Schools, Mountains and Picking Maize

The past two days, we have seen two school and endless smiling faces.  Yesterday, we visited the Mgahinga Community Development Organsation’s (MDCO) school. Whenever we ask a school what would be useful, they respond, “Teach computers.” So next year, we plan to return teach some computer skills and some other lessons.  The school’s a model of integration...teaching both the minority Batwa children alongside the other children who live on the slopes below Mgahinga National Park- home to mountain gorillas.  

Festo and Godfrey from MDCO then took us up to their center and showed us the lodging they have.  We then drove to Lake Mutanda where the MDCO has a school, center and lodging.  I saw an otter (add another mammal species to my list) bobbing along the surface, and of course I collected some sand for my collection back at school (my 4th Uganda sand). When I explained to Festo I collect sand from around the world- he said he would give me some he collected in Congo only a few miles away!!  So now I can add another country to my sand collection, and while going to Congo isn’t generally a good idea...I can stick my hand in the sand and say I have “been there’!

Plans with MDCO were made for next year’s service trip: teaching in the school, tree planting, mushroom farming, basket weaving lessons, cooking together and staying up in the lodging on the mountain. While we had hoped to find another animal concervation project to work on in the south rather than the rhino sanctuary in the north, working with MDCO is a sustainability in action. Environmentally restoring the forest while supporting eco-friendly farming. Socially supporting the community through schooling, healthcare and fighting discrimination of minorities especially the marginalized Batwa people.  Ecomically supporting farmers, teachers, lodgeworker and the whole community.  I can’t think of a better place to immerse ourselves in sustainability!! And as luck would have it, one of the people who has worked with MDCO is currently a grad student in Boston.  A great opportunity to connect with the 2016 travelers.

Today, we returned to Grace’s women’s center and nursery school.  Since our visit last year, she has managed to finish building the bathrooms, started women’s sewing and basket weaving programs, and begun a whole gardening enterprise for the women.  We toured everything and along the way...children sang, women sewed, corn was picked fresh (the Golden Monkey Guesthouse roasted it for us for dinner), children sang some more, a cake in our honor was cut, children sang again, and shoes donated by Wat faculty were given to the children.  

Seeing gently used Crocs being fitted to the children and their faces light up when a pair of sparkly sneakers fit was amazing.

Then the toys we brought were taken outside.  I can safely say there will be a highly competitive Ultimate Frisbee team at the school by the time we return next year! The women also used the soccer ball we brought to play a version of volleyball.  They are learning to play and have challenged the 2016 traveler to a volleyball match next year!  Add volleyball practice to the list to pre-trip planning.

Upon leaving the center and school, we were gifted with baskets made by the women.  We were also asked to drive a few teachers and students home on our way out of town.  Before you knew it, Tony’s Land Cruiser had become a school bus filled to capacity with small children.  The Ugandan version of the Wat school vans bounced down the bumpy rural Uganda roads, stopping to let off a few children at a time.  The only thing was that my seat was near the only back door, so I had to tumble out of the car each time, much to the amazement of other children and a few adults- seeing a “Muzungu**” depositing children gently on the ground from a giant tourist truck.  Eventually, we had dropped everyone off and headed back to town and the Golden Monkey.

Note: the little girl above wanted to ride with us but she lives right in town- sorry kid!

Tomorrow, we head over the Katarara Primary school to reconnect with the school where we taught computer lessons last year.  We are hoping for less singing, ceremony and cake with this school visit.

**Muzungu is a term from foreigners, particularly white ones.  With no negative connotation, children gleefully yell “Muzungu” everytime we drive throughout the countryside.

Zebras, meetings and Kisoro

Alive and well in Uganda!   Arriving after two flights spanning two days, we arrived in Kampala to buy new sim cards for the phones (ours expired after 6 months of non-use) and exchange money. Saturday morning, our friend Tony from Mamaland Safaris, picked us up to head to the southwest and the town of Kisoro.  Along the way, we crossed the Equator where we stopped for breakfast (avocados, boiled bananas (the starchy kind) and ground nut sauce- a non-sweet peanut sauce) and Dr. Aavatsmark got his picture taken with his Black Bamboo t-shirt on...hoping to make it Black Bamboo’s gallery of photos from around the world (pic below).

On the way to Kisoro, we stopped at Lake Mburo National Park (NP). Our idea for the 2016 trip with students is to avoid Kampala with its traffic and drive more directly to Kisoro from the airport. This change would not only reduce the time the students spend in the car but will also give us the opportunity to visit Lake Mburo NP, a smaller park that is home to Uganda’s only zebra population. Staying overnight at the lovely Rwonyo Camp perched high on a hilltop above the park would be a great place to recuperate from the long flight and allow the students to ease into life in Uganda. We completed a short game drive where we saw zebras, impala, warthogs, Ugandan kob, olive baboons, black faced monkeys, millions of butterflies and a pygmy mongoose that ran in front of the car (photos below). A game drive here would also allow the students to do a comparative study of the landscape, vegetation and wildlife with the larger Queen Elizabeth NP we will visit at the end of the 2016 trip. A “comparative study” may sound too geeky, but we will design a fun problem solving activity to get them to understand the science behind the differences.

