I'll Give You a Good Meal if You Castrate My Pigs



Herbert's pig house in rural Uganda, just outside of Kampala




Herbert loves his pigs




Herbert (second in from right) and his wonderful family




My new FB profile pic, can't get enough of these piglets!




This one was named Dominico after you know who because he invested in Herbert's farm.




Dominic and his photographer trainee



Boy is it great to hang around vets.  They do the dirty work, I photograph and practice my Luganda, and we all get a great meal in the end.  Dominic, Mac and Jonna are all vets, but I just love animals. Together we make a good team in Africa.  Everyone needs help with their animals, whether it is a dog, cat, pig or chicken, and of course they all want help for free.  We have a work friend named Herbert who has a busy but lovely farm in the rural area just outside of Kampala.  He invited us over to castrate his piglets, and we received a yummy traditional Ugandan meal, not to mention a peaceful afternoon from the polluted, crazy city in return.  His family is wonderful, and they love their animals too, which is a rare attitude to find in these parts.  As in the states, the animals are for growing and selling. 

Lunch included: bananas for a snack, pilau (flavorful rice), peas in the tastiest brothy sauce ever made, beef with broth, and the infamous bean-sweet potato mash, much like a sweet re-fried bean for all you Mexican food lovers.  A tray of perfectly ripe, juicy pineapple was for dessert.  Mmmmm good!  This meal takes a long time to cook and to buy the goods, so most Ugandans do not eat like this every day.  Having mazungus in the house can be a big deal, and if they come to fulfill a favor it is even a greater deal.  Not to mention the day was a holiday, Liberation Day, the day that the army marched into the capital in 1986-ish, so the whole family was home and Mac and Dom were off work =)   Herbert’s family was extremely welcoming and they are very warm people.

Piglets really are the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  If you haven’t noticed I have become quite the pig lover, one day we will have our own, with chickens!  I think I will start a pig orphanage, or better yet I will become a surrogate sow.  Farmers can give me a few piglets that are weaned, and I will fatten them up while giving them lots o’ love and a nice yard. They will be sold for the mazungu price and will have lived a nice life, or go to the farm to become mommies.  I like the latter idea better…

Anyway, the castration was “quick and easy”, and I won’t go into detail or post pictures, I’d rather forget I observed it all together.  The piglets scream and sound like little babies, that’s the worst part. But again, it’s “quick and easy”.  Sorry if you have a tough stomach and wanted to see. Dom has video.

Herbert and the family also have turkeys, chickens, very loud ducks, and guinea fowl.  They are healthy and happy.  The ducks and the guineas are used mostly as alarm system as the ducks can be quite territorial, and the guineas freak out if a predator is in the area.  There is a fish farm down the road managed by a Peace Corps guy.  We all took a walk and ran into a few cows tethered in the grass and munching away.

It’s getting hotter and drier here day by day.  It used to be bearable to walk in the sun during midday, but now you want shade at all times and it is no fun running errands midday.  At least it is mostly dry heat.  However, none of this is worse than the cold and snow you are having, sorry folks (we’ll be back in a month).  The next rains are expected at the end of February, this will cool things down, however these days Ugandans have learned not to have many expectations about the weather because the climate is changing.  By the way, I heard 3 airports on the East coast shut down again?  Yikes!  At least the Premiership is not playing in snow anymore.  That was ridiculous!  All of the games were re-scheduled after the Uganda newspaper we had with the full 2011 schedule was printed.  Hooray for the iPhone!   

Wrestling Pigs

On Tuesday, I was invited to work with an African Swine Flu (ASF) team, through Makerere University in Kampala.  ASF is endemic to Africa and this research will add to what is not quite known.  Karl, a Swedish vet and PhD researcher, has been studying this disease for over a year now, taking samples from domestic pigs outside of Kampala.  I was invited to help this week. The first site was in Kalangala – in fact the same place I spent Christmas this year.  Luckily the disease does not spread to humans, but is extremely contagious to domestic pigs.  Warthogs and bushpigs carry the tick-borne disease with no symptoms.   

