Touring the South-West

As I had mentioned, I planned a short tour of south-western Uganda. It started way back in early November when I was able to get my hands on a Gorilla Tracking permit. It is a pricey and difficult permit to get as they limit the number of people who can see the Gorillas each day to only 8 per group of Gorillas. The permits cost a staggering $500 and I had very high expectations of the experience given the price. However, I had been told it was worth it. The permit was valid for one day only, December 8th so I had to plan the rest of my trip around that day. Luckily I was able to get the time off from work to make it happen.

On Sunday Dec. 7th I got driven by Ibra, the same driver who had driven me to Mbarara from Kampala and would be with me the rest of the trip. Normally I would have taken public transportation but Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (where 340 of the 700 Mountain Gorillas remaining in the world reside) is off the beaten track and hard to get to by public means and given the investment I had already placed in seeing the Gorillas, I decided the extra cost of having a driver was worth it. After 2 hours on paved roads and 3 hours on crappy dirt roads, we finally reach Bwindi. Absolutely beautiful. It had a lush green valley floor with scattered trees and a river winding through it. This quickly transformed into a dense forest with the dirt road continuing through a very touristy town in that both sides of the road were lined with little shops selling Gorilla carvings, t-shirts, and pictures.

The next morning I woke up early to register and attend a briefing on how the day would go. We then hopped back into a car and drove to the other side of town where the road got too step for the car so we got out and started our tracking. We walked straight up hill for the next 45 minutes and it was mainly on road and country side. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to be using the machete and making our own trail. Finally we arrived at the forest's edge and got word that the trackers who had left an hour or 2 before us had found the Gorillas and we were about an hour hike from them. I was hoping for a slightly longer hike through the forest, but at least it meant we would see the Gorillas, which is not guaranteed. 

The way they track the Gorillas is that they take note of their position the day before using GPS. The trackers then leave early in the morning and return to where they were the previous day and follow their path from there. Some days the Gorillas move far, others they stay nearby. They may move closer to the edge of the forest or deeper in. There is really no way of knowing until you start looking for them.

Anyway, we hiked through the forest, mainly on a path, although there were definitely some sketchy areas. We then met up with the trackers who had found the Gorillas. We left our bags with one of the guides and proceeded to machete and crawl our way through the forest for about 10-15 minutes. Jim, a guy I met at the hostel the night before who is traveling with his sister and her friend and who happened to be in my group, and I took the lead with the guide as we were very anxious to see these Gorillas. All of a sudden they were right in front of us. We were within 8 feet of one of the females who was sitting on the ground munching on some bushes. We slowly made our way past her and there was an opening in the trees and sitting up in the branches about 20 ft up, right above us was the immensely large and intimidating male Silverback Gorilla. As males mature, they develop a very distinct patch of silver hair that wraps around the middle of the back. This tends to happen when they are around 15 years old (L.E. is 50 years or so). This male dictates what the group does from where they eat, sleep, and when and where they move to. Any arguments among the group, the dominant male Silverback ultimately has the last say. There can be more than one Silverback in a group, but the eldest is the leader. The group we were observing only had one Silverback, but also had another young male around 10 years old who will soon begin to develop the silverback distinction. There were a total of 9 Gorillas in the group, including a very new born baby who was being carried around by his mother.

Anyway, while I was being mesmerized by the large Silverback, the other Gorilla Jim and I had just passed decided to feign a charge at Jim will beating its chest. Whoa... The Gorilla then backed off and scooted up into the tree to continue eating. We spent about an hour watching and observing the Gorillas as they ate, climbed, descended, played, and produced some very impressive flatulence (which, despite my level of maturity...i found utterly amusing as did most of the group).

Just as our hour was wrapping up, the Gorillas started to climb down their trees. The Silverback stayed put for a minute and we followed the others to get a closer view on the ground. Getting up close like that was great, then I noticed that the Silverback was starting to come down from his tree. I immediately realized we were now in between the Silverback and the rest of the group. I stood there watching him, thinking about how mad he might be. He continued to walk right up to us. We were slightly obscured from his view behind a fallen tree. He turned the corner around the tree, no more than 8 feet from me and only about 4 feet from Jim's sister, Bailey. Upon seeing us in his path he let out a terrifying growl-like yell right at us. I wish I could say I wasn't terrified, but the video I was taking at the time reveals everything as the video zooms in on the ground... The guide in the front was very calm and we quickly realized that the Silverback wasn't actually going to charge at us, but was just pissed he needed to find another way around us. He proceeded to saunter right past us, so close it felt like we could have touched him. It was really an amazing experience, especially when you realize there are only 700 of these Mountain Gorillas left in the world and the only place they are located is South-Western Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC.

In conclusion, it was 100% worth the expense and I will never forget that experience. Truly amazing.

Later that afternoon, I departed from Bwindi to head up north back into Queen Elizabeth National Park. This time I would be staying in Ishasha to make an effort at seeing tree-climbing lions. There are very few areas where this occurs, but the lions, after having a morning meal will climb up into the large Acacia trees and just lounge in the shade and breeze. No one could really tell me why these lions climb the trees while just 70 km further north, they don't. Anyway, I stayed in a sketchy hostel in the middle of the park that night and fell asleep to the sound of hippos munching on some grass outside of my room. I woke early in the morning to go on a game drive. We quickly spotted a large herd of Ugandan Kobs standing at attention, all facing the same direction. We made our way over there and sure enough, there were 2 enormous female lions who happened to be enjoying a fine meal which consisted of one of the unfortunate Ugandan Kobs. The driver took me right up to the lions. I was within 5 feet of the lions (but still in the car) and got a great view of the chunk of meat one of them was enjoying so thoroughly. Unfortunately the lions didn't make it up into the trees while I was there, but it was still awesome to see the lions up so close and enjoying just a fresh meal.

