Car Troubles AGAIN

I have been seriously neglectful. It's been a logistical nightmare with my car being out of commission. We're making it work but not without a lot of cussing and hairpulling on my part. This is stuff you probably don't want to hear about unless I have a few beers in me to entertain you with the stories. =) At any rate, I finish by this Saturday. . .or Sunday. . .or Monday depending on how this rescheduling thing goes. I am so ready to get away from these car troubles! Next week! I'll be bussing it to Kampala on Tuesday--get to meet with the country director of Peace Corps and do some last minute shopping and then I get the pleasure of a long flight home. Will try to update once or twice more before leaving. I'll post pictures when I get home!

Can't wait to see many of you! =)

Oh we saw chimps on Sunday! It was pretty cool! =)

Rwenzori Road Trip

Ok, I don’t really know how this became the way it turned out but somehow I survived climbing a damn mountain—part of the Mountains of the Moon or the Rwenzoris. Aerin, Colin, Melissa and I initially wanted to do a road trip to a park none of us had ever seen. Going to Queen again would have been cool and perhaps going all the way down to see the Ishasha lions—of course that would have been awesome. Maybe next year. None of us had ever gone to Semiliki. So I called up Richard Tooro who runs Kabarole Tours and wanted a deal on seeing Semiliki and the pygmy group there. Somehow, we not only got Semiliki but we also got to trek the Rwenzoris. Being a Florida girl and not having been in the mountains really since 2000, this was not a good idea. I wasn’t ready. Had no training but somehow decided that I could hang with my mountain folk friends (all who reside in Colorado, Alaska, one of those Canadian provinces). The damn trek was 25km! I felt like an old hag lagging behind. I had to stop and catch my breath going up. I recover fast which is good but damn some of those places were steep! The scenery is beautiful but you are actually only in the park for about 6km or so, the rest is going through villages to get there. This is the footpath that people from Bundibudjo (the last town before DRC) take to sell their goods everyday because it’s cheaper than taking transport to Fort Portal. They do this in bare feet, so I feel like a total loser when I’m huffing and puffing to get up these inclines. The forest does change though. We walked through a bamboo forest which was really cool and nice. I think we got up to 2500 meters or so. Then the descent was brutal. You would think that you would prefer going down. I just prefer flat and a helicopter to come get my ass. Down is fine until your big toes have had enough jamming up against your shoes. Your quad muscles shake like hell and you think you’ve eaten enough bananas to stop but it doesn’t work. Over halfway down, I thought I would lose it, the pain was so bad on my toes. I have bruises underneath my toenails from it. I’ve never been so happy to see a vehicle in my life! I was in tears—the cuticles of my big toes burn like hell but the pounding has pretty much stopped.
When we finally got off the mountain, they took us into Bundibudjo to the Vanilla Hotel—which is a hotel built by farmers. It’s supposed to be the best in town. They have self-contained rooms which are tiny but definitely doable. They did have flushing toilets and a shower though it was cold water. I didn’t care at this point, I was so sweaty, I could handle the cold shower. We got cleaned up and ordered beers (cold ones!) and food. You would think that if a menu only has about 5 items then it would be difficult to screw up the order and bring out on time. WRONG! We asked for 4 rice, 4 beans, 3 chickens, and 1 beef. Over an hour and half go by and no food. I’m getting irritated. We were all getting irritated. I tried to let the manager know. Then they bring out food but it wasn’t what we ordered. We didn’t want matoke! They said we ordered it and we argued about it and finally got what we asked for. The others ordered the chicken which they said had to be old chicken because it was so tough. My beef was mostly fat but what could you do? Then Scott called and I went back to my room to talk to him and to pass out.
