's house for a visit, so I turned it off and that was that. This morning, it still wasn't behaving and a virus scan came up with a bunch of Trojans. Cleaned them but it was still on strike and misbehaving. I managed to get through my morning lecture, but just barely. The lucky part of all this was that the IT guy for MGVP was out today fixing stuff, and to cut it short, my netbook has gone on a trip to Kigali to have its registry repaired and hopefully get it back into a proper frame of mind. Bugger. If he has to wipe it and start over then I will lose a bunch of programs I loaded at home, as well as access to any of the files that use those programs. Like the last four days worth of blog that I couldn't upload that are in Word Perfect! And I know exactly whose memory stick it came from - Julius'. That's the last time I trade files by anything other then email! My computer is not going to have relations with anyone else's memory stick again.
However, the educational part of the day was good. Today was rounds - the monthly meeing where the MGVP staff from Rwanda, Congo and Uganda get together to discuss issues and do CE and planning. I was the CE part. After the business discussions were finished I went through some theory on necropsy dissection of the heart, and then after lunch we dissected beef hearts together. It actually worked really well - everyone was keen, we discovered a number of inconsistencies in the protocols and how different people are doing things, and I think everyone got a lot out of it. And nothing went to waste - after we were finished the hearts were taken off to be boiled up and will be used to feed the dogs for the next few days!
The surprise part of the day was the dead baby gorilla. Two weeks old, it had been last seen alive with its mother 3 days ago, but this morning she was noted to be carrying the dead infant, which she dropped when the rangers came near. Let's just say it was not in the best of all conditions. In fact the face rather looked like one of those shrunken heads they use to scare people in movies about cannibals and head hunters. So after finishing the beef hearts and fortifying ourseolves with a good cup of tea, we donned our PPE (personal protective equipment) and necropsied what was left of the gorilla. A good chance to work through the PM forms and make suggestions, but I'm afraid most of the organs were liquid instead of solid so there may not be a lot of diagnostic value in it all.
Necropsy finished, we scooted round the block to the Karisoke office (the Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation) for an interesting talk on mountain gorilla skeletons. An American woman is spearheading a program to gather, collate, and describe the skeletons of all the mountain gorillas that have died in the last 10-15 years, plus historical collections. It is the biggest collection of mountain gorilla bones in the world and will be featured in a new natural history museum in Kigali. They have exhumed and cleaned the bones from the majority of the recent gorilla burials, and now when a gorilla dies it is buried in a special location near the park entrance, and then exhumed after an appropriate time when the soft tissues have returned to the earth and the bones are mostly clean. Because they have names, ages, and medical histories on many of the animals it is a really unique opportunity to make sense of the skeletal data and develop norms for growth rates, bone maturity, tooth eruption, etc. Neat talk.
Then back to the pizza place for an MGVP dinner thanks to one of the US sponsors whose friend is here for a few days and was told to "take us all out for dinner". No complaints on our side - Leon has been having it easy this week with us all out for meals most of the time. Again, great pizza cooked over the open wood fired pizza oven. Served with beer or soft drinks served "conge", or cold. If you don't ask for conge you get them how most people like their sodas and been - warm.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday July 27, 2010 - Training day 1 and wood fired pizza
Tuesday July 27, 2010
It’s 8:30 PM and we’re all tuckered out and settling down to books and computers for the evening. The internet is off, which is rather a blessing as no one can be on-line which means there is all sorts of work that can’t be done. It’s a lovely evening - the stars are bright in the sky and the moon is an enormous orange hunter’s moon. The road leading up to the MGVP compound is lined by huge monkey puzzle trees, apparently a South American import, and they make the most incredible shadows. We are down to the girls now as Mike headed back to the US for a few weeks. Jan and I, and Andrea and Dallas. After the training we walked round the block to Karisoke, which is the headquarters of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation, or DFGF, for a talk by a PhD student on maternal investment in nursing in mountain gorillas. There is certainly an interesting selection of expats and locals/regional people working on a range of conservation projects in the area. A lot of the North American and European researchers go back and forth, spending up to 6 months per year here although mostly in shorter stints. Anyway we listened to an interesting talk and then walked down the road a ways for pizza. A Moroccan/German couple has opened a combo bar/restaurant business and they have a real wood-fired pizza oven so we went for pizza. It was great! It would have been a great pizza anywhere in the world as all the more unexpected here. Ordering was a bit of a challenge though, they have 5 versions of pizza on the menu, and I think the waiter came back at least 5 times to double check our drink and food orders. In the end we got what we wanted, although we had to do some trading around on the bills. A good 8-10 people from the talk followed on after us, so it was definitely a “gorilla group” there tonight.
The training today seemed to go over well. We started bang on time at 9:00 - I gave Benard a hard time about Rwandan African time vs Ugandan African time as it was rather a job getting people there on time in Kampala. We’ll see how it goes at 8:AM tomorrow. We had about 25 people from a variety of different backgrounds and organizations, and there was a lot of good discussion and questions so I think the objectives are being reached. The highlight was again dressing a volunteer (a real one this time) up in the PPE outfit - white suit, apron, goggles, mask, booties and double gloves. Heaven help them trying to work in the heat in all that! We were well fortified with tea, mandazi - a deep fried dough lump that has a certain relationship to a doughnut, without the sweetness, a big cooked lunch, and then spicy samoosas in the afternoon. I’m sure I’m gaining weight!
It’s 8:30 PM and we’re all tuckered out and settling down to books and computers for the evening. The internet is off, which is rather a blessing as no one can be on-line which means there is all sorts of work that can’t be done. It’s a lovely evening - the stars are bright in the sky and the moon is an enormous orange hunter’s moon. The road leading up to the MGVP compound is lined by huge monkey puzzle trees, apparently a South American import, and they make the most incredible shadows. We are down to the girls now as Mike headed back to the US for a few weeks. Jan and I, and Andrea and Dallas. After the training we walked round the block to Karisoke, which is the headquarters of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation, or DFGF, for a talk by a PhD student on maternal investment in nursing in mountain gorillas. There is certainly an interesting selection of expats and locals/regional people working on a range of conservation projects in the area. A lot of the North American and European researchers go back and forth, spending up to 6 months per year here although mostly in shorter stints. Anyway we listened to an interesting talk and then walked down the road a ways for pizza. A Moroccan/German couple has opened a combo bar/restaurant business and they have a real wood-fired pizza oven so we went for pizza. It was great! It would have been a great pizza anywhere in the world as all the more unexpected here. Ordering was a bit of a challenge though, they have 5 versions of pizza on the menu, and I think the waiter came back at least 5 times to double check our drink and food orders. In the end we got what we wanted, although we had to do some trading around on the bills. A good 8-10 people from the talk followed on after us, so it was definitely a “gorilla group” there tonight.
The training today seemed to go over well. We started bang on time at 9:00 - I gave Benard a hard time about Rwandan African time vs Ugandan African time as it was rather a job getting people there on time in Kampala. We’ll see how it goes at 8:AM tomorrow. We had about 25 people from a variety of different backgrounds and organizations, and there was a lot of good discussion and questions so I think the objectives are being reached. The highlight was again dressing a volunteer (a real one this time) up in the PPE outfit - white suit, apron, goggles, mask, booties and double gloves. Heaven help them trying to work in the heat in all that! We were well fortified with tea, mandazi - a deep fried dough lump that has a certain relationship to a doughnut, without the sweetness, a big cooked lunch, and then spicy samoosas in the afternoon. I’m sure I’m gaining weight!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday July 26, 2010 - More trimming and the Muhabura
Monday July 26, 2010
The last few days have been hazy and overcast, although it hasn’t actually rained. Rwanda is a good 5 degrees cooler than Uganda, pleasant during the day in pants and a tee-shirt but cooler in the evenings - socks and sweaters required. There is a continual turnover of people here - there are two professional staff who work in the office here, plus several veterinarians that come in and out depending on whether they are up the mountain doing gorilla observations or paperwork, and a range of colleagues/friends/collaborators/ neighbours who come in for meetings or to chat or for a cup of tea. Plus today people were arriving from Uganda. Congo and Rwanda for the trainings. Most are staying at the small hotel where the workshops will take place, but they come by to touch base and pay respects. There is always a guard here, although the guarding part is really just keeping people who don’t belong here out, opening the gates for vehicles, helping out with other jobs like car washing and general upkeep of the facility. There is a fellow who comes in to work in the garden, and of course Leon. Leon is the housekeeper - he must be in his 60's or 70's and is in charge of the kitchen and meals, the laundry and ironing, and keeping the house clean. He is a great cook - lunch today was home-made pea soup, pasta with meat balls, and a sort of ratatouille. He leaves in late afternoon so for dinner we either fend for ourselves, or go out. There are usually leftovers if we want them.
Boots, one of the younger dogs, lost his private parts this morning. It was first on the agenda - desktop neuter in the lab. There were mixed feelings in the staff about whether this was necessary or not but the deed is done. He spent the rest of the morning sleeping it off and then the afternoon tearing around the garden with Amah, his wrestling buddy.
Dallas and I trimmed another case and used up the last of the cassettes - she will go back to vet school with a whole new appreciation for how those slides end up on the microscope. We do the trimming outside because the formalin stinks and there are no specific ventilation facilities as you might normally find in a lab. The afternoon was spent with us all hunched over our laptops preparing talks and writing reports and checking emails. At one point there were 5 MGVP people and myself clustered around the table in the library all diligently typing away.
For dinner we walked about 5 minutes away to the Muhabura, a landmark hotel and restaurant that has been here for decades but is apparently under some peril as the owner’s are in jail for some kind of financial mismanagement. Apparently they take that very seriously here, unlike Uganda which I think was listed second after Burundi in terms of level of corruption. About a dozen of us lined up a row of small tables on the verandah and had a very pleasant social evening. People from all round the world working on gorilla populations, from the US studying the MRI anatomy of gorilla brains, on the paleoanthropology of primate skeletons, people doing development work and clinical work and research. Plus a 6 year old daughter of one US couple here for a few months and having a great time. A fascinating mix. The number one meal at the muhurbua are the brochettes, or shish-kebabs, of meat, served with french fries. Goat, beef, lamb or fish. Goat seems to be the most popular. But the trick is actually getting the meal. Drinks, they come quickly. But it’s absolutely incredible how long it takes to get the food. Probably about 2 hours. Perhaps it helps the bar bill, who knows why so long. You don’t go there for fast food, that’s for certain. The local beers are Primus and Mutzig, and there is a local specialty drink - Guinness and coke. I tried it last time I was here: interesting, drinkable, and once was likely enough for me.
The last few days have been hazy and overcast, although it hasn’t actually rained. Rwanda is a good 5 degrees cooler than Uganda, pleasant during the day in pants and a tee-shirt but cooler in the evenings - socks and sweaters required. There is a continual turnover of people here - there are two professional staff who work in the office here, plus several veterinarians that come in and out depending on whether they are up the mountain doing gorilla observations or paperwork, and a range of colleagues/friends/collaborators/ neighbours who come in for meetings or to chat or for a cup of tea. Plus today people were arriving from Uganda. Congo and Rwanda for the trainings. Most are staying at the small hotel where the workshops will take place, but they come by to touch base and pay respects. There is always a guard here, although the guarding part is really just keeping people who don’t belong here out, opening the gates for vehicles, helping out with other jobs like car washing and general upkeep of the facility. There is a fellow who comes in to work in the garden, and of course Leon. Leon is the housekeeper - he must be in his 60's or 70's and is in charge of the kitchen and meals, the laundry and ironing, and keeping the house clean. He is a great cook - lunch today was home-made pea soup, pasta with meat balls, and a sort of ratatouille. He leaves in late afternoon so for dinner we either fend for ourselves, or go out. There are usually leftovers if we want them.
Boots, one of the younger dogs, lost his private parts this morning. It was first on the agenda - desktop neuter in the lab. There were mixed feelings in the staff about whether this was necessary or not but the deed is done. He spent the rest of the morning sleeping it off and then the afternoon tearing around the garden with Amah, his wrestling buddy.
Dallas and I trimmed another case and used up the last of the cassettes - she will go back to vet school with a whole new appreciation for how those slides end up on the microscope. We do the trimming outside because the formalin stinks and there are no specific ventilation facilities as you might normally find in a lab. The afternoon was spent with us all hunched over our laptops preparing talks and writing reports and checking emails. At one point there were 5 MGVP people and myself clustered around the table in the library all diligently typing away.
For dinner we walked about 5 minutes away to the Muhabura, a landmark hotel and restaurant that has been here for decades but is apparently under some peril as the owner’s are in jail for some kind of financial mismanagement. Apparently they take that very seriously here, unlike Uganda which I think was listed second after Burundi in terms of level of corruption. About a dozen of us lined up a row of small tables on the verandah and had a very pleasant social evening. People from all round the world working on gorilla populations, from the US studying the MRI anatomy of gorilla brains, on the paleoanthropology of primate skeletons, people doing development work and clinical work and research. Plus a 6 year old daughter of one US couple here for a few months and having a great time. A fascinating mix. The number one meal at the muhurbua are the brochettes, or shish-kebabs, of meat, served with french fries. Goat, beef, lamb or fish. Goat seems to be the most popular. But the trick is actually getting the meal. Drinks, they come quickly. But it’s absolutely incredible how long it takes to get the food. Probably about 2 hours. Perhaps it helps the bar bill, who knows why so long. You don’t go there for fast food, that’s for certain. The local beers are Primus and Mutzig, and there is a local specialty drink - Guinness and coke. I tried it last time I was here: interesting, drinkable, and once was likely enough for me.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sunday July 25, 2010 - Down to business- trimming tissues
Sunday July 25, 2010
Trimming day. We set up shop outside the lab, in the open air to avoid as much of the formalin fumes as possible, and I did trimming 101 for Dallas and Noeli, who is either the lab manager or volunteering in the lab. I’m not quite sure which. When I was here in December he was still in school but I think he’s moving up the ladder. Jan and Mike spent time with us as well, looking on and scribing for us, but we basically spent the whole day on trimming 4 cases with a break out for lunch. We finished the fourth case just as the light was departing around dinner time! Normally this wouldn’t have been such a full day event, but neither Noeli or Dallas had ever worked with fixed tissues before. Andrea joined us later in the afternoon - today was her day to go up and see the gorillas - she had a good visit and was quite thrilled, although I’m not sure the volume of wine consumed last night was an advantage in the 5AM wakeup or the 2 hour hike!
We all passed a quiet evening with leftovers from yesterday and episodes of House - there are a pile of DVD movies and TV collections - apparently House is the current series. I think they are really old ones, but it really doesn’t matter!