After a brief breakfast back at the hostel, I departed for Kyambura Gorge, further up north about 70 km north (2 hour drive because of the road) where I would attempt to go Chimpanzee tracking at a much more affordable $30. I had called ahead and they said they had just gotten back from the morning track and had found the chimps and left them close by while they slept. The odds were good that I would get to see them. We left and walked down for about 15 minutes to where the chimps had been left, but they weren't there and we had noticed some elephant tracks on the way down that looked relatively new. The guide had carried a rifle down with us, just incase we came across any lions (didn't, but did find their dung), buffalo, or elephants. Sure enough, after walking around for another 20 minutes, we came across an elephant. The guide cocked the gun and the elephant turned right at us. I found myself thinking that there was no way the gun the guide had would actually take down the elephant. Fortunately I didn't have to find out. The elephant turned and walked away. However, this was not a good sign for us to see the chimps as apparently the elephants will harass the chimps just to show their dominance. Sure enough, we walked for 2 hours and saw nothing. Quite disappointing, but they are wild animals.

That evening I drove up to Fort Portal, another 2 hours north and then headed another 30 minutes our of Fort Portal to a crater lake, Nyabikere meaning Lake of Frogs. My god, the sound was deafening. I even ate my dinner with ear plugs in, and I never use ear plugs. You really couldn't hear yourself think. Fortunately once you were in your room you couldn't really hear them too loudly so I was able to sleep just fine.

The next morning I was taken on a hike to "Top of the World" which was about a 3 hour round trip hike up to the top of a nearby hill that was situated right in between 3 crater lakes and had a view of a fourth. I was led up there by a 70 year old local man who kicked my butt up that climb. We then sat up on the top for a while and took in the beautiful view and talked politics, both US and Ugandan. It is always interesting to hear what people here think of both Bush and Obama as well as to hear about the local politics pertaining to Museveni. Museveni has been in power for about 25 years now and has become very corrupt. There was a limit to two terms as President, but as that time approached, he bribed officers and changed the rule. Now it appears he is going to remain in power until he dies. The margins of his electoral victories have declined from 96% when he was first elected to a very questionable 51% in 2007. He threw his most recent competitor into jail 2 days before the elections and had now charged him with treason. It is not looking good for 2011... There is a lot of concern.

Anyway, the crater lake region was also extremely beautiful and if the weather is nice you can see the Rwenzori mountains. Unfortunately I only got a very brief glimpse of them as I drove by. The rest of the time they were blocked by a cloudy haze.

Instead of spending another night up in Fort Portal, I decided I would drive back towards Kyambura Gorge and give the chimp tracking another shot in the morning. Found a cheap hostel in a local town and spent the night dominating the pool table which had a mean slant to it. Pool is very popular here and bars typically only have one outdoor pool table that gets a lot of action every night. The locals were very impressed with my game, little did they know I was getting absurdly lucky all night long. But it was a lot of fun.

The next morning I got up to do the morning chimp track. We found them up near the community, but they were on the move and very shy. I got about a 30 second glimpse of them from across the gorge which was about 100 meters at that spot. We drove around to the other side to try to follow them. It was looking good when all of a sudden there were some bees flying around the guides head. Figuring they would just fly off I took little notice. Next thing I new one fly right into my forehead and soon enough they were around my head and would not leave. The guide told me to cover my head with my long sleeve shirt and I abided. They swarmed and swarmed. Got stung on my hand holding my shirt and then right in the middle of the back through my t-shirt. The guide then grabbed my arm and started leading me blindly away from the area as I couldn't see much through my shirt. We were not on any path and the grass and bushes were about 3 ft high and really wet. As he guided me away, a bee managed to get into the shirt over my head so i threw that one the ground and then started high-tailing it through the long grass zigging this way and that. I am sure it was quite a sight but these freaking bees were extremely persistent. After running around for a couple minutes I settled down, thinking I was in the clear. Catching my breath for a minute turned out to be a bad idea as one landed on my pants. I squashed that bugger with much satisfaction. However, that satisfaction was short-lived as soon they were swarming my head again. The guides were now also high-tailing through the grass and I followed suit. Soon enough we were a ways away and took it easy. Soaking wet up to my waist from the tall grass, we made our way into the nearby banana plantation and walked back to the car. I discovered another bee-sting and proceeded to pull the centimeter long stingers out of my hand, arm, and back. The guide had gotten stung right on his eye-lid. Needless to say we did not see the chimps there and were glad to be back in the car.

We then returned to the main gorge area and decided to go try to find the other group of chimps. We hiked for another 2 hours, mostly in the rain. Scooting and crawling across the rushing river on soaking wet trees. Unfortunately we didn't find anything else. Despite only getting a glimpse of the chimps early in the morning, it was definitely a memorable experience that I will not forget. After all, I was attacked by African Killer Bees (well, maybe not Killer, but it sounds better).

While it was only a 4 day trip, it was extremely eventful and enjoyable. I then returned to Mbarara for my last weekend in town. I am heading off tomorrow to head up to Bujagali and Jinja to go white water rafting on the Nile River with Brian, Connor, and Annie. I will then spend a day in Kampala before I fly out on Friday, assuming I survive the half dozen class 5 rapids I will be going down on Wednesday. I head off to Vienna, Austria to meet up with dear friend and college roommate Chris "Toast" Hoffman. We will be in Vienna for 2 nights, Salzburg for a night, Munich for a night, and then back to Salzburg for 2 nights. Hopefully we will be able to work in a day of skiing. I will make one more Uganda post either in Austria or when I get home to wrap things up. I won't know if I am coming back to Uganda until after I get home from my trip. I feel I have had an amazing experience here, definitely one I will never forget and hopefully one I will build on going forward. I am going to make sure to enjoy the last bit of time I have here. If I come back, I will pick off right where I left off.