We drove 2.5 hours to the southwest of Kampala to catch a (FREE!) ferry to bring the equipment to the island (1 of 70) in Lake Victoria. The ferry ride was flat and only 45 minutes, phew. The drive from Bukakata ferry launch to Kalangala is one hour exactly.  You should have seen the dirt that came out of my hair and laundry when I got home, yuck, and the snot in my nose, sorry!  Lots of dust and bad roads, but at least they were doing construction. Hey, it’s like I’m back in Chicago!  We visited one healthy pig farm before we visited an infected farm. The second farm was actually a group of pigs owned by many farmers, housed under the same roof. This is a very common set-up here.

Here is a picture of me wrestling a pig.  It looks like the pig is winning, but really my huge muscles are engaged and I am popping out of my shirt (yes I gained weight this week!). Ha!  So they use this ugly thing called a snare that catches the pig in the mouth. The pigs do NOT like this at all and I don’t blame them!  I felt bad using it, they scream and make a scene, and they can’t wait until it is all over.  Me too.  A wildlife vet, Dennis, took blood from the jugular, and this was actually when the pigs quieted down.  The whole time I was dreaming of having a bucket full of carrot pieces to reinforce them positively (i.e. thank them!) for their discomfort and blood.  I also wanted to say hello to my warthog buddy, Sammy, from Lincoln Park Zoo (these animals are so smart and have feelings too =) I was very grateful when I woke up the next morning having not dreamt of screaming pigs. 

P.S. This is why I didn’t become a vet.  Sadly, these pigs could be dead within a week, this disease is no joke and there is no vaccine.  You won’t hear about it in the US or UK because our governments won’t let it in as you can imagine.

I go out again tomorrow to help, this time in a district on the “mainland”, about an hour outside Kampala.  Wish me luck!  Piggy-Poo to the rescue!



A really healthy pregnant pig. This is what you (and I) eat, isn't that sad?? Don't think it doesn't make me want to be a vegetarian.




Karl and the Makerere truck



A fun and busy weekend in Uganda

On Saturday, Dom and I were invited to go behind the scenes a Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) AKA. Uganda Zoo.  This is the most impressive African zoo that I can ever imagine exists (though I have only seen one other so don't quote me, but I can't imagine anything nicer, really).  The land is owned by the government and is ON beach front property (LPZ comes close).  The green areas are astounding, large trees and vegetation and parks, it is beautiful.  The restaurant/cafe looks out onto the beach, where you can walk and swim, and the birds include egret, crowned crane, ducks - the white ones, hammerkop, Egyptian geese - all the same as the ones from Ssese Islands.  It's fun to see them all hanging out together and everyone gets along.  While drinking our tea during a short storm, 3 camels walked by with their keeper, who eventually got frustrated with two of them when they decided to sit down in the grass and not get up.  The stories are true, camels are notoriously stubborn, Dominic is a close second.

David, the education officer, spent quality time with us.  He started explaining the Outreach Program.  This is no ordinary travelling zoo.  UWEC brings lions and 150lb boas to the schools.  Ummmmmmm I had a little problem with this, but like a good girl, said nothing.   He showed us the snakes, the rare shoebill stork - very cool looking indeed- and then brought us to the giraffes =)  They aquired 3 young giraffes and they want to provide a giraffe feeding service to the patrons, who buy food and stand on a deck at the height of the giraffes.  David said the giraffes don't go to where the deck is, and he wants to start traiing them to do so....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm right down my alley.  My eyes perked up and i mentioned a few ideas and then decided i better shut my trap.  Anyway, it semms this may have left David with an impression - I certainly hope so!

