Post Script

It's been almost two weeks since we've been back from Uganda, but it's still very much on our minds. Here's a little slide show with some video that I created using iMovie. Be forewarned it's a little under 9 minutes. If you've been reading this blog you'll recognize many of the places.

Wednesday, July 14 and Thursday June 15 On the Road Again

Wednesday, July 14 and Thursday June 15
On the Road Again

The 7 hour van ride from the Field Station to Entebbe was brutal. Most of the ride was on tarmac roads but not all. Even the main road between Fort Portal and Kampala is under construction. Unlike the US where they might repair one lane at a time, here in Uganda the entire road is ripped apart and what is left is barely navigable by vehicles, which often must come to a complete stop. And don’t expect a state police officer to be directing the traffic, we saw plenty of Ugandan police, but they were too busy looking cool with their shades and AK47s sitting by the side of the road.

Speaking of guns, it has been Christie’s goal for this entire trip to get her picture taken with a guy with an AK47 while holding a copy of Improper Bostonian magazine. This we accomplished late in the day yesterday. When we arrived at the Field Station after teaching, there was a British woman visiting and she was accompanied by 4 park ranger. One of those rangers by the name of Alex was carrying a good-sized gun, so Christie ran to her room to get her magazine. Alex was more than willing to have his picture taken with Janis and Christie and put on his most serious face for the shot. Christie plans on submitting this photo to the magazine for publication. My guess is that this picture has a good chance of making it.

The ride was extremely tiring, but using Pam and Cindy’s room at the Boma as a day room was inspirational, and we thank them for thinking of us. We spent some time at the pool in the Boma while the travelers took showers and rested for about an hour. Dinner at the Boma was one of the best meals we have had all trip; tilapia, lasagna, cheeseburgers, it was all available. We ate on the veranda with the East African Yellow Billed Plantain Easters calling in the trees overhead. Entebbe borders on Lake Victoria and has a huge variety of bird life as we learned about 20 days ago.

We left early for the airport and arrived at about 7:00 for a 9:50 flight. Plenty of time we thought. But KLM’s system was down and they only had 3 agents dealing with two phone lines (the computers are on dial-up) to be able to check us in. The long wait, however, allowed Christie to do some more bead shopping and she leaves Uganda with out a single shilling. After 2 hours in various lines we are finally ready to board our flight to Amsterdam. It’s about 7 hours to Schipol Airport where we have an 6 hour lay over. That could be interesting.

We arrived in Amsterdam about 20 minutes behind schedule. We checked in at the self-service kiosks and then found this area where they have these serious lounge chairs where we can get a quick nap before our flight leaves 5 hours from now. Janis, Chris and Christie still have plans to visit the spa here. This is a full service airport. They have lots of ways of taking your money.

The girls report that the spa was expensive but well worth it. They all started with the massage chairs and then went to the manicure and eventually pedicure. Chris and Christie boarded the airplane to Boston still wearing those paper sandals that are given to allow a pedicure the dry properly. I imagine some pampering is in order at this point for all of us.

We have plans for a get together sometime soon after this trip is over. We have collected video and still pictures in different places and will distribute these on disks once they are organized. When we were at dinner at the Boma (it seems so long ago) Pam asked us each to talk about the trips highlights. Many things were mentioned, Kanyawara Primary School, getting to know Koojo Mathew, Chimp tracking with Zarin, getting close to the Lions of Ishasha, Mugusu Market with our defenders, football at Kigarama and meeting our scholars.

This trip is hard to summarize, because there are so many rich and wonderful parts to it. We are happy and proud to continue to build the Weston-Uganda connection with our students, and keep it strong within the Weston Public Schools. We know also that there will be more teachers to follow. We hope this blog will serve as a resource for them as it will remain for us as we reflect on a life altering experience.

Mwebale muno to all our followers and readers.

Tuesday, July 13 Kanyawara Primary School

Kagaba Joshua arrived for breakfast this morning. Joshua is a “piece of work” as the saying goes. He does a hilarious American accent. His phone rings at least every 10 minutes and he answers it wherever he is. He told me that I was in charge of the sacrifice for tonight’s dinner. So I told him that I would sacrifice some pizza, but that was it.

Janis, Christie and Steve walked to Kanyawara this morning. It was only a short walk along the road that leads to the Field Station so we were pretty comfortable with the walk. Chris took the van that was going to Fort Portal, and met us at Kanyawara. We had heard a lot of good things about Kanyawara Primary School and are happy to report that we found those things to be true.

The students at Kanyawara did the best work in our lessons that we had seen at any of the five schools. The teachers were very involved in our lessons and the HM, Josephine, was the perfect host. Chris and Christie report the same thing in their lessons. They taught two P1 classes and a P2 class as well.

After lunch Josephine showed us around the school grounds. First we viewed the lunch program. Kanyawara is also serving a porridge lunch to its students. They are using a temporary shed, but are building a new kitchen next to this temporary one. After this we were shown a demonstration of the P6 students tending to a number of banana trees. They were mulching the plants with elephant grass and spear grass. We were given the opportunity to prune the banana trees; Janis with a large hook on the end of a 10 foot pole, and Christie and Steve with a machete (yes a real machete). The students then demonstrated a highly organic method of fertilizing the plants. They dug a trench with large digging hoes and then they proceeded to put manure in the trench. This they did by hand. The manure was quite fresh. It was wrapped in banana leaves and the students had brought it from home. It was a little difficult to watch children with their hands in manure, but we were told they would wash later. Another TIA (this is Africa) moment.

We were then shown another area. Last year the teacher group had brought the book “One Hen” to use in their lessons in the schools. Josephine had the vision to put the message of that book into reality. Starting with one hen they began to expand their flock, acquired a rooster, built a hen house and kept on adding to the area. The result is an entire chicken raising area complete with its own goat (based on the book “Beatrice’s Goat”). Students supervised by teachers tend all of these agricultural areas.

We then met in the HM’s office with the entire team of teachers, who spoke with us and thanked us for our work in their classrooms. Josephine completed the perfect day in their school by giving us T- Shirts that said, “Kanyawara Loves You.” All in all it was a great day at a school, which is doing some innovative and important work.

We walked home and found that Pam and Cindy had brought us pizza from Fort Portal. Alice and Scott had found it at this little place in the city that makes excellent pizza and it was still warm. After almost 3 weeks away from American food it was a great afternoon snack. We devoured it.

At about 4:00 we heard some strong rumbling and Chris and I came out of our rooms. Chris said, “What was that?” I said that I thought it was thunder. Chris said it felt like and earthquake. It turns out that Chris was right. It was an earthquake. The researchers from the Chimp House knew exactly what it was and evacuated their buildings. However, we were oblivious to this and went about our business as if it was a thunderstorm.

In the afternoon Chris pointed out an activity taking place over to the side of our dorm rooms. It was a man butchering a goat. Apparently, that goat was to be dinner later on that night. Kagaba Joshua had, indeed, donated a goat to be slaughtered and roasted for our dinner. So we had two different kinds of pasta, yams, potatoes, rice, and goat on a stick. It was a very interesting and ceremonial dinner, with lots of speeches and emotional thank you messages from the Africans and from the Muzungus.

We hear that Barbara Stevens is coming here late tonight. However, we will likely miss her as we have an early wake up call for the 6 hour ride to Entebbe tomorrow. It’s just the beginning leg of our 36 hour travel towards home. I’ll post more as we get access during our travel.

Monday July 12 Kasiisi Primary School

For many of us going to Kasiisi School feels like we are going to our home school. We know so many of the staff and children at this school that we feel very comfortable there. Elizabeth (Lydia) Kasenene, the Head Mistress of Kasiisi Primary School was at a meeting here at the Field Station in the morning. Still we knew the Assistant Head Mistress, Joyce, Moses, Beatrice and some of the other teachers. The walls of the HM’s (the student’s pronounce this (haitch em) are covered with pictures, posters and news stories celebrating the Weston-Kasiisi connection.

There are several pictures of Courtney Massotti both from her visit here and during her fundraising in Weston. When Courtney was a first grader at Country School, she was struck by the fact that Ugandan children do not all go to Secondary School. So she asked me if she could collect change in order to raise some money to sponsor a Kasiisi student to go to secondary school. She put a big change jar outside of her classroom and got a few donations. Then Courtney wanted to make a presentation at a whole school meeting, and she showed me a notebook that she had created with pictures and text that outlined what she wanted to say. Again I said yes, but I sent Courtney to Lucille Beeth our technology/library teacher for technical assistance (she was only seven). Together they converted the notebook into a slide show, which Courtney presented at a school meeting. The change jar got a lot more contributions, and adults, teachers and parents started to put in money as well. Courtney then asked if she could make her presentation at Woodland School and I arranged for that to happen. Then she made her presentation at her father’s place of business and then some community organizations. The end result was that Courtney eventually raised over $3600, enough to send two Kasiisi students to 4 years of secondary school each. It’s a remarkable story and one that is not lost on the Ugandans. Courtney is quite well known at Kasiisi School.

