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.