Hippos, Giraffes, and Elephants…oh my!

Sunrise on the Nile

I just got back to Jinja from Murchison Falls yesterday and now I am trying to enjoy my last few days with my family and around Jinja Town. I was hoping to get in a little R & R by the pool, but it’s looking more like I’ll be scrambling to finish up work. I got to work this morning to discover that my supervisor is out for yet another week, which means I will not be able to complete all the tasks I wanted to finish before leaving. It is pretty disappointing because I really wanted to ensure that the group had everything they needed before leaving and I do not like the idea of leaving my final tasks in the hands of my supervisor who is often times absent without warning or explanation. I hoped to be able to get the new mold for the soap welded and finished, along with a Village Savings and Loans Kit made before I left. I still plan to get the pan made (but it will be much more difficult without my supervisor because I constantly have to find random people to talk to welder since he only speaks Luganda, and I will have to transport the 1x2 meter pan on the back of a boda to the village-large objects on long motorcycle rides is no fun). I also am going to try to find a different welder to make the savings box for the group, since the welder I am currently working with does not make boxes, which again will be incredibly difficult without someone who speaks Luganda assisting me. I hope to go through town and find places where I can get the bookkeeping and business supplies the group will need, but it’s looking like I’ll have to leave the making of the box to my unreliable boss, which is not ideal.

Enough with work, on to Murchison! It was mind blowing. Very hard to comprehend, seeing giraffes and elephants in their natural habitat, it was surreal, but amazing nonetheless. We stayed the night in Red Chili Hideaway near Kampala before heading to Murchison Falls first thing on Thursday morning, we spent the night in the Red Chili Camp. On Friday we were in the car by 6:30am, ready to go for the game drive. We took a ferry with the car across the Nile, and watched an amazing sunrise. We drove all throughout the park for the first half of the afternoon looking at all the amazing animals and plants. We saw tons of giraffes, gazelle type animals, along with elephants, hippos, baboons, and birds. We pulled up to the dock to wait for the ferry, and there were baboons hanging out, so I took some pictures. I had saved some chapatti from my packed breakfast for a snack after the game drive, so I decided I'd pull it out after taking some pictures and while waiting for a ferry. Within seconds of leaving the van with my tinfoil wrapped chapatti, I heard an animal galloping towards me and next thing I knew I was face to face with a baboon mama (baby on back), aggresively staring at me and my chapat. So, I hesitate because I had saved that chapatti all morning (not easy for a real chapat lover like me), but Ithe baboon was not letting up. I was unsure how concerned I should be about her possibly attacking me, until the guide ran over yelling how she was preparing to jump on me. I threw the chapatti away from me and ran, while turning around just in time to watch the mama down my breakfast. Here's the theif's photo- I hope she enjoyed it as much as I would have. Then we went back to the camp for some lunch before heading out on the boat cruise for the second half of the afternoon. From the boat we saw a bunch of elephants getting their afternoon drinks, crocodiles sun bathing and hippos surfacing in the water. The boat took us up the river to get a view of the falls, before heading back to camp for dinner. The last morning of the safari we hiked to the top of the falls, which was amazing. Since it was morning, the falls were covered in rainbows and the cool mist was a more than welcome break from the heat. After the hike we got back in the car for the 6-7hour trip back to Red Chili Hideaway, where we stayed the night again. In the morning, Bethany, Caroline and I parted ways as I went back to Jinja, and Bethany and Caroline headed out on their trek to Fort Portal-Kibale National Forest. I call it a trek because they were taking public transportation-I hope they made it there alright! I’ll be meeting back up with them on the 12^th at Entebbe Backpackers before we fly out on the 13^th. Since our cell phones are from FSD we have to give them back, so we have no way to communicate-just hope to see them when I arrive to Entebbe on the Thursday.

I think I’m officially in denial about returning home. I don’t know if it’ll really hit me until I’m in Dubai…maybe not even until I’m back in the States. I think it’s because home still seems very far away-I have such a beast of a flight to get through before I’m back in SF. 8 hours from Entebbe to Dubai. Then an 8 hour layover, before a 16 hour flight from Dubai to San Francisco. 16 HOURS, on a plane, no stops…ROUGH. But not as rough as realizing that I’ve actually left Uganda will be.

Just the beginning!

As my time here really begins to dwindle, I’m trying to reflect on all that I’ve experienced here, but I find myself overwhelmed. I’ve experienced and learned so much, I really don’t know how to sort out all my thoughts and feelings! I’m not sure that I will ever truly have a full grasp on how I feel about everything that has happened here, but I am really looking forward to sharing experiences with the other Sarlo interns while we finish up our research papers in the Fall. I think that talking about it with others who had similar experiences will help me digest a lot of what has happened here. I miss our Nica girls! (half of the Sarlo Scholars crew is doing the same program, just in Nicaragua).