Trimming day. We set up shop outside the lab, in the open air to avoid as much of the formalin fumes as possible, and I did trimming 101 for Dallas and Noeli, who is either the lab manager or volunteering in the lab. I’m not quite sure which. When I was here in December he was still in school but I think he’s moving up the ladder. Jan and Mike spent time with us as well, looking on and scribing for us, but we basically spent the whole day on trimming 4 cases with a break out for lunch. We finished the fourth case just as the light was departing around dinner time! Normally this wouldn’t have been such a full day event, but neither Noeli or Dallas had ever worked with fixed tissues before. Andrea joined us later in the afternoon - today was her day to go up and see the gorillas - she had a good visit and was quite thrilled, although I’m not sure the volume of wine consumed last night was an advantage in the 5AM wakeup or the 2 hour hike!
We all passed a quiet evening with leftovers from yesterday and episodes of House - there are a pile of DVD movies and TV collections - apparently House is the current series. I think they are really old ones, but it really doesn’t matter!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday July 24 - continued
More Saturday..... Well it wasn’t the most constructive day ever but that’s just fine. The current list of current residents consists of Jan Ramer, Manager of MGVP for the region, Mike Cranfield the Executive Director, and Dallas - third year vet student from California, and Andrea - vet tech here to help with some projects. Dallas’ family are touring in Uganda and Rwanda while she does her volunteer stint here - I’m not 100% sure whether she gets the better end of this or not. Andrea’s claim to fame is that on her first day she went out to a farm to collect blood samples with the technician here and backed up into the biogas tank. That’s a big tank full of cattle manure into which she sank up to her neck - fortunately keeping both her head an hands containing the samples up in the air. Unbelievably disgusting - we all wish we had been there to see it! She had to strip down and sluice off at the farm and then get transported back as the passenger on a motorbike. The story will live on forever!
This afternoon, and onto this evening, we had a goodbye party for Molly who is leaving for the US Monday. Molly has been working in Rwanda for almost a year, and has just gotten a contract with MGVP to do their website and promotions material. So the goodbye turned into a goodbye and glad you’re coming back party. Complete with beer, wine, brochettes (kebabs) and lots of french fries. There were about 15 people from MGVP and from the educational group where Molly worked who came, and we sat and told stories and laughed for most of the afternoon while Boots, Molly’s puppy, and Amah, Jan’s somewhat bigger puppy, raced around and scrounged food scraps from wherever they could. Enormous amounts of wine were drunk by certain party members (not me) and the evening got rather raucous before we all headed, or tottered, off to bed. All in all a great success of a party.
This afternoon, and onto this evening, we had a goodbye party for Molly who is leaving for the US Monday. Molly has been working in Rwanda for almost a year, and has just gotten a contract with MGVP to do their website and promotions material. So the goodbye turned into a goodbye and glad you’re coming back party. Complete with beer, wine, brochettes (kebabs) and lots of french fries. There were about 15 people from MGVP and from the educational group where Molly worked who came, and we sat and told stories and laughed for most of the afternoon while Boots, Molly’s puppy, and Amah, Jan’s somewhat bigger puppy, raced around and scrounged food scraps from wherever they could. Enormous amounts of wine were drunk by certain party members (not me) and the evening got rather raucous before we all headed, or tottered, off to bed. All in all a great success of a party.
Saturday July 24, 2010 - Welcome to Rwanda
Saturday July 24, 2010 - Welcome to Rwanda
Saturday morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I can’t hear traffic anywhere! My night has been spent in a small bedroom attached to a small house on the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project compound where Jan Ramer, the main on-site veterinary advisor, lives. Jan and I have been friends for a long time so we sit in our pyjamas in her lounge, which is decorated in African fabrics and local products, and drink and eat toast (real toast made from bread baked by Leon, the cook). What a pleasure!
The MGVP compound is a walled plot in a Ruhengeri suburb (actually the name of the town has been changed recently but I don’t know the new name. I was told they are changing the names of many of the places where a lot of genocides took place) with a central U-shaped single story building around a garden courtyard. There is a lab, offices, and a residence with kitchen and lounge where a vet student, a vet technician student, and one of the contract partners are currently living. Plus 5 dogs, including 2 puppies, one cripple in a doggie wheel-chair, and one dog that mostly likes whites but has a tendency to bite people in the butt. The outer area of the plot has several small buildings, including Jan’s tiny house, and some pretty gardens. It is a lovely spot to be parked for a while. Wireless internet and all! I’m sitting drinking tea in the courtyard, catching up on some email, trying to get this blog updated, and waiting for Jan and Mike to finish staff meetings so the grand trimming session can commence. I’m not in any hurry, this is much more pleasant than slicing bits of formalin infused gorilla bits.
Saturday morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I can’t hear traffic anywhere! My night has been spent in a small bedroom attached to a small house on the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project compound where Jan Ramer, the main on-site veterinary advisor, lives. Jan and I have been friends for a long time so we sit in our pyjamas in her lounge, which is decorated in African fabrics and local products, and drink and eat toast (real toast made from bread baked by Leon, the cook). What a pleasure!
The MGVP compound is a walled plot in a Ruhengeri suburb (actually the name of the town has been changed recently but I don’t know the new name. I was told they are changing the names of many of the places where a lot of genocides took place) with a central U-shaped single story building around a garden courtyard. There is a lab, offices, and a residence with kitchen and lounge where a vet student, a vet technician student, and one of the contract partners are currently living. Plus 5 dogs, including 2 puppies, one cripple in a doggie wheel-chair, and one dog that mostly likes whites but has a tendency to bite people in the butt. The outer area of the plot has several small buildings, including Jan’s tiny house, and some pretty gardens. It is a lovely spot to be parked for a while. Wireless internet and all! I’m sitting drinking tea in the courtyard, catching up on some email, trying to get this blog updated, and waiting for Jan and Mike to finish staff meetings so the grand trimming session can commence. I’m not in any hurry, this is much more pleasant than slicing bits of formalin infused gorilla bits.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Friday July 23 - Seminars, car evaluations, and getting to Rwanda
Friday July 23 - Seminars, car evaluations, and getting to Rwanda
This is going to be a busy day - read a few more gorilla slides, pack for Rwanda, give a seminar, check out the vehicle I’m meant to be renting, and get to Entebbe to fly to Rwanda. Phew. And mostly it works out. I spend a while getting frustrated over the fact that there appear to be many more tissues per slide than I think we trimmed, which means they may have labelled them incorrectly in the lab which means I may be mixing up tissues among cases. But Denis has the trim sheets and he in the field and I don’t know where the sheets are, so we will have to wait and see. I turn up at quarter to 10 for my seminar but apparently all the rooms are in use - I can’t quite figure out if we got bumped or the arrangement was a bit loose to start with. I suggest another day, but apparently “the people have been mobilized”, meaning they are expecting a seminar, so I’m told I will be contacted in an hour. So I have another hour to look at autolyzed gorilla guts and hope I know whose they are, before being informed that “we are ready”. The audience is set up in a small ground floor seminar room and are all set to go, so seminar time it is. I present work by two graduate students - one on chameleon reproduction and one on a parasitic disease in cockatiels. The talks go over well, stimulate quite a few questions, and I am very politely, formally, and profusely thanked.
And then it’s off to PREDICT to meet the crew and check out the vehicle which is being brought for inspection. Taxi Peter is turning out to be a godsend. I texted him this morning to come at 1:15 to pick me up, right away he called back to confirm, and there he was waiting in front of the Vet School just as planned. He congratulated me on being on time - I think we were both pleasantly surprised to see the other at the appointed time. So off we go with my suitcase, which somehow seems awfully heavy considering the amount of stuff I left behind.
And another pleasant surprise - Douglas from the car rental company turns up on time with a very decent looking Isuzu full size 4x4. The tires have good tread, everything seems to work on it, and there is no problem getting a high lift jack, fire extinguisher, breakdown triangles, and jumper cables. He prefaces a question with “I don’t mean to be forward” and then asks if by any chance I am at all mechanical. When I tell him “yes, I am mechanical” he says “now that is two women I have met” and says they will throw in a small tool kit. Not sure just what I might be fixing but can’t hurt. And the best part is they have a guarantee that if anything goes wrong they will send someone to sort you out, get you another vehicle, etc etc. Looks like I got a steer to a good company - in fact they are quite large and do short and longer term rental for many NGO’s and their people. Benard and Mike approve, we shake hands, and the deal is on. Some paperwork and money to sort out still, but the agreement is concluded in principle. Phew!
And so on to lunch - with Benard, Mike, and JBN from WARM. We eat at Crocodile, which I went to previously and appears to be Benard’s favourites. The pork chops with mushroom sauce are apparently the hot item, so we all have them. Dining is a leisurely experience here- the ordering proceeds fairly efficiently, but the serving takes quite a while (standard jokes about whether they have to buy the animals at market first), and then the paying almost even longer. It’s almost 5:00 when we finish, and get back to PREDICT just in time to pack up our stuff and get picked up by Julius, whose long-suffering brother is going to drive us all to the airport in Entebbe for our 9:30 flight to Rwanda.
5:00 on a Friday (probably on any day) is not the best time to be leaving Kampala. We sit in jams for about 30 minutes just getting a few km to the eastern edge of town. But it’s interesting people watching - what really looks like a drug deal is going down with a white guy in a tee-shirt buying something in a package that he sticks in his pocket from a black guy with shades and a motorcycle. Julius carries on a very long series of negotiations on the price of a watch - we are surrounded by vendors trying to sell us poster-sized maps of Uganda, boxes of kleenex, sunglasses and watches, fruit, mosquito nets, air time (both Julius and I top up) and miscellaneous small and useless decorative items and plastic toys. There is a big truck full of ankoli cattle in front of us, and a lot of cars! Eventually we get to the eastern edge of town and Paul (the driver) takes us on an incredibly roundabout route through all sorts of little roads and laneways wending among the residential areas - we go through a large police compound (camera down for this one), past lots of local markets, and in and out of what would be called urban villages. We are about to cross a main road when the sirens start - a motorcade is going by. The African Union summit ended today and there are a lot of VIP people going here and there with their motorcades. You can tell how important the personnages are by the number of vehicles, and whether or not they have motorcyles and the ultimate - an ambulance.
Eventually we pop out onto the Entebbe road well past the main jams leaving Kampala and it’s pretty much clear sailing the rest of the way. Just as well as it took us well over an hour to get out of town. But it was scenic! We have to pull over for a number of additional motorcades heading towards Entebbe, but lucky for us it turns out none of them are actually going to the airport so there is no issue with increased security etc when we get there. But I have never seen as many police as there are standing or walking along the Entebbe road, and piled into the back of pick-up trucks heading to or from their work places. I swear there were 20 people in the back of some of those trucks.
The airport is a breeze, my suitcase is too heavy (bloody books and papers) but the woman just puts on a small bag from Julius and says “it’s OK for two”. I like that attitude! Our plane leaves on time and, because we got the jet instead of the prop plane, the flight takes half an hour rather than an hour. Bonus. One of the first things we see on arrival is a big sign: no disposable plastic bags allowed. Rwanda is a clean and litter-free country. The driver is waiting for us, and another of Julius’ brothers is waiting for him, so off we all go. I sit in the back seat with the intention of sleeping, but I had forgotten about the state of the road from Kigali to Ruhengeri. Up and down, back and forth, and lots of potholes. About 3/4 of the way back I realized I felt a bit odd, and then it occurred to be that I was getting just a bit carsick. Note to self: do not let Sarah sit in the backseat when we do this part of the road. Sorry Elizabeth, but we can’t have her barfing in the pillows again. And shortly before midnight we were deposited in the MGVP courtyard (once we woke the guard up to open the gate that is), and I collapsed into the bed assigned to me!
This is going to be a busy day - read a few more gorilla slides, pack for Rwanda, give a seminar, check out the vehicle I’m meant to be renting, and get to Entebbe to fly to Rwanda. Phew. And mostly it works out. I spend a while getting frustrated over the fact that there appear to be many more tissues per slide than I think we trimmed, which means they may have labelled them incorrectly in the lab which means I may be mixing up tissues among cases. But Denis has the trim sheets and he in the field and I don’t know where the sheets are, so we will have to wait and see. I turn up at quarter to 10 for my seminar but apparently all the rooms are in use - I can’t quite figure out if we got bumped or the arrangement was a bit loose to start with. I suggest another day, but apparently “the people have been mobilized”, meaning they are expecting a seminar, so I’m told I will be contacted in an hour. So I have another hour to look at autolyzed gorilla guts and hope I know whose they are, before being informed that “we are ready”. The audience is set up in a small ground floor seminar room and are all set to go, so seminar time it is. I present work by two graduate students - one on chameleon reproduction and one on a parasitic disease in cockatiels. The talks go over well, stimulate quite a few questions, and I am very politely, formally, and profusely thanked.
And then it’s off to PREDICT to meet the crew and check out the vehicle which is being brought for inspection. Taxi Peter is turning out to be a godsend. I texted him this morning to come at 1:15 to pick me up, right away he called back to confirm, and there he was waiting in front of the Vet School just as planned. He congratulated me on being on time - I think we were both pleasantly surprised to see the other at the appointed time. So off we go with my suitcase, which somehow seems awfully heavy considering the amount of stuff I left behind.
And another pleasant surprise - Douglas from the car rental company turns up on time with a very decent looking Isuzu full size 4x4. The tires have good tread, everything seems to work on it, and there is no problem getting a high lift jack, fire extinguisher, breakdown triangles, and jumper cables. He prefaces a question with “I don’t mean to be forward” and then asks if by any chance I am at all mechanical. When I tell him “yes, I am mechanical” he says “now that is two women I have met” and says they will throw in a small tool kit. Not sure just what I might be fixing but can’t hurt. And the best part is they have a guarantee that if anything goes wrong they will send someone to sort you out, get you another vehicle, etc etc. Looks like I got a steer to a good company - in fact they are quite large and do short and longer term rental for many NGO’s and their people. Benard and Mike approve, we shake hands, and the deal is on. Some paperwork and money to sort out still, but the agreement is concluded in principle. Phew!
And so on to lunch - with Benard, Mike, and JBN from WARM. We eat at Crocodile, which I went to previously and appears to be Benard’s favourites. The pork chops with mushroom sauce are apparently the hot item, so we all have them. Dining is a leisurely experience here- the ordering proceeds fairly efficiently, but the serving takes quite a while (standard jokes about whether they have to buy the animals at market first), and then the paying almost even longer. It’s almost 5:00 when we finish, and get back to PREDICT just in time to pack up our stuff and get picked up by Julius, whose long-suffering brother is going to drive us all to the airport in Entebbe for our 9:30 flight to Rwanda.
5:00 on a Friday (probably on any day) is not the best time to be leaving Kampala. We sit in jams for about 30 minutes just getting a few km to the eastern edge of town. But it’s interesting people watching - what really looks like a drug deal is going down with a white guy in a tee-shirt buying something in a package that he sticks in his pocket from a black guy with shades and a motorcycle. Julius carries on a very long series of negotiations on the price of a watch - we are surrounded by vendors trying to sell us poster-sized maps of Uganda, boxes of kleenex, sunglasses and watches, fruit, mosquito nets, air time (both Julius and I top up) and miscellaneous small and useless decorative items and plastic toys. There is a big truck full of ankoli cattle in front of us, and a lot of cars! Eventually we get to the eastern edge of town and Paul (the driver) takes us on an incredibly roundabout route through all sorts of little roads and laneways wending among the residential areas - we go through a large police compound (camera down for this one), past lots of local markets, and in and out of what would be called urban villages. We are about to cross a main road when the sirens start - a motorcade is going by. The African Union summit ended today and there are a lot of VIP people going here and there with their motorcades. You can tell how important the personnages are by the number of vehicles, and whether or not they have motorcyles and the ultimate - an ambulance.
