Steep Learning Curve

This week was one of a steep learning curve.  I spent my time at the Kasiisi Project in Kibale NP.  The week was filled with tutoring P4 students (Primary 4^th grade), Board meetings, Wildlife Club Meetings, one job interview, an electricity celebration, photography presentation and lots of good traditional food.  It’s the time of year when the living quarters are full to the brim – 8 duplexes, a dormitory to fit 50, and others that I’m sure I don’t know about.  University students from Canada, Germany, U.K., grad and PhD have come to study the forest ecology.  I slept in 3 different beds this week, because visitors were moving in and out of the duplex where I was staying, luckily each had a mosquito net.  Per Elizabeth Ross, who has lived and worked and brought up three sons in Kibale, this is supposed to be the dry season. But it rained nearly every day.  I happened to enjoy the rain, coming from Chicago’s gray skies, I tend to enjoy a break from direct sunlight, plus here the rain cools everything down, and it’s fun to see the dark clouds, wind and thunder change the landscape.

               Back to the busy week.  One Harvard volunteer, Michelle, is completing a summer course with Kasiisi.  She won a grant to work with P4 students asking them to write a legend or story, in Rutooro and English, and illustrate it.  This was the 3^rd week the students were working on their story and it was time to edit their English into a final draft and assist them in organizing which sentences should go with which illustrations on which pages.  For two afternoons, I had the pleasure of tutoring four students. Their stories were commonly about animals, which I enjoyed very much. They were simple and cute. The first girl I helped, I found out later in the day, was 14 years old and has a baby. The school actually accepted her to come back to school – which is rare, normally pregnant girls are kicked out. She couldn’t understand any English, but we communicated through writing words spelled correctly on paper, and lots of smiles.  The next girl understood my English fairly well and had very good grammar.  The two boys understood my English fairly well too; we communicated best by writing on paper.  Typically, English is taught beginning in P4.  It was so fun to spend quality time with the students. It was the first time I had an experience one-on-one with any of them, in a learning setting, so that was great.

               For all fairness, Michelle’s roommate and best friend, Brennan, also from Harvard, is doing a summer project on student nutrition. She weighs the students and asks them what they eat, and they wear a pedometer for one day. Last year she did the same thing in Tanzania.  All very interesting information.  She completed 3 schools and is on to the fourth, Kigarama next week. And these girls are only undergrads starting their senior year (and they are quite mature for their age may I add.)

               I was invited to attend three big Kasiisi Project meetings. I felt special and very grateful.  This might get confusing.  The first was a landmark meeting whereby 3 people from each of 14 schools located on the western edge of Kibale National park were invited for a meeting about Wildlife Clubs in their schools.  The WLC teacher, headmaster (principal) and one from school management were invited. All schools were represented – an impressive turnout!  We discussed the need for WLCs, and which schools are interested in getting assistance from a full-to-part time WLC assistant to help all teachers with developing and organizing effective conservation activities, paid for by The Kasiisi project (which we don’t have money for yet!).  After a thorough conservation lecture by John, one of the most knowledgeable men I am beginning to get to know, and Chairman of the Board, it seemed as though the teachers were excited to do more for conservation. 

At that time I gave a lecture explaining further what our assistance meant and gave examples of activities that could be carried out in their schools.  Finally, Joshua (also on the Board) put the cherry on top and asked if the audience would like to “be baptized by the water that ‘this lovely lady’ was offering”.  I was quite confused because I was pretty sure he was talking about the Bible, but then he turned to me for a reaction and I had to ask what he was talking about.  Needless to say, all schools seemed excited to sign up to be a part of this “new age” Wildlife Club.  I was happy to give out my contact information on the chalkboard, as all my brand new business cards – which I bought for free from vistaprint.com, and specifically for a moment like this, were tucked away in my bag back at camp. I had even remembered to bring them to Kibale…argh.

               Directly after this meeting was a Board meeting.  The Kasiisi Project is going through a big management change, the CEO is retiring.  This was the first Board meeting where new members attended.  I sat in to most of the meeting, but without sharing details, I am slowly but surely learning the ropes as to what it takes to run a successful, established non-profit. 