Kasiisi School has every year the most students who receive a grade one pass in their PLE’s. Thus they get the most scholars of any of the five primary schools in the project. So we wondered if we would see a significant difference in the children from the other schools we had visited. Janis and I taught lessons in the two P4 classrooms with 80 and 89 students in each class. The classrooms were small and the students were crowded 5 to a bench. We had a difficult time physically getting to every student to see his or her work. The quality of the work that we saw was not different from any other P4 classroom. There were a few individuals who stood out with better English than their peers, but the overall work and neediness of the students was similar to other schools.

Chris and Christie report that in the classrooms they were in some of the benches were moved so that they face each other. This allowed the teacher to move around the classroom more freely and get to every student. At the same time it encourages students to talk to each other. So much of the teaching that goes on her is for rote knowledge or skill, not for understanding concepts. You can often hear students repeating facts in unison outside of a classroom. We have tried with very limited success to get students to talk to each other, but that is going to take some time. Just the moving of the benches is a big step forward.

Kasiisi School is one of the two project schools that serves lunch to their students. They make a maize porridge, which we tried. It’s quite good. It also smells grainy and nutritious. Students sit outside on the grass with green and blue mugs of warm porridge and drink while they socialize. Teachers have the porridge for lunch also. It’s quite remarkable to see. The last time we were here most of these students went the whole day without anything to eat. That is still true at Kiko, Kigarama, and Rweterra.

Chris and Christie visited the library after their lessons and had some maize porridge. There they encountered a group of P6 students who were preparing for a literature circle that afternoon. The book they were reading was Sadako and the Paper Crane. The students were doing some research about Japan in preparation for the discussions and they were surprised that the teachers knew this book. Chris explained to them that students all over the world read this book. The teachers left very impressed with these girls and their initiative in their work. All of this leaves us to wonder why girls represent so few of the scholars that come out of Kasiisi or any of the primary schools.

It was also great that Chris was finally able to see the preschool today. She came away very impressed with the structure, and hopefully the interiors will be finished soon so that three and four year old students can begin learning. Once again Kasiisi School will be the only public school in this part of the country with a preschool as part of its program. All the other preschools in the area are private.

Janis, Chris, Christie and I also visited both P7 classrooms at Kasiisi to talk to the students about the United States. They have very limited knowledge about us, but we did get one question about the petrol spill (they thought it was in a lake) in the Gulf of Mexico. But most of their questions were about climate, vegetation and the animals that are the same and different in both countries. One of the key skills for these students as they leave primary school is their English. Even if they don’t receive a scholarship for secondary school, speaking English well is a key to their economic future. With good English they could get jobs in the hotel or tourist industry, they could be employed at any number of businesses in Fort Portal. But with limited English they will be relegated to being a subsistence farmer like their ancestors. This was part of the message we tried to impart to these P7 students.

Earlier in the day Scott and Koojo Mathew spoke with the P7 boys separately. This discussion was also about their futures. The students wrote letters to their future selves and talked about the options open to them after they leave primary school. Many of these students will not receive scholarships to be able to go to secondary school.

During our visit to Kasiisi we heard of the double bombing in Kampala of people watching the football match last night. Fortunately, no one we know was among the victims of that bombing. Uganda is a political supporter of the United States and they are among the nations that have sent troops to Somalia to help with the chaotic situation there. That is likely why these targets were chosen. We spent the afternoon contacting family to assure them we are all fine.

Teaching in these classrooms is very draining of our energy. It may be because we are dealing with so many students and trying to get to every one of them. Or it may simply be that we have been away from home for too long (it’s been 17 days since we left) and the stress of travel is getting to us. After contacting family we relaxed at the Oasis before an excellent dinner and an early bedtime.

Leaving the Oasis I got bit on the ankle by something. I killed it and showed it to a local woman who said it was a Tse Tse fly. I’ve read that sleeping sickness has been eradicated in Africa. Let’s hope it’s true.

We say goodbye to the Krimsky/Kee family today as they head back to Entebbe today before leaving for the U.S. We’ll be visiting our last primary school today, Kanyawara, about which we hear good reports. Thanks to all of you who are reading and following and for the great comments. Keep em coming!

Quick Update

Just a note to let you know everyone here is doing well. You may have heard that there was a double bombing in Kampala, but everyone we know is fine. We finished work at Kasiisi School today and tomorrow we are at Kanyawara Primary School. More later.

Sunday July 11 Field Station and Ndali Lodge

We slept in relatively late this morning with breakfast for most of us at a leisurely 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. Pam and Cindy had work to do with Lydia and John Kasenene and the Kee family were off to 8:30 church service and lunch on their own. Later in the day Pam and Cindy will conduct a GPS activity at Kanyawara with students from P6 and P7.

This morning Lucas the P4 (third grade) student who was too young to do the chimpanzee tracking yesterday spent some time with us. So we taught him how to play baseball. There was a whiffle ball bat and ball in the Kasiisi Project office, so we taught him how to hit. He already knew how to throw and catch. Janis, Christie, Scott, Alice and Steve comprised the remainder of our group which we named the Kanyawara Kob. We had a spirited session of whiffle ball hitting. Lucas was surprisingly good at his first time hitting. He has good eye hand coordination and made several very good hits. Janis, however, hit the only grand slam of the day, hitting a deep ball that went into the Men’s shower area where it was retrieved by Christie!

Baseball over, we had a good conversation about the Girls Health Project and the progress it has made. The long term vision of this project is to create locally made biodegradable sanitary products made from locally grown papyrus for women and girls that can be created at a low enough price point to be affordable to local women. Alice Bator, the creator and coordinator of this project has met with a local professor Dr. Muzazi, who has created a process for making these products. It is conceivable that within the next year a production site can be set up in the Kasiisi area and begin to manufacture these products. Right now there is no such production in Africa. That’s right this would be the first in the entire continent. Right now every NGO in Africa imports sanitary products from outside of Africa at a much higher price than it would be if products could be made locally. It’s a remarkable project that if successful will provide needed health products, education to young girls about their physical development, and an economic boost to the local economy. You can find out more about this program at www.kasiisiproject.org.

Lucas joined us for lunch at the Field Station and I was able to show him the chimpanzee photographs from yesterday that he was unable to see. Zarin brought over a number of great shots from her excellent camera last night and I imported them into a slide show along with the few that we were able to take. You can’t use flash photography with the chimps and the rainforest has little light. Thus Zarin’s expert photography was very welcome. A picture of our new favorite chimp Magasi is my new wall paper.

We spent an leisurely afternoon reading and napping. I decided to corrupt the youth of Uganda by letting Lucas use my iPhone to play video games. Like most children he was able to figure out how to navigate his way around the device with little difficulty. He also proved to be quite good at Doodle Jump.

Dinner at Ndali Lodge was outstanding. Google Ndali Lodge for the web site. The lodge is a guest house in the middle of a series of Crater Lakes. These lakes are another part of the remarkable beauty of this country. In fact there is a picture on the 20,000-shilling ($10) bill of the road we used with crater lakes on either side (yes, it does seem like monopoly money). We ate supper overlooking one of those lakes, which was about 100 feet below us. Aubrey, the owner, is a British ex-pat who charmingly came to our table to introduce himself and give us the story of the Lodge. On the way out Christie saw a poster on the wall labeled “Snakes of Uganda,” fortunately for her this was as close as she would get to a legless reptile in this country.

Back at the Field Station we are all missing our families very much. The rest of the country is watching football tonight, but early to bed tonight for us as we have a full day at Kasiisi School tomorrow.

Post Script: Brushing your teeth before bed is not a simple proposition at the Field Station. You can’t use the tap water here because it contains bacteria that our bodies are not used to. We have to use bottled water. That fact, plus the fact that the bathrooms with sinks are about 50 yards away through the dark African night has led to a nightly event called “Spitting from the Ledge.” Just before bed we stand on the ledge of the sidewalk outside our rooms in front of the lawn with toothbrush, paste and bottled water. Brush, swish, spit and then rinse. Tonight Christie decided to have a spitting contest to see who could spit the farthest. I think she won, but then it was dribbling down her face afterwards.

Saturday, July 10, 2010 Kanyanchu

Although we are staying right next to a Chimp research station, we are not allowed to track or view the Kanayawara Chimps, as the Field Station group is known. The Kanyawara Chimps are an habituated research group and visitors, and even residents, are not allowed to view them. So we had to drive about an hour south of here to a different part of Kibale Forest to Kanyanchu. Along the way we stopped to pick up some students from Kasiisi School to share this experience with them. Unfortunately one of the students was underage for Chimp tracking and thus he stayed and had a nature walk at the Ranger station instead.