We saw the vet cliinic, which was very advanced for any African zoo, and they need just a few new gadgets that are broken or very out-of-date.  Dom is hoping to help them acquire such things. Lincoln Park Zoo finds old, but working vet gadgets from across USA to send to places like this, so hopefully we can make the connection...The primary vet showed us the quarantine areas, and told us a story about how they received 4 small boxes of grey parrots stuffed inside. They were confiscated in the pet trade, and 130 survived and are housed at UWEC.

At the end of a great tour, I was encouraged to apply for their volunteer program.  I am very excited for the opportunity and will let you know if anything happens.

Sunday, Dom and I went rafting on the Nile with Jonna, Mac, J.C. and a random English girl travelling the world between University and real life.  I had never done a full day of rafting, just a few hours here and there.  It was awesome, but for this kind of rafting there is no way not to get dunked somewhere along the way. We went over 10 rapids! The raft flipped 2 or 3 times, I'm still burping up the Nile but my sinus headache is going away.  It was a blast though!!!  4 hours of excitement but also long stretches of paddling, which is what I haven't experienced in the States.  During the last paddle a small storm decided to start blowing wind against us.  But we fought through it and luckily the storm blew past.  When we came up to a level 6 rapid, we all had to park the rafts and walk through a lot of big and small rocks (they didn't let anyone wear shoes the whole trip).  It was funny to watch the local Ugandans, who live on that side of the river, enjoying watching the blinding-white mazungus baring their skin and acting like crazy people throwing themselves into the rapids.  We really are a sight to see!  Unfortunately, Dom's sunburns are worse than mine, despite our best efforts to keep on sunscreen.  Bare, blinding white skin + sun + equator + 4 hours = red skin.  The tour operator fed us well. The BBQ at the end was phenomenal, beef skewers, veggie burgers - more like potatoe pancakes, avocado salad, rice and green beans, german potatoe salad, and chipati - basically an oily flour tortilla - soooo good!   We will never forget Nile River Rafting because our sore muscles will remind us! 

Oh yeah, and we stopped by Stone Pub for more pork on the way home from UWEC. mmm mmmm good.
Many more pics can be seen on FaceBook.

Kidney Stones and Giving Birth

First and Foremost, I have to give a shout-out to one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Lizzie Ephraim Davis (and Beau!) who just gave birth to her first child, a beautiful baby girl named Harper Ephraim Davis. Congrats to you and the family! ...and I am very sad I can't meet her until March =(

Ironically enough on the same weekend, Dominic gave birth to a beautiful brown kidney stone. You know, "they say" passing a kidney stone is as painful (or more) as a woman giving birth.  Luckily, there is a small doctors' office down the street and it is modern enough.  Within 3 hours, Dom received drugs and an ultrasound, then was given more good drugs and sent home to drown himself in water.  It worked!  Congrats Dominic!  What did you name it?

Dom's Deep blog

Race and Friendship in Africa

Warning, this blog will be awkward, but I think people appreciate both updates and philosophy from their blogs, so Im going to ‘go there’ since Amy is covering our activities so well.  The day before Christmas, we went with friends to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria, to a resort popular with local people…….it was fantastic!  We were an interesting group racially, one white couple, one black, and one mixed black and white.  It was a wonderful display of racial harmony and friendship across race, gender, profession and cultural boundaries – the way it should be – in an area of the world where things have not always been so.  Race and politics are things that you are constantly faced with when working in Africa as a white American; it gives one a huge new perspective on what it must be like to be a minority in the US (not that it is exactly the same of course).  At first, it is incredibly difficult to reconcile what they call ‘white man’s guilt’ and you have to resist the urge to try to make up for all the sins of our past in one fell swoop.  In my case, I have decided that being real while trying to positively contribute in my own way is the best way I can help combat history and show that it is now a different world – this has luckily resulted in some of the best friendships of my life.   However, I have at the same time been amazed at how we can make light of this issue from time to time and how it does not affect (or at least obviously not) work relationships negatively over here.