I also had a meeting with our new WLC Ugandan assistant, Francis.  Francis and I will be working in tandem with the Wildlife Clubs.  He is graduating with a Conservation degree from a University in Kampala in January and is finishing his thesis until then.  He was hired yesterday to join our team and I think he will be a great asset.  But, as any new grad, he needs to learn how to be a professional, which is a great challenge for me, because I am learning that too!  Francis’s knowledge fills in all my gaps; he knows the local, current, conservation issues that I am slowly learning. He is fluent in Rutooro and understands my English fine, as long as I speak slower.  I will be training him on the organization of lesson plans/activities, and sharing with him all the contacts I have received thus far in the community. Together we will build the Wildlife Clubs.  We have hit the ground running and I am very excited to come back in 3 weeks to see what has been accomplished.

Brennan, Michelle, me, Francis

Then there was a Kibale Forest Coalition for Conservation Education (KFCCE) meeting.  That was exciting because organizations from Uganda and even US were represented, including Jane Goodall Institute, Books Open The World, North Carolina Zoo (UNITE), Tooro Botanical Garden, Uganda Wildlife Authority, and more.  Then I met with the field director of the Albertine Rift Project with World Wildlife Fund. Hellena wants to bring a group of her WLC students to Kibale from a different district and have the students engage through WLC activities. It was nice to discuss the possible lessons we can do together in August. Though WWF has much more money to work with than Kasiisi…

After all these meetings there were celebrations.  The headmistress of Kasiisi, Lydia, had us over for a wonderful traditional dinner. My favorite dish is called “frinda”. If I understand correctly, you can use any bean, but it is labor intensive because the cook must peel away each bean skin, and it gets mashed so smoothly it looks exactly like gravy. I even drizzled it over fresh chips (homemade fries) and it was heaven.  My mom would comment that of course my favorite would be either the most expensive or time consuming dish…  The next evening Ronan shared his awesome chimp photos from the forest.  There was a great turnout from the other field students as you can imagine. He has a unique perspective because he climbs 150 ft fruiting trees and waits for the chimps to come. Some of his pics are from above the chimps. Richard Wrangham has assigned Ronan to focus on certain things, like teeth and wounds, and anything else that is interesting, such as aggression, hunting, and their nests in the trees, since he is up there.  Unfortunately due to National Park laws, Ronan can’t sell any of his chimp pictures or video, but you can see them on his website: www.ronandonovan.com.

The last celebration was a huge ribbon cutting ceremony at school put on by the parents of Kasiisi Primary for Elizabeth to show their gratitude for her initiative and funds for getting electricity in the school.  This is a huge accomplishment and now Kasiisi is rated much higher on the government scale.  For a rural school, this is almost unheard of. Congrats Elizabeth!  The celebration included song and dance from each class, P1-P7- adorable! Then a traditional drama (skit) and dance with drums, and finally Caroline was asked to introduce herself as the Field Director and her relation to Elizabeth (family friends of 25 years), and Elizabeth thanked everyone tremendously for the party. She was even given gifts from the parents, which ranged from a box of cookies, to two beautiful stalks of cauliflower, to ten eggs and a rooster!

From a busy, exciting and learned week, I was blessed with a free ride from Kibale NP (Fort Portal) to Kampala (with a 2 hour stop to re-pack my bags and take a shower) to Entebbe, because Elizabeth was on her way home and had the ride all sorted out (airport is in Entebbe).  What a great break from bodas, matatus, exhaust, gentle verbal abuse, and lots of patience!  I start a full week with Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) tomorrow and am excited to assist the keeper team in giraffe training plans – their #1 task for me when I get there!   They also received a baby elephant (mom was probably poached) last week, it is in quarantine, but I can’t wait to meet it and the two baby chimps too! Maybe I’m not done being a keeper after all!

Soccer socks put to good use!

Reflecting on the most special 3 months of my life

Things I didn’t miss about the US – the cold wind slapping my face, strip malls, advertisements everywhere and stop lights.

Things I missed about the US– Mexican food, normal electrical outlets, brushing teeth, drinking out of the tap, and getting water in my mouth while showering without having to worry about getting parasites, my car, friends and family of course.

Things I don’t miss about Africa– having parasites, taking Malarone pills against malaria, sleeping with mosquitos buzzing in my ears, public transport, exhaust and dust in my face and up my nose, not being able to jog anywhere outside.