As my next post my not be until after Christmas, I want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday (Christmas, Chanukah and the like). I hope to see as many of you as possible while I am home around New Years. Take care!

MVP, Mburara Intl School Presentation, and Fresh Goat

As I mentioned, I am in the process of figuring out whether or not I will be returning to Uganda in January. Basically the issue lies in the fact that the research project I have been working on and would come back to oversee requires a lot of paperwork and desk work behind a computer and that is what I was hoping to get away from. In talking to Dr. Bangsberg, he does seem open to the idea of me coming back in a part-time capacity. This would mean that I would work 20-30 hours a week doing work that pertains to the research study, while the rest of the time would be for me to allocate as I see fit.

Quick side-note, for those of you who are not familiar with the research project I am working on, here is a brief run-down. Currently Dr. Bangsberg is monitoring how well HIV infected patients are taking their medications. He is doing this in a couple of ways. The main ways are by distributing a pill bottle that has a special MEMS (Micro ElectroMechanical System) cap that records when the cap is opened. The data is stored in the cap until a Research Assistant travels out to the participant's house and downloads the data onto a laptop. While the RA is at the participant's house, they also manually count how many pills the participant has left and compares that to how many they should have which is based on what type of medication they are on. The RAs also verify that the participants have continued to pick up their medications from the pharmacy. The MEMS data is then brought back to a data manager who compiles all of the data. As part of my study and using some of my super sweet excel abilities (passed on to me by a Mr. Jeremy Beck of Chatham Partners) I was asked to analyze some of the data collected to see what types of interruptions are occurring for participants as they take their medication. I found, as expected, that there have been many short interruptions of about 2-3 days and a handful of long interruptions, some lasting up to 100 days. The issue with these interruptions is that the HIV virus has an opportunity to rebound and become resistant to the drugs being administered. This is a problem all over the world, but especially here where there is a limited number of drugs that patients can switch to. It only takes 15 days of missing ones medication for there to be a 50% chance that the virus has become resistant. And in as little as 5 days the likelihood is around 20%.

My study will attempt to find a way to identify patients who are missing their medications in real-time, as opposed to identifying the patients and the interruptions only after the fact, during one of the home visits by the Research Assistants. To do this, we will be attempting to use a new pill cap that not only will record when the cap is opened, but will also send a message back to a computer server in the office. We will set up alerts to inform us when someone has missed their medication for more than 48 hours and will then send someone (not me) out to find the participant and interview them about the past few days, with the goal of figuring out what exactly is causing these interruptions (transportation issues, money issues, food, water, religious...). This study, however, will only be a pilot study. This means we will only be recruiting 50 participants. The reason for this is because it relies heavily on the phone towers and technology, we want to make sure it is feasible and can be done out here in rural-Uganda. If anyone has any questions about this, feel free to shoot me an email or we can discuss when I am back in the States on Dec. 26th.

So, back to the update. While the research is pretty exciting and cutting edge, I again want to get out of an office and see the villages and communities and to work with the people there to help build local capacity so that projects and work can really continue without the supervision of American volunteers. In searching for such projects, I have been able to get in touch with the Director for the local Millennium Villages Project in Mbarara who is in charge of the MVP projects around South-Western Uganda. For those of you not familiar with MVP, it is Dr. Jeffrey Sachs' (a one time Newton Resident) approach to helping to reach the Millennium Development Goals which are long and I will leave to you to look up. A simple google search will give you enough info. Basically the projects aim to help build infrastructure and local capacity. They are still within their first 5 years and are now starting to think about the next 5 years, which will aim to include an exit strategy to hand over the management of these projects to the local governments. There is a lot of debate about the approach and many people think it is all baloney. I will spare you my thoughts for now, but it definitely has a lot of issues it needs to sort out.

My friend is working for them here and is actually based out in a small community called Ruhiira. He is working on setting up an electronical medical records (EMR) program for the health clinic there. He invited me out to see the clinic and see what is going on out there. The clinic is the most beautifully situated health clinic you can imagine. Positioned on the top of a hill, looking out over banana plantations and many more hills and green countryside. It has a beautiful garden and clean facilities. The health clinic, however, is lacking a lot of supplies and only has 3 in-patient beds. It is currently classified as a level 2 clinic, but is operating as a level 3 clinic as they do have a maternity ward (by ward I mean concrete room). Things are operating smoothly though, and the doctors have been very welcoming of the EMR system as prior to that, the only way of tracking patients previous health history was through blue journal books that I used to take final exams at Colby. Patients were told to carry these around with them whenever they were going to the clinic and theoretically, doctors would be able to look through the books to get the patient's history and the patient could take it to any health clinic. However, not surprisingly, patients would typically buy a new blue book before going to the clinic and then would pass the blue book onto their children to use in school and the doctor's notes were lost. Now, it will hopefully all be on the computers...if only America could get their act together and actually do this a bit faster...

Anyway, in talking to the people at MVP, they did say that they could definitely use some volunteer help 1-2 days a week if I was available when I come back, so right now this is a possibility for other work I could come back to work on. 