Eventually we pop out onto the Entebbe road well past the main jams leaving Kampala and it’s pretty much clear sailing the rest of the way. Just as well as it took us well over an hour to get out of town. But it was scenic! We have to pull over for a number of additional motorcades heading towards Entebbe, but lucky for us it turns out none of them are actually going to the airport so there is no issue with increased security etc when we get there. But I have never seen as many police as there are standing or walking along the Entebbe road, and piled into the back of pick-up trucks heading to or from their work places. I swear there were 20 people in the back of some of those trucks.
The airport is a breeze, my suitcase is too heavy (bloody books and papers) but the woman just puts on a small bag from Julius and says “it’s OK for two”. I like that attitude! Our plane leaves on time and, because we got the jet instead of the prop plane, the flight takes half an hour rather than an hour. Bonus. One of the first things we see on arrival is a big sign: no disposable plastic bags allowed. Rwanda is a clean and litter-free country. The driver is waiting for us, and another of Julius’ brothers is waiting for him, so off we all go. I sit in the back seat with the intention of sleeping, but I had forgotten about the state of the road from Kigali to Ruhengeri. Up and down, back and forth, and lots of potholes. About 3/4 of the way back I realized I felt a bit odd, and then it occurred to be that I was getting just a bit carsick. Note to self: do not let Sarah sit in the backseat when we do this part of the road. Sorry Elizabeth, but we can’t have her barfing in the pillows again. And shortly before midnight we were deposited in the MGVP courtyard (once we woke the guard up to open the gate that is), and I collapsed into the bed assigned to me!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thursday July 22, 2010 - Slides, more slides, and Indian dinner
Thursday July 22, 2010 - Slides, more slides, and Indian dinner
Today was booked for a histo path monster session. And it was, sort of. First order of the day - pick up the slides. When the technicians were there. Not first thing. But we managed to meet, and there, spread out over a large counter, were my 175 glass slides. And no slides boxes is sight. Plan A was for me to wrap them individually in paper to transport them to the WARM building to then look at. Not a great plan. Charles the technician and I eventually came to the agreement that slide boxes would be better, that they are available in Uganda, and that there no extra ones in the department for sale. However, we did discover a stash belonging to a faculty member who wouldn’t sell me any but would temporarily lend me two. Done deal. Charles hadn’t finished scraping excess glue off the slides so he gave me one case worth and told me to come back for the rest. At home, multiple tissues are placed in a plastic cassette, and all those tissues appear together on the same glass slide. Here, each individual tissue is hand mounted on a wax block and gets it’s own slide. Hence well under 100 cassettes turns into 175 slides. So I headed back to WARM, alas Joallia (Denis’ office mate, he is in the field) was not in, and did not come in til 11:30, so no access to microscope and no starting the histopath. They don’t have extra keys to the offices, and something like a microscope can’t just be left out, so I hung around in a strategic location to pounce when the office was opened.
By the time I finished case it was time for a break - lunch out in the canteen. Sweet potato and peas do not make a good combination, must remember that. The sweet potato is different from ours - white and firm, not all yellow and mushy. My yellow and green lunch plan was instead white and brown - different peas. Anyway, picked up the rest of the slides and set back to work on case 2, which took until about 5:00. And then the fun began. The case and block number are etched onto the slides with a diamond pencil - and its up to me to sort them out - so I dutifully labelled block 1a, block 1 b, block 2a, etc. It was about then that I noticed that the 175 slides were not completely filed according to case - that after I got through what I thought were the first two cases, and had congratulated myself on being half way done, I realized that the remainder of the slides were a random assortment of the next two cases, and another 4 + 18 from the cases I thought I had already finished. Rats!!! So as I dutifully tried to number to new ones and tuck them into the correct places it occurred to me that there was no way I put 12 tissue sections into one cassette, yet there they were, 12 slides of 1 tissue each all labelled as if they had come from th same cassette. For non-pathologists this may not mean a lot, but basically the lab likely made a mistake and labelled tissues from different cases as if they were from the same one. Or we labelled the cassettes wrong. Fortunately Denis and I kept a detailed list of what we trimmed. Unfortunately, Denis was in the field, not getting his texts, and the list was no where in sight. Time for a stiff drink at this point!
Ella from RESPOND had planned a dinner for tonight, which was just what was needed. After a few final curses for the slides I hopped a boda (past main traffic time and not in the mood for the walk, the taxi, and then another walk) I arrived just in time at a very very nice Indian restaurant just down from the office - the drinks orders were just being taken and that was exactly the order of the moment. There was the main crew from RESPOND, Dominic - an old friend who just arrived in town and is working for them as well, Mike, and Julius (the Rwanda PREDICT guy). Dinner was excellent, we all ate way too much, and we even ordered wine for the table. It came in red or white, with a general type listed (merlot, cabernet, etc) but not much other detail. It’s so nice to be able to have a fancy dining room open on the sides to the surrounding gardens - the benefits of consistent warm weather. Julius’ brother came to pick him up at about 10 and I headed off as well - never turning down a lift is a good motto! Turns out drinking red wine in Uganda is not a good plan - I woke up in the middle of the night with the most splitting headache - I’m sticking with beer from now on!
Today was booked for a histo path monster session. And it was, sort of. First order of the day - pick up the slides. When the technicians were there. Not first thing. But we managed to meet, and there, spread out over a large counter, were my 175 glass slides. And no slides boxes is sight. Plan A was for me to wrap them individually in paper to transport them to the WARM building to then look at. Not a great plan. Charles the technician and I eventually came to the agreement that slide boxes would be better, that they are available in Uganda, and that there no extra ones in the department for sale. However, we did discover a stash belonging to a faculty member who wouldn’t sell me any but would temporarily lend me two. Done deal. Charles hadn’t finished scraping excess glue off the slides so he gave me one case worth and told me to come back for the rest. At home, multiple tissues are placed in a plastic cassette, and all those tissues appear together on the same glass slide. Here, each individual tissue is hand mounted on a wax block and gets it’s own slide. Hence well under 100 cassettes turns into 175 slides. So I headed back to WARM, alas Joallia (Denis’ office mate, he is in the field) was not in, and did not come in til 11:30, so no access to microscope and no starting the histopath. They don’t have extra keys to the offices, and something like a microscope can’t just be left out, so I hung around in a strategic location to pounce when the office was opened.
By the time I finished case it was time for a break - lunch out in the canteen. Sweet potato and peas do not make a good combination, must remember that. The sweet potato is different from ours - white and firm, not all yellow and mushy. My yellow and green lunch plan was instead white and brown - different peas. Anyway, picked up the rest of the slides and set back to work on case 2, which took until about 5:00. And then the fun began. The case and block number are etched onto the slides with a diamond pencil - and its up to me to sort them out - so I dutifully labelled block 1a, block 1 b, block 2a, etc. It was about then that I noticed that the 175 slides were not completely filed according to case - that after I got through what I thought were the first two cases, and had congratulated myself on being half way done, I realized that the remainder of the slides were a random assortment of the next two cases, and another 4 + 18 from the cases I thought I had already finished. Rats!!! So as I dutifully tried to number to new ones and tuck them into the correct places it occurred to me that there was no way I put 12 tissue sections into one cassette, yet there they were, 12 slides of 1 tissue each all labelled as if they had come from th same cassette. For non-pathologists this may not mean a lot, but basically the lab likely made a mistake and labelled tissues from different cases as if they were from the same one. Or we labelled the cassettes wrong. Fortunately Denis and I kept a detailed list of what we trimmed. Unfortunately, Denis was in the field, not getting his texts, and the list was no where in sight. Time for a stiff drink at this point!
Ella from RESPOND had planned a dinner for tonight, which was just what was needed. After a few final curses for the slides I hopped a boda (past main traffic time and not in the mood for the walk, the taxi, and then another walk) I arrived just in time at a very very nice Indian restaurant just down from the office - the drinks orders were just being taken and that was exactly the order of the moment. There was the main crew from RESPOND, Dominic - an old friend who just arrived in town and is working for them as well, Mike, and Julius (the Rwanda PREDICT guy). Dinner was excellent, we all ate way too much, and we even ordered wine for the table. It came in red or white, with a general type listed (merlot, cabernet, etc) but not much other detail. It’s so nice to be able to have a fancy dining room open on the sides to the surrounding gardens - the benefits of consistent warm weather. Julius’ brother came to pick him up at about 10 and I headed off as well - never turning down a lift is a good motto! Turns out drinking red wine in Uganda is not a good plan - I woke up in the middle of the night with the most splitting headache - I’m sticking with beer from now on!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday July 20 & 21, 2010 - Training, training, and Chinese
Tuesday and Wednesday July 20 & 21, 2010 - Training, training, and Chinese
The training all went well. It was held at a small hotel just down the road from the vet faculty, in a small meeting room with a view across a courtyard to a huge colourful banner of East African animals, with rather a novel perspective and sizing scheme, hiding the fact they at some point they started to put on an extra story. We had about 25 people from various areas - university, wildlife centre, research, and several wildlife NGO’s. The only obviously missing group was the Uganda Wildlife Authority, conspicuous by their absence. The talks went well, the projector worked, people laughed at (at least some of) my jokes. And the lunches were filling. It was an excellent networking activity. But I think the highpoint was a video I got off the internet on how to wash your hands properly. I felt a bit goofy showing it, but it was part of the “official training” topics, and surprisingly people thought it was very useful. I thought it was rather ironic that after all this talk about when and how to handwash and the difficulties in managing personal protective equipment (PPE) in the field, we were having a conference at a hotel with no water in the bathrooms for much of the time. Not easy to manage out of the field either! My personal highpoint was choosing a volunteer (perhaps that’s an oxymoron) from the audience to demonstrate putting on the PPE- white tyvek suit with footies and hoodie, booties, apron, goggles, N95 respirator mask, and two pairs of gloves. Quite a sight!
After sessions both days we went back to the PREDICT office for a few hours of planning and other catchup, and then on Wednesday we hit the Chinese restaurant right next door with a group of people. We all picked a dish and shared - when I gave in my first choice I was told it was too spicy and just for Chinese people. I think the hit of the evening was the Flaming Fish - an entire fish doused in something alcoholic (I suppose) and set on fire. Quite impressive.
The training all went well. It was held at a small hotel just down the road from the vet faculty, in a small meeting room with a view across a courtyard to a huge colourful banner of East African animals, with rather a novel perspective and sizing scheme, hiding the fact they at some point they started to put on an extra story. We had about 25 people from various areas - university, wildlife centre, research, and several wildlife NGO’s. The only obviously missing group was the Uganda Wildlife Authority, conspicuous by their absence. The talks went well, the projector worked, people laughed at (at least some of) my jokes. And the lunches were filling. It was an excellent networking activity. But I think the highpoint was a video I got off the internet on how to wash your hands properly. I felt a bit goofy showing it, but it was part of the “official training” topics, and surprisingly people thought it was very useful. I thought it was rather ironic that after all this talk about when and how to handwash and the difficulties in managing personal protective equipment (PPE) in the field, we were having a conference at a hotel with no water in the bathrooms for much of the time. Not easy to manage out of the field either! My personal highpoint was choosing a volunteer (perhaps that’s an oxymoron) from the audience to demonstrate putting on the PPE- white tyvek suit with footies and hoodie, booties, apron, goggles, N95 respirator mask, and two pairs of gloves. Quite a sight!
After sessions both days we went back to the PREDICT office for a few hours of planning and other catchup, and then on Wednesday we hit the Chinese restaurant right next door with a group of people. We all picked a dish and shared - when I gave in my first choice I was told it was too spicy and just for Chinese people. I think the hit of the evening was the Flaming Fish - an entire fish doused in something alcoholic (I suppose) and set on fire. Quite impressive.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monday July 19, 2010 - On bats and xrated photos
Monday July 19, 2010
A day of meetings and final preparations for tomorrow’s training. Mike Cranfield, Benard, and John Bosco and I started it off meeting the Dean, I had a session with a tour guide who gave me some suggestions on routes and activities, and then I taxi’d and boda’d into town to catch up with them, Julius the PREDICT coordinator for Rwanda, and Fred, the Mountain gorilla vet for Uganda. We ate at a nice outdoor restaurant- tables under umbrellas with a flock of tame guinea fowl wandering about as an added touch. The entrance guard was searching bags and purses on the way in, which is a new thing. Just inside the parking there are a number of absolutely gorgeous huge orchids - someone must have a special interest. Half-way through lunch Fred got a call that there is a dead gorilla in Bwindi forest, apparently a result of a scuffle involving a pair of males and an interaction with a wild (not habituated) group. So off he went on a 10 hour plus journey back to western Uganda to coordinate the post-mortem, which I guess will happen tomorrow. The rest of us headed back to our respective offices to finish the agenda for tomorrow and fuss with organizing other things.
On bats
I came back to the University tonight at exactly the right time to see the fruit bats. I’ve heard them chirping and chittering up in the trees before, but tonight the dusk was just perfect to actually see them swooping about the tree tops. Kampala region was picked as one of the PREDICT sampling sites because of the number of bat colonies here, and their proximity to large populations, and the bad reputation bats have as carriers of nasty diseases.
Don’t read further if you are squeamish
The front page of the local english-language newspaper today had photographs of two men who they think may be the bombers. Rather odd looking reconstructed photos. Well, turns out that actually they just found the heads of these two guys, one at each bomb site. And no one has come to claim them or report them missing (the people, not just the heads). So - the thought is that they were suicide bombers who blew themselves up and somehow popped their heads off in the process. No wonder they look a bit strange in the photos! Photoshop to the rescue.
A day of meetings and final preparations for tomorrow’s training. Mike Cranfield, Benard, and John Bosco and I started it off meeting the Dean, I had a session with a tour guide who gave me some suggestions on routes and activities, and then I taxi’d and boda’d into town to catch up with them, Julius the PREDICT coordinator for Rwanda, and Fred, the Mountain gorilla vet for Uganda. We ate at a nice outdoor restaurant- tables under umbrellas with a flock of tame guinea fowl wandering about as an added touch. The entrance guard was searching bags and purses on the way in, which is a new thing. Just inside the parking there are a number of absolutely gorgeous huge orchids - someone must have a special interest. Half-way through lunch Fred got a call that there is a dead gorilla in Bwindi forest, apparently a result of a scuffle involving a pair of males and an interaction with a wild (not habituated) group. So off he went on a 10 hour plus journey back to western Uganda to coordinate the post-mortem, which I guess will happen tomorrow. The rest of us headed back to our respective offices to finish the agenda for tomorrow and fuss with organizing other things.