Previously, the most ‘in-your-face’ the sorted history of the slave trade has been for me personally was when visiting Jinja, Tanzania, which is on Lake Tanzania (next to Kigoma, the launching point for Gombe National Park) while reading a book on the history of the slave trade.  Jinja is notorious for being the ‘end’ or ‘beginning’, depending upon your point of view, of one of the major routes of the East African slave trade.  It is now a small, mostly Muslim town, but there are remnants of the past.  The old wide avenue is lined by huge mango trees (virtually planted by captives), and is the spot purported to be where Stanly finally ‘presumed’ to have found Livingston after being guided there largely by slave trading arabs.  When visiting, one gets an eerie feeling of the past, but in the sense that there are still ghosts wandering around, not unlike other places with traumatic histories. 

However, our recent boat ride to the Ssese Islands, the day before Christmas, left me with an entirely different, gut wrenching feeling.  To my knowledge, there is no specific historical significance to this specific place, although L. Victoria has witnessed its share of atrocities.  The ‘ferry’ to the islands was a typical large African wooden lake boat, sometimes infamous in the international news for sinking with passengers aboard, other times for moving refugees around.  There are 1000’s of these plying the African Great Lakes.  To enter, one has to climb over a small ladder and down another large one into the belly of the boat.  This one, unlike many, had long lines of padded seats under a large tarp suspended above with about a foot of space – a 5’10” person could just see over the edge in the middle when standing, but would have to climb to see over the side on either end.  There are no windows or toilets, but there are kids with chickens, a man selling drinks and big orange life vests for about 80% of the people on board.  Once the masses are done boarding and have found some compromise in the seating arrangement, the boat sets off with only a small change in noise and movement – on a calm day.  The success of the ‘three hour tour’, plus one hour for boarding, depends upon the weather, the waves and the state of well being of all of one’s newfound ‘close’ friends!  Luckily, our rides were relatively smooth and uneventful, with the exception of Amy not feeling great and the newlywed bride next to us with seasickness.  However, I could not help think, as we sat in the belly of the boat, lined up almost on top of each other in uncomfortable positions, with no decent toilet for four hours, that this would have been one of the easiest days imaginable for someone two hundred years ago chained aboard an old wooden ship on top of his/her newfound friends, again with no toilet…and nothing else in life.  I looked at my good friends next to me, black and white, and forgot for a moment that this was my first Christmas away from home in a looong time, and remembered what it was like to be thankful for just a few minutes – and I am thankful for that. 

Entebbe pizza and helping doggies

We had 'za for the first time in a month (and) in Uganda, and well, the crust was quite nice but they forgot the sauce, well they call it tomato and it turns out you have to ask for tomato on your pizza.  The ambiance couldn't be better, it was on the beach on Lake Victoria. The lake flies are only active for an hour, like a cloud they pass, and then they mate and fall asleep or cuddle in the bushes or something. So you only have to cover your drink for an hour and make sure you don't chew with your mouth open. Entebbe is a 1 hour drive north of Kampala and also where the main airport is.  Coincidently enough, Entebbe is also a 2 hour drive from Kampala during rush hour on a Friday, see just like Chicago...  I don't miss not driving at the moment. Hey Ma, no road rage =)

Meeting James from Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) went very well.  We all just wanted to get to know each other and not talk business too much.  Dom and I, Innocent and Lawrence (who Dom is working with on a PhD) all drove together from Kampala.  As expected, UWEC reminds me just like Munda Wanga Environmental Park in Zambia.  We were all invited by James to see the park, and behind the scenes on Saturday so we are very much looking forward to that. I hope to be invited to volunteer sometime, we'll see. It is definitely NOT ok to be pushy in Africa... especially as a muzungu... I'm sure you are all holding your breath for me, yes I'm working on holding my tongue in everything that i do!

Jonna and Tasha applying Frontline



dark dog run over by a bus-twice. blondie has two limbs macheted off.




