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.