Things I miss about Africa – Well, we don’t need to go there, there are so many!  Let’s just leave it at $.50 football  size avocados and mangos.

If I were to try summarizing my trip in a nutshell, I would have to say:  This trip was amazing in so many ways, but I look forward to making it truly my life.  I was chasing a dream for many years, and with hard work and a lot of money and Dominic’s love, it became real.  Even including all the frustrations of Africa, I still feel spoiled, and lucky, and grateful to Dominic, and happy, so happy knowing this is our new life.  I still don’t have answers to what, exactly, my new profession is, but I am feeling some answers get closer as I keep an open mind and as opportunities arise.  It seems that environmental education and conservation through sustainability and development is likely the course. I see those needs everywhere I go, and they are tangible with funding. I repeat, funding.  Fundraising is not my forte, but it must be somebody’s, right?  The world needs to grow many more awesome development people to help the dark nooks and crannies of the world.  It would be a way to further spread out the money of the wealthy to those who are in need. Philanthropy, the US was the first country to give a tax break to those who give, so as to encourage charitable giving.  Philanthropy has increased in recent years, as has the establishment of non-profit organizations.  There is more money out there, but more competition to get it. 

That is exactly not the reason why I want to start my own non-profit.  As any of you with non-profit experience know, it is no easy road!  But maybe I will try… The goal will be to raise money for education in struggling communities abroad.  This is not a new idea, and there are many organizations already doing it, but it is still needed in many nooks and crannies and it makes a huge difference not only in the lives of the individual people learning, but to the community.  This is my experience so far.  If I can see it, it is there, I don’t need statistics to know it works, although funders do.  Maybe a video clip can do the trick.

Jonna's rescue dog, Scruffy with his snaggle tooth

Paris

My first trip to Europe (not including England) was Paris.  I mean, really, what can I say besides I’m in Love?  Most people I know have been to Paris, so I’m not going to say much more about it. And for those who haven’t, you must experience it for yourself.  What I will add is a little background, a list of the places I/we visited, and two highlights.

Dom had an OIE conference (World Organization for Animal Health – in French, not a direct translation) for 3 days at end of February.  For 1.5 days before and 2.5 days after, we enjoyed Paris together, and for the 3 days while he was working, I was spoiled and given the chance to enjoy more of it on my own.  Not in order of enjoyment I/we visited: Hotel des Invalides, Pantheon, Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg, Musee Rodin, Petit Palais, Louvre, Eiffle Tower, Musee d’Orsay, Chateau de Versailles, St. Germain des Pres, Cimentiere du Pere LaChaise, Arc de Triumphe, Basilique du Sacre-Couer, Hotel de Ville, Moulin Rouge. 

I sure was busy working Paris!  Especially on the day I decided to walk from Hotel des Invalides, near where our Hotel St. Dominique was located, to Cimetiere Du Pere LaChaise to see Jim Morrison’s grave.  None of the tourist maps I had have the distance key, but if I were to guesstimate using tiredness of legs, soreness of feet, and experience jogging 3 miles every day, I would say it was about 4-5 miles, in heels. But I knew what I was getting myself into, and Paris is the place to walk, and more importantly, Jim was worth it.  The highlight of that day was when I patiently waited 3 hours to eat my fresh deli sandwich in the cemetery on a bench surrounded by hungry black crows watching my every move.   Just like a bad girl “feeding the wildlife”, I placed a small piece of bread on each side of my bench to see who had the courage to jump up and get it.  The female won in the end.

Of course everything was amazing, but Moulin Rouge must be one of the top 5 best events in the world.  We bit our lips paying for it, but have no regrets.  Four- course meal, tasty and perfect, the service perfect, and the show extraordinary.  I won’t go on about the women’s and men’s perfect naked bodies or the talent and skill it must take to do their work, the detail of their costumes, and the side acts during costume breaks, like the juggler, vantriloquist, and contortionist couple that were the best I’ve ever seen, but for four hours of pure bliss, we had not one complaint. 

Thank you Dominic! Smooooooooooooch!