Another big event last week was the end of the semester at Mburara International School. As such, last week was filled with games, movies, and presentations. The presentation for the parents occurred last Friday morning. Each class put on a presentation covering a different topic. Each class had been working on it all term. Junior Kindergarten presented about farm animals, Senior Kindergarten along with P2 presented about the importance of water, P1 presented about games and sports, P3 - Scouts and Scouting (like Boy Scouts stuff), P4 - the eyes, P5 - importance of a balanced diet, and P6 - Circulatory and Respiratory Systems. They were all great, but I think Junior Kindergarten "won". How can you beat 2-4 year olds miss pronouncing the names and sounds that farm animals make. Not to mention the performance of hoola-hooping they put on. They stole the show. Afterwards, the teachers gave out several awards and presented me with a beautiful African drum for having helped out at the school. Extremely unexpected and I was very grateful. I really had a great time at the school and will miss the kids and teachers a lot. They are now on holiday until Jan. 5. A full month.

(Warning: The below my be a little graphic for people, especially vegetarians like Ross Lohr)

However, it wasn't quite goodbye to the teachers yet. Saturday morning I woke up at 6 AM and caught a ride over to the school. We were having a goat roast and I had requested that I help out like all the other teachers. This meant I got to slaughter a goat. It was ridiculous. They wouldn't let me make the first slit in the throat, but very soon after that I was down there slicing the head off. Next, I was skinning the goat. I caught on pretty quickly and the Ugandans were pretty impressed with my ability to not leave much meat on the skin. They are very careful to use every part of the goat. I soon found out they meant every part of the goat.

Once the goat was skinned, one of the guys began chopping up the goat with a machete while I went over to help clean out the stomach and intestines. That's right, plenty of undigested grass and everything. We squeezed the feces out of the intestines, rinsed them with water, and then tied them so they they would cook more easily. I was given a brief tutorial and examination of the heart and just about everything else. Just when I thought we were done, they realized they had forgotten the tail. They quickly cut the meat of the tail. Normally they would also get the meat out of the head and use the hooves, but there are 3 or 4 dogs that live at the school so they were going to let the dogs enjoy the head and hooves.

We chopped up all the meat and passed some of it onto the women to prepare stews and such, while the majority of the meat was slightly seasoned and thrown onto skewers over the grill. The afternoon consisted of consuming large amounts of goat meat and plenty of beers. There was a short dancing session as the meat and beer started to wind down. Some rain moved in, so we moved inside and chatted and listened to music for a little while. It was a great afternoon and a final goodbye to many of the teachers. At least a temporary goodbye. I got a ride home and was all ready to have a relaxing evening when Connor and crew called me up and invited me to a wedding reception, which I actually mentioned in the last post. I met them at the wedding, not knowing who had just been married. We then proceeded to have some more drinks (including some Waragi which is the local gin produced from the bananas. It isn't too bad actually.) We danced with Ugandans all night and took over the dance floor and had a great time. The weddings here really are just about celebrating. Anyone and everyone is welcome really. They don't have open bars or food at the reception party, but they apparently did at the actually wedding part.

It was one of the best Saturdays I can ever remember having and I am sure it will stay with me for a long time to come. The next day was to be the beginning of my short tour of South-Western Uganda including tracking the mountain gorillas. The next post will cover that trip and probably my last few days in Mbarara. Until then, take care.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So I know I have fallen a bit behind on blogging and I apologize to all of you who need something to pass the time at work. I believe I left off right around Thanksgiving.

I was very worried that my Thanksgiving plans would fall through and I would end up eating either chicken stew with mixed vegetables or splurging to go out for mediocre Indian food. However, Thanksgiving ended up being a complete success. I showed up at my director's house with a bottle and wine and before I knew it, 15 other Ugandans from work and town showed up to join us. Many of them had never had Thanksgiving before and they were very curious about everything. Although they were mainly saying it in jest, they were giving me a hard time that Americans only "give-thanks" once a year where as here they give thanks all the time. There is a lot of truth to their jest as many people here are very religious and pray and give thanks everyday for their food. While the people I am working with are able to afford meals everyday, I have come across many who only have 1 or 2 meals a day.  Anyway, I will avoid delving into that for now as I have a lot to cover.

The Thanksgiving meal was the largest I have every seen. As I had said, my Director lived in the States for many years and she would not settle for a Thanksgiving without a turkey. Many of my other mzungu friends who had Thanksgivings around town, did not have a turkey, so we were very lucky. It didn't taste quite as nice as Momma Kahane's, but it definitely was fresh... We also had ham, beef, sweet potatoes, irish potatoes, green beans, spiced rice, corn bread, everything you can think of. On top of that, they had baked 6 different desserts including chocolate cake, apple pie, and pumpkin pie (x2 but the dog ate one of them). We also took turns (some of us) speaking about all the things we are thankful for which was interesting to do with Ugandans and not just my family. It was really a nice way of celebrating Thanksgiving because I realized it was my first Thanksgiving away from my family, and needless to say, I did miss them all. I was able to stuff myself and impress all the Ugandans with my ability to eat. I even impressed myself, but it was a very nice change from beans, matoke, and stews. 

Which reminds me, many people have asked about the food here. The food has been decent. The good parts have been that they have delicious fish, well, only tilapia, but it is really good here. Also, the beans are very fresh and taste much better than back home. There is always fresh fruit available including pineapples, mangoes, paw-paw (papaya), watermelon, bananas (referred to as "yellows" because they also have matoke...), avocados, and several others. Eggs are readily available for breakfast as well. The pineapple is some of the best I have had and is very cheap. It really does rival the pineapples from Costa Rica in both price and quality. A medium (good sized) pineapple costs 1000 schillings which is about 50-60 cents depending on the exchange rate which is hovering just under 2000 schillings per dollar. The avocados are plentiful and very large. They are about the size of a softball and baseball placed together (to account for the tear drop shape). The other, when in season, delicious treat is grasshopper. Large green grasshoppers intrude Uganda in late November until mid- to late December. They are caught with nets and are sold on the streets. The wings and legs are plucked off and then fried (while still alive). They are very fatty so you don't even need oil to fry them. They are delicious. I had about 15-20 at the bar last week as I drank some interesting local brews for about 75 cents per beer. The grasshoppers really just tasted like french fries, except they also had some antennas which made you remember what you were eating...