At Kanyanchu the Ugandan Wildlife Authority have set up a Chimp tracking station complete with guides and rangers for tourists. Similar to our Gorilla experience we had to divide up into small groups each with a Ranger/Guide. The Guide was carrying an AK47 in case we ran into elephants, of which there was plenty of evidence in the forest. We were also very fortunate to have Zarin, one of the Harvard chimp researchers from the Field Station, in our group. Her expertise in chimpanzee research was invaluable to us, but it was her knowledge of the forest that Christie was counting on to help her through this experience. Christie is very afraid of snakes, so Zarin would walk in front of her, and I had her back. Zarin had explained that chimps are afraid of snakes also and won’t stay around if they see them. We never did see a snake today (Christie owes Zarin a beer), but we did see the largest spider any of us had ever seen and a millipede that was likely poisonous.

We tucked our pants into our socks in order to deter safari ants and drove to an area where we knew the chimps might be. We could hear some hooting from the road and plunged right into the forest. Within minutes Sawya, our student from Kasiisi, spotted a pair of chimps high above us in a tree. It turns out that Sawya was to be our best spotter on this tracking expedition. The first one we saw was a female who was very visibly in estrus. Soon a male became visibie as well and as quick as could be, copulation occurred and was over. Zarin explained that this was very typical for chimps.

We moved on and hiked through some very dense forest. Kibale national forest is technically an arid rainforest. It is an area we would call a jungle with huge trees with buttresses, dense undergrowth and vines everywhere. The chimps use the tree buttresses to drum on, making a low pounding sound that we could hear. Zarin explained that this is a display behavior that chimps do by hanging onto the tree with her hands and drumming with their feet. It has nothing to do with communication, just with displaying the cleverness and skill of the chimp who is drumming.

We hiked for quite some time through thick going, encountering a few chimps high in the canopy and hearing lots of hoots and screams. Our guide was moving very quickly and told us that we were following some males who were moving much more quickly through the forest than we could. Finally we saw a large group of chimps on the ground making a racket of hooting and screaming. We were able to get close to them to get pictures and saw many antics in the trees and on the ground around us. One of the males charged Koojo Mathew who started to run before Zarin told him to stand still and avert his eyes. The chimp veered off, as they almost always do, but that was a very close encounter.

We stayed in that area and got a very close up view of two male chimps grooming each other. These two chimps are close friends (very close friends from the way they were grooming) and were very relaxed in front of us. One of those two males was “leaf clipping” a cultural behavior that may mean he wants to be groomed by his friend. These two were very relaxed in front of our group, and after grooming decided to hang out and take a nap.

We are only allowed an hour to stay with the chimps, but it was a very exciting hour as we got to see a lot of different kinds of chimp behavior. This clearly was a highlight of our trip, right up there with viewing the Mountain Gorillas.

After chimp tracking we met up with Pam, Cindy, Chris, Alice and Scott at the Bigodi Women’s Cooperative. This is a group of local women who set up a craft shop, with one shop at Kanyanchu and one on the main road, with the goal of raising money to build a local nursery school. They have done so well in this venture that they have almost met their fundraising goal. We patronized their shop and then walked next door to Tinka’s for lunch

Lunch with the Tinkas was another Ugandan cultural experience. There were 20 of us for lunch and we were given a humorous lesson in Ugandan hospitality and culture by John Tinka. Lunch consisted of traditional Ugandan fare, matoke, beef stew, fried sweet potatoes, rice, and groundnut sauce. This was followed by pineapple and bananas for desert. John told us that Bigoti is a derivation of a word that means “I am tired.” Many years ago when Uganda was still under colonial rule most of this area was still forest. People who were walking from Fort Portal would get as far as Bigoti and would stop for the night saying “I am tired.” Thus the name stuck for this village.

We were back early to the Field Station for showers and dinner with great conversation and humor at dinner. Christie in fact, was laughing so hard a pea lodged in her nose. This, I’m sure, will not surprise Scott.

Tomorrow is a rest day with only Ndali Lodge scheduled for a sunset dinner on the schedule.

Friday, July 9th Rweterra Primary School

We were all off to Rweterra this morning; the teachers to teach, the Krimsky/Kee family to paint blackboards and Alice Bator along with (yankee fan??) Scott to do some work with the P7 girls for the health initiative. Rweterra is the primary school furthest from the Field Station. Located about 8 kilometers south of the FS, it borders a different part of the Kibale Forest.

Rweterra is also the school, which is the most needy in a number of ways. The students are the dirtiest we have seen, and they have obvious signs of ringworm and other health issues. The infrastructure is the worst of any school in the Kasiisi Project. The students are the least well mannered of any school that we see. This is very surprising for Uganda. The headmaster is also very harsh with the children, and that may be part of the reason that the students are aggressive with each other at break.

Despite all this there are still some students that end up doing well and becoming Kasiisi scholars. We saw some of that today, as the students in P4 did some excellent work for our “Quiet Place” lesson. One little girl by the name of Gloria had such good English; she was translating for the students around her. The teacher in the P4 classroom was also very involved in our lesson and when that happens, the students do much better work.

Chris and Christie’s lessons in P1 and P2 showed the difference and problems in the buildings at Rweterra. Recently, the Kasiisi project installed new floors in a portion of the buildings there. In the first P1 class students were being taught in the section with a new floor. The other P1 class was taught in an older building with a broken concrete and dirt floor. These dirt floors have insects in them that infect feet and most students come to school without shoes. Christie also reported that students were sitting or kneeling on the dirt floors in that classroom to do their work. The irony of this is that there is a portion of the new construction that is not being used. We don’t understand why those children are stuck in what is a dungeon-like classroom when they could be moved across the way to a building with a new floor. When we asked, we received explanations that made no sense.

Christie also did a pant hoot in the middle of her lesson today and the children at first were not sure of what to make of that. A pant hoot is basically a structured chimpanzee scream. We learned how to do this at our chimp talk. Apparently one of the unsuspecting children told Christie that they might see a chimpanzee on their walk to school in the morning. Because of that Christie wanted to make the sound that that animal might make. It’s safe to say that the children had never seen a teacher do a pant hoot before, and they are not likely to see it anytime soon again.

As we talked about the problems we saw a Rweterra, Alice Bator mentioned some research she had seen that indicated that schools who were located closer to the forest and in third world countries did significantly less well than those closer to the main road. This is certainly true with at least some of the Kasiisi project schools. It is also true that the headmaster makes a huge difference in each school. When a new program begins at Kasiisi, it is highly likely to succeed, because HM (head mistress) Lydia Kasenene will make sure it is successful. Koojo Mathew explains that when teachers or headmasters are underperforming or do something wrong they are shipped off to places like Rweterra instead of being let go. This is sort of the Ugandan version of the “dance of the lemons.”

Despite all of these disadvantages and difficulties, we found Rweterra students to be the most grateful of any students we taught. The receive so little in terms of resources and they are so thankful for what they receive. As we were leaving at lunch time they showered us with gifts of eggs, avacados, sugar cane and popo (what they call papaya). A visit to Rweterra can be overwhelming in so many ways.

We had a restful afternoon catching up with Pam Bator and Cindy Mahr who have now joined the growing group at the Field Station. We all went to the Kasenene’s for a wonderful dinner and then early to bed for a 5:30 wake up call for chimp tracking in the morning.

Thursday, July 8 Kigarama, Good Sheppard, and Secondary Schools

Janis and Christie are off to Kigarama to teach this morning. Chris and I will be visiting Good Sheppard Secondary School for a consult on that young man that she saw earlier in the week. Then we hope to visit with our scholars and some other Kasiisi Project Scholars at Kiabambe Secondary School for girls and St. Leo’s Secondary School for boys.

This afternoon we have been challenged to a football match between the Kigarama students and the visitors. We’re pretty sure we are going to be in trouble because the Kigarama team made the quarterfinals of the local primary school tournament recently. The whole country of Uganda is football mad here with the World Cup going on. They have a Satellite dish at the Field Station and the employees gather on game nights at 9:30 to watch in the game in the lecture hall. I asked Innocent Cato who he was rooting for. He answered that he was rooting for Netherlands, but he thought Spain was stronger. We travel back through Amsterdam airport on the way back to the U.S. on July 14th just a day and a half after the World Cup final. We are anticipating an airport full of orange clad football lunatics. We hope they will be happy lunatics.