On bats
I came back to the University tonight at exactly the right time to see the fruit bats. I’ve heard them chirping and chittering up in the trees before, but tonight the dusk was just perfect to actually see them swooping about the tree tops. Kampala region was picked as one of the PREDICT sampling sites because of the number of bat colonies here, and their proximity to large populations, and the bad reputation bats have as carriers of nasty diseases.
Don’t read further if you are squeamish
The front page of the local english-language newspaper today had photographs of two men who they think may be the bombers. Rather odd looking reconstructed photos. Well, turns out that actually they just found the heads of these two guys, one at each bomb site. And no one has come to claim them or report them missing (the people, not just the heads). So - the thought is that they were suicide bombers who blew themselves up and somehow popped their heads off in the process. No wonder they look a bit strange in the photos! Photoshop to the rescue.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday July 18, 2010 - Sorry, too busy to blog this week..
Sunday July 18, 2010 - Sorry, too busy to blog this week..
Well I guess getting complaints about being out date on the blog means people are reading it so that’s a good thing. I may have “blogged myself out” last week! First off, I’m fine and my small life in Uganda has not changed much. Apart from what I see on the television and the news, which is simply rehashing old stuff at the moment, the only difference is that on Thursday I saw 2 army guys in uniform (normally the army is really invisible) and Friday I saw 3. I am well tied in with the Americans at the USAID RESPOND office, and my phone number has been put on their “warning” system if anything big happens, I’m registered with the Canadian Government Travel Site, and that’s really about all there is to do at this point. I don’t tend to frequent the busy downtown markets and the vet school is out in a suburb and well out of the centre of things, so I’m well positioned not to be involved it anything were to happen again. And as it goes with these things, Sunday may well have been a one off and that will be the end of it. So - safety bulletin over, what have I been up to? I’m going to blog retrospectively, so I’ll get this one up and try and fill in the earlier part of the week as I get a chance. I’m also not sure how many pictures I can post on my current net access so that may have to wait a bit.
Today - we had the first rain of my visit. We had thunderstorms and it poured and poured for about an hour. When I was here in the fall we had rain almost every day, so it is definitely a drier time of year. But when the rain stops the sun comes out and everything is almost perfectly dry in a very short period of time.
On sleeping in
I had a sleep in this morning, which takes a bit of effort. The world starts early here - well before the sun comes up the birds start singing. At least some of them sing. There are things called plantain eaters that are a kind of go-away bird and they make the loudest most obnoxious hysterically insane chimpanzee screeching noise that you can imagine. Apparently, when one of the original Tarzan movies was filmed at the Entebbe Botanic gardens they sound of the plantain eaters was the chimpanzee background noise. There are also the hadeda ibises, who true to their name say “HADEDA” in really really loud voices very very early. And then some dogs and pigs and cattle and sheep and boda bodas and people and all in all one has to work at staying it bed, let alone sleeping in. But I managed it today.
On bird watching and cows on roads
After a number of hours of reviewing protocols and powerpoints I gave it a rest and went out for a birdwatching stroll around campus. Picture me standing under a tree, staring up at the sky, binoculars around the neck and big book open in my hands. Yup, I draw attention. There is never anywhere without people walking around, so they either look at me quite oddly, or stop to see what I’m looking at. It seems to make sense that I might be looking at birdies, and everyone agrees that there are a lot of them. I haven’t cracked up a lot of species, I haven’t really been trying that hard, but it’s fun anyway.
The vet school is at the far north end of campus, and is surrounded by some fields - hence the cattle, although they actually spend more time wandering around the roadways and the lawns that they do in the fields. In fact, yesterday when I walked into town there was a bullock walking ahead of me down the university lane towards the gates out to the main street. He was proceeding with great purpose and no one was stopping him or seemed the least bit disconcerted. I wondered if I should head him off and do something dramatic in the middle of the road waving my arms and such, but in the end I decided against it. Perhaps this is his regular route. Anyway, I bird watched my way around the scrub land behind the ruins of what was to be the Small Animal Clinic (I was told the Entebbe raid put paid to the Israeli aid money that was building it and work has never been resumed). There are half hearted plots of mealies and other crops out here, presumably everyone knows what belongs to who. It doesn’t have that tidy market garden appearance, rather more like a straggle of randomly placed and rather scruffy plants.
But nice to have some green space as outside the University grounds things are totally built up.
Uganda is hilly, and the university is built lengthways along Makarere Hill. We are about halfway up on the east side, so I headed up towards the top to look for a view. There is a big roadworks project on, which is great. The roads on campus are pretty atrocious - potholes, gulleys, ridges, and the odd killer speed hump. There are little stretches of remaining tarmac in some areas, evidence of a once smoother ride. And the sidewalks are either major hazards or non-existent. The drainage ditches have big concrete covers lining their lengths, at least most of the way. There are pit traps every now and then, actually more often than that, so it’s a bit of a challenge walking at night (not much in the way of regular street lamps). Anyway, the grader and roller were out there in full force, along with some guys with pickaxes who seemed to be just digging everything up, so there is major progress at work. There is a little camp down the way where there are big piles of gravel and barrels of pitch bubbling over wood fires, so maybe there is a plan for some paving, or a least patching. Would be welcome.
Anyway, I wended my way up the small roads to the top of the hill, and over it, where I found the Food Technology building looking to the west over Kampala. What a magnificent site - right up high with an amazing view and a wonderful breeze. Pretty spiff new building as well. The university is a tremendous mix of “seen much better days” and “wow nice new building”. I think the former predominates, money for maintenance is hard to come by here even more than at home. So many buildings, both residential and official, have broken glass in the windows with ragged curtains streaming out, and a generally really run down look to them. The area I walked up through today is made up of nice sized plots with rather attractive houses on them. I suppose at one point this was faculty housing. Most of them have converted into aid organization offices, but some still appear to be residential although its likely they have been subdivided into smaller units. Sort of a faded dream of days gone past.
Betty’s Family
Betty has had various family over visiting, two of her brothers, one with a wife and young baby has stayed for a few days. The concept of brother and sister is a bit more ambiguous here than at home - many men are polygamous, so the “half-siblings” are considered full brother or sister, and if cousins were brought up together they are also. So when you ask someone how many brothers or sisters they have its not such a simple question, sometimes requiring a fair bit of calculation and the resulting answer might be preceded by “I’m not really sure but... “ . I need to take some cooking lessons from Betty - it might actually be useful to know to make posho or Gnut (peanut to us) sauce. And I have a feeling these recipes don’t turn out so well unless someone shows you how to actually do it. I’ve been dodging cooking anything particularly meaningful, although I have broken down and made spagetti and rice with stuff. I made myself the most delicious grilled cheese and tomato sandwich the other day - I offered to make one for Betty as well but she declined with rather a look of horror on her face. Not in the repertoire I guess.
Well I guess getting complaints about being out date on the blog means people are reading it so that’s a good thing. I may have “blogged myself out” last week! First off, I’m fine and my small life in Uganda has not changed much. Apart from what I see on the television and the news, which is simply rehashing old stuff at the moment, the only difference is that on Thursday I saw 2 army guys in uniform (normally the army is really invisible) and Friday I saw 3. I am well tied in with the Americans at the USAID RESPOND office, and my phone number has been put on their “warning” system if anything big happens, I’m registered with the Canadian Government Travel Site, and that’s really about all there is to do at this point. I don’t tend to frequent the busy downtown markets and the vet school is out in a suburb and well out of the centre of things, so I’m well positioned not to be involved it anything were to happen again. And as it goes with these things, Sunday may well have been a one off and that will be the end of it. So - safety bulletin over, what have I been up to? I’m going to blog retrospectively, so I’ll get this one up and try and fill in the earlier part of the week as I get a chance. I’m also not sure how many pictures I can post on my current net access so that may have to wait a bit.
Today - we had the first rain of my visit. We had thunderstorms and it poured and poured for about an hour. When I was here in the fall we had rain almost every day, so it is definitely a drier time of year. But when the rain stops the sun comes out and everything is almost perfectly dry in a very short period of time.
On sleeping in
I had a sleep in this morning, which takes a bit of effort. The world starts early here - well before the sun comes up the birds start singing. At least some of them sing. There are things called plantain eaters that are a kind of go-away bird and they make the loudest most obnoxious hysterically insane chimpanzee screeching noise that you can imagine. Apparently, when one of the original Tarzan movies was filmed at the Entebbe Botanic gardens they sound of the plantain eaters was the chimpanzee background noise. There are also the hadeda ibises, who true to their name say “HADEDA” in really really loud voices very very early. And then some dogs and pigs and cattle and sheep and boda bodas and people and all in all one has to work at staying it bed, let alone sleeping in. But I managed it today.
On bird watching and cows on roads
After a number of hours of reviewing protocols and powerpoints I gave it a rest and went out for a birdwatching stroll around campus. Picture me standing under a tree, staring up at the sky, binoculars around the neck and big book open in my hands. Yup, I draw attention. There is never anywhere without people walking around, so they either look at me quite oddly, or stop to see what I’m looking at. It seems to make sense that I might be looking at birdies, and everyone agrees that there are a lot of them. I haven’t cracked up a lot of species, I haven’t really been trying that hard, but it’s fun anyway.
The vet school is at the far north end of campus, and is surrounded by some fields - hence the cattle, although they actually spend more time wandering around the roadways and the lawns that they do in the fields. In fact, yesterday when I walked into town there was a bullock walking ahead of me down the university lane towards the gates out to the main street. He was proceeding with great purpose and no one was stopping him or seemed the least bit disconcerted. I wondered if I should head him off and do something dramatic in the middle of the road waving my arms and such, but in the end I decided against it. Perhaps this is his regular route. Anyway, I bird watched my way around the scrub land behind the ruins of what was to be the Small Animal Clinic (I was told the Entebbe raid put paid to the Israeli aid money that was building it and work has never been resumed). There are half hearted plots of mealies and other crops out here, presumably everyone knows what belongs to who. It doesn’t have that tidy market garden appearance, rather more like a straggle of randomly placed and rather scruffy plants.
But nice to have some green space as outside the University grounds things are totally built up.
Uganda is hilly, and the university is built lengthways along Makarere Hill. We are about halfway up on the east side, so I headed up towards the top to look for a view. There is a big roadworks project on, which is great. The roads on campus are pretty atrocious - potholes, gulleys, ridges, and the odd killer speed hump. There are little stretches of remaining tarmac in some areas, evidence of a once smoother ride. And the sidewalks are either major hazards or non-existent. The drainage ditches have big concrete covers lining their lengths, at least most of the way. There are pit traps every now and then, actually more often than that, so it’s a bit of a challenge walking at night (not much in the way of regular street lamps). Anyway, the grader and roller were out there in full force, along with some guys with pickaxes who seemed to be just digging everything up, so there is major progress at work. There is a little camp down the way where there are big piles of gravel and barrels of pitch bubbling over wood fires, so maybe there is a plan for some paving, or a least patching. Would be welcome.
Anyway, I wended my way up the small roads to the top of the hill, and over it, where I found the Food Technology building looking to the west over Kampala. What a magnificent site - right up high with an amazing view and a wonderful breeze. Pretty spiff new building as well. The university is a tremendous mix of “seen much better days” and “wow nice new building”. I think the former predominates, money for maintenance is hard to come by here even more than at home. So many buildings, both residential and official, have broken glass in the windows with ragged curtains streaming out, and a generally really run down look to them. The area I walked up through today is made up of nice sized plots with rather attractive houses on them. I suppose at one point this was faculty housing. Most of them have converted into aid organization offices, but some still appear to be residential although its likely they have been subdivided into smaller units. Sort of a faded dream of days gone past.
Betty’s Family
Betty has had various family over visiting, two of her brothers, one with a wife and young baby has stayed for a few days. The concept of brother and sister is a bit more ambiguous here than at home - many men are polygamous, so the “half-siblings” are considered full brother or sister, and if cousins were brought up together they are also. So when you ask someone how many brothers or sisters they have its not such a simple question, sometimes requiring a fair bit of calculation and the resulting answer might be preceded by “I’m not really sure but... “ . I need to take some cooking lessons from Betty - it might actually be useful to know to make posho or Gnut (peanut to us) sauce. And I have a feeling these recipes don’t turn out so well unless someone shows you how to actually do it. I’ve been dodging cooking anything particularly meaningful, although I have broken down and made spagetti and rice with stuff. I made myself the most delicious grilled cheese and tomato sandwich the other day - I offered to make one for Betty as well but she declined with rather a look of horror on her face. Not in the repertoire I guess.
Saturday July 17, 2010 - A grand tour around town -
A grand circle tour town - Saturday July 17, 2010
On how to find out information you need without the telephone
Today I was a woman on a mission. I needed some info from the Uganda Wildlife Authority on parks pricing and what has to be booked in advance, and what paid for at the gate. I wanted information on an amazing dance troupe that I saw at the Vet conference in the fall, and I wanted to check out one of the backpacker lodges on the other side of town. You have probably figured out by now that telephoning is not the way to do this. First off, the phones are rarely answered, if one has the right number. If they are it uses up all my phone credit to talk to someone, and I can’t understand half of what is going on anyway. And no one seems keen to call you back and use their air time. So - loaded with my street maps of Kampala off I went on a travel adventure. The first part was familiar territory - the 15 minute walk into Wandegeya. I know all the short cuts now, I’m a regular along that route. The Wildlife office is on my way to AKASHA avenue so I have that down pat. So, about 25 minutes of transportation for a 5 minute chat with the woman at the office who really wasn’t too interested in chatting with me, handed me a brochure with the rates on it (they are all out of the interesting ones about the parks - glad I grabbed a pile in November when they had more), and headed upstairs to the Adrift office - the rafting guys. And there were Carlos and Patrick, the two I dealt with in December. And in fact they even remembered me - I had booked and then cancelled as I was so ill with food poisoning and Carlos had phoned to make sure I was doing all right. They were much more helpful than the office downstairs, but then they do have to compete for tourists to make their money!
Next stop - the Ndere Troupe Centre - somewhere up the Ntinda Road. The conductor on the taxi seemed to know exactly where I wanted to get off, which was a treat. Eventually he managed to get through to me that he didn’t have to drop me at crossroads because I had with incredible cleverness randomly grabbed a taxi that was turning at the crossroads and could actually drop me off at the gate instead of a few km down the road. What a bonus! The Centre was very nice- lovely red stone building with lawns where lunches and dinners are served to go along with the dance shows, storytelling sessions, and impromptu music nights. There was a gaggle of school kids there eating snacks before getting a show - tea, samoosas, and biscuits. Several of them sat at the table where I was drinking a Stoney (ginger beer) and contemplating my maps for the next leg of the adventure. They all watched me out of the corners of their eyes until I said hello, and then I received a whole chorus of “hello, how are you, how is your day, where are you from?”
And then off in search of the next taxi. I was standing looking undecided by the front door so the manager asked what I needed, and then sent Manfred, the helpful young man who had been giving me information earlier, with me to walk down to the road, make sure I got on the right taxi, and make sure I didn’t get ripped off too badly. Very kind.