Rwanda

February started off with Dom leaving on the 5^th for a USAID conference in Rwanda.  For that entire week I stayed at Mac and Jonna’s while they were gone, and pet sat for their 6 adorable cats and dogs. Dom also had more business to do regarding Mountain Gorilla Vet Project and Predict collaborations.  In addition, Uganda elections were going on Feb 18^th, and we had two options to avoid getting involuntarily involved in the heat of the situation – either hole up for 5 days in our apt, or leave Uganda all together.  We decided on the latter, so I met Dom in Rwanda on the 12^th and we stayed the week until our flight to Paris for his second conference starting in the week of the 20^th.

French, clean streets, great food, sidewalks, volcanoes, and gorillas, that’s Rwanda in a nutshell. For two nights, Dominic and I stayed in a wonderful hotel, complete with a workout room and large pool in the sun.  This is where his USAID conference was, in the main city of Kigale.  A good friend and colleague named Tony (associated with Mountain Gorilla Vet Project) took us to this awesome restaurant called Gorilla Bar Chez John, which had amazing mushroom soup, tilapia, and pizza. It is the rainy season for Rwanda, so you can (seemingly) count on at least one short rain every day, which cools everything down quickly. When it is not raining, the sun is complemented with a nice temperature.  When I left Kampala, it was hot and dry, it hadn’t rained for 3 weeks and the dust was nasty. The rain in Rwanda was refreshing! 

Did you know it is a law in Rwanda that the first Saturday every month the entire population has to clean their streets and communities?  Did you also know that Kinyarwanda and French are the common languages, but that English is becoming more popular and, in fact, the government is in the process of changing the national language form French to English?  Did you know that French people in France are now expected to learn English? 

The rest of the week was spent at Ruhengeri, a town built from eco-tourism at the bottom of the volcanoes, a two hour drive northwest from Kigale.  Mountain Gorilla Vet Project (MGVP) as well as USAID/Predict is located here, and it is on the volcanoes where the vets give direct vet care to their hairy patients in the forest of the national park.  The staff also monitors the health of each individual.  Google them, they’re awesome.  Dominic’s colleague and good friend, Mike Cranfield was a hoot as usual, and it was really great to spend time with him. 

The Rwanda countryside is built from volcanic hills and valleys.  With the heavy amounts of rain and sun, plants and food grow very well, and the place is always green.  The elevation keeps the temperature pleasant.  It’s spectacular.  Dominic and I were hoping to see the gorillas, but due to high numbers of visitors during this non-tourist season, and our bank account (it’s $500 each person to spend 1 hour with a group of gorillas), we saw the golden monkeys instead.

Golden monkeys are adorable and rare.  They are found in the bamboo forest, which is the first layer from the edge of Volcanoes National Park.  They are not difficult to find, so we didn’t have to worry about getting blisters, or hiking tremendous altitude. They are well habituated to groups of calm humans, so getting a close-up picture or fun video is no problem.  Dom and I got both =)  We stayed with them for an hour and then hiked back down to the car.  

But the hike down to the car, and up to the national park (NP) from the car, is interesting in itself.  Every inch of Rwanda that is not highly protected by the government as a NP is farmland.  Rwanda has the highest population density in Africa, and with the fertile land, subsistence farming is the main form of survival and for some, income.  The hike up to the golden monkeys was farmland; we were walking through cultivated fields that seemed like people’s private farms.  There were cattle and corn and cabbage, etc.  It was beautiful countryside, but to see the abrupt contrast in foliage once we approached the rocky wall (built with volcanic rocks) that stood as the only barrier between national park and private land, which was very easy to cross, it became evident how easily humans can change entire ecosystems with one machete/panga.

From afar, when driving away from the volcano, one can see the distinct line that runs across the entire mountain (called a “hard edge” – in ecology language) from where farmland meets rocky wall and protected forest.  It is so obvious that for non-painters, it would be easy to paint.