Did you think this strip mall photo was a mistake from my chicago batch? nope, in Kampala, SUVs and all




Kampala traffic at a round-a-bout. not efficient, who designed these things in the first place?




polluted sunset, very nice though, barely out of the city now.

 Jonna took me to the ASPCA (in Uganda =USPCA?) where she volunteers on an almost full-time basis.   The dogs were due for their monthly Frontline application. Luckily this is not invasive, it's just some goo that goes on the skin on the back of their necks to kill ticks and fleas.  Jonna was hoping to get half the dogs done with mine and Tasha's help, but things went smoother than we expected and we finished 50+ dogs in less than 2 hours.  And no bite wounds to boot!  The doggies were sweethearts, each wth a different story.  The puppies were adorable and need homes, anyone, anyone? from Uganda? haha. I didn't bring one home, but it was tempting...The cats were cute too, for all you cat lovers.

Most cultures don't worship their pets like we do in the States. In fact, they usually abuse domestic animals, especially the street cat and dog.  Not only are the animals misunderstood, but the people do not have the means to help them even if they wanted to.  So as you can imagine, the issues involved in stray animals is complicated and numerous. But this is not different at all from the problems we have in the States where animals are also abused and not neutered, etc. The only difference in the States is that the spectrum is wider - those who hire masseuses for their pets, and those who ignore 'em.

   So, the moral of the story is: take a visit to your nearest ASPCA in whatever country you reside; they need your help.   
 xoxoxoAMY

the roaches are at it again, avocados, crafts and bowling!

We're back, and this time with less to say! ha!

Jonna, one of Dom's workmate's wife, also a vet, took me to a women's cooperative in one of the villages 9kg outside of Kampala.  Despite taking 2 hours each way on transferring between mini-buses to get through the polluted, dusty city, the cooperative was very peaceful and well worth it.  My eyes and nose burn from the constant fumes and dust, and when i get home I can't wait to shower and clean out my nose and ears, which are black inside, yummmmmmmmm.  The exhaust gives me and Jonna a headache too.  We make sure to tell each other when we are ready to go home, knowing fully well once we start to feel the irritable side come through there's no turning back, and we will be in this state for 2 hours.  So far so good, it's good to know oneself in these times!

The cooperative was started by two passionate Ugandans in 2000 and about 20 rural women who are widows with or without orphaned children come by every weeek to work on crafts and wine-making.  The crafts are absolutely beautiful.  Yesterday we help make paper beads. Colorful paper is rolled into beads, then varnished.  The wine is more like a cherry and made out of cane sugar, pineapple, passion fruit and orange. It's tasty, well, I should speak for myself, as Dom is not so sure he likes cherry.  During the day the founders, Sofia and Augustine, invited us (Jonna, me, and Tasha -a workmate's daughter) to their home for an amazing traditional lunch.  Beef in broth, amazing rice, cooked corn maize (exactly like nshima in Zambian I was thrilled!), groundnut sauce- like peanut sauce (sounds gross but is one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten, and easy to make - peanuts water and onion), oh and fresh, perfectly ripe avocado.  If I were fed this meal everyday I WILL gain a lot of weight.  Trying hard not to do that, it ain't easy when you're not shovelling @#$! every day!  Excuse me.  The ladies next door to the cooperative make the most amazing dyed baskets I have ever seen. I would put a picture on here, but then i would ruin the surprise. Sorry.