Remind me never to travel the old Ntinda road again. I recognized the route as one I said I would never go on (deja vu) after a rather misguided journey last fall. It seems to be traffic jam central. There are bus lanes, that is when there is room to squeeze between regular traffic and the steep drainage ditch. Plus the most amazing potholes. However, it is a chance to people watch and take pictures out of the very stationary windows. You know you are in for it when the driver turns off the engine and the conductor goes and adds a few litres of fuel, using a cutoff plastic soda bottle as a funnel. I’ll have to remember that one. However, eventually we arrived at the large and pretty grubby taxi park on the Jinja road, where I threw caution to the wind and grabbed a boda to get me the rest of the way. Since I hadn’t a clue exactly how to get to the backpackers, it seems a prudent plan. So off we zipped, me sitting sidesaddle and thinking about the fragility of my skull as we wove our way between the mostly stopped traffic, drainage ditches, up a few sidewalks, and finally to the door of the backpackers, for only about double what I figure I should have paid. But well worth it none the less.
And I have now hit the end of my rope for today - I have a meeting with the Dean at 8 AM and I’m off to bed but will post these now and hopefully catch up to myself later....
More about my round town travel - Red Chili backpackers is pretty standard - lounge area with dining, quite big grounds with small houses that used to be for factory workers a long time ago, tents and a number of variably scruffy tourists of all ages sitting about with guidebooks and paperback novels. I spent about an hour talking to the manager, he and his wife have been here from UK for several years so he had some good info about travelling. Although apparently they are busy enough that it’s hard to get time off to really see as much of the country themselves. I caught his interest as I was on the phone talking to Mike about the number of dead gorillas he had for me to look at, how’s that for a conversational opener?
After a very large chickpea and bean and some healthy grain salad I caught a taxi to the taxi park, transferred there to get back to Wandegeya, and then made a big plunge - I bought an orange 3-G stick. Predict will pay for the stick and then keep it when I leave, and I pay for my own download time. So - internet on demand, here I come. Twelve dollars for 1 GB, not sure how long it will last me, but we’ll see. Picked up chicken and chips and then finally walked home - hot, sweaty and totally bagged
On how to find out information you need without the telephone
Today I was a woman on a mission. I needed some info from the Uganda Wildlife Authority on parks pricing and what has to be booked in advance, and what paid for at the gate. I wanted information on an amazing dance troupe that I saw at the Vet conference in the fall, and I wanted to check out one of the backpacker lodges on the other side of town. You have probably figured out by now that telephoning is not the way to do this. First off, the phones are rarely answered, if one has the right number. If they are it uses up all my phone credit to talk to someone, and I can’t understand half of what is going on anyway. And no one seems keen to call you back and use their air time. So - loaded with my street maps of Kampala off I went on a travel adventure. The first part was familiar territory - the 15 minute walk into Wandegeya. I know all the short cuts now, I’m a regular along that route. The Wildlife office is on my way to AKASHA avenue so I have that down pat. So, about 25 minutes of transportation for a 5 minute chat with the woman at the office who really wasn’t too interested in chatting with me, handed me a brochure with the rates on it (they are all out of the interesting ones about the parks - glad I grabbed a pile in November when they had more), and headed upstairs to the Adrift office - the rafting guys. And there were Carlos and Patrick, the two I dealt with in December. And in fact they even remembered me - I had booked and then cancelled as I was so ill with food poisoning and Carlos had phoned to make sure I was doing all right. They were much more helpful than the office downstairs, but then they do have to compete for tourists to make their money!
Next stop - the Ndere Troupe Centre - somewhere up the Ntinda Road. The conductor on the taxi seemed to know exactly where I wanted to get off, which was a treat. Eventually he managed to get through to me that he didn’t have to drop me at crossroads because I had with incredible cleverness randomly grabbed a taxi that was turning at the crossroads and could actually drop me off at the gate instead of a few km down the road. What a bonus! The Centre was very nice- lovely red stone building with lawns where lunches and dinners are served to go along with the dance shows, storytelling sessions, and impromptu music nights. There was a gaggle of school kids there eating snacks before getting a show - tea, samoosas, and biscuits. Several of them sat at the table where I was drinking a Stoney (ginger beer) and contemplating my maps for the next leg of the adventure. They all watched me out of the corners of their eyes until I said hello, and then I received a whole chorus of “hello, how are you, how is your day, where are you from?”
And then off in search of the next taxi. I was standing looking undecided by the front door so the manager asked what I needed, and then sent Manfred, the helpful young man who had been giving me information earlier, with me to walk down to the road, make sure I got on the right taxi, and make sure I didn’t get ripped off too badly. Very kind.
Remind me never to travel the old Ntinda road again. I recognized the route as one I said I would never go on (deja vu) after a rather misguided journey last fall. It seems to be traffic jam central. There are bus lanes, that is when there is room to squeeze between regular traffic and the steep drainage ditch. Plus the most amazing potholes. However, it is a chance to people watch and take pictures out of the very stationary windows. You know you are in for it when the driver turns off the engine and the conductor goes and adds a few litres of fuel, using a cutoff plastic soda bottle as a funnel. I’ll have to remember that one. However, eventually we arrived at the large and pretty grubby taxi park on the Jinja road, where I threw caution to the wind and grabbed a boda to get me the rest of the way. Since I hadn’t a clue exactly how to get to the backpackers, it seems a prudent plan. So off we zipped, me sitting sidesaddle and thinking about the fragility of my skull as we wove our way between the mostly stopped traffic, drainage ditches, up a few sidewalks, and finally to the door of the backpackers, for only about double what I figure I should have paid. But well worth it none the less.
And I have now hit the end of my rope for today - I have a meeting with the Dean at 8 AM and I’m off to bed but will post these now and hopefully catch up to myself later....
More about my round town travel - Red Chili backpackers is pretty standard - lounge area with dining, quite big grounds with small houses that used to be for factory workers a long time ago, tents and a number of variably scruffy tourists of all ages sitting about with guidebooks and paperback novels. I spent about an hour talking to the manager, he and his wife have been here from UK for several years so he had some good info about travelling. Although apparently they are busy enough that it’s hard to get time off to really see as much of the country themselves. I caught his interest as I was on the phone talking to Mike about the number of dead gorillas he had for me to look at, how’s that for a conversational opener?
After a very large chickpea and bean and some healthy grain salad I caught a taxi to the taxi park, transferred there to get back to Wandegeya, and then made a big plunge - I bought an orange 3-G stick. Predict will pay for the stick and then keep it when I leave, and I pay for my own download time. So - internet on demand, here I come. Twelve dollars for 1 GB, not sure how long it will last me, but we’ll see. Picked up chicken and chips and then finally walked home - hot, sweaty and totally bagged
Thursday, July 15, 2010
July 13 + Odds and ends from the week
July 13 + Odds and ends from the week
Slumming it
I worked at PREDICT Tuesday and Lis, from the weekend, asked if she could come out and “see my place”. She is feeling like her view from the Sheraton isn’t quite the real Uganda, which I have more of a window on. So after work (which is about 6:30 or 7 here) we set off up the road together to get on the taxi. She actually taught english in two of the “stans” in Eastern Europe for a year, and spent some time travelling in Kenya so she’s been out of 5star hotels before. And she’s going to Congo to do community interviews so we’re not talking about a wimp. Anyway we caught the taxi, walked back in the dusk from Wandegeya along the back alleys (I’m getting good at the short-cuts) and she got the grand tour of the flat. We then marched up to the front gates and had Indian food at the lost and now-found place Lu showed me, and in fact ran into him there and had dinner with him. And then I called Taxi-Peter on my phone (the guy who drove me on the bombing night - now in my personal phone list) and shipped her off home to the Sheraton. A satisfactory tour all round!
I don’t have a sandal tan after all
I found something I have been looking for tonight - a foot scrubbing stone. Considering I’ve been here less than 2 weeks I have no idea how the backs of my heels have turned into scary sandpaper, but has happened. So a foot stone was in order. After a number of abortive attempts in pharmacies and groceries (where I really don’t everyone knew what I was asking for) I hit the jackpot. So once home I heated some water, soaked my feet, and scrubbed away. And discovered that the sandal tan I thought I had developed was just ground in red Ugandan earth. Amazing what a good wash will do!
Being a washerwoman - I’m not changing my day-job
I don’t have the skills to properly hand wash real clothing. Rinse out a few delicate sweaters, I can handle that. But when it comes to getting a bucket of dirty clothing clean I just don’t have the knack. I knead and swish and make bubbles and soak the bathroom, but the results are just substandard. Ring around the collar fades slightly, but the results are rather like one of those laundry ads where they show the product which doesn’t work very well. And my clothes wringing is definitely not up to par. When Betty does laundry you can bet there isn’t a pool of water under the laundry line (which is in the stairwell by the grand entrance). The sad part is I think my chances of improving are fairly minor. There is going to be a serious washing machine party when I get back.
Slumming it
I worked at PREDICT Tuesday and Lis, from the weekend, asked if she could come out and “see my place”. She is feeling like her view from the Sheraton isn’t quite the real Uganda, which I have more of a window on. So after work (which is about 6:30 or 7 here) we set off up the road together to get on the taxi. She actually taught english in two of the “stans” in Eastern Europe for a year, and spent some time travelling in Kenya so she’s been out of 5star hotels before. And she’s going to Congo to do community interviews so we’re not talking about a wimp. Anyway we caught the taxi, walked back in the dusk from Wandegeya along the back alleys (I’m getting good at the short-cuts) and she got the grand tour of the flat. We then marched up to the front gates and had Indian food at the lost and now-found place Lu showed me, and in fact ran into him there and had dinner with him. And then I called Taxi-Peter on my phone (the guy who drove me on the bombing night - now in my personal phone list) and shipped her off home to the Sheraton. A satisfactory tour all round!
I don’t have a sandal tan after all
I found something I have been looking for tonight - a foot scrubbing stone. Considering I’ve been here less than 2 weeks I have no idea how the backs of my heels have turned into scary sandpaper, but has happened. So a foot stone was in order. After a number of abortive attempts in pharmacies and groceries (where I really don’t everyone knew what I was asking for) I hit the jackpot. So once home I heated some water, soaked my feet, and scrubbed away. And discovered that the sandal tan I thought I had developed was just ground in red Ugandan earth. Amazing what a good wash will do!
Being a washerwoman - I’m not changing my day-job
I don’t have the skills to properly hand wash real clothing. Rinse out a few delicate sweaters, I can handle that. But when it comes to getting a bucket of dirty clothing clean I just don’t have the knack. I knead and swish and make bubbles and soak the bathroom, but the results are just substandard. Ring around the collar fades slightly, but the results are rather like one of those laundry ads where they show the product which doesn’t work very well. And my clothes wringing is definitely not up to par. When Betty does laundry you can bet there isn’t a pool of water under the laundry line (which is in the stairwell by the grand entrance). The sad part is I think my chances of improving are fairly minor. There is going to be a serious washing machine party when I get back.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday July 12, 2010 - Explosions, Gorilla Bits and Internet (not)
The bombing was the topic of conversation this morning -there was a lot of tsk tsking by a people here, a series of very gory photos of dead people in white plastic lawn chairs on the front cover of the only Ugandan newspaper I have seen, and a phone call from Rwanda to make sure the MGVP group here is all OK. If I hadn’t been out with the Americans last night I wouldn’t have even known to ask about it until I got the phone call. But at Makerere at least, it seems to be business as usual. In the evening Betty turned on the television and we watched some rather horrifying footage with Betty’s sister Sheila, a very committed and talkative pastor, who came by for a visit. I have had to be trained on turning on the tv as the on off button has nothing to do with the power switches and is very unobstrusively located. Not to mention the little sparks that come out of the outlet when you plug it that are rather worrying though rather pretty.
Gorilla Bits
This morning the gorilla necropsy samples arrived so Denis and I spent most of the day trimming them, just in time to be too late to put them in the processor overnight. But at least our part is done for a while. The post-mortem facilities are, how shall I say it, basic. It took Denis a while to gather together basic items such as latex gloves and scalpel blades, they re-use disposable tissu-tek cassettes, and we had to make little paper labels to go in each one. There is a fume cabinet to reduce formalin exposure, but I don’t think I’m going to be noticing any subtle scents for some time. After spending several days making up a powerpoint presentation on laboratory safety I can say that we have a ways to go here to come up with where USAID thinks projects should be working at.
The Intenet (not)
The internet and I are not doing well together. Just as I left on Friday I got a loaner 3G modem stick that should have given me wireless for the weekend, which I was rather looking forward to. Alas, it does not seem to work which may be why it was in a drawer as a spare. And there is apparently a broken cable in the middle of the ocean which isn’t bringing internet to Africa the way it is supposed to, so Makerere appears to be an internet-free zone at the moment. I think there is sporadic access but not when I tried, and it will take “several weeks” to be sorted out. That could likely mean almost anything
Gorilla Bits
This morning the gorilla necropsy samples arrived so Denis and I spent most of the day trimming them, just in time to be too late to put them in the processor overnight. But at least our part is done for a while. The post-mortem facilities are, how shall I say it, basic. It took Denis a while to gather together basic items such as latex gloves and scalpel blades, they re-use disposable tissu-tek cassettes, and we had to make little paper labels to go in each one. There is a fume cabinet to reduce formalin exposure, but I don’t think I’m going to be noticing any subtle scents for some time. After spending several days making up a powerpoint presentation on laboratory safety I can say that we have a ways to go here to come up with where USAID thinks projects should be working at.
The Intenet (not)
The internet and I are not doing well together. Just as I left on Friday I got a loaner 3G modem stick that should have given me wireless for the weekend, which I was rather looking forward to. Alas, it does not seem to work which may be why it was in a drawer as a spare. And there is apparently a broken cable in the middle of the ocean which isn’t bringing internet to Africa the way it is supposed to, so Makerere appears to be an internet-free zone at the moment. I think there is sporadic access but not when I tried, and it will take “several weeks” to be sorted out. That could likely mean almost anything
Sunday July 11, 2010 - Mpanga Forest and the World Cup Final
Mpanga Forest Trip
This morning I and a some folk from the Respond office went on a field trip out of Kampala. I walked into Wandegeya and caught a taxi downtown to meet up with everyone at the Sheraton, where Lis, who just came in from the US Friday night, was staying. Lendell and his wife Kate and 14 month old baby Naomi picked us up, and with me in the navigator’s seat (I am the map and brochure queen for those who don”t know)we headed out of town on the bypass ring road, and then west to find Mbamba forest. The bypass is only a few years old and saves an enormous amount of traffic getting out of town. During the weekend it isn’t too bad but the traffic during the week truly is hellish. Combine volume with a variety of drivers, including the aggressive, inexperienced, and incompetent, and boda boda motorcyles who make their own lanes and traffic rules, add a splash of pedestrians, and you get part of the picture. The bypass goes through what was papyrus swamp and rural areas until recently - it is not the most affluent area with small shacks and shantys, pits where bricks are being cut out of the clay, wandering cattle, and piles of garbage (more on that later). Plus the road is also used by bicycles carrying people and masses of gear. We successfully found our way round the ring and round the roundabouts on it to join the main Mbarara road heading west.. The first section is very urban and built up, with a solid row of shops and markets along either side. There are also homes, some quite impressive with ornate gates and fences, and some no more than shacks. With time the scenery becomes more rural, with more green space and fewer shops. There are several market stands with a variety of fruits and vegetables - tomatoes, banana, plantain, passion fruit, pineapples, huge spiky jackfruit to name a few. There are also racks with large woven baskets in one particular area, probably closer to the extensive swamps that appear to encircle the region.