Chris and I went to Good Sheppard and sat in on the class in which the young man she saw on Sunday is enrolled. Good Sheppard has only been in existence for two years and it is the only school in the area that services students with learning disabilities. We observed the young man and he is making some progress, but he is in a very difficult situation. We made some suggestions to the teacher about how to handle this student and others like him. However, as we explained to the Sister in charge afterwards this student really needs one on one instruction in order to make good progress. That, of course, is unheard of in Uganda. But the school is beginning a vocational program for students like this child and we think he would benefit from that kind of education.

Next we were off to St. Leo’s College, which is actually a secondary school in Fort Portal. There we met with a group of about 20 scholars from the Kasiisi project. Earlier I had talked to Mathew about the importance of the Kasiisi scholars creating and organizing a study group for all of them at secondary school. So as Chris and I spoke to them we talked about the importance of supporting each other in their studies through the structure of a study group. Mathew spoke to the group after we did and arranged for leaders to begin this type of work at each of the levels at St. Leo’s. Hopefully, Matthew will be able to follow up with our scholars to see if they are taking our advice.

Then we were off to Kyabambe Girls Secondary School for a similar meeting with the scholars there. It is interesting to note that there are fewer girl scholars than boys from the Kasiisi project by a large margin. That is something that we are working to change. Alice Bator, who arrived yesterday at the field station, is working on the Girls Health Initiative with the creation of affordable locally made sanitary products and through the funding of a nurse/educator for the girls in the primary schools. You can learn more about this effort at the Kasiisi web site. (kasiisiproject.org). We talked with the girls and I got a chance to meet the scholar that I sponsor Tuhaise Consolata. She is a terrific young woman and a very good student.

Back in the van I asked Koojo Mathew about his own personal story. Mathew never knew his mother and his father died of aids in 1998. Raised by other relatives Mathew was an excellent student at Kasiisi school (he claims that he got into a bit of mischief) but he scored a 7 on the primary leaving exams. Lower scores are better on he PLE’s and the lowest possible score is a 4. For a long time Matthew held the distinction of having had the lowest PLE score of any Kasiisi scholar. However, he says now the students are doing even better and there are some who have equaled or bettered his score. But Mathew went on to do well in secondary school and will finish his BS degree in marketing from Kampala International University this fall. In asking this of Mathew, I explained to him that his personal story was an important one. When he stands in front of these secondary students they see him as the success story they want to be. He personifies their dreams.

We were back at Kigarama for lunch with Janis and Christie. They reported that their lessons went well in the classrooms although the classes here are extremely large. Christie reports that they put the two P1 classes together so that all the students could benefit from her teaching. She probably had 150 students in that group. Janis also was teaching with groups of 120 students in her classes.

The big news from Kigarama was that we had been challenged to a football game. We didn’t know how it would be arranged, but when we asked we were told it would be teachers against the P7 students. We saw these students practicing as we arrived and they handled the football very well. Real footballs here are scarce and so it is not unusual to see children using rolled up and tied plastic bags or banana leaf balls for footballs. We warmed up with such a ball and it was interesting to note that the students were very used to this kind of ball. Of course, they all play in bare feet.

An actual football was provided for the match and Kee family (who are very fine football players) joined us. Also playing for our side was Koojo Mathew, Alice Bator and her friend Scott (our ringer from Vanderbilt), and some of the teachers from Kigarama school. Even with this help, we knew we were in for a tough match with the Kigarama Buffalos.

I played goal and I made two really bad mistakes in the match. One was on the first goal of the match when I came out too soon on a lone striker and he easily dribbled around me and scored, 1-0 Kigarama. However, I got better from that point forward and was able to keep our team in the match as our team led by Scott, Janis and Mathew got into the action. The game was 3-1 Kigarama at the half (yes, we played a full 90 minutes) when we switched ends. We got right back in the match with a quick goal by Scott and then tied it with another goal 3-3. I turned to the students behind me and said, “Kigarama 3, Muzungus 3!!!” But they were to have the last word as I got beat on a long goal that I actually had both of my hands on. Kigarama won the match 4-3.

It was great fun for us and we know it was for the students also. For most of us this was probably the largest crowd for whom we had played, nearly 1000 students and adults. The students were very loud and vocal, cheering and laughing at our play. We congratulated the winners, took pictures and spoke to the students to thank them for their hospitality and good sportsmanship. Kigarama is certainly a school with a great deal of spirit and good will.

Back at the Field Station we had time for a beer (or two) at the Banda and a shower before we were off to Ft. Portal. While we were at the Banda, our favorite chimp researchers, Zarin and Jenny, stopped by after spending all day in the forest. Zarin explained that they had had a very good day. The chimps were located only 2 hours south of the Field Station. Furthermore they had seen copulation, collected some urine samples and got a good picture of a semen plug. Yes, that is what it sounds like. Apparently, Zarin holds the world’s record for being hit in the head by a semen plug (4 times). So that’s what a good day looks like if you are a chimp researcher. Hmm.

Pam Bator and Cindy Mahr invited us to dinner at the Rwenzori View Hotel, where they are staying for a few days. Cindy and Pam have been networking, to use their word, all around Uganda ever since they arrived (shortly after we did). Their purpose is to search out funding opportunities for the project.

The ride into Fort Portal was long and bumpy and a long day on these roads can wear you out. But the dinner was wonderful and the company was even more so. While at the Rwenzori View Christie and Janis filled their quota of beads, baskets and other small gift items. I’ve a feeling that with the beads and fabric, Riola won’t be the only one dressing in an exotic manner at Country School in the fall.

Tomorrow we are off the Rwetera Primary School. We are also scheduled to go to dinner at the Kasenene’s house tomorrow evening and Pam and Cindy are joining us at the Field Station tomorrow as well.

Wednesday, July 7 Mugusu Market, Kluge Farm, MOTMU and Chimps

Commerce in Africa is another lesson in cultural differences. If a white person goes to buy something in a shop or market, they are quoted the “Muzungu Price” for the item. That price is significantly higher than the price for a local person. African’s charge that price because they think that you can afford it. It really has nothing to do with race. One of our guests, John Kasenene, is well known as a man of some means. If he goes shopping he gets the Muzungu price also. So John sends others to the market for him.

Going shopping, we were going to need some help. So we brought some; four P7 students, Sawya and Steven from Kasiisi School; Andrew and Jacqueline from Kigarama School. These were to be our “defenders” to use Steven’s word. Each of them paired up with one of us with the task of getting us good prices at the market.

As with any proper shopping experience we first went to the ATM in Fort Portal. Janis and I took Andrew and Steven in with us. Andrew asked me how much I was going to withdraw from the ATM. I said 200,000 shillings (about $100) and the look on his face was incredulous.

The Mugusu market is one of the largest in Uganda and people come from long distances to sell or shop there. You can buy almost everything here from food to radios, to bicycles to clothing and fabric.

Andrew was my “defender.” He took his job seriously and he knew the market well. In fact his mother worked at the market as a seller of smoked fish, and he introduced her to me. The first thing he did was ask me what I was shopping for and I told him I wanted some fabric and some baskets. We went first to the fabric area and I saw some fabric that I liked we talked price, but Andrew said the price was too high so we went elsewhere. We saw some more that we liked, the price was high again and Andrew helped bargain down the price to a more reasonable amount and we made our purchase. We next found some baskets at a fair price and some ground nuts to snack on as we shopped. I then told Andrew that I was done and he could look for what he wanted to buy. The first thing he bought was one pair of gray socks that he could wear to school. Then we walked further and he told me privately that he wanted to buy some underwear. So he bought one pair of underpants, again so he could wear these to school. Then he bought a pair of black shorts, which are part of his school uniform. Next he wanted to buy a Manchester United cap from the cap seller. I left him alone there because I was getting the impression that my presence with him was driving up the prices. He came back to me later and told me that the price of the cap was too high and he didn’t want to pay it.

Later when Christie asked our guide Mathew Koojo about how the students felt about their experience, Mathew said that this day would be one of the most exciting days in the lives of these children. Working here and living here for the short time that we have can be so humbling at times.

After the market we all went to Kluge’s guest farm for lunch. This was a new place that Mathew had read about and suggested we try. It was a huge success. The facility was beautifully appointed and the food was both excellent and plentiful. We, of course, treated our “defenders”, and assisted them through the meal. We were sure that they had ever eaten in such a place before. We arranged for all the leftover food to be divided into four bags and that these would go home with the students after the meal.

Chris took one of the earrings from her ears and gave it to Jacqueline, saying to her “Now I am your grandmother and you are my granddaughter.” That summarizes the kind of experience it was for all of us.