Speaking of avocados, Jonna allowed me to hit some avos off her tree in her backyard.  It was actually a difficult feat, as they are stubborn fruits!  They were finally ripe to eat yesterday and Dom and I made a 3 avo guacamole, yum yum.  We ran out of tomatoes b/c the fridge in the apt likes to freeze all my fresh veggies, argh that's annoying, but I have managed to figure it out.  One avo had a few bruises from me smacking it 30 times to get it down. But it was really a great batch, we salvaged the cilantro, and even had a lime - we were prepared as this is our fav dinner and we were looking forward to it for a week!  But just so everyone can be prepared...Uganda has NO tortilla chips in site.  I mean there actually is a mexican restaurant nearby-ish, and that is a blessing, but you can't buy chips from them.   But there are Pringles, salty Pringles that go REALLY well with guacamole.We happened to have one tube in the cubbord, and then some crackers like Saltines.  Mexican food is THE thing I crave. I have yet to meet one Mexican in Africa. 

BTW food and groceries in Arica is not cheap. If the prices are not the same as in the States, they're more. Silly me mazungu bought a kg of plums and .5kg of grapes, which were $10 each! OK learned my lesson not to eat grapes or plums in Uganda until I get a friggin job.

I almost forgot to mention, we went bowling last night!!!! At this mall, yes you heard me correctly, the main mall in Kampala, called Garden City, is ridiculous, and expensive.  On the top floor (4 - no elevators here) they have a cinema with cap movies from the States and a bowling alley, with really loud music and strange men that sneak in and target mazungus and try to steal their purses!  Thank goodness Mac, Jonna's hubby, saw the man sit NEXT to him, take my handpurse, and start walking away.  Ummm, hello!  Thank you Mac, I owe you big time for catching the guy! Then Dom got in the dude's face and followed him out of the place and was going to walk him straight to the security guards that are all around Kampala (for the Somalian bombs...) but the guy was too fast.   Anyhoo, Bowling was really, really fun there were 6 of us.

We got home just in time for the roaches to wake from their slumber and right when I was starting to feel comfortable in "my" kitchen, two luckily dying roaches (one very small and one not very small) were on the counter where we made the guacomole!!! ARGH. "DOM...Clean up in isle 5 pretty, pretty please".  SO I got to dream of roaches coming out of the drain all night, I woke up thinking I was a zoo keeper again.

Well hopefully you didn't read this just before bed either. Sorry to end on that note. More to come, like how Dom and I are going to Entebbe tonight for a dinner with Uganda Wildlife Education Center people, very excited about that!  And that I am helping Jonna put Frontline (anti-tick stuff) on all the stray dogs at the shelter today.  Anna, just getting some practice wrangling strays =)    
Until next time, I hope you are well, and thank you for tuning in!    xoxoxo Amy and Dom

The Holidays

Happy 2011!

Well this is my first attempt at a blog type thing, so I will try not to bore you, although telling a story is definitely NOT my forte. If Dom had the time to write this he would make you laugh. This is a summary of 3 weeks, so it's very long and I hope to do shorter blogs more often. That way it will be less difficult to pick out the best pictures, and hopefully less likely to bore you.  Which, if you have access to FaceBook, Dom and I have 150 picture posted between the two of us.

After record snowfall in MN which delayed our departure for a bit, Dominic and I made it to Uganda on 16 December.  We are staying in the capital city of Kampala, until March, when we will be heading home.  Our place has a very nice international set up; we actually have hot water and internet, which is a complete miracle and I am counting my blessings every day. We are not used to being spoiled in Africa.

There was a big surprise, however, and that was a family of HUGE cockroaches waiting for us in our kitchen.  If you even have these problems and can’t hire an exterminator right away, I highly suggest buying a can of DOOM. We found this crazy chemical in the store near our place. It’s a miracle in a can.  We sprayed it everywhere in the kitchen and they started “coming out of the woodwork”. Even though I love my invertebrates, fast roaches make me scream and my skin scrawl!  Dom took the job over from there, thank you honey!  The exterminator came a week later while we were on vacation and we haven’t seen one since…. although I will let you know for sure in about 20 days when the babies from the not-dead egg cases hatch. DOOM even kills egg cases, “they say”. 