The next morning we got up for breakfast. We asked for fruit and juice; they said they didn’t have any. We asked for African tea and percolated coffee. We got hot water and Nescafe. Finally got the tea right. They said they had omelets so we ordered them. She came back with bread and 2 boiled eggs. I asked if this was an omelets. She looked at me like, “No bitch, it’s an f’ing boiled egg.” She told us it was a boiled egg but then we told her again that we wanted an omelet. So she took the eggs back. She came back with 4 fried eggs. Then somehow they found bananas and passion fruit juice (mind you we were in the area of the country with the BEST fruits!). After that debacle, Melissa told us that she had ants in her bed and couldn’t sleep all night. We told Moses our driver about it and the assistant manager or whoever was like, “When you come back, I will be the only one to serve you.” It was difficult to keep my mouth closed and say Lady, we’re never coming back. I’m sure it’s a decent hotel for where it is but we were so tired and our patience was not thick.
Then we set off for Semiliki National Park. On the way there, there was a Batwa Pygmy Village. They are more likely Bambuti but for whatever reason, they had signs for the Batwas. They are a hunter-gatherer group that was pushed out of the forest when it was gazetted. The European Union bought them land and looked like they were doing some agricultural work but not much else. They could do some cultural tourism. It’s pretty damn intimidating. They great you very nicely, pull out seats for you and then surround you shoving crafts in your face. Then there is a viewing fee that is bartered. You know these people are seriously poor so you don’t want to bargain down too much. The viewing fee included a dance and a house viewing (in the forest they would only have temporary shelter). The dancing was awful—it didn’t look authentic, just a bunch up people moving in a circle smoking blunts (huge blunts!). It was sad and we all felt dirty for visiting. I think it would be a great potential for tourism in the cultural sense but it has to be worked out better than what is going on now. It’s terrible and sad. But I am glad that I was able to see how seriously marginalized these people are. It’s seriously hard to put it into words.
Then we went on to Semiliki NP. We hiked again but this time it was flat. We visited the hot springs which are so hot you can’t go in them. This is definitely the jungle I had pictured and it was quite cool to go and visit. At lunch, Moses and our guide, Arthur, boiled our lunch in the hot springs. The boiled eggs, matoke, and potatoes and cut up these beautiful tomatoes and the sweetest pineapple and avocados. It was the best lunch ever! Then we headed back home.
I’m very glad that I hiked the mountain and that I got to see two national parks. Would I do it again? Probably not unless by some warped sense of humor I become a hiking fanatic. Scott wants me to go hiking but I think I should start small—with flat and work my way up to higher inclines. My legs are paying the price now but they should be better by the end of the week I hope.
Tuesday, Erimos and I needed to head to town to get some things before heading to Bigodi for our interviews. Suzy wouldn’t start. What a pain in the ass! Had to get her pushed to start. Then she wouldn’t start up at the gas station but Edward the Mechanic got his boys to meet us and fix a loose connection. It worked fine the rest of the day but we were late to our meetings—it wasn’t the worst that could happen. We just got home late. Erimos doesn’t seem well so I hope that he will be able to work tomorrow but I stressed to him that if he didn’t feel well, then we will do these interviews another time. It could wait.
And I think I have another damn mango fly! How?!?!?! It hasn’t been raining! It’s on my upper arm but I can’t find the hole but it’s swollen up and hot like the other ones. Aerin is excited. She said that I would have to grow it for a while and then we would have a public extraction. Can’t wait. It’s got a very limited time to grow if that is indeed what it is. I’m not bringing it home. Sorry. Will let you know how it turns out.
Got to run and do some work! =)