One of the volcanoes who's name has something to do with teeth

Dom, Jaque, Cranfield - Gorilla Docs

Fruit bats on Lake Kivu near DRC border

every inch of land used for farming

Golden monkey

In the bamboo forest inside Volcanoes National Park

Climbing from the national forest, over the volcanic rock wall, back to farmland

Dian Fossey's hang out

Another fun adventure was driving to the border of the Democratic Rep of Congo (the really huge country in the middle of Africa, AKA. Zaire).  We were dropping off Jacque, a Congolese vet who works with MGVP to GOma, the city on the DRC side of the border.  MGVP holds meetings on the Rwanda side because DRC increased their immigration rates to $250 USD for non-residents, but Rwanda decreased their rates to $0 for DRC and US citizens, among many other countries.  It was raining and muddy and there were lines of people waiting to cross both borders.  On the way to the border, Mike introduced us to an old colony of fruit bats that roost in the palm trees along the main road, next to a big lake called Lake Kivu. Mike said they are always here, no matter what. But he noticed something odd during this trip.  The palm branches that the bats were hanging on were all brown, limp and dead.  In fact, it looked as if all the trees were dying.  Some bats were found in other types of trees, which also did not look healthy.  My mind was going wild with possibilities of causes. Maybe I’ll camp out there for a few months and find out!

Ruhengeri is a pleasant town where MGVP compound is stationed, and I felt comfortable jogging in the neighborhood, both physically and mentally.  My lungs were already used to the elevation from Kampala, but in this particular hood the roads were nicer, the hills flatter, and there was less traffic with less pollution and dust.  Plus the weather was cooler, and even though there were tons of Africans walking the streets and looking at me, I got the feeling that they were used to mazungus.  Many ex pat government aid workers are established in this area.  I could see myself jogging there every day.

The MGVP compound is a beautiful set up that used to be a nunnery. The project moved there a few years ago from another compound nearby.  On days when there was a room available, Dom and I were invited to sleep there.  On days when there wasn’t a room available, we stayed in a nice bed and breakfast around the corner from MGVP.  An English woman and a Rwandan man, a lovely couple, live there and recently decided to make their awesome property into a business, after putting in 3-4 years of manual labor to fix the place up. We were happy they wanted to share their home with us.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was meeting a man named Jinah Mohamed in the same restaurant that Dian Fossey used to hang out, Muhabura Bar.  While we were having lunch, he was sitting at the table next to us chain smoking, and overheard our conversation about Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.  He politely interjected to share a personal story. Turns out, his family was good friends with Dian, and when he was a boy, she invited him to ride in her truck up to the mountain with her on many occasions.  He spoke of only good things, but what most stood out was, “she is the reason Rwanda is so successful today”.  Now there are always two sides of every story, and unfortunately, one side gives Dian a bad reputation.  But there is definitely truth to what he said from what I gathered during our stay in Ruhengeri. The place is rich (relatively speaking) on gorilla eco-tourism.  If Dian Fossey hadn’t made such a fuss about them, and was murdered for them, gorillas would have not received this attention.  However this is all very controversial, so please take my impression with a grain of salt.  “Called one of the foremost primatologists in the world while she was alive, Fossey, along with Jane Goodall and Birutė Galdikas, was part of the so-called Leakey's Angels, a group of three prominent researchers on primates (Fossey on Gorillas; Goodall on Chimpanzees; and Galdikas on Orangutans) sent by archaeologist Louis Leakey to study great apes in their natural environments”? Wikkipedia! Ha!  

On our last day, Cranfield brought us to one of his favorite spots to bird watch, along a dammed river that is now a lake.  Bird watching was nice as we walked along the muddy path that led to a long left turn into a quieter area with a large field just below a steep, tall hill.  Where Mike was hoping to be a peaceful area, was a soccer game with local kids playing on a Saturday.  We all watched them with smiles and took pictures from afar, but once they saw us, they stopped the game immediately to see what we were up to.  Dom didn’t think twice.  He approached them and, using only body language, asked the boys to juggle.  At least 6 of them jumped in right away to participate.  I couldn’t help myself, so I jumped in with them.  Now, I don’t know what ball you are imagining, because they didn’t have a real football; they make their own.  This one was exactly like an oversized hacky-sack, but if you replace the beads and sand with plastic grocery bags (which, by the way, were completely banned from Rwanda – Go Rwanda!) and vegetation, then you understand what we were working with.  After many laughs and handshakes we went our separate ways, and before we knew it we were wishing we had a real ball in our backpacks to give to them…but did you think about how they would keep it inflated? …Ah ha…Africa. 

On the way out of town, Dom and I stopped at the genocide museum.  Not surprisingly, Dom and I have found these types of museums to be the most impressive museums ever encountered. I visited the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg, and Holocaust museums in the past.  Rwanda’s ended 16 years ago, and although it is still quite fresh, you wouldn’t know it by walking around. The people are respectful to each other, and the place is clean.  The daunting exhibit is a memorial that shows beauty and respect for lives lost. 