My birthday was a rollercoaster! Ha not, really, just filled with lots of fun, some food poisoning and good people. On Saturday night we went back out to the beautiful NRE campsite. I decided to get a rollex (eggs and cabbage rolled up in chapatti) from a chapatti stand on the street and that's what did me in, I was sick for awhile after that. But, Bethany and Caroline cooked us an amazing dinner on Sunday night and we had a delicious cake from Ozzie’s. Yeah, wasn’t expecting the food poisoning, but hey it happens and I still managed to eat the birthday dinner and make it to the pool yesterday (tough life I know).

Now, it’s SERIOUS go time. I just realized that my draft final report is due tomorrow (with all the birthday celebratin’ it must have slipped my mind…) and next week is my last week to implement my workplan. On next Tuesday I have my final interview when my workplan and all the messy budget stuff is due, along with our final dinner with our host families! So crazy how fast it is all going. The group is currently going through their business management training and I’ll still be working with and visiting the Twezimbe PHA Group during my last week, but only part of our FSD intern group will still be here. I can’t believe it’s almost over…so surreal. I don’t know what I am going to do with myself in the States, but over this past weekend I was finally able to accept(and begin to appreciate) my return on August 14^th. I have definitely been in denial, but writing my final report and saying goodbye to the interns with shorter programs is forcing me to acknowledge the fact of the matter, that all good things must come to an end.

But, really that saying does not entirely apply to my situation because me leaving Uganda isn’t really an end at all-it’s just a beginning. The group’s business will just be officially opening during my last week and I’ll get to hear about its progress from the States. And as far as me leaving Uganda..well yes for the time being-but I will be coming back! This trip is just a beginning to many years of the Twezimbe group’s soap business and to my future travels and work. Plus there is still 16 days left-plenty of time to continue enjoying “being here now.”

“Well the worst thing that could happen, but that won’t happen, would be if someone fell out of the raft BEFORE going down the 15 foot waterfall…”

Yea that’s right we finally did it-grade 5 rafting on the River Nile. In this picture I'm in the front, legs in the air, already head deep in water...and this was one of the kinder flips. All I can really say is it did not disappoint, we had all the spills and thrills we could ever want (and possibly ever need again in a lifetime). And as for the title of the blog-that’s what our raft guide Rich told us (Team Frisco+ Patrick) as we stared at the water dropping over the 15ft ledge that our raft was about to go down. And low and behold, Jap, our barley 100 lbs little baby fell out….right before we went over the waterfall. Naturally, Rich ripped Jap back into the raft with one arm, while somehow managing to paddle our entire raft (which terrifyingly was currently going down the waterfall backwards) a full 180 degrees with his other arm. So there we were, crying tears of fear and joy, while watching Rich’s body fly over our heads and over the 15ft waterfall, since he personally did not have time to hold onto the raft after all of his heroism. The picture to the left is Jap desperately reaching for Rich, which is hilarious because he's clearly way too far away to be helped. Ha, so that may or may not be an incredibly dramatic account of what actually happened…but that is pretty much what it felt like when I was sitting in the raft plummeting over that godforsaken waterfall. And, we later found out that our concerns were valid, a girl in another raft dislocated her shoulder and then broke the dislocated arm on the same drop right before we went. Like I said, rafting was fun…but I think I’m more of a grade 1-2 person. I like rafting that largely involves sunbathing and a few friendly bumps, not kind where the entire raft flips over and flings your helpless body into rapids the size of massive waves. All in all, I am really happy we went-got rafting on the White Nile and rafting grade 5 rapids checked off my bucket list-never need to do it again.

Other good things that happened over the weekend? On Saturday I headed out to Nyenga to join the group for the cutting and packaging of our first batch of soap (which was supposed to happen earlier, but it wasn’t dry enough to package yet). It was very exciting to see the finished project. The Treasurer, Monica, has already started selling some bars at TASO this past Monday.

Freshly cut soap bars! The group with the first packaged bars of soap

I also went to Nyenga today because I went to go visit the Chairwoman, Lovisa’s elementary school class and Monica’s home. The class was full of 73 of the cutest faces I have ever seen. Lovisa teaches P1 which I think is similar to first or second grade. They sang welcome songs and were just ridiculously adorable in their little dresses, checkered shirts and ties-could melt the heart of the Grinch or maybe even Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney (I may be on to something here). Monica of course was super sweet and sent me home with some delicious sweet bananas, eggplant, peppers, onions and tomatoes. I’m just busy finishing up preparing for the business management skills workshop that we’ll be attending next week since the grant got fully funded. It was actually worth the torture. Yea Twezimbe!

Saturday was also the two year memorial of my dad’s passing. I watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen since my I’ve been here, which is no surprise for any of you who knew my dad, it makes total sense. This picture does not do it any justice, but when has a photograph ever done a good job of capturing a sunset?

