Dr. O'Brien: Uganda...Truth in Advertising

Monday 2/24: I am sitting back at my desk at Watkinson...right where I spent countless hours planning our trip...except now it is over.  All the emails, meetings, paperwork, worrying and organizing paid off.  The trip couldn't have gone better...the students were eager and willing to do anything we asked, the service work showed us more opportunities to work alongside Ugandans and the travel was seamless (except for a few instances- see below).

I can't help but reflect on what we had advertised and pitched to the Watkinson community.  How accurate were our descriptions?  Had we promised too much?  Too little?  In many ways, I think we undersold Uganda.  From the moment the sun rose on our first morning, it was apparent we had undersold the beauty of the land...from the rolling hills and cone shaped volcanic mountains of the southwest. To be fair, my trip last summer with Dr. A. hadn't taken us the to the western and most magical part of Uganda, so the beauty of this part of the country was a revelation to us, too.  The beauty of the freshly burnt, dry season savannas filled with antelope, elephants and giraffes as well as the rolling hills of bean, corn, potato and tea fields.   But to be fair, no description in words or pictures can ever capture awe inspiring landscape of Uganda.  You have see you Uganda to understand!

Nate, Sara, Dan and Grace Mugisha, head of the Kyibumba Women's Center & Nursery School

Mitch, Tianna, Liz & the rangers at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

We undersold how genuinely friendly the people of Uganda are.  Again, you have to experience their warmth, curiosity and determination for yourself to truly understand the spirit of these resilient people.  Every interaction comes with questions meant to engage you in conversation...they really do care how you are doing today.  Everyone smiles, asks about your day, life, etc and will gladly share their lives with you.  I wondered before going to Uganda how its people had endured decades of hardship, but now I see that the only option is to come out on top.  Not worrying about the past or the future (we in the US tend to perseverate on what could happen), frees you to enjoy the moment and the people around you.




Other things we undersold:
-Tony: Our guide and hero! I had explained how great our guide, Paul Okot, was last summer.  This time, Tony Byarugaba- owner of Mamaland Safaris, not only lead us through Uganda, but gave us a real insight into the land, the people and all that is Uganda.  With a sense of humor (even after we broke one of the windows in the van) and lots of patience, he translated local languages, explained the social, political and historical landscape of Uganda.  Plus, his expertise as a birder taught us to be more observant of all the wildlife Uganda has to offer.  Tony embodied that Uganda optimism even when faced with challenges like coming upon a truck that had slid in the mud blocking the road when we are a few miles from our destination after a 12 hour drive north [We off-roaded it, driving through a schoolyard much to the amazement of the students there].  I also need to mention Junior- our other guide who traveled with us.  Often left with the unenviable task of driving our luggage between destinations, he also was a source of laughs and some courageous driving- especially when taking us over a volcanic rock strewn "road" on our first visit to see Grace's nursery school.  Thanks, Tony and Junior, without you our trip wouldn't have been such a success!

-Bugs:  While our consultations at the travel health clinics emphasized all the potentially malaria ridden mosquitos we would encounter, we found no more (maybe fewer) mosquitos than in the US. But the swarms of termites around the lights, armies of ants under our feet on the porch in the Budongo forest and other miscellaneous spiders, millipedes, ect were not part of our All School or parent presentations.  [Note:  the biologist in me found this to be one of the best parts of the trip; the other travelers- not so much.]

-Toilets:  We failed to fully explain the variety of options the group would encounter:  US style, compost and squat toilets. While I had it on my radar to show a funny video on how to deal with squat toilets before leaving, we ran out of time, and it was how we say in education: "experiential learning".

-Surprises:  OK, if we had known about them, they wouldn't have been surprises.  But travel like this brings opportunities around every corner.  For example, happening upon Sandra Grey, the primatologist fighting to save the endangered golden monkey in the mountain next to the town of Kisoro where we stayed...she is eager to have us come back and volunteer with her.  The Golden Monkey Guesthouse...a little rough around the edges upon our first arrival, it turned into one of our favorite places.  The workers there like Jackson made us feel so at home...as did the amazing banana pancakes with chocolate sauce.  We were sad to leave.  The Kyambura Safari Cottages we found at the end of a dirt road through a field of banana trees.  True safari paradise owned by Tony and Mamaland Safaris...cottages perched on a cliff above the savanna of Queen Elizabeth National Park with views of the elephants and banded mongoose (only Dan with his eagle eye could have spotted them) from your front porch.  The only regret...we stayed just one night.

View from the dining room at Kyambura Safari Cottages

Looking down on the savanna at Kyambura

The lone elephant Tony spied hidden in the trees along the road as we zoomed past.  He stopped, reversed and then it passed between our two vans! Felix Patton, the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary's consulting ecologist who happened to be visiting while we were there.  His talk gave us a real insight into the challenges of restoring rhinos to Uganda.

And finally, the children:  Shy at first, but ultimately full of energy and eager to learn, play and connect. They danced with us, played games of tag, diligently completed our lessons with a smile and often had a good laugh at our expense....our attempts at their games could reduce schoolyards to giggles. The potential to return, continue teaching computer skills and work with the schools to improve their school lunch programs, sanitation practices and add needed buildings quickly became obvious as we talked with teachers, Deo- the principal at Katarara Primary and Grace at the Women's Center & nursery school.