Rwanda was beautiful and a wonderful experience overall. Next time, though, we will see those mountain gorillas!

The Frustrations of Travelling by Bus in Kampala

OK so you would think after taking the same route to the same place 4 times, one would understand how to get there alone.  Nope, not for Amy Hanna, or anyone else I speak to trying to get around outside of Kampala on their first time.  It’s all about specifics. You see, I was trying to get from Naguru, a “suburb” of Nakasero – the down town, to a bus going to the New Taxi Park (within Nakasero), to Kikajjo, which is within the village of Natete- only 9km from Nakasero.  2 buses was all I needed. I took three and walked in between...

First, I got on a bus that told me I was going to New Park, when in fact it was going yes to Nakasero, but not directly to the New Park. I had to retrace my steps a few blocks then hang a corner and go far down the street, a 20 minute walk (I asked for directions at every block to make sure).  The city is crowded, imagine NYC with more [organized] chaos, and not many sidewalks.  The cars will run into you just the same. The New Taxi Park is similar and across the street from the Old Park, but they both function the same.  Imagine a filthy parking lot filled with buses, and people walking around selling anything you can think of, then imagine exhaust, and all eyes on your every move, as you move through a maze of buses about to run you over and not knowing in what direction you need to go to find “your bus”.  It once took me and Jonna an hour just to get out of the bus station to begin our trip outside of Kampala one day, the traffic is so bad in this city.  I asked for “Natete”, but what I should have asked for was “Kikajjo within Natete”.   I have found women and men all over the city equally pleasant towards me when I ask for directions or information. And everyone speaks some form of English, but it can be easily misunderstood.  I quickly realized my mistake, when the bus came to the main intersection in Natete and didn’t turn…

Insert:  A “taxi” in Uganda is a matatu. A matatu is a mini-bus that can seat 4 people across, in 4 rows, plus 2 people in the one passenger seat.  A ride cost about $0.25-.050 (500-1000 shilling) depending on how far you go.  If you take a matatu to go grocery shopping you can be sure that you will have no room for your groceries on the way home. You will stick your food in spaces you never thought were possible, and it will come out hot.   A “bus”in Uganda is the big one that goes from larger cities to larger cities.  For instance, I took a “bus” from Fort Portal to Kampala when I visted The Kasiisi Project in Kibale NP, 5 hours drive to the west.  That cost me $10, or 20,000shilling.  A “private hire” is what we in the States as a taxi, or a cab. They cost a similar price as in the U.S.

 I told the conductor “Kikajjo?” and he said, “oh you need to get out now and take that taxi” as he pointed up the road to somewhere where there weren’t any buses.  Luckily, though, I was familiar with this bus stage, from another incident of trying to get to the women’s co-op.  So I walked to that bus stage and the bus was empty, which means I would have to wait until it filled before we left, another 20 minutes.  Finally we were on the road to “Kikajjo”, and I recognized the road for the first 5km.  Then the road became unfamiliar – sometimes these roads all look the same.  When we were about 10 km up the road I became worried that we were suddenly on the wrong road, or we passed my stop.   Mind you, there are no signs ever, anywhere, so the road I was looking for always had a cloth banner displayed high across the street.  Unfortunately, this was recently pulled down. Dumb Amy.  As I become more anxious and my confidence was falling ever so quickly, I tell the conductor the name of the road and the organization I am looking for – Uganda Women’s Training Group; “Where they make the wine”.  The entire bus had No Clue what the mazungu was talking about. Normally every bus driver knows every back road, etc., but this one didn’t – just my luck. 

Long story longer, the driver accommodated me for a very real mazungu breakdown, and stopped the bus to try and find what i was looking for.  By the looks in their eyes, all the Ugandans in the bus felt bad for me as my eyes started tearing up, and my nose turning redder than it already was from being sunburned.  For 3.5 hours I had been travelling 9km- the time eaten up by wrong buses, walking and waiting.  I should have just walked there.  Turns out, where the bus stopped to console me was 50 feet from the road I needed. Phew! Breathe, breathe.  But when I got out, I still thought I was in the middle of nowhere, and then saw a familiar sign on the corner and felt a BIG sigh of relief, but felt like crying for another hour for my stupidity.