I’m looking forward to my big 21 on Monday! I’ll be going to the business training until the afternoon, but then it’s all about lounging at the Nile Resort poolside, eating delicious bread, fruit and probably some apple pie a la mode (come on I gotta it’s my birthday). Monday, the 26^th is also Jap’s birthday so the two of us will be doing it real B-I-G. haha During the evening the other interns are cooking a garlic filled Italian dinner which we will all savor before indulging in some chocolate cake and drinks. I am PUMPED. Something other than Ugandan food (even though I love it), good friends and what will surely be some good times.

It’s been a marvelous 21 years on this earth, mainly because I happen to have so many wonderful people that I get to spend my time with. Love and miss you all!

Sipi Falls and chapatti-a good weekend indeed

Wow! It’s been a while since my last post, which of course means a ton of stuff has happened, but I’ll just give you the goods. I actually haven’t been posting because I had a 10 page single-spaced monster of a grant dominating my life. But, I turned it in on Thursday, so it’s done forever! YAY

Just got back from a wonderful retreat to Sipi Falls in the more eastern part of Uganda, a bit past Mbale. The eight of us interns, PC’s Jonan and Kirsten and Kirsten’s friend Emily came. We stayed in cabin’s at The Crow’s Nest which over looked a beautiful valley all the way to the falls. The first night we got in fairly late, so we just ate dinner, played some cards and hit the sack. The next day we were all up bright and early to eat some breakfast and head to the falls. The hike was fun, a lot of uphill through mud on the way up, a lot of downhill through mud on the way down-it was a nice little reminder of the lack of exercise I’ve been getting here. The falls were beautiful, and there were amazing plants and animals everywhere. I saw and chewed on a fresh coffee bean for the first time. It tasted like any other plant, but it was still cool.

We headed down from the falls and back up the main road to enjoy a delicious local lunch at a roadside restaurant. We all weren’t really sure if the food was so delicious because we were all so hungry, or if it actually was that good. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed it-all of my faves- matooke, posho, rice, beans, greens, avocado and my absolute favorite-chapatti! After lunch we walked back up the cabins for a little more r&r before some intense games of Uno and going to bed at the obscenely late hour of 9:30pm (joking).

It was a very enjoyable trip and I’m happy to have been able to be there with all the swell peeps here. Now we’re all resting up before heading to dinner and then to the World Cup 2010 FINAL. WOOO Espana!

The project is on the rise! Flood Herbal Soap-coming soon to a Ugandan Market near you. We may be vending at a big fair this week, I’ll update more soon! And instead of putting a bunch of pictures of Sipi up, except for this one with me making a funny face since I figure it's more realistic than one with me smiling, I’m just gonna put up some pics of the typical food I’m eating here. I am loving it more every day.

Flood Herbal Soap-hot out of the molds!

So, it hasn’t been a week yet, but I am far too excited about the soap project to wait! We held the soap making workshops this past Tuesday and Wednesday and they were a great success. Not only do I feel much more bonded with the group, I’m more hopeful that this project will really enhance the group’s ability to attain their greater goal of opening a business. The past few days I have absorbed a lot. The undying generosity and kindness of the group, their willingness to learn and work hard, experiencing life in a rural village…a lot! The chairperson of the group gave me a beautiful basket she weaved with delicious passion fruit as a sign of gratitude for my work on the project, which is ironic, because they’ve done all the hard labor-I just facilitate…if that. Just an example of how ridiculously appreciative and sweet the Twezimbe group is.

The herbal soap is made!! The soap making instructor taught us all the different herbs we can find in the bush that help many different types of skin rashes and irritations-everything from scabies, rashes, ringworm...but we'll be selling it mainly to other HIV/AIDS patients at clinics as medicinal soap for the skin rashes and spots that are common among those who are positive. The group went out to the bush and within a couple hours collected 22 different herbs to include in the soap-everything from nimu tree, to avocado leaves, to papaya leaves to aloe vera (and many more with Lugandan names that I don’t know in English). Then we crushed the herbs, boiled them for hours, sieved the water, then melted pre made soap bars and candle wax into the water. The end product-herbal soap-sustainable, made with love, and ready to be sold.

The next step is packaging and selling, which we will be doing next week! Gotta finish up my grant and get on making some labels…which reminds me. The group insisted that I name the soap, but I refused because I insisted that the soap is their product and that they should name it-they decided it would be named “Flood.” So we’ll be selling “Flood” soap haha ohh still doesn’t get old. The group also gave me an Ugandan name, Nakalerro, still not sure what it means, but if I find out, I’ll let you know. I have to get back to work on my grant-otherwise I’ll be up all night (which I probably will be anyways), but I could not be doing it for a better project, so it’s all good.



grindin the herbs!

straining the herbs to use the herb water

mixing the soap and herb water





the (almost) final product!