Dancing with the Women

I’m not sure I could have a more perfect day for research. My arms are going to be huge from the car’s non-power steering. It drives. . .that’s all that counts right now. I can get from point A to point B and get this all done.
Abe called this morning—still jetlagged and up at 2:30 am. Our printer is basically broken. It needs the “ink service module” replaced—like I’m going to find that in Africa! He called to tell me that it would be about $200 to replace. I guess people get new printers before then. But ours isn’t that old. I guess other people don’t print as many pictures as we do. So it looks like we will be printing these bad boys off from the US and sending them back and give Erimos a few more days of work returning them. I wish I would be with him to see their faces.
So you must be asking, why was this such a perfect day for research? Well, I thought it wasn’t going to be great. I didn’t get the best interview out of a lodge that I thought would be pretty promising yesterday and I was expecting the same from this one. They don’t get many tourists at all but it’s beautiful. I also thought they would have forgotten that I was coming. Further, I thought I would hear more from the manager/guide who really just annoys the hell out of me. And I didn’t think he would have the women’s group organized. Boy was I wrong.
The owner did most of the talking—taking time out of his busy schedule to do so. He talked for about 1 ½ hours and gave me some interesting insight on issues with tourism—apparently it’s not all roses, which I appreciate. He had some good ideas too and I enjoyed hearing him talk about Amin’s time and his views on tourism. A very insightful interview. Then we started talking personal and I showed him a picture of Scott. He asked me why I chose to be with a giant. I just laughed. He said he understood why I would be interested in someone so strong. Then he asked when we were both moving to Uganda. Some people never give up on this idea. . .
Erimos and I had our lunch. The place is quiet and beautiful—and with flushing toilets (a total surprise!). Then I saw the parade of women coming. We started getting their information—the demographics and there were some men in the group because it wasn’t actually a basket group but an orphan and widow’s care group. The women just happen to be the ones making the baskets. There were several women over 60. I swear some of them look like they are in their 40s. Many of them had over 7 children. One woman there was 82! The interview was informative but the fun was about to start. We got them out for pictures and they were laughing at me for asking them to smile. They thought it was great. Then they said they wouldn’t be complete without having me in the picture with them. So we did that. Then Erimos translated that I had a small gift for them and I hope that they would take it in thanks for spending time with me. We passed out the soap and they were SO THANKFUL! They were smiling and blessing me. They were so lovely! Then they decided to sing for me. This also meant dancing! Since most of them were Bakiga, they did the traditional women’s dance. It’s my favorite! You can’t help but move. The song is haunting but happy and inviting. They have this choreographed stomp and jumping move they do and it’s so happy! They continued to sing and dance and I took pictures and then I just couldn’t help myself, I jumped right in! I had no idea what I was doing and I knew I was making a complete fool of myself but it felt good to jump around with these women yelling encouragement and jumping and dancing around me. It sounds dumb but I felt like I belonged. Erimos was laughing his ass off at me. I loved it!
After that, the 82 year old woman came up to me and gave this bear hug—she was so strong! I had no idea what she said but I know she loved me. We said our goodbyes and as we were leaving she came up to me and gave me this mat that she made. It’s beautiful! I couldn’t believe it—all her hard work and this is her only source of income and she gave it to me. What do you do? Then the chairperson came up and gave me a millet basket. I love it! I am so lucky to get to do this kind of research. I get to talk to these women who work so hard for so little and care for large families, some who are not their own. They care about these children and want the best for them. Who am I to get to share a little bit of their world? I’m surrounded by people doing really scientific research that spits out lots of quantitative data. But I get to talk to people. My data reacts and smiles and laughs and I couldn’t ask for anything better.
I never thought I would be one to really enjoy this gender type research but I’m liking it. I love talking to these women. Research on basket making hasn’t been done in this area—at least that we are aware of. Everyone has been forthcoming with information and we hope that it continues. I can definitely get used to hanging out with the ladies all the time—it’s way too much fun. No one should have this much fun doing research or work! In fact I think I have a little too much fun. Aerin and Colin are going out with me tomorrow to check out some women’s groups, the king’s tombs (which we aren’t sure are receiving tourists or not), the king’s palace and we have an interview with another women’s group. Melissa, my new neighbor, is going out with me on Saturday. I would never have dreamed that I’d be doing something that others are interested in.
Because of the issues with the car and time running out, we won’t be able to bring back any of the information that we’ve collected. I hope to come back next year and do that though. I owe it to them.
On Sunday, Aerin, Colin, Melissa, and I are heading to Semiliki. We’re going with Kabarole Tours (one of my informants). We’re going to the game reserve, the national park and staying the night. We’re also going to visit a Bambuti village (one of the pygmy groups). Richard gave us a serious discount though he’ll still make plenty of money on us. We’ll be back on Monday. Then the following Sunday we are going to go chimp trekking. I figure that if I’m studying tourism, then I should be a tourist once in a while. That should be fun and cool.
Well, I do have to get up early. I hope all is well. Can’t believe I have just over 2 weeks left to get my interviews done and then it’s packing and heading to Kampala. Wow. This is nuts! I’ll see many of you before you know it!