I have a job, among many, when I get back to the States, and that is to sell 150 items of handmade jewelry for The Training of Rural Women in Uganda non-profit organization.  If you want to buy some, please let me know! Prices will range from $6-$12 for earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Crazy Cat Lady

Jonna is Mac’s wife, who is a workmate with Dominic for Respond project, and has become a really good friend of mine. Jonna and Mac own 3 dogs and 3 cats. While Dom and the rest of the Respond office was in Rwanda for a week for a conference, Jonna was in the U.S., and I stayed in Uganda with no one else I know here, except a few wonderful Uganda friends who were busy working.  I moved to Jonna and Mac’s house (with a backyard and deck) for the week to hang out with their pets.  I went from having no pets to having 6 pets, it was really fun!  It didn’t even bother me that on any given night 5/6 pets slept on the king size bed with me, but every time they let me know they wanted up, I had to raise the mosquito net so they could jump up.  About 10 times in the night.  Luckily all the animals are cute and small, so there was plenty of room on the bed.  Scruffy, the Uganda street dog who Jonna rescued, looks at you with a crooked jaw and a tooth sticking out of his lower lip because when he was beaten, his jaw broke (but it healed really well). And when he wakes from a nap, his tongue hangs sideways out of his mouth, it is so funny, I wish I had a picture! As my friend Anna would say, I was the “crazy cat lady” for a week.

Feeling alone in Uganda for a week was really good for me.  I was able to slow down and reflect on the past 2 months, and I missed Dominic very much!

Fondled for a Mosquito

Sitting directly next to me in the airport on the way to Rwanda was a traditionally dressed Rwanda elder who clearly didn’t like mosquitos.  After swatting it against herself, the mosquito managed to survive, and then it came my way.  I was giggling at the picture in front of me, as she was determined to kill this thing.  I was waiting for it to land on my arm laid across my waist so I could swat it with more certainty. But before I knew what happened she slapped my belly, then continued to press her hand hard against my body and up onto my left breast before she pulled back without flinching.  As I was still laughing under my breath, I pointed to the dead mosquito on my shirt and she proudly flicked it away.  Then she turned and faced forward as if nothing happened.  This was the highlight laugh of my week.

Have you ever slept with a mosquito buzzing in your ear, for instance while you have been camping? Can you sleep through it?  Or does it drive you crazy like me?

The Kasiisi Project: Chimps and monkeys and birds, Oh My!

The famous Richard Wrangham and wife Elizabeth Ross



Wonderful couple, Caroline and Ronan, new Assistant Directors to the Kasiisi Project




Students on first day of school at the Kasiisi [Model] School




Male chimp named Mgze at Kayanchura in Kibale NP



Head Guide, Harriet and two others



Dobbyn Foundation and Scholars




Despite asthetics this is a very functional classoom that was renovated. You should see the ones that haven't been helped yet.  Renovation is where most of the Kasiisi project funds go, and for good reason.




Pani, AKA Elizabeth, getting a bath




Colobus napping in the tree above the lunch patio




This fig tree was planted in 1991 by Richard and it is huge - fertile soil in Uganda!




Gotta get my inverts in here - preying mantis in cup



THE KASIISI PROJECT:    Where do I start?  I guess I should start at the part where one year ago I was invited to visit a project in Uganda called The Kasiisi Project.  I met a woman named Elizabeth Ross at the “In-Situ Zoo Conservation Educator’s Conference” at Brevard Zoo a year ago and told her I would most likely be in Uganda before the end of 2010.   I just spent 4 days at her project in Kibale National Park, 5 hours directly west of Kampala, on the edge of DRC.  In fact, this is the same NP that Richard Wrangham, the male version of Jane Goodall, has completed 30+ years of chimp research.  While Richard was running around in the forest studying chimps, his wife established a non-profit to improve the community schools on the edge of the park where they are stationed, called The Kasiisi Project.

Some of the main goals of the Kasiisi project are to improve school buildings, build latrines, provide lunch (porridge), give out scholarships to the best students, provide extra support to girls especially during the sensitive time when they become women, and teach environmental education through classes and through Wildlife Clubs.  Wildlife Clubs are supposed to be in action in every government school, in fact all schools have many clubs.   Elizabeth asked me if I would like to become a volunteer to strengthen the Wildlife Clubs within this area.  With free transport and a place to stay, I agreed.  Starting in May I will visit between 5 and 14 targeted schools twice a month.