The staple food year round though is matoke. It is a green banana that is not at all sweet and has very little taste. It is prepared either by steaming it in banana leaves or roasted over a grill or fire. It is bearable with some g-nut sauce (ground nuts, similar to peanut sauce) or with some of the sauce from the stews which are either beef, goat, or chicken. They also rely heavily on pocho which is made from millet and is another starchy blob of tastelessness. Occasionally you get lucky and get sweet potatoes, irish potatoes, or rice. They also have great chapati which is like naan. The food really hasn't been bad at all. I have managed to do just fine with no major food-sicknesses. 

The amount of starch in a meal far outweighs the amount of protein or other vitamins, and that is a major problem in the area. You will see young children living on banana plantations with enormous bellies, and somewhat counterintuitively, these kids are actually suffering from malnutrition because all they eat is matoke and bananas and that is the cause of their protruding belly, not because they are well-fed.

The rest of that Thanksgiving weekend was good. I didn't take any time off of work on Thursday or Friday and actually had to do some work over the weekend. However, that weekend I did get to go to the home of one of the doctors in the HIV Clinic. He had graciously let me observe him in the clinic one morning, which while it was interesting, made me realize I do not want to work as a doctor in a clinic. Even he said he often gets bored. His wife also works for the study and I have worked closely with her on several occasions. Unlike in the States where the norm is to save up enough money to pay for the complete construction of a house, in Uganda they build in phases. This couple bought the land 2 years ago and last year were able to afford to build a small living quarters. This year they have been able to start construction on their actual home. The majority of the walls have been put up, but there is still a lot of work to be done. They hope to do a little more work in April '09 which will include paving the driveway and doing some additional work on the walls.

While we were sitting and waiting for lunch to be prepared (prepared by the women while Dr. Bosco and I drank sodas and chatted) two of his friends called up and joined us for lunch. This is apparently very typical and based on what I have seen, just part of the culture. Hospitality is very important and if someone turns up at your house as you are preparing food, you invite them to join. Lunch was a typical meal prepared for "special" guests. By special I mean Mzungu. It was matoke, rice, chicken stew, mixed vegetables and followed by fruit for dessert. It was delicious and filling.

Continuing the trend of hospitality, before I had left that morning to join my hosts for lunch, I had been invited to attend a wedding that afternoon by one of the guys who works at the place I am staying. When I returned from lunch, the wedding was just about to begin, an hour and a half after they had said it would start, which wasn't a bad delay considering African time. As soon as I got there I had at least 3 other strangers invite me to join the wedding. Sure enough, I went down to the wedding and watched as there was a performance of traditional dancing done by a group of young men and women and then an apparently popular pop-star took the stage and sang a couple of songs. Soon afterwards, the bride and groom arrived. They walked hand and hand across a plastic tarp that had been laid down. However, before each step, there were people laying down clean newspapers for them to step on. I am still not exactly sure why they did this, but it was interesting. The bride and groom then sat down and the speeches started. This was when I left, temporarily. I listened to one or two speeches but they were all in Runyankore (the local language) so I couldn't understand a word. Also, I had been told they could last for several hours... So I went to do some work and play basketball.

Sure enough, I returned to the wedding at 8 oclock (3 hours late) to find that the speeches were just wrapping up. I chatted with some of the wedding guests and had dinner with them. The party only went until about 11 or 12 because people had traveled from very far. If weddings occur in the villages, they will continue to dance and party until dawn. This wedding did not have much dancing, however, I ended up attending another wedding last weekend with some of my friends this time, and we ended up dancing all night long and having a great time.  The dancing here tends to be different from back home in that men will commonly dance with other men and instead of having circles of girls going out dancing, it is the men here that take over the dance floor and dance in circles themselves. Hopefully I haven't made too much of a fool of myself, but they haven't seemed to mind.

The following day was a chance for me to get to go back to the orphanage I have helped out at, however, the guy I usually go with was in Rwanda. I still decided to go over there, despite not being able to talk to them in advance to let them know I was coming. I brought them two soccer balls I had bought and they were extremely excited and grateful. It turned out that the U-14 boys team I had mentioned were having a game so no practice for the girls. We walked down to the field and that's when they informed me that I was going to be the ref. I had a blast with it. Got to re-use the skills I had used when I was 16 and reffed all of two games. Obviously I am very familiar with the rules of soccer, but there were no out-of-bounds lines, intermittently there were people helping me with the sidelines and calling off-sides. But it was a challenge. It was a fun game and I ended up doing alright. Not too many botched calls, although one of the goals was questionable with regards to off-sides but oh well.

Well, I have to run to meet some people for a birthday dinner. I am still at least a week and a half behind. I will try to catch up. My time here is running out. I leave my town next Tuesday and leave Uganda next Friday. I am still figuring out whether or not I will be back. I may not decide until I get home, so we will see. Take care everyone!

 

Coaching, Queen Elizabeth, and more

So it has been quite a while since I have been able to update everyone on my happenings. We have been without internet for about 11 days, and it has been extremely frustrating. Our work and my work especially relies pretty heavily on our internet connection and being able to communicate with Dr. Bangsberg back in Boston. In addition to the internet being down, our server crashed so we couldn't even access the majority of our files for a week. However, it appears that everything is up and running again. We will see how long that lasts...