Arriving at the Golden Monkey Guest House in Kisoro was like coming home. It seems like not much had changed in the past 15 months since we were here on the 2014 service trip.  The friendly staff, resident dogs and food (yummy pineapple pancakes!!) remained just as great as the first time.  Torrential downpours of rain throughout the night kept waking us up as we continued to recover from the jet lag. This is supposed to be the start of the dry season, but the rains seem to be hanging on a little longer this year. Refreshed, we spent Sunday making plans for the week.  Despite my instinct to have every detail planned (with color-coded spreadsheets!), life in Uganda runs differently.  Most pre-trip planning amounts to exchanging cell phone numbers through email and saying “call me” once you are in Kisoro.

Today, we met with Festo and Godfrey of the Mgahinga Community Development Organisation (MDCO) who we hope to work with when we return with students. The MDCDO supports environmental, social and economic sustainability for the people living around the Mgahinga NP who were displaced when the park was established in 1991. Today, a thriving community exists with a school, agriculture programs, veterinary services, tree plantings, economic support for small businesses and student exchange programs.  Festo and Godfrey were more than happy to share their organization’s mission and offer ways for our students to work and learn in Mgahinga.  Our plan tomorrow is to visit sites where the organization does work and continue exploring service opportunities.

Grace from the Kyibumba Women’s Center came by at lunch to discuss our work with the Center.  Last year, the students visited the Center, played with the children there and spent an amazing evening at Grace’s house perched up on a hill overlooking her village (see last year’s blog post “The Grace of Grace”) and hiking to a volcanic lake. Grace told us about the many new projects at Kyibumba including new farming initiatives and the purchase of sewing machines for the women to learn how to make children’s clothes.  

We were also able to visit the workshop across the street with the UN supported Virunga Engineering Works that produces energy efficient stoves made with the local volcanic rocks.  The large stoves produce virtually no smoke improving air quality particularly for the women who ineviatably do the cooking.  The stoves are also so efficient that they greatly reduce the amount of wood needed for cooking. Jackson, our friend from the last trip and a worker who makes the stoves, explained it reduces the amount of wood needed for cooking by over half- reducing the need for cutting so much wood and the amount of money schools who often get the stoves have to pay for wood. With local materials (lava rocks), local labor and cleaner, cheaper and more efficient cooking, the stoves are a win-win for everyone.  The only drawback is the high cost of the stoves ($5000 US), making donors to fund a school’s stove essential. Possible fundraising for Watkinson???  Note: Jackson gave us gorilla’s carved from the lava rock.  They call it their ‘business card’.  Inspired, Dr. A grabbed a chunk of lava rock and quickly carved a gorilla of his own in a matter of a few minutes. Not bad for a first attempt (see photo below...Dr. A’s is on the right).

Plans for the rest of the week:  Tuesday- visit the many projects of the Mgahinga Community Development Organisation, Wednesday- visit Grace and the Kyimbumba Women’s Center & dropping off the books, shoes and toys donated by Watkinson faculty, Thursday- visit Katarara Primary School, Friday- gorilla trekking (how could we not do this at least once in our life!!) and Saturday- meet wtih Dr. Kevin Deikhaus and the other UCONN doctors at house of the government minister, Pius Birgirimana, a great supporter of work throughout Kisoro. Finally, the long drive back to the airport to be followed by a much longer series of flights to JFK.

I bless the rains down in Africa

Sometime this morning it started raining harder than I have heard in a while. It was probably 4 am Uganda time..  It rained for a long time, and about the time I started thinking I should wake up, I remembered that to go get coffee or breakfast I have to walk down an outdoor alley between the rooms at the Golden Monkey.  No dice.

Eventually, it diminished to a vague drippiness. There were moments when it did not rain today, but when it did, it was unrelenting hard, hard downpours.  With the thermometer at about 60 degrees or less, it is not what most would expect just south of the equator in Africa.  Still, it is what you frequently get.  If you visit, don’t think shorts and t-shirts will work.  Bring fleece.

It’s officially the beginning of the dry season, but according to our hosts, the rains have lasted longer than expected.  I feel bad for anyone trekking gorillas today—forget gorillas in the mist, this would be gorillas in the thunderstorm.  Actually, I feel bad for the gorillas too—they have to put up with sort of thing frequently.