Now the real planning begins:  When and how to return.  How to stay connected between now and our return.  But most of all, how to try and capture the magic of Uganda and its people for the next group of travelers.

Dr. Myers: A First Impression of Uganda

3-20-2014  

The Watkinson group of nine will be getting in our green van—our method of travel that has become akin to a minivan belonging to the block’s favorite “soccer parent”—to catch a flight back to the United States. It’s been one amazing trip with eight amazing other Americans and a handful of exceptional Ugandans. Junior and Tony—our drivers from Mamaland Safaris—have navigated us through a country almost 100% free of traffic lights. There is no way we could have driven ourselves around this country and the personalities of these two men only added to the delight and insight of our trek through its cities, muddy and rocky roads, savannahs, rainforests, and game drives. For me, these men represent the growing entrepreneurship and tourism of Uganda.

Then there were three exceptional women: Grace, Allan, and Glorious. You can find each of these women in the southwestern part of the country, not far from the Rwandan border. Grace is the head teacher of Kiyabumba Primary School (you’ve probably read about her in previous posts from other Wat travelers), while Allan and Glorious teach at Katarara Primary School. Each of these women strive to improve the education of Ugandan children, as well as themselves. These are my sisters, my fellow teachers that seek not to just impart knowledge upon children, but to help students think about the world globally and question practices and systems of education. For me, these women represent a hope for Ugandan education.

More than anything, I come back from my first trip to Uganda—with my first impression—wanting to let people know that this is a country in positive transition. Uganda is a country that is recovering from a period of atrocity and dictatorship and it’s moving in the right direction. The tourists are here, despite the God-awful, homophobic law that was recently passed by its current President (a law that realistically, will be tremendously hard to enforce). Yes, you will find some people begging on the streets in the crowded city of Kampala (remember we’ve got that in America too!), but you’ll also find many twenty-somethings taking advantage of refurbished and expanding universities to study tourism, computer programming, and other academic disciplines. Children in schools here understand that getting educated is a privilege. And many other kids will take over the family business of farming beautifully fertile plots of lands across vast hills and mountains. While this means those children are missing out on the standard western education, they are encompassing a sort of Booker T. Washington style of education through working with their hands (something that should be seen as equally of value in Uganda and Africa as a whole). The tradition and culture that is inherent to every country on the African continent is not lost within Uganda. And the traditions and cultures change with each region—and at times each town—you visit.

And the animals...their value really speaks for itself. Conserving such marvelous creatures and ecosystems is a must!

This trip is the start of something big for all of us: teachers, students, the Watkinson community, and perhaps even Hartford. Seeds have been planted and strong connections have been made to make a long-lasting impact on the people of Uganda and Watkinson. As we prepare to improve our second trip to the country, cheer us on, consider joining us, and please contribute our efforts in any way you can!

We're Back!! Just Landed at JFK!

On wildlife

Between the massive expance of flatland safari at Queen Elizabeth Park (the edge of which we could have fallen into over the fence in front of the cute cabins in which we stayed); the thick, old growth rainforest in Budongo; the vastly immense varied landscape safari stretching along the banks of the Nile in Murchison; the boat ride on the Victoria Nile complimented by a hike to Murchison Falls; and finally the large stretch of land in the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, we were fortunate enough to see an amazing amount of Africa's natural beauty.  We saw amazing  species of animals interacting and in their natural environment: a once in a lifetime experience which I will cherish for the rest of my life. Here is a list of most of the animals that I (and for the most part we) saw over the last two weeks (A period of time which, unrelatedly, simultaneously felt like a month and just a few days). 

Olive Baboon (often seen next to or in the road)

Marabou stork 

Banded mongoose 

Long crested eagle

Warthog (a very common sight on safaris)

Weaver bird

Kob (also very plentiful, and part of a game we played with kids at the Ziwa school called 'lions and kob')

Red Bishop

Pintailed whyda

Yellow wagtail

Vereoux eagle owl

Lions (a pride of 11 or 12 which was resting not far from our car and which gave us a tense moment when a group of hundreds of kob walked by)

Water buffalo

Franklin redneck

Common waterbuck

Cuckcal

Crown lapwing

Black bellied basterd

Elephant (many individuals, on of which crossed the road between out two cars in Queen Elizabeth)

Oribi

Hippopotamus (plentiful in lethargic groups on the Nile, and humorously mispronounced 'hippopototamus' by a friendly guide)

Nile crocodile (basking in sun near hippos)

Side striped Jackal

Rothschild giraffe (seen in an unusual large group of 12)

Patas monkey

Verboten monkey

Jackson heartbeast

Bushbuck

White egret 

Black and white colobus

Chimpanzee (notably in the forest of Budango which is home to the highest density of mahogany trees in East Africa)

Shoebill

Slender mongoose

Monitor lizard

Gecko (plentiful around lights at night, snacking on bugs)

Assorted small fast lizards 

Frogs (tree frogs plentiful in showers)

Bat (possibly Egyptian fruit bat)

White Rhinosaurus (seen from foot in amazingly close proximaty)

Many many other types of bird, for expanded list talk to Mr. Aavatsmark 

Fun with insects

The floor crunches in a sickening way when you walk on it.  It's ants.  One of the lodge staff said, "Yes, it is their time."