We found the Mpanga Forest Reserve with no problem. Navigating in Africa is not always that easy, but in this case the location was exactly as described and the sign was intact. We pulled into a small clearing with welcome office, thatched picnic shelters, and masses of butterflies. The air was just alive with them - all sorts of shapes and colours - iridescent blue and green, several reds and oranges, white and black, and pure white. Tiny ones, large ones, several varieties of swallowtail. None of which agreed to sit in place in the sunshine for photographs. While we signed in and paid our admission several black and white casqued hornbills sat up in the top of a tree calling and making a heck of a ruckus before flying off into the forest.
We followed a main trail for about an hour to the edge of the swamp through lovely tall forest, apparently second growth but still impressive. There were huge fig and strangler fig trees extending way up into the canopy. The butterflies were there all the way, particularly in clearings or by the several small streams. We heard but did not see red-tailed monkeys, as well as a variety of birds. Part of the trail passed through “spider alley”, where large webs were suspended across the path by a single guyline and manned by good-sized red and black spiders. Lendell was sent first to identify and hold the guylines as it turned out none of the rest of us relished the thought of walking straight into a web. We also saw a variety of mantids, grasshoppers, and several convoys of some sort of army ant on the move. I was the only one in boots, the others were in Tevas, and both the women managed to get rather painful ant bites along the way. Naomi happily waved at the butterflies from her perch in a backpack and then napped on the return trip.
We pooled food items for a picnic before heading back to Kampala - tiny sweet bananas, tiny VERY tart oranges (not a big success), avocado, meat pies, and some enormous pink heavy coconut covered cookie things I picked up at the bakery in town. Baked goods may look like items from home, but they rarely taste the same. All in all a very successful expedition.
On Garbage
Much of what I’ve seen of Uganda is terribly litter strewn, with much of Kampala and around the university really eyesores from that respect. But there are signs encouraging people not to litter, and in the downtown there are many women sweeping the streets and making piles. But I think the big problem is what happens next. One can pay for private garbage pickup from ones house, and presumably there are land fills it goes to, but I don’t get the impression that there is much of a public system for removing garbage and street sweepings from many private and public areas. In the area on the university campus where many staff live, in not exactly up-scale accommodation, the system seems to consist of making big piles, then goats, dogs, marabou storks and pied crows remove the edible/recyclable items, and then the rest is burnt. Unfortunately a lot blows away or doesn’t burn and the surrounding area is liberally strewn with plastic bags and other refuse.
On the World Cup Final
I had dinner tonight (8:00, early by Ugandan standards) with a faculty member in the Wildlife Department I have been trying to track down since I arrived. We had a modest Indian meal in a café on campus which I searched for on several occasions last fall and never found. What I took to be a laneway was actually a small road. Doesn’t help that I was always looking for it in the dark. It was a bit of a classic meal get a menu, order off the menu, be told some time later that what was you ordered wasn’t being served tonight, ask what was being served, and discover that only about 3 dishes out of the 3 page menu are actually on offer. But the food was good, and we had the entertainment of the startup of the world cup on the television and several small and totally mangy kittens slinking about under the tables. After some planning about our holiday in August, Lu ordered me a taxi to head off to a restaurant to join the group from the PREDICT office for the final. I now have the phone number for Peter, who is apparently a reliable taxi driver and charged me about half of what I paid last time for a similar distance trip. Lu’s housekeeper did the fare discussions for me!
The restaurant bar was totally packed with a selection of vuvusela players. I eventually found the group and we watched the game together. It was mostly composed of females out for the social aspect rather than the football, so we could engage in the sort of observations that I had to keep to myself last night with Roger - That one’s headband looks funny, how do you the other one keeps his stockings up over his knees without them falling down, those shoes are really yellow - that sort of thing. Partway through the second half Lendell got a text telling him there had been a bomb blast somewhere and that all expats were being told to leave bars and go home. We were out of there in less than 2 minutes leaving our drinks on the table. The Americans take this stuff really seriously, and this group had lived in places like East Timor so there was no mucking around. So I had to wait for the results of the game until the next day.
This morning I and a some folk from the Respond office went on a field trip out of Kampala. I walked into Wandegeya and caught a taxi downtown to meet up with everyone at the Sheraton, where Lis, who just came in from the US Friday night, was staying. Lendell and his wife Kate and 14 month old baby Naomi picked us up, and with me in the navigator’s seat (I am the map and brochure queen for those who don”t know)we headed out of town on the bypass ring road, and then west to find Mbamba forest. The bypass is only a few years old and saves an enormous amount of traffic getting out of town. During the weekend it isn’t too bad but the traffic during the week truly is hellish. Combine volume with a variety of drivers, including the aggressive, inexperienced, and incompetent, and boda boda motorcyles who make their own lanes and traffic rules, add a splash of pedestrians, and you get part of the picture. The bypass goes through what was papyrus swamp and rural areas until recently - it is not the most affluent area with small shacks and shantys, pits where bricks are being cut out of the clay, wandering cattle, and piles of garbage (more on that later). Plus the road is also used by bicycles carrying people and masses of gear. We successfully found our way round the ring and round the roundabouts on it to join the main Mbarara road heading west.. The first section is very urban and built up, with a solid row of shops and markets along either side. There are also homes, some quite impressive with ornate gates and fences, and some no more than shacks. With time the scenery becomes more rural, with more green space and fewer shops. There are several market stands with a variety of fruits and vegetables - tomatoes, banana, plantain, passion fruit, pineapples, huge spiky jackfruit to name a few. There are also racks with large woven baskets in one particular area, probably closer to the extensive swamps that appear to encircle the region.
We found the Mpanga Forest Reserve with no problem. Navigating in Africa is not always that easy, but in this case the location was exactly as described and the sign was intact. We pulled into a small clearing with welcome office, thatched picnic shelters, and masses of butterflies. The air was just alive with them - all sorts of shapes and colours - iridescent blue and green, several reds and oranges, white and black, and pure white. Tiny ones, large ones, several varieties of swallowtail. None of which agreed to sit in place in the sunshine for photographs. While we signed in and paid our admission several black and white casqued hornbills sat up in the top of a tree calling and making a heck of a ruckus before flying off into the forest.
We followed a main trail for about an hour to the edge of the swamp through lovely tall forest, apparently second growth but still impressive. There were huge fig and strangler fig trees extending way up into the canopy. The butterflies were there all the way, particularly in clearings or by the several small streams. We heard but did not see red-tailed monkeys, as well as a variety of birds. Part of the trail passed through “spider alley”, where large webs were suspended across the path by a single guyline and manned by good-sized red and black spiders. Lendell was sent first to identify and hold the guylines as it turned out none of the rest of us relished the thought of walking straight into a web. We also saw a variety of mantids, grasshoppers, and several convoys of some sort of army ant on the move. I was the only one in boots, the others were in Tevas, and both the women managed to get rather painful ant bites along the way. Naomi happily waved at the butterflies from her perch in a backpack and then napped on the return trip.
We pooled food items for a picnic before heading back to Kampala - tiny sweet bananas, tiny VERY tart oranges (not a big success), avocado, meat pies, and some enormous pink heavy coconut covered cookie things I picked up at the bakery in town. Baked goods may look like items from home, but they rarely taste the same. All in all a very successful expedition.
On Garbage
Much of what I’ve seen of Uganda is terribly litter strewn, with much of Kampala and around the university really eyesores from that respect. But there are signs encouraging people not to litter, and in the downtown there are many women sweeping the streets and making piles. But I think the big problem is what happens next. One can pay for private garbage pickup from ones house, and presumably there are land fills it goes to, but I don’t get the impression that there is much of a public system for removing garbage and street sweepings from many private and public areas. In the area on the university campus where many staff live, in not exactly up-scale accommodation, the system seems to consist of making big piles, then goats, dogs, marabou storks and pied crows remove the edible/recyclable items, and then the rest is burnt. Unfortunately a lot blows away or doesn’t burn and the surrounding area is liberally strewn with plastic bags and other refuse.
On the World Cup Final
I had dinner tonight (8:00, early by Ugandan standards) with a faculty member in the Wildlife Department I have been trying to track down since I arrived. We had a modest Indian meal in a café on campus which I searched for on several occasions last fall and never found. What I took to be a laneway was actually a small road. Doesn’t help that I was always looking for it in the dark. It was a bit of a classic meal get a menu, order off the menu, be told some time later that what was you ordered wasn’t being served tonight, ask what was being served, and discover that only about 3 dishes out of the 3 page menu are actually on offer. But the food was good, and we had the entertainment of the startup of the world cup on the television and several small and totally mangy kittens slinking about under the tables. After some planning about our holiday in August, Lu ordered me a taxi to head off to a restaurant to join the group from the PREDICT office for the final. I now have the phone number for Peter, who is apparently a reliable taxi driver and charged me about half of what I paid last time for a similar distance trip. Lu’s housekeeper did the fare discussions for me!
The restaurant bar was totally packed with a selection of vuvusela players. I eventually found the group and we watched the game together. It was mostly composed of females out for the social aspect rather than the football, so we could engage in the sort of observations that I had to keep to myself last night with Roger - That one’s headband looks funny, how do you the other one keeps his stockings up over his knees without them falling down, those shoes are really yellow - that sort of thing. Partway through the second half Lendell got a text telling him there had been a bomb blast somewhere and that all expats were being told to leave bars and go home. We were out of there in less than 2 minutes leaving our drinks on the table. The Americans take this stuff really seriously, and this group had lived in places like East Timor so there was no mucking around. So I had to wait for the results of the game until the next day.
Saturday June 10, 2010 - Kampala Town and the World Cup Consolation
Kampala TownThis morning I forayed into Kampala to visit the book store (and look at guidebooks and maps of course), check out an African craft village which the students from NDSU went to, and visit the Uganda Tourist Agency for some information. Early in the morning on the weekend is a great time to go into Kampala as the city is a shadow of it’s weekday self. There are still people and vendors and taxis and bodas, but just less. I asked the fellow sitting on the taxi how much the fare was (it varies according to whether you get on at the start of the route or the end, and the time of day, and a few other things I haven’t quite figured out), and he insisted on making sure I had correct change as “sometimes the conductor doesn’t give people like you the right balance (change)”. How nice of him. People like me would be mzungus, or whites.
Aristoc bookstore is just wonderful - apart from a great selection of guidebooks and maps, it has all sorts of novels, biographies, and just interesting books about travelling and being in Africa. Plus a selection of more “sophisticated” western novels (i.e., not too much Danielle Steele), technical and trade books, and school and children’s books including a series of illustrated readers telling traditional African stories. That was a big success, the Tourist Bureau less so. I was there in the fall and was unimpressed, and my second visit didn’t change my opinion. They had either no information or outdated information on the places I was interested in, and refused to do any phoning around for me (of course they may have had decent reasons for that - like no phone or no phone budget. But I don’t know what the average tourist without a phone is supposed to do. I guess they are supposed to have a private tour guide or company to sort it all out for them. The African craft village consisted of stands selling mostly Kenyan and Tanzanian trinkets, which the students thought were great. I’ll stick with the upmarket place I did my Christmas shopping at last fall.
Betty had a friend’s 5-year old daughter over for a visit, who wasn’t quite sure of what to do with a while person actually having lunch with her. She had her hair done in the most exquisite tiny braids, which apparently took a LONG time to put in but will last 2 months. Hairdressers do a variety of elaborate things with synthetic hair extensions, braids, twists, loops. They come in a variety of colours as well, but fortunately for all I’m not tempted.
World Cup Football
I went out for dinner and to watch the consolation round of the World Cup with Roger a fellow originally from the UK who has lived in Uganda for many years and makes this his home now. His partner is a woman I met in California on sabbatic many years ago, and she introduced us on my last visit. At that point Roger was kind enough to take me out for dinner when I was in desperate need of a meal that didn’t include posho and matoke. Roger’s 20 year old son is home from university in the UK so the two of them and there labrador puppy picked me up and we had dinner at their house before heading out to watch the game. The house is a classic for much of African ex-pat living - rather sprawling on a nice plot with lots of greenery, fences and gated, and filled with lovely things collected over a lifetime of living and working around the world. Roger sorted out feeding the dogs, and interesting mix of posho, vegetables, and a bit of meat. The local tourist magazine has classifieds in the back, one of which is “Dog meat for sale” with “this means meat for dogs” in brackets after it. I don’t think commercial dog food is a big seller.
We had rabbit stew, the rabbits being raised by a friend and it made me think of Farmer McGregor or Hogan’s Heroes to eat it. After dinner we headed off to a bar in town where there was a good sized mixed crowd there to watch the game. Initially we had the football with a soundtrack by Bob Marley, which at least protected us from the sound of the vevesalas (or however you spell that) but they got it working shortly into the first half and we all enjoyed a very exciting game.
Friday June 9, 2010 - OVC Grad on Walkabout and Ugandan Television
I took lunch away from the PREDICT office today to have lunch in town with Becky Sylvester, a vet who graduated from OVC in 2005. Amazing how you run into people in the damndest places. She and a classmate are on an extended tour - they took an overland trip from Spain to Cape Town, through West Africa, spent some time helping out at a vervet monkey and a baboon sactuary in South Africa, and Becky was passing through Kampala visiting friends here before flying on to Ethiopia to catch up with the overland tour and travel back up to Europe with them. How fun! She showed me a bunch of pictures of the sanctuaries in RSA as well as several they visited in West Africa, with chimps and drills and some other primates. There is an amazing circle of non-Africans who travel through these countries, settle down in one, and set up a primate sanctuary, funded primarily by donations from abroad and volunteers who pay to come and labour.
On Television and Soap Operas
Ugandan television includes channels and programming from here, Kenya and Nigeria. There are a lot of music videos, and a lot of soap operas. The music videos look on the surface very much like some of the ones at home, lots of rapper type guys, scantily dressed women but the music is quite different and apparently a lot of the messages are as well. Betty was translating for me - a female singer doing a lot of what we would refer to as “bump and grind” type moves, singing about how Jesus loves us all and we need to love him back. There is a significant disconnect to what the western mind sees and what they are singing about. Traditional Ugandan and Kenyan dances have a lot of what we might call suggestive moves in them, so I guess the dancing doesn’t have the same implications that it would in North America.