Back on track! Yea soap makin'

It was the month anniversary since we left home yesterday! In some ways it feels as though I’ve been here longer, but in even more ways it feels as though I’ve been here shorter.

My project is back on track-even still on schedule! Things seem to be working out beautifully and I hope they continue to go this way. This week is by far my busiest week since I’ve been here. I have to get all the materials for our soap making training and for our first batch of soap! The training is tomorrow and on Wednesday we will be making our first batch of herbal soap. It should be interesting and fun. Then Thursday I will be working to put the finals touches on my grant (turned in the draft last Friday) and turning in my final draft this Friday.

I am unfortunately starting out this week exhausted from a long day yesterday, but I’m going to try to get a lot of rest tonight after collecting all the materials today.

Last week was also busy, but I got everything done that I needed to which was nice. I treated myself by going with a bunch of the other interns to the amazing swimming pool at the Nile Resort all day Saturday. It is so beautiful there! Poolside food service, swim up bar, tiled pool, comfy lounge chairs all over-looking the Nile-I was in heaven. We all got burnt, which we’re blaming on the Doxy medicine that we’re taking as malaria prevention (definitely not because we didn’t wear sunscreen),but it was lovely. I was also happy about Ghana’s win!

Sunday (yesterday), I went to a baptism and a baptism party in Kampala with my mom. It was Jap’s mom’s granddaughter’s baptism. They know how to throw some parties here! Complete with DJ’s, bounce houses for the kids and more food and drink than you could ever imagine. It was fun-I was just tired after getting up at 6am to leave for Kampala and not returning home until 10:30pm last night.

Oh! Last Wednesday night we had the opportunity to go see traditional Ugandan dancing by the Ndere Group. It was a blast. The dancing was insane, I have no idea how they can move their bodies the way they do.

All of the other Northwestern interns got here yesterday (26 of them!) so it’ll be fun to meet the new interns and have some new faces around the TASO office (4 are working there).

Okay well, I need to finish up this work on my grant, eat some lunch then head back to TASO to meet up with another one of the Ugandan interns who is coming with me to buy stuff from the market (otherwise I’d be getting the Mzungu price for everything which is no good from my tight budget!)

I'll post a few pics later since it doesn't seem to want to work today.

a rant

This post might be incredibly offensive to some for which I apologize, but it’s how I feel. You can write your own blog about it if you really disagree. But hey, I may even end up deleting for the sake of neutrality.

Very early on I noticed the difficult divergence between the foreign visitors here in Uganda. I feel as though I either completely agree with the purpose of a person’s visit, or that I could not disagree more. Almost every white person here is here for one of two reasons, to work with a non-profit/volunteer or to do missionary work. There is very little in between (aside from researchers). So when I see other foreigners here I either feel an instant connection, or a slight annoyance.

I was sitting in a café finishing up my first draft of my grant proposal, when I was distracted by a neighboring group’s conversation. This was far from the first time I overheard a group of missionaries discussing things that seriously bothered me. Like when I was in the bookstore in Kampala and I overheard two people trying to convince their friend that she was doing good Christian work here in Uganda. She replied how she believed she was unable to relate to Ugandans because she felt they do not show or have emotions…I left the store seriously pissed off, because not only could I disagree more (Ugandans are some of the most fun-loving, happy, kind people on the face of this earth you’d have to be socially inept to not connect with at least somebody here) I was pissed that people like that girl have the opportunity to come here, when so many amazing people do not. Not to mention how bad I feel for the Ugandans that have to interact with her, I would not have wanted to spend any more than the 5 minutes I did near her. Or like right now for instance, three girls are discussing how they are worried that the kids they are going to interact with won’t accept their teachings about the Bible and how they’re going to pray for the kids that do not. Sure we both might be “mzungus,” but I could not relate less to majority of the missionaries here.

I am not saying I am entirely to opposed to all missionary work, but I feel that many of the missionaries’ good intentions can actually result in more harm than good. Religious groups that come to serve and work with the Ugandan people under a certain church are very different from those that come solely to spread their religion. I honestly do not think there is much of a place in Uganda for those coming to spread their religion-ethical arguments aside-I mainly feel this way because Uganda is already an incredibly religious country, bringing more religion is not really needed. Many Ugandans do not even understand if you are non-religious-everyone is generally either Born-again, Protestant, Catholic or Muslim, but Uganda has almost every religion here-Judaism, Sikhism, Mormonism. People go to church or temple, but they do not have running water, sanitation, a stable food source-why would you come here to continue to tell them to go to church or temple? So, I do not really understand what brings groups of foreigners here to continue to preach to Ugandans about religion. Didn’t the colonizers and traders do that decades ago? The whole “spreading religion” business here is done, now pick up a shovel and work with a family to dig the household a pit latrine.