Next we went to Mountains of the Moon University, just north of Fort Portal. MOTMU is a relatively new University with only a few hundred students, and they are trying to grow and looking for funding. They initially received a land grant from the government, and the land they were given is stunningly beautiful. It consists of steep hills (as steep as Ruiga), meadows, forest a crater lake and has the Rwenzori Mountains (The Mountains of the Moon) as a backdrop. The natural beauty of Uganda just keeps on surprising us. Unfortunately, the tour felt a bit like we were being sold a timeshare and we cut it a bit short.

After another great meal at the Field Station (Charles our cook is doing excellent work), we left for the lecture hall here and Zarin gave a slide/video show about Chimpanzees. This was planned as a preview of our chimp trekking experience on Saturday at Kanyanchu. What a fascinating presentation it was. We learned how to do a pant hoot. We saw videos of the very famous chimps at Gombe, which were first studied by Jane Goodall in 1960. Frodo, the alapha male at Gombe is quite an impressive chimp. We saw him leap through the air out of a tree grab a monkey in mid air and then grab a branch of the tree with his other hand. This was quite an impressive display of hunting. Chimps spend most of their day looking for and eating food. Mostly they eat fruit, but a relatively small percentage of their diet is meat. Monkeys and duikers were the two sources of meat that we saw chimps eating.

Here at the Field Station in Kanyawara, we are in the middle of a National Park. It is a dense forested sight that contains the largest concentration of primates in Uganda and one of the largest in the world. We see baboons, and colubus monkeys everyday, but we are not allowed to go into the forest to see these chimps. These are research chimps and cannot be disturbed by visitors. Thus on Saturday we will drive an hour south of here to Kanyanchu to see a group of chimps that are set aside for tourist trekking.

Tomorrow we visit Kigarama Primary School. Chris and I will visit some secondary schools and hope to meet our scholars at Kiabambe and St. Leo’s Secondary Schools.

Tuesday, July 6 Kiko and Tea

Today was our first day teaching and we were starting at Kiko Primary School. The schools in Uganda are based on the British system. Primary schools are universal. That means that each community must provide a school that goes from P1 (our kindergarten) through P7 (our 6th grade). Kiko is a small primary school that is on the far side of tea field. Thus the color of the student uniform is green.

When I say small I mean that there was only one classroom per grade level in this school. Christie and Chris were teaching in P1 and P2 today. The first classroom into which we went was P1. This classroom has 140 students in it, and the room was about the same size as a classroom in Weston, perhaps a bit smaller. The classroom consists of a blackboard, a teachers desk and then a large number of benches. The students sit on the benches 4 and 5 to a bench.

As the headmaster enters the room all of the children stand and greet him in unison and in English. Students in P1 through P3 are learning English. Starting in P4 students’ instruction is mostly in English, but they are still not fluent. The teachers tell us that students in P7 have excellent English, however, in order for us to be understood we must speak very slowly to these students. English may, in fact, be the key to these students’ achievement. The Primary Leaving Exams are given entirely in English and a students familiarity with this language is likely the key to whether or not they receive a Grade 1 pass and are eligible for a scholarship.

Janis and Steve’s lesson in P3 required quite a bit of translation and it was modified quite a bit in the next class (P4). But in each classroom we were able to leave behind a book that the students had created themselves and that would help them practice their English. Chris and Christie’s lesson in P1 and P2 went very well we could hear the students singing the song that they had been taught from outside the classroom.

Sometimes the kind of teaching that you see here is what I call “heroic teaching.” Chris and Christie happened upon that kind of teaching when they visited a P5 class at Kiko. The subject was Science and Christie reports that the teaching was some of the best that she has seen anywhere. The teacher demonstrated with gestures when using an English term with which the students might be unfamiliar. He stuck with every student when he was confronted with an incorrect or incomplete answer. It was a remarkable performance in spite of the tremendous obstacles that are faced here everyday.

We left Kiko after lunchtime and were scheduled to visit the Kiko Tea Factory in the afternoon. Christie, Janis and Steve decided to walk as the factory was only a mile down the road. Students in P1 and P2 leave school at 1:00 and so we had an escort of about 15-20 small children as we walked to the factory with tea fields all around us. Sometimes you just feel like the Pied Piper here.

We were joined at the Tea Factory by the Krimsky/Kee family and four students from Kiko along with their teacher Sam. One student, Gloria, told us that she walks an hour and 20 minutes to school each way. The other students lived more locally, but even they were quite unfamiliar with the growing and processing of tea despite the fact that they literally live in the middle of tea growing country. The factory visit was quite interesting. The most fascinating part of the visit was that we learned that new plants are grown from cuttings from old plants. These old plants can be literally hundreds of years old. The oldest plant from which we saw cuttings was initially grown in 1560. That’s 250 years ago!

Christie decided to buy a Kilo of tea after our tour. So we went to the store but unfortunately there was none to buy (Tea, tea everywhere but not a drop to drink). That didn’t stop our host. Sunday Godfrey said that he would find the manager and have him make some. Christie protested and said no that it was late and we were tired and she could didn’t need the tea that badly. But that would not stop our hosts. Off he was to find the manager. The assistant manager then showed up about 10 minutes later to inform us that this would cost 4,000 shillings ($2), and we said yes that was fine. Another 15 minutes went by and finally the Kilo of tea showed up in an unmarked plastic bag. So now Christie has a Kilo of tea with no receipt and no marking on the bag. How is she going to get that past security??

Going to the bathroom in Uganda can sometimes be a challenge. Thus we restrict our water intake somewhat, because what goes in has to come out at some point. Here at the Field Station we have flush toilets, that flush at least most of the time. But the facilities at the schools are latrines. A latrine is basically a hole in the ground. There is cement around it and in the more sanitary versions there are little cement blocks on which you stand to reduce the amount of splatter. For men this is not so problematic, but for women not used to this kind of facility it can be quite difficult (open toed shoes and sandals are not recommended in these facilities). This let’s you know why Chris announced at dinner tonight that she didn’t have to go the entire time while she was teaching at Kiko, and that for her this was a minor miracle. That comment prompted Christie to wonder why depends were not on the “essential to have” list for visiting Uganda. Such is the level of conversation at dinner at the Field Station.

Tomorrow we go to Mugusu Market. Power shopping in the third world. Don’t worry, Scott, they don’t take VISA.

July 5 – Opening Ceremonies at Kasiisi

The concept of time in Africa is significantly different than that in western cultures. We were told that our van would be here by 9:00 a.m. and that we should be ready to leave by about 9:30 a.m. To be fair we were also told that the time would depend on the arrangements at Kasiisi School. So we were in the dining room ready by 9:30 a.m. Our van arrived a few minutes before 11:00 a.m., but we couldn’t leave because John and Lydia Kasenene hadn’t yet called to give the OK. As they say in Africa, “the event is unfolding.”

An unfortunate and very traumatic event happened on the way to the ceremony. Driving here in Uganda is unbelievably bad. We had felt so safe with our Wild Frontiers guide, Joseph. But now we are using local drivers from a local service in Fort Portal. The usual situation is that cars and bota bota’s (small motorbike taxis) drive way too fast and they drive all over the road to avoid potholes. Pedestrians and bicycles usually go off the road to get out of the way of fast moving vehicles.

Today, however, our driver was driving too fast and quite erratically. He veered to the left. Janis screamed and he hit a pedestrian with a very loud bang. The driver stopped, while Matthew Koojo got out to check the condition of the man that was struck. The driver seemed only concerned with the fact that his mirror was broken. Mathew reported to us later that the man was in some pain and had damage to his arm and shoulder. He also reported also that the owner of our transport service would pay a sum of money to the man to settle the issue, but that the accident would not be reported to the police. There are sometimes when the cultural differences are so great that you feel like you are on another planet. We have been promised that our drivers from this point forward will be more reliable and safety conscious. Those who had considered walking to school with the children have reconsidered that decision and will be riding in a van instead.

While Matthew dealt with the injured pedestrian he sent the rest of us on in the van. We disembarked at Kasiisi Trading Center, where we were met by Kagaba Joshua, a brass band and student representatives from each of the five Kibale area schools, Kasiisi, Kigarama, Kiko, Rweterra and Kanyawara. We marched behind the brass band and the students marched behind us for about a quarter of a mile to the grounds of Kasiisi School.

We started the official ceremonies with the Ugandan National Anthem, the Kingdom of Toro Anthem and the U.S. national anthem. The children watched us during the U.S. anthem, and I noticed later when they sang our anthem again, they put their hands over their hearts as they had seen us do. It’s that kind of touching and polite respect that endears Ugandans to everyone they meet.