One of the goals (as agreed on by each school and Kasiisi) will be to start or continue a vegetable garden.  The soil in western Uganda is volcanic, which is highly fertile.  One of the schools had mature banana trees and cabbage, and it looked like a well—established garden. When I asked how long it took to grow these plants she said she started this garden from scratch less than 6 months ago!!  I was flabbergasted and it gave me lots of hope that this goal shouldn’t be too difficult to establish in other schools with a little funding.  The funding is already there, which is a huge help!  Then the produce is sold in the market and the profit is used to buy the next season of seeds, or perhaps to go into another Wildlife Club project.  Because Uganda has two rainy seasons, growing is not difficult, which is one reason the country is called the Pearl of Africa (and also the Breadbasket).  The picture of the big tree is to demonstrate how quickly things grow, this one was planted by Richard in 1991, but just needed some elephant dung to take off!

Other goals of the Wildlife Clubs might be to teach how to plant trees and plant more trees on school grounds, make paper machete chimps and masks to use in plays directed by the students, show movies that teach how to properly wash hands and why, show conservation movies about over-grazing, healthy water, deforestation and waste management produced by Jane Goodall institute and UNITE.  There is funding to bring the Wildlife Clubs on field trips to Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kibale (their backyard; they would never be able to afford the entrance fees), and a one week overnight Camp Uganda experience at UWEC (Uganda Wildlife Education Center where I will hopefully be volunteering at too – see blog #4).

There were 3 other Americans visiting for the week, fundraisers of the Dobbyn Foundation, which raise money for the Scholarship Program.  Kevin, Bill and Akshita got to meet face to face with the scholars that they support. We also went chimp tracking together.

CHIMP TRACKING

For $90 each we followed one male chimp for 3 hours. For two of the hours though, he was sitting in a tree and we all took descent pictures with pretty bad backlighting from the sky, but at least it was overcast.  I was happy that at least we got to see a chimp because during the drier season, when fruiting trees are scarce, chimp groups don’t vocalize to other chimp groups because they don’t want to share their food.  So even though the male chimp we were hanging with only vocalized once to his friends while drumming the buttress of a fig tree, not one chimp answered back.  When chimps want to move fast in the forest, they come down from the tree and walk on the forest floor.  Mgze allowed the 7 of us to follow him on the floor, 15 feet behind him, for 45 minutes, until he went up another tree.  It was time for us to hike an hour back to the station.  Had been a whole family on the floor it would have been a more intimidating experience, though thrilling no doubt.  Chimps are strong, unpredictable and can be really aggressive.  Chimp lovers, am I right? 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!

All in all, the highlight of the week was the plethora of [RARE] animals in the forest, like black and white colobus, red colobus, red tailed monkey, bush baby, and over 300 birds and butterflies… AND running into a group of forest elephants. Well not exactly.  I didn’t actually see them because the person I was following suddenly turned back towards me and started running down the trail from where we had just hiked (of course I followed with speed!).  You see, forest elephants in this area have a tremendous reputation for chasing away people, for more than just 200 yards.  Even the guides change course once they see/smell that elephants are close.  Luckily this female was not interested in us. 

Other excitement: huge troop of olive baboons rampaging through the research station banging on tin roofs and entering people’s open doors (exciting but not cool), we had to chase them away, it’s called “hazing”.  Colobus monkeys taking a nap in the front yard above us while we eat lunch.  Catching really cool insects to photograph.  Watching a beautiful bee eater (bird) sitting on two eggs in a hole in the ground.  Ironing all clothes to keep from mango fly larvae crawling into your skin.  Eating yummy traditional food.

In case you were wondering where Dom was all week, he had to host all the Deans of the University of MN and Makerere University Vet and Public Health schools.  Breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings galore. Tomorrow he leaves for a conference in Rwanda, and I pet/house sit for some workmates who will also be at the conference. I will then meet Dom in Rwanda in a week and we will stay a week. Then off to another conference in Paris, this time I am tagging along, you bet your bottom dollar!  By March 1 we will be back in the States and look forward to seeing most of you we hope!  As long as I can get to internet, I will blog about each week coming up.