A couple weekends ago, I ended up getting involved with coaching some soccer. Danny, one of the guys I went golfing with happened upon some kids playing soccer one day while he was out running. It turns out there is a boys team that is coached by a guy named Moses who described himself as a "Street Kid" growing up. He didn't have much and basically just hung out on the street, not going to school or working. He then met a gentleman named David who now runs a small orphanage in the neighboring town. Together, they have a handful of kids they take care of at a small house that serves as an orphanage. While the boys have a legitimate team and Moses as the coach, Danny has offered to coach practices for the local girls. Danny invited me to join him and his wife Lynn one Sunday afternoon.

When I met up with them at their apartment, they had been babysitting the youngest orphan, a 4 year old girl Putin. She was devouring a Cadbury bar and had been given a little stuffed animal. We spent ten minutes trying to get her shoes back on, as they were clearly about 2 sizes too small. We then took a small hike, about 40 minutes, through the valley to the orphanage where we were met by a group of boys and girls who were anxious to go play some soccer. Danny carried Putin on his shoulders the entire way, so that she wouldn't cut up her feet. We rounded up about 2o girls and 5-10 boys along our walk, inviting them all to come play soccer with us.

We then walked down to the field which was a large soccer pitch with varying lengths of grass. The middle of the field was mostly dirt with a bit of grass springing up here and there and some considerable dirt mounds sporadically placed across the field. Towards the corners and sidelines, the grass rose well past my knees. The goals were actually fairly legitimate in that they were made of metal, as opposed to most of the goals that are curved pieces of wood nailed together. We coached the girls for about half an hour running drills and getting some exercise before letting them scrimmage a bit. While Danny had the scrimmage under control, another volunteer in the area, Connor, and I played some pick up soccer with some of the locals on the other end of the field. It was nice to get out and play some soccer and run around.

Connor is here with his buddy Brian and Brian's girlfriend Annie. They all just graduated from University of San Diego and are here through their church helping to get a hospital going and getting involved with other projects in the area. Brian and Connor both play soccer and basketball, which has worked out pretty well so far. They met the coach of a high school basketball team in the area and when I joined all of them for dinner that night, we found out he also helps coach the university team and invited to go play with them the next day.

I had walked by the kids playing basketball everyday after work, but figured they were practicing. We played with them and between Connor, Brian, and myself, we impressed them enough to get invited back. We have been playing with them every Monday and Friday and having a good time. The court is in pretty terrible shape. No nets, broken gravel, and a busted rim. Nevertheless, it is a good time. There are some decent players and others that are not as much so, but overall I have been impressed.

That next weekend I got invited to tag along with some people to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We left early Saturday morning and drove through the beautiful green hills northwest of Mbarara. As we rounded one of the hills close to the park, the hills immediately evaporated and became an enormous savanna-like landscape. It is called the Western Rift Valley and I believe it runs through Uganda and down into Tanzania, but I could easily be wrong. Looking out across the Western Rift Valley, the Rwenzori Mountains (aka "Mountains to the Moon") emerge. They rise to a substantial 5110 m and are glacier capped. Pretty amazing to think there are glacier capped mountains virtually on the Equator.

When we arrived at our hostel, we headed over to the nice Mweya Lodge to meet two doctors who were accompanying us for lunch. We then took a boat launch to go see some buffaloes, hippos, birds (there are tons of birds here. it is amazing), and one of 11 fishing villages in the national park. The hippos and buffaloes really just ignored us as we got within feet of them as they floated in the channel. The channel connects the two main lakes in Queen Elizabeth, Lake George and Lake Edward. When we were passing the fishing village, all of the men were boarding their dug-out canoes to go out fishing for the evening. There must have been 30 canoes going out, it was pretty amazing to see this as they literally live right next to these hug pods of hippos and buffaloes. Nothing separates them at all.

We went on a short game drive after the boat trip and got to see some elephants and other antelope type animals. We also did a game drive early the next morning which was more exciting as we saw a female lion laying in the shade, a male lion saunter from one thicket to another, and male Ugandan Kobs bucking as they competed for territory.

The following week, was the week without internet and work was very frustrating. I was able to get a little bit done, but it was extremely unproductive. I spent more time out at Mburara International school and got a chance to teach again as we talked about directions and a compass. I also helped P4 with their term project about the eye. They were looking for a way to spice up their presentation so we decided to make paper mache eyeballs. While Mr. Thompson took the lead and has been working with them, we will be painting and decorating them next week before their presentation day and last day of the term, next Friday, December 5th. I also got a chance to see the building plans for the new school and got to sit down at a meeting with the contractor. They have some very ambitious plans and goals and it will likely take a lot of work, but it is a very important thing they are trying to do. Miss K is very determined to make it happen and is getting worried that it won't happen while she is still around to teach. Nneka and I are confident it will get done, but were very much taken aback by the costs. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

This past weekend, I decided to go to Lake Bunyonyi which is just outside of Kabale, in the very southern most tip of Uganda which borders the DRC, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The lake is the only lake in Uganda that you can safely swim in because it is free of harmful bacteria and diseases. It also doesn't have hippos or crocodiles which is important. When we got there, we were taken aback by its beauty and tranquility. We took a dug-out canoe out to Bushara Island for the day and night. The lake is surrounded by beautiful and green hills with little villages scattered among them. The lake is littered with little islands that also have small villages on them. There are no motorboats or giant mansions and there is plenty of undeveloped land. We stayed in a cabin called the Treehouse and it looked out over the water towards another island that was used from the 1930s until the late 1960s as a leper colony. All the individuals in the local town who suffered from Leprosy were exiled to the island.

Bushara Island was extremely relaxing. It did not offer too much in the way of entertainment, except it did have a small rope swing that Connor and I spent the majority of the afternoon on, attempting backflips that never really amounted to anything more than painful back flops. The food on the island was excellent and we met some nice older people who have been coming to the island once a year for the past 8 years as they have helped to fund and build a hospital up in Kasese, a ways away from Lake Bunyonyi. In any event, it was a restful and relaxing weekend.