We had a quick tour of Kasiisi School before the ceremonies started in earnest. The improvements that have been made there in the last two years have been quite remarkable. We started in the new school library, which is very impressive. It’s full of books and also contains a large number of the small green and white laptop computers from the “One laptop per Child” program. We were told that students use these between 3 and 4 p.m. everyday and sometimes stay late to get additional work done on these machines. We then went to the kitchen where we viewed an operation that feeds lunch to 1300 students every day. The Kasiisi project sponsors this program also called the Porridge Project. Students are given a lunch each day consisting of a fortified maize porridge. Kasiisi School is the only school in this area of the country to feed its students.

We then saw the new dormitories being built for students (some students in the future will board at Kasiisi School). We saw the new teacher housing that has been built on site. However, the most meaningful for us to see was the Preschool Complex. It’s more than just a single building. The Preschool consists of three classrooms, a room for the students to rest at mid-day, a preschool office, a planning area for teachers, and an area built for flush toilets for the children. Once again this level of sanitation and facility planning to meet the needs of young children is unheard of in public schools in Uganda. This entire project has been funded by fundraising by Chris, her preschool colleagues, the preschool parents in Weston and some matching grants. It’s a remarkable testament to the relationship between Weston and Kasiisi.

Then the official ceremonies started. There must have been over a thousand people in attendance; dignitaries, educators, parents and children. There was singing and dancing by groups from each of the five primary schools. There were speeches seemingly with out end from educators, dignitaries, and politicians. We were fed lunch. They even baked a cake for us, which Christie and I were required to cut. This ceremony went on for the better part of six hours. But there were moments of sublime joy and celebration mixed in with the long speeches. Janis dancing across the entire presentation area with some students was one of those moments. She dances very well for a Muzungu. Christie attracting and meeting two preschoolers Tina and Cassie, aged 2 and 3, was another moment. These two danced with her, had their photos taken and didn’t want to leave her side.

We received also a letter of gratitude from the parents of the Kasiisi scholars which read in part, “May be others would now be in the village as thieves, prostitutes, robbers but now we hope to have doctor, Engineers, Accountants, many more important generation thus a bright future.” What a statement of the difference education makes for these children.

There are also times when completely incongruous things happen that are so unexpected. During some of the singing and dancing one little boy in a winter coat and backpack (it’s 80 degrees out) kept walking slowly back and forth in front of the performance, completely oblivious to what was happening. At another time there was a brief interlude in the singing and dancing and so they played country music over the speakers. This was Musak country music, not the more modern things we’re used to hearing in the U.S. these days. One other surprising event was the canned applause track that was played at the end of each speech. I am proud to say that my speech was interrupted by this canned applause much to our amusement.

Unfortunately Greg Kee was not feeling well. Fortunately that meant we all had to leave. I have a feeling that the singing and dancing would still be going for as long as we stayed. Back to the Field Station we went with a new and slower driver and arrived safely in time for supper.

We reviewed our lesson plans tonight, because tomorrow we teach students at Kiko School. More about that in the next installment.

July 4, 2010 Independence Day At the Field Station

Sunday at the Field Station and the Krimsky/Kees along with Janis, Christie and Steve went to church. Chris was unable to go to church because she had an IEP meeting. Well, not exactly, but a man showed up with a young boy and wanted Chris to work with him and explain to him why the young man was 15 and not yet reading. Given the cultural differences, and the language limitations this was a difficult (at best) task. But Chris has her experience to rely on and she did some sample teaching with him and then talked to the father. We will have a chance to see this young man in his school setting and meet his teacher later on this week. This may be the furthest distance anyone has ever gone for an outside evaluation, and it may not be the last one that Chris does on this trip.

Church was a trip in and of itself. The Church of Uganda, is or was, an Anglican Church and so the service was somewhat familiar to many of us. However the service was all in Rutoro with little translation so it was difficult to understand everything that was happening. What we did understand is that we were, once again, honored guests. We were sitting in a place seemingly reserved for such guests and processed into the Church to the sound of the Kasiisi Girl Guides singing and clapping. In fact the entire congregation was singing and clapping as we arrived.

The music in the church service is quite remarkable. It consisted only of a man playing a set of three drums and the choir, dressed in red robes. The voices and hand clapping and drumming define the service in this church. They are its lifeblood and every song and hymn gets it rhythm from the drums and the clapping. It’s quite an experience. We were allowed to take pictures in church (we asked) and so when we get a better Internet connection, we’ll post some of those.

As I said the service was difficult to follow, and it was at least 3 hours long so there were parts that were less than thrilling. But so much of what was happening was compelling to watch. We noted the little children who often sat by themselves, were extremely well behaved, and sometimes young ones would pick up and care for infants themselves. Children in Uganda are used to doing a lot of work and taking care of younger sibs is one of those tasks.

The offerings were also quite different than we were used to and fascinating in the way they unfolded. First there was a regular offering in which people came up to the front and gave money. However, some members of the congregation didn’t bring money but they brought “in kind” goods. They gave pumpkins, avacados, ground nuts, bananas, millet, sugar cane, lettuce, and corn. These items were all placed up front and just to the side of the alter.

Next came another offering, which we didn’t understand at first. People started coming to the front rail and kneeling (but not for communion), then more people came and knelt behind them, and more and more came until there were four rows of kneeling people in the front of the church. Then the basket was passed among these people and they gave additional money. When we asked about this we were told that this second offering was an offering of thanksgiving and if people had a specific thing they were thankful for they went forward and offered additional funds while giving a prayer of thanksgiving.

But the best was yet to come. At the conclusion of the regular service all of those “in kind” items to the side of the alter were brought forward and auctioned off with a great deal of spirit and humor. Each bid was emphasized with a beating of the drums in the best game show tradition, and members of the congregation with money to buy things did so, enabling everyone to contribute no matter whether they had money or not. Christie bought a bunch of bananas and later shared them with the children after the service, and Steve bought a large bag of ground nuts, which was also given back.

The service over we were provided with lunch on the grounds of St. Steven’ s Church which are immediately adjacent to the new Preschool building with its brand new blue roof (more on that tomorrow). Once again speeches were made and a formal welcome was extended.

After lunch we were treated to a demonstration of the boy scouts efficiency in camping and building. However the real treat was the performance of the Girl Guides. Their rhythmic singing, clapping and dancing has to be seen to be fully appreciated. It is just engaging to watch. We do have some video of this and it is certainly worth seeing. Children in Uganda are “loud and proud” when they sing and dance, but when they speak to you they make little eye contact and use very soft voices. It seems to us that children in the United States are much the opposite.

We didn’t get back to the Field Station until 4:30 in the afternoon from a church service that started at 10:00 a.m. By that time we were all tired and canceled the afternoon trip to Ft. Portal so that we could rest. We had planned this to be a rest day from the beginning, so a half a day relaxing, visiting the Oasis and sitting and chatting in the Banda (google that word) was just the thing for us. Christie, the party girl, brought some patriotic head gear with her from the U.S. and we toasted Independence Day here in an African Rainforest, complete with a baboon and colobus monkey audience looking on.

Perhaps you thought the official welcoming to this trip was done. Well think again. Tomorrow we get the double official welcome at Kasiisi Primary School. It’s scheduled for five hours. Did I mention that the Ugandans like ceremony, protocol and ritual. Yeah.

Saturday, July 3, 2010 Mweya

Being from New Jersey Janis thought we were saying Moya (rhymes with Goya), but it’s really pronounced mWAYah. Mweya Safari Lodge is like a 5 star hotel in the middle of the African bush. We just finished lunch at the Lodge overlooking the Kazinga Channel and we’re now on the road to Kibale and the Makarere University Biological Field Station (hereinafter referred to as the Field Station).

We started on the road to Mweya early and saw our first elephant (this trip) at about 200 yards on the right side of the road leaving Ishasha. Before this day was over we were to get much closer to elephants than that. We got to Mweya right on time for our 11:00 boat ride through the Kazinga Channel. In fact we had enough time to order lunch first before we left for our trip so that it would be waiting for us when we returned.

Much to Chris and my surprise we were booked on a small boat (seats about 10) and we were the only 4 guests on the boat. This was to be a custom trip. It seems that Wild Frontiers has moved all of their tours to this smaller boat and the results were significantly better than our last trip. The Kazinga Channel is about 37 kilometers long and connects Lake George and Lake Edward while dividing Queen Elizabeth National Park into two parts. The wildlife and birdlife in this Channel is incredibly abundant and diverse.

Our boat guide Robert was, as usual, extremely knowledgeable and accommodating. We got great pictures of hippos and the many different bird species. The black and white kingfishers were putting on a show for us as they helicoptered above the water before diving into the channel for fish. We saw great white egrets, cattle egrets, sacred ibis, malachite kingfishers, lapwings, hammercocks, grey herons, and a pair of nesting fisher eagles. These were just some of the bird species seen. Our guide explained that the migratory species were not expected back to Kazinga until next week.