Most of our plans for the day were washed out too.  Some ideas have begun to crystallize, but getting out and meeting people today, or having them visit us, as we had planned, was not in order.  I hope for better luck tomorrow. Our friend Grace Mugisha will be coming into town to see us.

Lake Mburo and Dark Roads

Lake Mburo.

In the past, we have driven past Lake Mburo National Park.  The Kabale road (I think) passes it, through lands that were once inside the park, but have been privatized for cattle keepers and farmers.  A good idea, I think—when land is protected by evicting all the people, it creates a conflict between people and conservation, which I think is wrong and counterproductive.

Anyway, we decided to go inside the park, to see if maybe next time, we could stop there on the way.  The idea was, instead of driving through insane Kampala all the way South to North at 3 in the morning, why not go the other way, South to Mbarara, and stay at Lake Mburo. 

As we turned down the dirt road to the Park, we nearly immediately were confronted by half a dozen zebras—animals I have not seen in the wild before.  Inside the park, there were more, as well as impalas (another first) and other animals and birds.  Just a few at a time, cautiously lurking in the dense brush..  I was sold.

We decided to have lunch at the Rwakobo Rock Lodge.  The food was OK, but the view from this enormous boulder high above the rolling scrubby hills of Mburo was amazing.  Then we got a tour of the site, including a hut with a nice view.  $280 a night.  No thanks.  Fortunately, there was a more affordable option, a campsite with large tents, for $10 per person.  That’s better.  Also, while we don’t want to plunge students new to Africa right into challenging environments, we don’t want them to be let down when we arrive at the Golden Monkey in Kisoro. 

As we left Mburo, it was a bit later than we thought—about 3:30.  With a  6 hour drive ahead, it later occurred to me that we would be driving well after dark.  And I remembered a warning from an expat, that this is a very bad idea. 

Night fell just before we reached the largish town of Kabale.  There was paved road, mostly, except for the parts being made, but in Kabale, every road had been scraped down to red earth, which the rain had made into puddles and something just thicker than puddles.  It was absolute darkness, yet hundreds of people, some on foot, some on bicycles, some in cars, swerved and staggered along the roads.  Tony said that many were drunk on sorghum beer.  The main road was blocked, and an arrow pointed cheerfully to turn left.  Yet no right-hand arrow ever appeared.  Tony knows all the roads here, so that’s OK.  Most alarming were the dozens of children, from age two to ten, wandering and playing along the road side.  The headlights would just pick up the forehead of a shiny toddler running in the mud along the roadside.  It must have taken an hour to go two miles to get out of town.

From there on the road surface improved, but the long climbs and descents made the driving a continued challenge.  To make matters worse, trucks and busses struggled to climb the grades.  When passing them on this two lane road, often an unlit motorcycle or bike would come whizzing down the mountainside at you.   By 8 pm, the trucks were gone, and though an improbably large number of coach busses lurched towards us in the dark (5?  7?)  we finally made it to the Golden Monkey guest house.   

Tale of two airline lounges

As this is round 2 with the lovely Turkish Airlines, when asked if we’d like to join the rewards program. Why yes, why not. 

We got cards, and a complimentary upgrade to use the travel lounge.

Now the travel lounge has always been a mystery for me.  No doubt many travelers know precisely where the lounge is. They could find it in their sleep.  But I have never been inside a travel lounge.  I did not fully understand what they are for, and what people do there.  “Lounge” has a seedy sort of connotation for me, probably because in Kentucky, that’s where strippers might be.  I remember neon lights in the shape of a dirty martini glass (that is, the signs were dirty, I can’t judge whether the martinis were).  Might there be strippers? 

The first problem was that there is no Turkish Air lounge.  We were told to go to one of them, but I did not catch which. 

We sauntered into the Lufthansa lounge.  Double doors entered a corridor of yellow paneled wood, with soft lighting and soft, slightly clubby music emanating from, well, everywhere at once.  Like Ikea, but nicer.  Then there were intimidating metal doors ahead.  Might we have to swipe a security card?  I walked boldly, following my lifelong habit when feeling insecure—act like you are supposed to be there. 

It was an automatic door, revealing a lovely space, with leather furniture, bowls of apples and oranges.  No strippers.  I would not have been surprised to see someone with a tray of champagne flutes.  Inviting. 

Sadly, we were told that this is not the lounge for us.  There was another lounge.  An Italian lounge.

We found it with some difficulty, tucked nearly behind a desk at one of the gates.  The smoked glass double doors seemed vaguely dirty—smudged by many hands.  There was a sizeable bowl of licorice candies, and some leather sofas. Again, no strippers. 

For a bit we sat and did some organizing.  I started writing this.  Then Jen came back from the bathroom with a sandwich and a glass of prosecco.  There was a back area with many open bottles of liquor, sandwiches, and bottles of my favorite Italian soda, Chinotto.  Ah, lounge.