Well, I think I have caught up on everything now...quite a long post. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I will be having Thanksgiving at my Director's house. This is also my last full weekend in Mbarara as I have ironed out plans to go on a little tour of Uganda my last week and a half or so. Hope everyone is well and thank you to everyone who has sent me emails or comments or anything else.

Oh, and posting pictures doesn't look like it will happen at this point... I will make sure to do that when I get back to the States.

Golfing and Teaching...

What an adventure...golfing here was quite amusing and entertaining. I went with two other Muzungus JJ and Danny. We met up at the golf club thinking that they had club rentals because someone had said they did. Naturally, the woman working the desk had no idea what I was talking about. However, there was a Pastor there who said he had left some clubs in the back, but he wasn't a golfer himself and said we could use them. The woman brought out an amazing collection of clubs. She had about 8 different woods. When I say woods, I mean the old fashioned drivers that are actually made out of wood with big screws on the club face. Additionally, they had one putter, but the putter head was bent straight up and had clearly been welded back together. We ended up finding another club that resembled a putter, but wasn't actually one. We were then able to find 3 irons, a 3 iron, a 6 iron, and an 8 iron. Mind you these clubs are for three of us to share. We then were able to purchase one sleeve of balls (3 balls) because that was all they had. This meant we each had one ball for the entire round.

Because we didn't know the course and it wasn't clearly marked, we were given a caddie. A 10 year old kid who carried our clubs in his hands and pointed us in the right direction. As soon as we got on the course, 7 other young kids all emerged and helped to caddie for the rest of the round. Not only were they caddying, but they were also our ball finders as we could not afford to lose a ball. As soon as we stepped up to tee off (and I used that term loosely as there were no tees on which to place the ball), it started pouring rain, but we decided to continue because the storms come and go pretty quickly for the most part.

As we struggled to figure out where we were supposed to hit the ball as there are no flags in the holes and the greens look very similar to the fairway, we realized that there really weren't enough fairways for 9 holes. That's when we figured out that each fairway served as the fairway for anywhere from 1-4 holes. This meant we had to be very cautious of people hitting balls at us. We also had to hit the balls across roads with people walking on them. It was very much like one of those carnival games with the ducks going along in a line in front of you and you have to knock them down. Despite our efforts to hit people, we missed...kidding of course.

We had a great time and the kids were constantly laughing at us and our poor performance on the course. Surprisingly, we made it until the 8th hole (of 9) before I lost my ball. And I only lost it because it went into a yard with a locked fence. It was really a cool experience and we will definitely go out and play again. Especially because the whole round cost about 5 bucks each.

I had also mentioned that I would be teaching class at the school about using a Microscope. It was a great success as I explained everything about the microscope to levels P4 and P5. Some of the kids had remembered some things about the microscope as a volunteer had used it with some of them last year. The kids definitely enjoyed using it to look at a blood smear and plant cells. I explained to them some of the basic differences and had a blast. I then had to administer a quiz to them, which they all did very well on. It was clear some kids were more interested in others as they spent a lot longer looking into the microscope and asking me questions about it. Both classes I taught though were very engaged and were very excited about having me teach.

My supervisor, Dr. Bangsberg, was in town this week for two days. It is crazy what he does. Leaves Boston Monday morning, arrives in Mbarara Wednesday around lunch. He then works and has meetings straight through until Friday lunchtime, then starts the trip back to Boston. He spends 4 days traveling, and 2 other days working on site. We did have dinner together and several meetings and talking to him was great. He explained to me all about the projects and those that I will be working on and what his goals are. It means I will be busy doing work for the next couple of weeks, but I am excited about it. He is truly trying to do some things that have never been done, but could end up being extremely valuable and important. He also said he would put me down as an author on my major projects which is pretty exciting.

I did finally take some pictures of the school, however, the internet connection in my office is not allowing me to post the pictures. Later this week I am going to try one of the other offices with better internet, but unfortunately the pictures may have to wait. Hope all is well with everyone. Time is flying by as I am trying to plan some cool trips, including Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Week 1...Mburara International School

So it has been just over a week since I arrived in Mbarara and the University Inn. Things have continued to improve everyday. That first weekend was a bit slow, even by Mbarara standards. The town has very little to offer in the way of entertainment, especially during the day. I am finding out more and more everyday though, and I may even go golfing tomorrow which I had never expected to do. I found someone who wants to take up golfing and since they have a nine hole course and I think it costs about $5 including the club rentals, I figured it would be a good way to spend a couple hours.

This week I continued to meet a lot of people who work for Uganda Research Initiative (URI) and I am having a hard time keeping them all straight. They are all very friendly though and are really excited to meet a white american lad. Not too many of those around here. I am sure I could count the number on one hand. I am constantly stared at as I walk around town and those who are friendly enough, shout out "Mzungu" and wave to me and laugh to themselves at such a strange cite. The kids especially. They sit there in awe with a big smile on their face.

Speaking of the kids, I went to Mburara International school three days this week and I am really excited about helping out there. There are a bunch of young guys who teach there who are really excited to have me there. They are asking questions about my travels and America and all sorts of things. They let me help out in class and join them in activities during lunch and P.E. They obviously play a lot of soccer, but surprisingly, a lot of the kids have taken a keen interest in volleyball. One of the teachers, Michael, played soccer through university, but while he was there, because the soccer team wasn't so great, took up volleyball. The kids and teachers have really come to like it a lot. While I haven't played volleyball with them yet, I did have to show them a thing or two on the soccer field. And I use the term field very loosely. It is a very overgrown, small piece of land that slopes down into a garden that is surrounded by a wooden, barbed wire fence. The only way to cut the grass is for one of the workers to use a modified machete. It was shocking to see, but that is how they cut all the grass and plants around here. A man and his machete. Whether it is the grass next to the highway or someone's back yard. I have seen two lawn mowers, one for the Mbarara University soccer field and one for the golf course. Makes you appreciate how easy it is to mow the lawn back home. So Jake, stop complaining.