We also got close to some Nile crocodiles. The crocs were sunbathing among the birds on the shore with their mouths open and we were close enough to be able to look inside. Our guide explained that these crocs just feed on fish from the river. They are not meat eaters and thus live in harmony with the birds and mammals on the shore. We also saw a small monitor lizard and got close up pictures of that famous hippo yawn. Halfway through our ride we spotted a herd of elephant coming down from the hills above towards the Channel. So we moved a little more and waited for them to come down. We were rewarded by being able to see and hear about 15-20 elephants as they came down to drink or take dust baths by the Channel. Our driver parked our boat into a small set of vegetation just off shore so that we could view them closely and hear the big mama elephant trumpeting. She probably thought we were too close, but later we were to get even closer.

We continued up the Channel towards Lake Edward and saw the fishing village that is allowed to remain inside the park. This village is partially supported through tourist dollars and thus have been able to make improvements to their village school and to their water system. Our guide mentioned that there once was a lion that killed 13 people (over time) in this village. As a man eater that lion had to be hunted down and killed. It is now stuffed and on display in the visitors’ center in Mweya.

It was on the way back that we were to get the double overtime bonus to this ride. We spotted three more male elephants (small medium and large) on the shore. Our boat driver cut the engine and let us drift in towards shore. We got so close to these elephants that we had to take all the zoom off our cameras in order to take pictures. We were all shocked at how close they allowed us to get. We left the elephants and thought that our trip was about over, but then the driver once again pulled in very close to shore. We had gone there to see a hippo, but when we got close in, the guide spotted a very large monitor lizard in a tree. This lizard was at least 4 feet long! All in all it was quite an amazing ride through an ecosystem teeming with wildlife.

During lunch at the Mweya Safari Lodge overlooking the Kazinga Channel we toasted our good fortune and our driver Joseph. We were to be with Joseph for only the next two hours as he drove us to the Field Station and said goodbye. We knew that our experiences were about to change as we began and/or renewed our journey into the Kasiisi Project Schools. As we expressed over lunch those experiences would be different but just as rich or in many ways richer.

At the Field Station

We arrived at about 5:00 p.m. from Mweya and were properly welcomed by the staff. We were shown to our rooms and unpacked and settled in. For the first time we are staying in one place for over a week and will be able to stop living out of suitcases for a while.

Dinner at the Field Station was not surprisingly a ceremonial affair. We were joined for dinner by Kagaba Joshua (Headmaster of Ft. Portal Secondary School), John and Lydia Kasenene, Sunday Godfrey, Matthew Koojo, Claudia Krimsky, Greg Kee, Julia Kee, Laura Kee, and _____________ a chimp researcher from Harvard. After much introducing and sharing we went over in some detail the itinerary for the next 12 days. I’ll post some of that when I get a clean copy. For tomorrow we are going to St. Stephen’s Church (immediately adjacent to Kasiisi School) and then to Ft. Portal to visit King Leo’s, Kiabambe and St. Maria Goretti’s Secondary Schools in order to visit with a number of Kasiisi Project scholars. I’ll try to post the last few days blogs tomorrow as Mathew informs me that there is Internet here in Chimp Building 2.

Friday, July 2, 2010 Ishasha Day 2

Our second day at Ishasha was notable for a number of events; sub adult lions, a leopard, an impromptu def poetry jam and wood owl calls at night. We started with a before breakfast, before sunrise drive through the park. Joseph had heard lions in the night. So with only coffee and a biscuit we were off to look for lions. We started with a gorgeous sunrise over the Savannah with literally hundreds of Ugandan Kob around us. Shortly after sunrise Joseph spotted two lions hunting. Surprisingly, they were hunting on the burnt side of the park. To us they looked like females, but Joseph explained that these were young males who had not yet developed a mane. Joseph referred to them as “sub-adults,” a term that was new to us but one that we felt applied to many other contexts. The two males were not successful in their hunt as far as we could tell. We followed them for a while and watched as they ran and played with one another. Like other “sub-adults” we know they didn’t seem to be able to walk from one place to another without putting their paws on one each other.

Later in the drive Chris pulled out a small guitar that she had purchased at a shop in Bwindi and started to play it. Janis then accompanied on the little drum she had bought much to Joseph’s entertainment. This inspired all to engage in an impromptu def poetry jam. Chris, being a child of the 60’s was clearly the best at reciting “deeply meaningful” poetry as she played and Janis provided emphasis on her drum. Joseph was quite entertained with this esoteric bit if American culture. He’s pretty sure he has a crazy groups of Muzungus in his truck.

Joseph, our guide, has very little use for the Congo, or its people. If we have not seen elephants, he will say, “Oh, those elephants have gone to the Congo.” This means the elephants are not worth seeing. Or he might say, “those people in the Congo, they will eat anything.” So now when we don’t see something we want to see, we too say, they have gone to the Congo. It’s a useful phrase. Other animals we sighted in the morning drive included a large group of baboons, a crested eagle, cape buffalo, and a yellow throated crow.

An early game drive meant a late breakfast and a very leisurely day by the river in Ishasha. They are diverting the river here at this Wilderness Camp because it is eroding the ground on which the camp sits. Something like this would never be allowed in the U.S., but “this is Africa.” So each morning a vehicle goes out of the park to pick up “the boys” as Joseph calls them, and they proceed to dig a new channel for the river, literally by hand. This shoveling is back breaking work and as we noted the Ugandan’s did almost all the work, while the white overseer watched and read a book. It’s still very colonial in many parts of Africa.

Today was hot in Ishasha, but we left camp at 4:30 p.m. for a sunset game drive. The sun sets here at about 6:30 p.m. and it sets quickly with very little twilight. Once again Joseph was masterful in his game spotting as he stopped the truck, then backed up so that we could take pictures of a leopard that was out hunting in the early evening. The leopard saw us and hid in the grass with the sun going down behind it. It was difficult to get good pictures, but Chris did get some excellent video of the leopard checking us out. Other sightings this evening included a white browed cukoo, lots of white backed vultures, and a harrier hawk.

Joseph surprised us by pulling up to a Banda (a small round brick structure) in the middle of the park. After checking to make sure there were no lions in the Banda, he told us we could get out and stretch our legs. He then brought out a cooler with exactly the kind of beer we like and we drank our beer while the sun set on the Ugandan Savannah in the middle of a wilderness park filled with predators, prey and our small group.

We invited Joseph to dinner with us tonight, as it will be our last dinner with Joseph as our guide. His knowledge, skill, patience and attentiveness to our needs is quite remarkable. A superb guide like Joseph makes all the difference in terms of the quality of the experience of a Safari. He has been our anchor in our travels in this very different culture and land. We will miss him greatly when he leaves us at Fort Portal tomorrow. Dinner was superb and typically Joseph could identify every night sound made by animals or birds. The African Wood Owl both male and female were calling all during dinner, although to us the hooting sounded like a person doing a bad imitation of an owl.

An early start tomorrow as we need to be at Mweya for the Kazinga Channel boat ride by 11:00 a.m. Hopefully, we’ll see elephants tomorrow.

Thursday, July 1. 2010 Ishasha

As I write this blog post I am sitting by the river in Ishasha Wilderness Camp in Queen Elizabeth National Park. We have just come back from a game drive in which we saw two of the tree climbing lions for which this portion of the park is famous. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

The distance from Bwindi to Ishasha is not great so we asked Joseph our driver if we could have some time shopping in the small shops just outside the park grounds in Bwindi. We all bought a few baskets and beads in these very small huts that are run by locals in the area. Chris, Christie and Janis found a shop that was run by the Batwa tribe. The Batwa are the local tribe of pygmies that have a community nearby. Proceeds from the sale of items in this shop support that community. We also found a shop that supported the local school and we bought some items there as well. Christie likes her beads so well, that she is not sure she will give them to her sister to turn into other kinds of jewelry.

By mid-morning we were on the road to Ishasha, but there was a problem. It seems that that incredibly bad road we used to go to Ruhiga yesterday damaged one of our tires. It was not holding air very well so we had to stop in Kihihi at a service station in order to get it fixed. Since they had difficulty locating a tube for this tire (yes, they still used tubed tires in cars in Africa) we had some time to kill in beautiful downtown Kihihi.

Kihihi is a very small African city which consists of a few streets (some of which are actually paved) and numerous shops. These shops consist of at least half a dozen beauty shops and another half a dozen or more stationary stores. No Internet unfortunately so I couldn’t post a blog anywhere.