Soap operas, are a whole new genre here. There are Nigerian ones, which we haven’t watched as much this visit, which have themes like selling your child to the witch-doctor for child sacrifice so your business will prosper and you will get a new young girlfriend (not kidding - although the ghost of the wife murdered trying to protect the child came back and got all of them in the end). We seem to be on a South American theme right now. Attractive well dressed women scheming behind each others’ backs with the most convoluted schemes as to who is after who’s wife/boyfriend/children/business/farm or whatever. Plus a lot of surprise geneology - “ what do you mean I am engaged to marry my half brother by my fathers secret thought to be dead fifth wife?”It totally boggles the mind. And of course they are dubbed from Spanish into English in a variety of sometimes highly inappropriate voices. There is also an Asian one dubbed into English and then redubbed into Luganda. It’s really hard to follow as the Lugandan dubbing is all done by the same male who shouts everything. So one hears the Lugandan interspersed with what sounds like a skipping record in english. Rather distracting to say the least!
Tonight our session was cut short as the power died once and for all. It had been skipping on and off but eventually packed it in for the night and so did we. The water has been pretty unreliable as well, but I have an emergency plastic garbage can full in the bathroom and we keep jugs of boiled water in the fridge.
On Television and Soap Operas
Ugandan television includes channels and programming from here, Kenya and Nigeria. There are a lot of music videos, and a lot of soap operas. The music videos look on the surface very much like some of the ones at home, lots of rapper type guys, scantily dressed women but the music is quite different and apparently a lot of the messages are as well. Betty was translating for me - a female singer doing a lot of what we would refer to as “bump and grind” type moves, singing about how Jesus loves us all and we need to love him back. There is a significant disconnect to what the western mind sees and what they are singing about. Traditional Ugandan and Kenyan dances have a lot of what we might call suggestive moves in them, so I guess the dancing doesn’t have the same implications that it would in North America.
Soap operas, are a whole new genre here. There are Nigerian ones, which we haven’t watched as much this visit, which have themes like selling your child to the witch-doctor for child sacrifice so your business will prosper and you will get a new young girlfriend (not kidding - although the ghost of the wife murdered trying to protect the child came back and got all of them in the end). We seem to be on a South American theme right now. Attractive well dressed women scheming behind each others’ backs with the most convoluted schemes as to who is after who’s wife/boyfriend/children/business/farm or whatever. Plus a lot of surprise geneology - “ what do you mean I am engaged to marry my half brother by my fathers secret thought to be dead fifth wife?”It totally boggles the mind. And of course they are dubbed from Spanish into English in a variety of sometimes highly inappropriate voices. There is also an Asian one dubbed into English and then redubbed into Luganda. It’s really hard to follow as the Lugandan dubbing is all done by the same male who shouts everything. So one hears the Lugandan interspersed with what sounds like a skipping record in english. Rather distracting to say the least!
Tonight our session was cut short as the power died once and for all. It had been skipping on and off but eventually packed it in for the night and so did we. The water has been pretty unreliable as well, but I have an emergency plastic garbage can full in the bathroom and we keep jugs of boiled water in the fridge.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thursday July 8, 2010 - The weather, bathing, and manners
A day here at the faculty, organizing with people in pathology, fighting with the internet, and visiting with Lawrence Mugisha, the vet and manager of the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary near Entebbe. He is actually is a friend of one of my previous grad students and one of my OVC students has just spent a month on the Island on a research project, so we had lots to catch up on. After work I finally got my bird book out - I’m sure I look like and idiot wandering around with binoculars and this big honking book, but people take a second look at me anyway so it doesn’t really matter. Their reaction to me is interesting - I get a number of sidelong looks, but as soon as I say “ hello, how are you?” I get big smiles. Very nice friendly people.
On the weather and bathing
The weather here is quite perfect. There was a more rain last time I was here - this is the ‘drier” season and the vegetation shows it to some degree. We haven’t had a drop so far. Every day has been 25+ with sunshine .Very pleasant although if one is walking around a lot the sweat comes out pretty quickly and washing before bed is essential. I would say showers before bed, but the water and water pressure are not very reliable. I haven’t had a proper shower yet as there isn’t enough pressure to get it to come out of the shower head. Fortunately there has been water every night. This isn’t all bad as a sponge bath in a basin isn’t quite as much of a shock to the system as a cold shower can be- there is no hot water and some evenings what comes out of the tap seems a bit on the chilly side. I think I gave Betty the scare of her life last night - I was in the bathroom washing and she turned off the light in the anteroom which connects to my bedroom, the bathroom/shower area, and the kitchen. There is no functioning light in the shower so it was rather on the dark side. So I opened the bathroom door and quickly ducked into the anteroom to turn the light back on at the exact same time Betty opened the door from the lounge to get something from the kitchen. I’ve never seen anyone twirl and cover their eyes as fast as she did - I’m sure she was mortally embarrassed by my wet, naked, pale person. We haven’t felt the need to speak about the episode.
On manners
Manners in Uganda are very different from North America. Politeness, respect, and proper forms of address are very important. This morning Denis and I did the rounds of the Pathology, Anatomy, and Clinical Pathology groups doing a meet and greet, arranging to have some gorilla tissues processed when they arrive next week, looking for a microscope that the video camera I brought will fit on, and tracking down a multiheaded microscope that I saw on a brochure for the Vet School that Denis didn’t know existed. Every time we met someone it was the same - shake hands, say good morning, ask how the other person is, enquire about their family, ask how was their sleep, and add a few more pleasantries. Handshakes are also very different - take someone’s hand loosely and hold it in yours, possibly until the end of the conversation. I guess it acts as a conversational link - one often sees men walking hand in hand as they discuss some topic. One never starts right into a conversation or just asks about something, the niceties have to be observed. Sometimes that’s hard to remember when you have something pressing in mind.
The differences came out with a group of US students who were here - although their behaviour was very acceptable by North American standards, they were quite incensed about things starting late and the disorganization and didn’t hesitate to say so. When the last lecturer before lunch didn’t show up on time, but texted to say he was on his way, they had an open debate in front of the Ugandan faculty member who was organizing the morning program as to whether it was worth sticking around, or whether they should just take off and head out for the Chinese lunch they had planned. An American woman who was sitting in on their week’s program and has lived here and around the world for a while went and apologized to the faculty member on their behalf .
On the weather and bathing
The weather here is quite perfect. There was a more rain last time I was here - this is the ‘drier” season and the vegetation shows it to some degree. We haven’t had a drop so far. Every day has been 25+ with sunshine .Very pleasant although if one is walking around a lot the sweat comes out pretty quickly and washing before bed is essential. I would say showers before bed, but the water and water pressure are not very reliable. I haven’t had a proper shower yet as there isn’t enough pressure to get it to come out of the shower head. Fortunately there has been water every night. This isn’t all bad as a sponge bath in a basin isn’t quite as much of a shock to the system as a cold shower can be- there is no hot water and some evenings what comes out of the tap seems a bit on the chilly side. I think I gave Betty the scare of her life last night - I was in the bathroom washing and she turned off the light in the anteroom which connects to my bedroom, the bathroom/shower area, and the kitchen. There is no functioning light in the shower so it was rather on the dark side. So I opened the bathroom door and quickly ducked into the anteroom to turn the light back on at the exact same time Betty opened the door from the lounge to get something from the kitchen. I’ve never seen anyone twirl and cover their eyes as fast as she did - I’m sure she was mortally embarrassed by my wet, naked, pale person. We haven’t felt the need to speak about the episode.
On manners
Manners in Uganda are very different from North America. Politeness, respect, and proper forms of address are very important. This morning Denis and I did the rounds of the Pathology, Anatomy, and Clinical Pathology groups doing a meet and greet, arranging to have some gorilla tissues processed when they arrive next week, looking for a microscope that the video camera I brought will fit on, and tracking down a multiheaded microscope that I saw on a brochure for the Vet School that Denis didn’t know existed. Every time we met someone it was the same - shake hands, say good morning, ask how the other person is, enquire about their family, ask how was their sleep, and add a few more pleasantries. Handshakes are also very different - take someone’s hand loosely and hold it in yours, possibly until the end of the conversation. I guess it acts as a conversational link - one often sees men walking hand in hand as they discuss some topic. One never starts right into a conversation or just asks about something, the niceties have to be observed. Sometimes that’s hard to remember when you have something pressing in mind.
The differences came out with a group of US students who were here - although their behaviour was very acceptable by North American standards, they were quite incensed about things starting late and the disorganization and didn’t hesitate to say so. When the last lecturer before lunch didn’t show up on time, but texted to say he was on his way, they had an open debate in front of the Ugandan faculty member who was organizing the morning program as to whether it was worth sticking around, or whether they should just take off and head out for the Chinese lunch they had planned. An American woman who was sitting in on their week’s program and has lived here and around the world for a while went and apologized to the faculty member on their behalf .
On taxis and food - Wednesday July 7, 2010
Wednesday July 7, 2010
Taking taxis
Today I took a taxi to the Predict office to work there. Fast wireless internet, fresh tea on demand, a lovely big desk with lots of natural light and a breeze. It’s addictive. First of all a taxi here isn’t the same as a taxi at home. It’s a 13 + driver + conductor minibus with a blue stripe on the side. There are hundreds of them on every road providing one of the main sources of public transportation. The best way to get a taxi for where I was going was to walk into Wandegeya and go to the taxi park. They will also pick you up along the road if you wave a hand, and there are set taxi stands, or stops, for drop offs. Theoretically, the taxi at the front of the line should leave first. However, the position in line is not all - how quickly a taxi fills (they don’t leave until full) depends on how vigorously they are touted to the passing crowd. When one enters the taxi park there are several men asking where you want to go and competing with each other to lead you to whichever taxi they work with. So vigorous touting fills taxis faster. It’s kind of funny watching the tout or the conductor taking people’s hands and trying to pull them towards the taxi of choice. I chose a dud tout, and although my taxi was first in line it wasn’t the first to leave, although I’m sure we waiting less than 10 minutes. In the mean time several people got off complaining about the ineffective loading procedure.
I had a very unusual occurrence - a Ugandan woman entered the taxi - realized that she had to sit next to me, waved her hand in a dismissive way, muttered something in an African language that included the word “muzungu” meaning white, and got off the taxi. I have never had another white person on a taxi with me, so I must have come as a surprise. The two men sitting behind me were absolutely flabbergasted, I could hear them laughing and slapping their legs and word muzungu featured several times in their conversation. But they gave me nice smiles so I don’t think it was at my expense. I just thought it was funny.
One gets some choice as to where to sit in a taxi. You have to fill in the full seats first (as compared to the jump seats that fold down in the “aisle” to get to the back of the taxi. The windows give you ventilation, but also exhaust fumes. If you sit in the row behind the driver you get a bit more space, a bit better view, but in the case of a crash you wouldn’t be well positioned. Of course the very back might not be great for that either. The worst spot is in the seat right next to the side door because it turns out the conductor shares it with you once he hops in and swings the door closed. Very squashed!
Ugandan English can be a bit challenging to follow at the best of times (its embarassing how often I’ve asked colleagues to repeat a sentence when it absolutely fails to register as english words), but I think my Canadian english is equally confusing. The conductors don’t always speak it well, so getting across where I want to get off the taxi can be a bit of a challenge. For example, it took three of us to convert my version of Acacia Avenue into understandable terms - a-kay-cee-a is not the same as a-kash-a.
On dining
Traditional Ugandan meals are not what one would call gourmet. They consist of a lot of starches, sometimes as alternatives, sometimes all together. Rice, Irish potatoes (boiled potatoes to us) cassava, posho (also known as sadza, a stiff concoction of boiled up ground mealie (corn) meal, matoke (twice steamed mashed plantain with a formidable consistency). Then a side of gravy with some chicken, fish or beef in it, and possibly another of add pinky grey, lumpy but good tasting peanut sauce. At least this in the meal in the vet school canteen (the same place I got food poisoning from the samoosa’s last visit) and in the small local cafe’s in Wandegeya. The more upmarket versions include vegetables on the side. I’ve had dinner with Betty several times which has also included beans (kind of baked beans-like), a thick cooked millet porridge, and some bits of meat more delectable to her than me. Also mealies - the white corn they grow here roasted and then eaten off the cob. Very chewy - a serious dental workout. Lunch in the vet canteen, which includes a substantial plateful of the above mentioned items, costs 1,500 to 2,500 Ush (currently 2,200 Ush to the US dollar).
The next level up in the Makarere School Guest house, where I had dinner with a colleague Wednesday night. They have a menu instead of a chalk board, tables with table cloths inside and out, and a range of items, although carbs (including french fries) still feature heavily. Dinner takes some time, a rather unpredictable time, to arrive, is very nice (good omelettes) with a splash of vegetables, and ranges from 9,000 to about 15,000 Ush. Monday I went out for lunch with Benard, the Predict country coordinator for Uganda, who I met on my first trip, and spagetti and mushroom sauce was 18,000 Ush, with meat dishes up to 25,000. The bottom end of the scale is very inexpensive, the top end pretty much on par with costs at home. And I haven’t even tried “upscale”.
Taking taxis
Today I took a taxi to the Predict office to work there. Fast wireless internet, fresh tea on demand, a lovely big desk with lots of natural light and a breeze. It’s addictive. First of all a taxi here isn’t the same as a taxi at home. It’s a 13 + driver + conductor minibus with a blue stripe on the side. There are hundreds of them on every road providing one of the main sources of public transportation. The best way to get a taxi for where I was going was to walk into Wandegeya and go to the taxi park. They will also pick you up along the road if you wave a hand, and there are set taxi stands, or stops, for drop offs. Theoretically, the taxi at the front of the line should leave first. However, the position in line is not all - how quickly a taxi fills (they don’t leave until full) depends on how vigorously they are touted to the passing crowd. When one enters the taxi park there are several men asking where you want to go and competing with each other to lead you to whichever taxi they work with. So vigorous touting fills taxis faster. It’s kind of funny watching the tout or the conductor taking people’s hands and trying to pull them towards the taxi of choice. I chose a dud tout, and although my taxi was first in line it wasn’t the first to leave, although I’m sure we waiting less than 10 minutes. In the mean time several people got off complaining about the ineffective loading procedure.
I had a very unusual occurrence - a Ugandan woman entered the taxi - realized that she had to sit next to me, waved her hand in a dismissive way, muttered something in an African language that included the word “muzungu” meaning white, and got off the taxi. I have never had another white person on a taxi with me, so I must have come as a surprise. The two men sitting behind me were absolutely flabbergasted, I could hear them laughing and slapping their legs and word muzungu featured several times in their conversation. But they gave me nice smiles so I don’t think it was at my expense. I just thought it was funny.
One gets some choice as to where to sit in a taxi. You have to fill in the full seats first (as compared to the jump seats that fold down in the “aisle” to get to the back of the taxi. The windows give you ventilation, but also exhaust fumes. If you sit in the row behind the driver you get a bit more space, a bit better view, but in the case of a crash you wouldn’t be well positioned. Of course the very back might not be great for that either. The worst spot is in the seat right next to the side door because it turns out the conductor shares it with you once he hops in and swings the door closed. Very squashed!