I got to teach a class at the school on Wednesday which was a lot of fun. The kids were extremely engaged and had tons of questions. It is a good thing I know a bit about European Soccer, otherwise I don't know what we would have talked about. All of the kids support either Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, or my favorite, Liverpool. The lesson I taught worked on their listening skills as I read out certain mathematical sentences that they had to then solve. It was something a little different for them, which was good. Next week I think I am going to teach each class (Kindergarten through P6) a lesson using the one microscope they had donated to their school. Hopefully I can remember how to use one...let alone figure out a whole lesson to do using it...

The kids really are great and bring a smile to my face. They all run up to me and fight over who gets to hold my hand. In class, when I walk by they all stop paying attention to smile to me (which isn't the greatest thing for the teachers). They ask me everyday when they will get to see me next. I am looking forward to getting to help out. They have asked me to help do some fundraising, so we are in discussions about that right now. They have purchased a plot of land to build a new school on, but don't have the money to build anything yet. They are currently renting a large house that has been divided up into different classes, with three classes being taught in what was the living room. They put up a wooden wall to divide the room, but the wall doesn't even go up to the ceiling. The kids are all able to focus on their teacher pretty well, but I struggled mightily when I was sitting in on one of the classes. French was being taught to my right and Science to my left while Art class was going on behind me. The Principal's office is the kitchen. 

I am not exactly sure how the fund raising will go yet, but I am in the midst of talking with my good friend Ross about what he has done in Tanzania. When he is able to send me the link to the website, I will post it here. Quite exciting stuff.

Well, I am now off to a meeting to go over a proposal for a research study. I will likely post some information about the study once I have finished the proposal. They are trying to implement some pretty interesting technology here to help in the monitoring of HIV patients and their adherence to their medication.

Arrival

I made it. After an exhausting travel experience for no reason other than the shear length of the travels. The flights all went smoothly. I woke up on the second flight at about 5:45 AM local Ugandan time to see the sun starting to rise as a number of thunderclouds loomed on the horizon with lightning illuminating them.

I was spending the first night in the capital, Kampala. I was shocked by the amount of traffic and exhaust that filled the air on the drive to the hotel. Driving rules were non-existent as sometimes there were 3 lanes and other times just 1. There were young soldiers almost every 200 meters the entire 30-minute drive. Motorcycles were diving in and out and between traffic. I even saw one with a father driving his the young children on the back, without helmets, navigating their way through the traffic jam.

We passed by a lot of small villages with shops lining the streets advertising Coke products and such. There were mounds of green bananas lying on the ground waiting to be sold. These green bananas are used to make what is known as Matoke. They are steamed and then mashed. I just tried it tonight; it is extremely bland and flavorless but abundant nevertheless. The first time I wanted to try it, my waiter flat out denied it to me. He asked if I had ever had it, and when I said "No", he told me he would bring me Irish potatoes instead.

The next morning I left from Kampala to head down to Mbarara with my driver, Ibrahim or Ibra for short. Dr. Bangsberg and his team here hired Ibra about a year and a half ago when they were finally able to get the funding to buy a car. It is a beat up, but sturdy Toyota SUV. Ibra makes the 4-hour dive (8 hours round trip) between Mbarara and Kampala up to 15 times per month, picking up doctors and volunteers. He knows the roads well and so for my worrisome parents and grandparents, I was in very good hands and was never worried about my safety.

The drive was beautiful. I had told many of you that Uganda is apparently a very lush country with a lot of green growth dominating the hills. Despite having been told this, I am still shocked by just how green it is. I finally arrived at my hotel, The University Inn. The accommodations are much nicer than I had expected and I have quite a bit of room. I am about a 10-minute walk from the office I will be working out of about half the week. The offices are pretty nice too. The building is new and has nice marble floors.

The other half of the week I am going to be helping out at the Mbarara International Elementary School. I will initially be helping to set up their website while also helping with after school athletics and in the classes. As I get a better feel for the school, I will begin to increase my role and possibly help out with a project for the first graders. I will go into the school in more detail once I have work there for a bit (meaning in another blog later). After sharing some tea with the founder of the school, Miss K, I realized this was going to be quite an experience getting to work with all these kids.

Departure...

In 48 hours I will be arriving at Logan Airport to begin my long journey to Uganda. Getting there is going to be half the adventure as I will not be getting to my "hotel" room in Mbarara until Thursday around lunch time. Approximately 66 hours after I leave home.

I am anxious and excited to arrive and see what the community is like. I will be the first to admit that I am a little terrified as well, but it is adding to the excitement. Stomach is churning, palms getting a bit sweaty...although not Darren level yet...

Anyway, I just wanted to get the first post out of the way. I hope that by posting to this blog, I will be able to provide everyone with a little bit of insight into my stay in Uganda and the work I will be doing. I plan and expect to be able to post pictures as well.

I will have fairly regular access to email, so if you do have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to drop me an email (josh.kahane@gmail.com).

As some of you know, the plan is for me to be back in Boston on December 26th. If things have gone well up until that point, I will most likely be returning to Uganda shortly thereafter, but because of all the uncertainty surrounding my program (meaning they haven't done this before) Dr. Bangsberg and I agreed this would be a good way to test it out. Anyway, time to start packing...

Mweraba