Once again it was Christie who provided the unintentional “this is Africa” moment for our group and for the entire main street of Kihihi. After purchasing some paper and other items for the lesson they will teach in Kasiisi, Chris and Christie left the shop and headed for the street. As in Entebbe there is a ditch that goes across all these shops with mere boards and logs going across it to go from the shops to the street. Christie unfortunately chose a particularly tippy half log (round side down) and promptly fell into the ditch “screaming (as she puts it) bloody murder.” Of course all of the good citizens of Kihihi turned to watch the Muzungu attempt to climb out of the ditch in the center of town. Christie did eventually get out with Chris’ help and with damage only to her dignity.

Back at the car Christie was once again covering herself in Purel, even though this sewage ditch was dry. Yesterday, at Ruhiga Christie had purchased a Gorilla t-shirt that said “Muzungus in the Mist” on the back. But today, as we told her, it was a Muzungu in the ditch. Later Christie would respond by saying, “I’m so glad I was able to provide you and the entire town of Kihihi your daily entertainment.” It seems that being the “daily entertainment” is indeed Christie’s fate for this trip.

Back on the road with our tire fixed we entered QENP and Ishasha in a relatively short time. We first stopped by the River for a lunch we had packed at Bwindi. The river itself represents the border between the Congo and Uganda, but the animals have no respect for this political boundary. We saw hippos in the river in two different areas. On a sandy bank on the other side of the river was a very large hippo momma and her not as large hippo baby, sunning themselves. Directly across from our lunch area were two hippos, grunting, roaring and opening their mouths into a very large yawn. Chris got some good video of this activity on her super duper HD video camera with 200X zoom.

We also saw a black African Bee Eater bird that Joseph pointed out across the river in the Congo. Joseph often guides bird watchers and he points out that they can be a curious group of clients. One time he pointed out the Bee Eater (which is a fairly rare bird) to a client, but the client refused to write it down on his list because the bird was in the Congo (on the other side of the river) and not in Uganda. Another time as they were leaving this lunch area, Joseph noticed the lions beginning to hunt in the area and pointed this out to his bird watching client. The bird watcher was not in the least interested in the lions, but instead wanted to add more feathered species to his list. The bird here are neat, but that is a bit of what we would term “unexpected behavior.”

After lunch on a game drive in the park, we saw a number of animals, hundreds of Ugandan Kob, and many Topi and White backed Vultures. But we were looking for Lions. After much driving we went into the Fig Tree area of the park and Chris eventually spotted a tail hanging from a tree straight ahead. We went strait for it, parked our vehicle under the tree no more than 30 feet from two female lions who were absolutely unconcerned as we photographed and videoed them. They looked at us and yawned and went back to their afternoon nap.

The Tree Climbing Lions of Ishasha are not a different species from other lions. The fact that they climb trees and spend most of their day in them is a local adaptation in this part of Africa. Naturalists believe that this behavior started because the lions wanted a place to nap during the day out of the hot sun and away from biting insects on the ground. At sunset these lions will come down and go hunting for Kob of which there is a plentiful supply.

Lion spotting accomplished, we started back to look for the Wilderness Camp. Much of Ishasha has recently been burnt in what Joseph tells us is a controlled burn to renew the vegetation and get rid of material that would cause a disastrous fire. We drove for quite a while spotting a number of different bird species including eagles, vutures, shrikes, grey backed lapwings, and yellow throated crows. At one point in this long ride Janis turned to Joseph and asked “Where are we??!!!” Joseph just laughed. But Janis’ point was valid. If you looked around us when she asked this question all you could see was Savannah and no matter which direction in which you looked it all looks the same. But Joseph knew exactly where we were and he eventually got us the Ishasha Wilderness Camp, where we were met with cold towels and apple juice by the attentive staff. This is a tented camp, but it is quite comfortable and we will stay here tonight and tomorrow night as well. Perhaps more lions tomorrow and maybe Njojos (elephants) and the resident leopard as well.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Chris slept in as she was not going Gorilla Tracking on this trip. She had done this on her previous visit with her old hip. Christie, Janis and Steve were at breakfast at 5:30 at the Bahoma Lodge and left shortly after in order to drive to the start of Mountain Gorilla Tracking. It seems that we were headed to Ruhiga to start. The ride to Ruhiga was over an hour and a half long over the worst road any of us had ever traveled. The most beautiful scenery one could imagine accompanied this spectacularly bad road. The villagers who live in the Ruhiga area live in an almost vertical world. They are either going up or down, because there is no flat in this mountainous region. We were thinking that perhaps The Impenetrable Forest was referring to the road, but that was before we got to see the forest itself.

After the very formal briefing by the Park Ranger we were off to find a family of 13 Mountain Gorillas. These are among the most endangered species in the world with only a little over 600 of them know to still be alive. A little more than half of those 600 live in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and we were going to view these animals in their natural habitat for slightly over an hour today.

We started out walking almost straight down into a Rainforest canyon that was at least 150 feet below from the road. Each of us hired a local porter to carry our bag and to help us with the terrain. Hiring these men is an important way to provide employment to the local population, and for them to understand that protecting these Gorillas brings economic benefit to the community. Besides that we would all end up needing the important help these men would provide.

About halfway down to the bottom of this canyon (which ended up in a swamp) we met the Gorilla Trackers who had been locating this family earlier that morning. Leaving our hiking sticks, helpers and bags behind we went forward. We went a few feet when we noticed a young black back about 30 feet above us in a tree looking for food. This particular black back is known as a troublemaker by the rangers and he would prove to live up to that name before the day was over. We continued down the trail toward the valley floor and met a couple of silver backs. Silver backs are the older males and one of them is always the dominant male of the group. This family is unusual in that there are four silver backs in this group, a dominant male and older male, a younger silver back and a less dominant male. We saw all four of them and we were able to get within 20 feet of these beautiful animals in what is seemingly a magical rainforest.
As we moved to follow the silver backs, the young black back started down the slope towards us. I was trying to take pictures of him when he started to charge us. As I had been briefed I averted my eyes away from him as he charged the Ranger to my left and gave him a very strong push out of his way as he continued his way down the slope towards the rest of his family.

After the excitement subsided we continued to follow the group. The rest of the Gorillas seemed very relaxed to have us around. They were lounging, napping and feeding with little concern for us being there. Viewing these animals in that environment for the hour we had with them was a remarkable experience. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a place that is extremely remote and to which you can go only with a great deal of hard work. When you are there with the Mountain Gorillas you are transported to their world for just an hour, but it’s worth all the time and effort to get that one hour in that mystical place.

Today was my last official day as Principal at Country School. I’ve been taking vacation days since the 25th of June to finish out the remainder of my contract. I cannot think of a better way to have spent that day than with the Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Off to Ishasha. Joseph tells us that the lions have not been spotted recently. We are hoping to change that when we arrive there tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 28, 2010

We did some game viewing on the way out of Lake Mburo National Park. This park has a great deal of prey but few predators as it is a relatively small park. However, Joseph tells us that Lions were spotted here last year for the first time in over 50 years. This could be a problem as there are many cattle both in and outside of the park. The cattle here have extremely long and curved horns that sometimes meet in the middle. These are called Ankole cattle and they are not supposed to be inside the National Park lands. If they are found there, they are rounded up and placed in “cow prison,” a small corral in which wayward cows are placed until their owners bail them out of prison and take them home. We were speculating that last night’s dinner might have been an unlucky prisoner.

Leaving the park we took some great video of the yellow beaked lapwings entertaining us with a road side show, a momma nad baby veret monkey and a herd of 200 or more Ankole being driven down the road directly at us. Among the highlights of our viewing this morning were many small herd of Impala, Waterbuck and Zebra. A red beaked kingfisher, many beautiful blue starlings, a pair of sacred ibis, a spoon billed ibis, and a black headed heron.

We stopped at Mbarra to get petrol and the girls opted to use the local loo. The first option had shoes but no feet and when the door was pushed it pushed back. Occupado. The second option proved to be somewhat lacking in amenities. Let’s leave it to say that the women came back feeling the necessity to wash their feet and cover themselves with purel.

The ride to Bwindi from Lake Mburo takes 7 hours so we stopped for a late lunch at Chumbura Gorge. The Gorge is about 150 feet deep from the edge and is surrounded by Savannah. But the Gorge itself is rainforest and is home to a group of Chimpanzees. One of those chimps could be seen on the other side of the Gorge in a tree on the top eating from a fig tree. That means he climbed at least 100 feet just to eat his lunch.

Joseph informs us that Chumbura means “I can’t find it.” This comes from the fact that people who lived along this river would have their things washed down the river after a flood. Since the river empties into the Kazinga Channel and eventually Lake George, they would inevitably come back from their search for their things saying “I can’t find it.”

We took the Ishasha Road to Bwindi and arrived there in the late afternoon. Buhoma Lodge is where we are staying in Bwindi and we must be up at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday to go Mountain Gorilla Tracking. More on that tomorrow.

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