Last night a zillion flying termites made a swirling tornado around the lights.  It is mating season.  It was a tornado of lust.  Geckos on the wall happily crunched away at hapless termites who landed nearby.  One small lizard had four in his

mouth when he snapped up another one.

The worst, though, was the Tsetse flies.  Tsetse flies are basically horseflies.  But in Africa, they can carry sleeping sickness and Dengue fever.  Dengue is bad--it involves high fever, aches, and a miserable few weeks, possibly in a hospital.  Sleeping sickness causes the victim to become sluggish, eventually lapsing into a coma that ends in death.

  As we left Murchison, many students were sleepy after a game drive, boat ride and hike.  I asked if anyone had been bitten, and suggested that if you feel sleepy, you probably have the sickness.  And to be sure to wake up tomorrow after you go to bed. This was a lie, of course.  Not only does the disease take a while to incubate, the flies at Murchison are clean--no disease there.

It would have been funny, except that our van was being pursued by a squadron or two of these nasty bugs. They drafted behind the vehicle, and very time the van slowed, three or four buzzed in.  Liz and Tony were bitten.  Everyone else attacked the flies with frenzied swatting motions.  Our emergency forms turned out to be the ideal weapon.

Ugandan Education- Wat Style

On our third day at Ziwa, we headed off the sanctuary to teach at St Vincent's School (pink & blue uniforms) in the village at the end of the road. This tiny private school had only about 20 students per class unlike the 60 typical of public schools. Planning our lessons back in the US was impossible for many reasons including having a difficult time finding out what would be helpful. But on the ground with a little more info from Hassan, our program director, we were able to bring together a lesson based around the book, Beatrice's Goat, that we had brought from the US. This true story of a girl from a nearby town in Uganda who had received a goat from Heifer International thereby earning enough money to go to school (and eventually college in the US) was the perfect centerpiece for our lessons. After reading the book, we rotated around the classrooms: Sara and Nate teaching goat math (addition through division), Mitch and Liz taught a lesson where the students colored and drew pictures related to sentences based on the book, and Tianna and Dan did vocabulary from the book where the students taught us the words in their local language, Luluri. After the classes, Liz and Tianna again led the preschool in games and song. While some preschoolers initially cried at the sight of us- the first white people they had seen- by the time we left, they were all waving goodbye.

A lunch a a local restaurant of goat, matoke (mashed bananas), posho (stiff corn grits), rice and greens, was followed by an afternoon at Ziwa's school, Hakuna Matata (yellow & orange uniforms). Under the baking sun, we played games with the whole school including a modified version of Sharks & Minnows we named Lions & Ugandan Kob (an antelope & the national symbol). 

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Since arriving three days ago, we have: had our safety training (eg. if you see a leopard at night- just keep casually walking- they don't really attack apparently. Note: we haven't needed this tidbit of info), tracked rhinos including Kori with her baby, stumbled upon Taleo- the dominant male of the sanctuary on trail, eaten wild honey collected from the scrub, cut down trees to build traditional huts or bandas for the rangers and their families, watched an immense storm approach across the plain, gone birding to see the prehistoric looking shoebills (google them- my iPhone didn't have enough zoom to capture a descent pic), floated past papyrus and water lilies in the swamp in wooden canoes, some of us hiked to the top of a rock formation overlooking Ziwa (the rest sat and watched as cattle passed by)...  So much more to come in our last day here. This afternoon a rhino ecologist (initially someone said he was a rhino psychologist lol- so tell me how you felt when your mother kicked you out of the herd) studying here will give us a lecture before we head out for more tracking and a night patrol in trucks driving along the electric fence at the perimeter looking for poachers. Poaching isn't a problem here with the surrounding communities invested in reporting poachers- but part of the conservation plan is be vigilant and provide 24/7 protection. 

Note: Since writing this, we have completed our night patrol and are headed back to Kampala. I now respect the rangers even more. 2 solid hours of briskly walking along the roads of Ziwa with only the moonlight and the other person in front to guide you, was excruciating. During our one break, several of could barely breath- asthma, heat, dust and elevation are not a good mix. The guides ended our patrol with still another 1.5 hours to go partly out of pity for some of us and also because a fire had broken out in a field across the sanctuary and all rangers were headed out to put it out. Despite this, we left Ziwa with a tinge if sadness saying goodbye to the rangers that had become our friends, Charles- the waiter in the restaurant who had served us over 200 coffees/tea & bottles of water & sodas and endless plates of curry, rice, potatoes and some of the best coleslaw I have ever had, Hassan our program director who was so attentive, and yes the many goats that provided us with lots of laughs!

MacGyver Dan and his assistant Sara fixing a chair on my porch at Ziwa