The city is always busy and traffic can be bad, it’s exactly like in Chicago where you have to plan your day around the traffic.  We are time-sharing  a Toyota Land Cruiser with Dom’s good friend and parasitologist, Tom Gillespie and workmate Innocent Rwego.  Dom drives the stick-shift on the other side of the road, I am not quite there yet. I was going to practice while we were in a wildlife park, but it didn’t happen due to numerous interesting circumstances (foreshadowing!!).   So to get around town I take the matatu, AKA a mini-bus, which I am very used to from my Zambian travels.  It’s about a dollar to get anywhere. We try to stay away from the bodas, as the motorcyclists in traffic are especially unpredictable and there are many accidents every day.

For the holidays, Dominic and I visited two parks in Uganda, the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria (2 nights), and Budongo Forest and Murchison Falls in the northwest (3 nights).   On the first trip, 2 other couples went with us, Dom’s workmates who are much fun.  We drove an hour to Entebbe then caught a 3 hour boat ride in an old, deep boat that fit about100 people.  Everyone was travelling for the holidays and it was stuffy with the occasional live chicken bawking. Luckily we were covered from the sun with a tarp, but there was no bathroom and that was a challenge to say the least!  When the boat reached the deeper part of the lake the waves grew larger as the boat started rocking back and forth hastily…for an hour.  Lake Victoria is about the size of Lake Michigan.  If you’ve never been sea sick, you are lucky and you should count your blessings! 

Christmas did not feel like Christmas.  We woke up and it was raining cats and dogs, but we watched the birds on lake Victoria and that was awesome, ahhhh, wildlife.  Kingfishers, egrets, Egyptian geese with 7 goslings, yellow weavers, hammerkops.   Then we all snuggled into one of our rooms to celebrate x-mas with a few ‘toddies’. The rain finally stopped and we went on a self-guided walk up the road to the town which looked kind of like an old western town, then back through the forest. The forest was beautiful and some of the trees were very old, which is always refreshing to see.   The "resort" was nice, better than we expected, but humble, especially since we reserved rooms very late and so stayed in the “dorms” next to the kitchen – very loud indeed. They fed us plates and plates of traditional food, I finally had matoke. That is the Uganda staple that goes on every plate at every meal, it is mashed plantain and quite nice.

After the boat ride home we stopped at one of Tom's favorite places called Stone Pub. It has the world's greatest Pork. Pork everything.  They literally kill the pig in the back yard, salt it and BBQ it right there. Fresh, fresh, I definitely said a big thank you to the pig before we ate!

When we got home Dom and I spent the day taking a long walk in the hills of the nicer neighborhoods of Kampala.  Some even call them the "Beverly Hills" of Uganda!  BTW, the weather is 80 day and 60 night, and the rains actually keep the humidity down. I am flabbergasted.  Dom is enjoying his job, and it looks like we will be settled into Kampala for the month, until we go to Rwanda in Feb. Although, I am planning a trip to the west to visit a project called Kasisi, in Kibale Forest.

The second trip to Murchison Falls and Budongo Forest was brilliant, we even added a night to our trip.  Budongo is called a virgin, or pristine, forest.  It has never been logged and so the signs of a healthy forest, which I learned in 2001 on my Costa Rica study abroad program, are: many epiphytes in the trees, vines and lianas (woody vines), many species of flora and fauna, and lichens and moss on trees everywhere.  The forest has a sweet smell, I was in heaven.  We stayed at the Budongo Eco Lodge, I highly recommend it if you ever come here.  It is one of the only places you can do chimp tracking!  There are also 366 bird and 250 butterfly species identified. 