Ugandan English can be a bit challenging to follow at the best of times (its embarassing how often I’ve asked colleagues to repeat a sentence when it absolutely fails to register as english words), but I think my Canadian english is equally confusing. The conductors don’t always speak it well, so getting across where I want to get off the taxi can be a bit of a challenge. For example, it took three of us to convert my version of Acacia Avenue into understandable terms - a-kay-cee-a is not the same as a-kash-a.
On dining
Traditional Ugandan meals are not what one would call gourmet. They consist of a lot of starches, sometimes as alternatives, sometimes all together. Rice, Irish potatoes (boiled potatoes to us) cassava, posho (also known as sadza, a stiff concoction of boiled up ground mealie (corn) meal, matoke (twice steamed mashed plantain with a formidable consistency). Then a side of gravy with some chicken, fish or beef in it, and possibly another of add pinky grey, lumpy but good tasting peanut sauce. At least this in the meal in the vet school canteen (the same place I got food poisoning from the samoosa’s last visit) and in the small local cafe’s in Wandegeya. The more upmarket versions include vegetables on the side. I’ve had dinner with Betty several times which has also included beans (kind of baked beans-like), a thick cooked millet porridge, and some bits of meat more delectable to her than me. Also mealies - the white corn they grow here roasted and then eaten off the cob. Very chewy - a serious dental workout. Lunch in the vet canteen, which includes a substantial plateful of the above mentioned items, costs 1,500 to 2,500 Ush (currently 2,200 Ush to the US dollar).
The next level up in the Makarere School Guest house, where I had dinner with a colleague Wednesday night. They have a menu instead of a chalk board, tables with table cloths inside and out, and a range of items, although carbs (including french fries) still feature heavily. Dinner takes some time, a rather unpredictable time, to arrive, is very nice (good omelettes) with a splash of vegetables, and ranges from 9,000 to about 15,000 Ush. Monday I went out for lunch with Benard, the Predict country coordinator for Uganda, who I met on my first trip, and spagetti and mushroom sauce was 18,000 Ush, with meat dishes up to 25,000. The bottom end of the scale is very inexpensive, the top end pretty much on par with costs at home. And I haven’t even tried “upscale”.
Discovering Expat Land - the Predict offices
Tuesday July 6, 2010
Order of the day -an expedition to the Predict office - Benard, the country coordinator for Uganda, picked me up first thing this morning and we fought our way through the traffic to the offices. Predict and Respond, two large USAID programs, have taken over a large plot of land with several small sprawling buildings, all newly painted and in the process of being furnished and equipped with the accoutrements of a North American office. It felt like I had just changed continents since yesterday. Fast wireless internet, a colour printer, a kitchen with tea and coffee and a watercooler, and a whole bunch of expats bustling around. Some of them career expats with experience all over the world, others newly hired on for this project. So I got a desk and the wireless key and a cup of tea and settled down for the day, other than lunch out with Benard, to make powerpoints out of the Predict protocols that we are supposed to be teaching the week after next. It will be a challenge to turn personal protective gear, laboratory safety, and documentation for shipping samples into something that will keep people awake and interested for three days. I think I’ll have to find some videos on laboratory explosions to keep them awake!
On mosquitos
The mosquitos are very annoying here. There aren’t that many of them but nothing is screened so they appear in the evening in the guest house. Their bites aren’t any worse than those at home, perhaps less intense, but each tiny mosquito has to be seen as a pestilential germ and malarial containing threat. I’ve taken to wearing my quick dry pants, and maybe a pair of socks, in the evening to keep them at bay. I could dab myself with Deet, but the evenings cool down so putting on some clothing isn’t a hardship.
Order of the day -an expedition to the Predict office - Benard, the country coordinator for Uganda, picked me up first thing this morning and we fought our way through the traffic to the offices. Predict and Respond, two large USAID programs, have taken over a large plot of land with several small sprawling buildings, all newly painted and in the process of being furnished and equipped with the accoutrements of a North American office. It felt like I had just changed continents since yesterday. Fast wireless internet, a colour printer, a kitchen with tea and coffee and a watercooler, and a whole bunch of expats bustling around. Some of them career expats with experience all over the world, others newly hired on for this project. So I got a desk and the wireless key and a cup of tea and settled down for the day, other than lunch out with Benard, to make powerpoints out of the Predict protocols that we are supposed to be teaching the week after next. It will be a challenge to turn personal protective gear, laboratory safety, and documentation for shipping samples into something that will keep people awake and interested for three days. I think I’ll have to find some videos on laboratory explosions to keep them awake!
On mosquitos
The mosquitos are very annoying here. There aren’t that many of them but nothing is screened so they appear in the evening in the guest house. Their bites aren’t any worse than those at home, perhaps less intense, but each tiny mosquito has to be seen as a pestilential germ and malarial containing threat. I’ve taken to wearing my quick dry pants, and maybe a pair of socks, in the evening to keep them at bay. I could dab myself with Deet, but the evenings cool down so putting on some clothing isn’t a hardship.
Getting Settled - July 5, 2010
Day 1 plan - stay awake, unpack, stock up on some groceries, dole out some gifts, and try to touch base with as many people as possible. The time here will pass very quickly before I know it. I ran across a group of students from North Dakota State University here with one of their professors, a Ugandan woman who was on faculty here some years ago and spent a bit of time with them - they have been off in the parks for several weeks and are here in Kampala to finish up with some lectures. The professor and I managed to have tea at the Makarere Guest House, where I spent my first night last fall and a definite step (or 10) above the vet faculty facility. It worked out well as the Dean of the vet school, who is a very energetic and dynamic man with a constant lineup of people outside his office, came by to meet with her. I got my 5 minutes of hellos in, important to pay your respects to the top guy, and gave him a Canadian flag that he had asked for last time I was here. Apparently he has a desire to have flags of the partner countries flying somewhere, so Canada beat out the US for first in the lineup!
On shopping for groceries.
One of my first activities was shopping for groceries. This time I cleverly brought cloth shopping backs to avoid the ubiquitous little black plastic ones that are used for groceries. The closest groceries are in Wandegeya - a commercial area just outside the boundary of the university property. One walks through campus to get there, about 10 minutes, and then pops out a break in the fence to a dirt lane lined by tiny shops, each the size of an average North American powder room, which see everything one can think of - clothes, shoes, electronics, phone card to-pups (more on phones later), housewares, and services such as hair salons (pronounces saloons). The lane curves down to Bombo road - which is filled with taxis and cars and motorcyle taxis called boda-bodas. The name comes from the English border-border as they were first used for transport between the Kenyan and Ugandan borders, apparently. I know of two small groceries in the area - one is very small and African owned - it has small stocks of most common groceries and foodstuffs. You leave your bags or packs in small cubbyholes at the entrance before entering. The cashes are run by African women - one does the cash, one bags the groceries. They have kind of basic cash registers that are more like adding machines, no receipts. A man stands by the door to prevent theft. The second is Chinese owned and has the same basic groceries, a bit more expensive, as well as a bunch of Chinese and arabic labeled products, including instant noodle soup - a good emergency food. Plus some booze and houshold stuff -kind of like a very mini-K-mart. The products are scanned into a very fancy cash machine which has all the LCD displays in Chinese, it prints receipts, and there is a bank of video cameras set to cover the whole store next to the cash. And then in the large malls in Kampala there are large Kenyan and South African chain grocery stores that look just like an upscale Zehrs at home, complete with deli sections.
For fruit and vegetables one must buy from the market, which I went to with Denis last fall but have yet to find again on my own, or from a vendor with a stand by the road. I took Betty with me Tuesday evening to give me some idea of what the prices might be - I have a feeling they increase for muzumgu. Just outside the campus gates near my guest house there is a lane similar to those in Wandegeya lined by small tables with women selling small pyramids of vegetables. For about 6,000 Ush we bought two huge ripe avocados, a big pineapple, and small piles of tomatoes and tiny African oranges. We went in the evening and there were people all through the street - sitting and chatting, buying and selling, cooking over small fires, sitting in small open cafes. Not a lot of muzungu.
On telephones.
I love my phone. I have a mostly hate/hate relationship with my Canadian phone, but I like this one. A mobile is the only way to be in touch with anyone. People are rarely where you think they might be, they rarely show up when they say they will, and there is virtually no such thing as land lines, even in businesses. When I got here I plugged my phone in and charged it and the number was still valid and I even had money on it. Unbelievable. I have been texting right left and centre. A text costs about 150 Ush, which is very little. On the other hand I have yet to figure out the price for calls. It depends on how long you speak for, the time of day, and the plan of the person you are calling. If you are both on the same plan I think it is cheaper than if they are on another plan. Thousands of shillings seem to vanish on phone calls. On the bottom of the screen the discounts are shown - most of the time it says 10% but I’m still not quite sure what that means, and then it somewhat randomly it changes to a higher percentage. Or at least it seems random to me. Someone told me it depends on how much usage there is on the system, rather than on the time. I suppose I should really figure it out. I think a lot of people must be on some kind of plan, rather than pay as you go, as they seem to spend a lot of time talking.
The smallest top-up one can buy is less than 1,000 Ush, which is enough for a few texts. So people without plans are always running out of time. You don’t pay to receive calls or sms, so this trick is to get people to call you back. Apparently if you call someone but hang up after one ring it still lodges on the person’s phone whom you are calling, but it doesn’t cost anything. This is used to let someone know they want to talk to you but they have no money. Popular with children calling their parents apparently.
On shopping for groceries.
One of my first activities was shopping for groceries. This time I cleverly brought cloth shopping backs to avoid the ubiquitous little black plastic ones that are used for groceries. The closest groceries are in Wandegeya - a commercial area just outside the boundary of the university property. One walks through campus to get there, about 10 minutes, and then pops out a break in the fence to a dirt lane lined by tiny shops, each the size of an average North American powder room, which see everything one can think of - clothes, shoes, electronics, phone card to-pups (more on phones later), housewares, and services such as hair salons (pronounces saloons). The lane curves down to Bombo road - which is filled with taxis and cars and motorcyle taxis called boda-bodas. The name comes from the English border-border as they were first used for transport between the Kenyan and Ugandan borders, apparently. I know of two small groceries in the area - one is very small and African owned - it has small stocks of most common groceries and foodstuffs. You leave your bags or packs in small cubbyholes at the entrance before entering. The cashes are run by African women - one does the cash, one bags the groceries. They have kind of basic cash registers that are more like adding machines, no receipts. A man stands by the door to prevent theft. The second is Chinese owned and has the same basic groceries, a bit more expensive, as well as a bunch of Chinese and arabic labeled products, including instant noodle soup - a good emergency food. Plus some booze and houshold stuff -kind of like a very mini-K-mart. The products are scanned into a very fancy cash machine which has all the LCD displays in Chinese, it prints receipts, and there is a bank of video cameras set to cover the whole store next to the cash. And then in the large malls in Kampala there are large Kenyan and South African chain grocery stores that look just like an upscale Zehrs at home, complete with deli sections.
For fruit and vegetables one must buy from the market, which I went to with Denis last fall but have yet to find again on my own, or from a vendor with a stand by the road. I took Betty with me Tuesday evening to give me some idea of what the prices might be - I have a feeling they increase for muzumgu. Just outside the campus gates near my guest house there is a lane similar to those in Wandegeya lined by small tables with women selling small pyramids of vegetables. For about 6,000 Ush we bought two huge ripe avocados, a big pineapple, and small piles of tomatoes and tiny African oranges. We went in the evening and there were people all through the street - sitting and chatting, buying and selling, cooking over small fires, sitting in small open cafes. Not a lot of muzungu.
On telephones.
I love my phone. I have a mostly hate/hate relationship with my Canadian phone, but I like this one. A mobile is the only way to be in touch with anyone. People are rarely where you think they might be, they rarely show up when they say they will, and there is virtually no such thing as land lines, even in businesses. When I got here I plugged my phone in and charged it and the number was still valid and I even had money on it. Unbelievable. I have been texting right left and centre. A text costs about 150 Ush, which is very little. On the other hand I have yet to figure out the price for calls. It depends on how long you speak for, the time of day, and the plan of the person you are calling. If you are both on the same plan I think it is cheaper than if they are on another plan. Thousands of shillings seem to vanish on phone calls. On the bottom of the screen the discounts are shown - most of the time it says 10% but I’m still not quite sure what that means, and then it somewhat randomly it changes to a higher percentage. Or at least it seems random to me. Someone told me it depends on how much usage there is on the system, rather than on the time. I suppose I should really figure it out. I think a lot of people must be on some kind of plan, rather than pay as you go, as they seem to spend a lot of time talking.
The smallest top-up one can buy is less than 1,000 Ush, which is enough for a few texts. So people without plans are always running out of time. You don’t pay to receive calls or sms, so this trick is to get people to call you back. Apparently if you call someone but hang up after one ring it still lodges on the person’s phone whom you are calling, but it doesn’t cost anything. This is used to let someone know they want to talk to you but they have no money. Popular with children calling their parents apparently.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
I've arrived in Uganda - July 4, 2010
After a long but uneventful trip I landed in Entebbe at 8 PM. Much of both flights was either over clouds or at night, but we had about 2 hours of glorious views over miles of endless desert in Libya and northern Sudan.
Immigration formalities were quick, my luggage arrived, although in the very last trailer, and Herbert was there to meet me as planned. Things went off course slightly driving home - apparently today was the day that parents visit their children at boarding school, and there are a lot of boarding schools in the 35 km or so between Entebbe and Kampala. So a 45 minute drive took about 2.5 hours! Herbert, Flavia (a friend who came with him) and I joked about how it was an adventure, rather than an inconvenience, as per my email byline.
Eventually we arrived in Kampala and made a quick stop at the Chicken-Tonight takeaway - it was after 11 PM and we were all starving. Unfortunately we had to wake up poor Betty who had given up on my arrival, so there we were standing in the dark with suitcases and chicken in hand clanging on the metal security door at the entrance to the building.
By midnight I was settled back into my room, tucked under my mosquito net for the night, with very little having changed since I left here in December.
Immigration formalities were quick, my luggage arrived, although in the very last trailer, and Herbert was there to meet me as planned. Things went off course slightly driving home - apparently today was the day that parents visit their children at boarding school, and there are a lot of boarding schools in the 35 km or so between Entebbe and Kampala. So a 45 minute drive took about 2.5 hours! Herbert, Flavia (a friend who came with him) and I joked about how it was an adventure, rather than an inconvenience, as per my email byline.
Eventually we arrived in Kampala and made a quick stop at the Chicken-Tonight takeaway - it was after 11 PM and we were all starving. Unfortunately we had to wake up poor Betty who had given up on my arrival, so there we were standing in the dark with suitcases and chicken in hand clanging on the metal security door at the entrance to the building.
By midnight I was settled back into my room, tucked under my mosquito net for the night, with very little having changed since I left here in December.
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