Our eco lodge was planted inside the forest and with our screen windows always open, we slept and awoke to the many sounds of the forest.  We quickly recognized the chimp and black and white colobus monkey calls that woke us up.  But the frightening screech of a tree hyrax was not cool, it sounds like someone is being tortured.  On our forest walks we almost ran into some chimps, but we could smell them and the “things” they left behind.  I also got “ants in my pants” for real! and the female guide told me to take my pants off so we could find all the ants, at least 30.  Red/army ants are vicious but small enough not to have big incisors for when they do bite and hang on it’s actually worse than it sounds.  So there I was in my undies in front of my Ugandan guide Joyce, we crossed many cultural barriers that moment, and we were both cracking up in laughter, especially when I asked her to take a picture of me with my pants down in the forest.  (The other people in the group were told to walk off).

Two big storms came through camp, one of which hit right in the middle of our walk. Due to the high winds and the chance of being unlucky under a falling branch, our guide John quickly walked us out of there.  Dom caught some great video and we drank a Nile Special beer on the porch while the rain flooded camp. We were very happy to not be camping.

We spent one day in Murchison Falls National Park, and took a lovely guided boat ride down the Nile to see the big fall. We didn’t have time to hike up the cliff to see the falls from atop, but the wildlife was excellent.  Elephant, crocs, hippos, warthogs, hartebeest, and birds galore on the edges of the river kept us busy with our cameras.  The guide told us that the crocs hang out around the corner from the falls because that is where the fish are discombobulated from the fall and are easy targets.   The falls produce this white foam that looks like soap but is natural. We compared it to ice caps, marshmallows in hot chocolate, and my favorite, a rootbeer float.  We saw a pair of fish eagles (similar to bald eagle) on top of the trees calling from afar and then flying to each other. We saw many kingfishers fishing, black kites in large groups flanking the trees, and bee-eaters that dig holes in the sandstone cliffs. It was fun drinking a Nile Special on the Nile!

We also enjoyed a self-guided safari in the savannah of Murchison (we saved a lot of $ b/c we had a car and Dom could drive). We saw at least 50 Rothchild giraffes (I have a picture of one that looked like Sabrena’s sister!), buffalo, Uganda kob, hartebeest, warthog, ground hornbill, duiker, oribi, bushbuck, waterbuck, guineafowl.  No carnivores, as expected, as it was not the right time of day.  Other animals we saw during this trip include, owls, genet, colobus monkey, and hare.

As we were ready to leave Budongo, we noticed a very flat tire on Dom’s driving side.  Luckily this happened at the lodge because there were many people to help us out, especially since we couldn’t find our jack and the spare was flat too!  We waited 4 hours in the morning for it all to get fixed, but it only cost us $20 in tips, we were very lucky.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve and Dominic’s birthday at a workmate’s house with 3 couples in Kampala, it was perfectly chill.  We hope you are all well and staying warm in the crazy record weather cold, snow and warmth, my dad told me it was almost 60F in Chicago and the snow melted?

We’d love to hear from you!

If you haven’t changed my contact info yet here’s the oneà amy.hanna330@gmail.com

Skype address: amy.hanna330, our skype is working well here so let us know if you want to try it.

Much Love, Amy and Dom



Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary walk

  

 

Murchison Falls




Freshest pork in the world at Stone Pub in Entebbe





Christmas breakfast with Edith, Innocent, Tom and Carol


 

Kingfisher common at Murchison
















Budongo Forest morning hike



Ugandan boy bringing a live chicken from Entebbe to Ssese Islands via 3 hour boat ride







 

Murchison Park Savannah

  



Colobus in Budongo Forest



On the way to Budongo, we ran into Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, off the main road, so we went in to see what it was all about. They provide rhino habitat for 8 white rhinos, and are hoping to bring in more from South Africa and/or Kenya this year. The sanctuary only holds rhinos, no anelope, etc. as it is a breeding facility to provide more rhinos to other sancuaries in Africa.  For $65 Dom and I went on a 2 hour walking safari, the guides bring us right up to the sleeping rhinos and they know where they are at all times. Anti-poaching patrols are active and diligent, and very nice guys.  The grasses were long but Dom managed to get some goos close ups. We saw two babies too, adorable =)