Broken Down Week

So I’ve been MIA for a while. It’s not like I had a choice though.
I was knocked on my back last week. I came back from the field on Monday and just didn’t feel well. I went to lie down—expecting that I would only take a 30 minute nap. That turned into 2 hours. I got up and felt extremely dizzy and nauseated. I HATE that feeling. I tried to boil water to take a bucket bath but ended up lying on kitchen floor trying not fall on my face. I hate the clamminess and losing the feeling in my hands. Smells made me nauseous—I could hardly eat. I went to bed and couldn’t sleep the entire night. I would get comfortable and the dizzy spells would come, I would reposition and then they would come on again. It sucked so bad! I had diarrhea but not terrible. 8am came and Abe came to check on me and I told him that I couldn’t get out of bed. I slept until 4pm that day. I was totally wasted from the nausea. Dennis, the nurse from the new clinic that will open came to check. He wanted to take me into town to get some tests. I wanted to punch his lights out for even suggesting that we get in a vehicle on these bumpy roads. Abe saved me and said that it wasn’t a good idea unless I wanted to go. I didn’t. I think it was just a stomach thing because I felt better after I woke up and slowly started gaining my appetite back. It was not fun! I’d rather have fever or army ants invade. I did get the question, “Are you pregnant?” I wanted to sock Paco for asking. No! I’m definitely not! Trust me, I know.
Also, our vehicle has been in the shop for a week. If you are viewing this entry, you know that I have the vehicle now. It was looked at in Kampala before coming but they either screwed something else up or didn’t fix the problem. The other issue was that something on the suspension needs to be fixed—not surprising since the roads are hell here. So none of the parts are in Fort Portal. Go figure. Patrick was heading into the capital to take some of the researchers who were heading home. He was able to pick up the timing chain but not the bushings (sp??) for the suspension because of one issue or another. I’m in freak out mode because we’ve been without a vehicle for a week and I have less than 3 weeks to get everything done. I lost 2 weeks because of Joel and Abe and being sick. I don’t have time for this! They are supposed to get the vehicle back to me with the timing chain and do the bushings after I leave. I drive slow anyway but we don’t really have a choice.
I’ve been trying to schedule everyone. Many are cooperating with me while others are being a bit more difficult. It’ll get done—I don’t have a choice.
Another issue: the damn printer has declared mutiny and refuses to print. For some reason, this printer has an “ink service module” that when it gets full, it needs to be replaced. Of course I’m not going to find that piece here! So either I can’t print anything any more or we are going to try to get someone to bring it over who is coming next week. We’ll see how that goes. I’d hate to have to go home and print stuff out there and mail them back but we’ll do what we have to do.
The only really fun thing that happened last week was that I made a program for some of the field researchers to meet with one of the women’s basket groups that I interviewed. The ladies were so adorable! They placed all their baskets out and we bought! I swear they are an addiction! Abe can’t help himself. He had to get rid of so much stuff before he left so that he could fit everything in his suitcases. The event was so much fun that other researchers are asking for another program so that they can buy. I think I probably have the most popular research project here. Everyone wants to tag along for the interviews. It’s kind of weird for me to think anyone would be interested in what I’m doing but they are. And I’m enjoying it. Just want my car back.
So if my schedule works out, I will be able to get everything done—by the skin of my teeth! We are also trying to schedule some other things. We hope to head to Semiliki on Sunday. We haven’t completely confirmed but are going to try to spend two days there—Sunday through Monday. If there are several of us, we can go for cheaper. Will let you know. The other thing we are going to do is go chimp trekking. I didn’t get to do it last year and I think as someone looking at tourism, I should participate in some of the activities that tourists do. We plan to do this on the 6th. Should be fun.
Yesterday, Erimos and I were on foot and interviewing individual basket makers. We were exhausted. We aren’t used to walking too far to get where we need to go. I think we did about 4km all the way around and it was a bit hot. But it was a good form of exercise and I need to get back into the groove since I’ve been out of it because of being ill.
Ok, I guess that sums up the week. Hope everyone is doing well. Hope to have more interesting things for you soon! =)

Long Week

Not much to report today. I wasn't ready to write a blog when I got home. Spent 2 lovely but difficult nights in town at Mountains of the Moon--needed some peace and quiet and a time to reflect. The great food, hot shower, movie channels, appropriate electricity and phone reception were awesome to have too. Wish it went under better circumstances. ANyway, I'm back to work--not too many days left--I think I have somewhere in the low 30ish days left and more and more women's group just keep popping up! Suzi probably needs some work done and need to get a day for that. . .too much to do dammit. But it will keep me busy. I'll do better at writing again. WE took Joel to the bus station today and Abe leaves next Sunday and then I'm back on my own. WE have a basket program today as they are hard to resist. Hope all is well and I'll get back on track soon.

Love you all and thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

The Saddest Week

Nothing is more defeating than knowing that you can't comfort the ones you love or even yourself. We lost an amazing woman last week and we are all struggling to understand. I don't have the words to describe my grief or the hopelessness I feel while staying here. I know little about what's going on. I feel deep sadness for all who loved Lindsay. We are all better people for knowing her. Lindsay, you are the angel in the sky. I know you will care for that little one in your arms and watch over all of us here. I know this isn't the last time we will be together. How I want to be home.

I don't remember much of last week other than trying to get through it. The immense frustration of everything did get to me--the crappy cell phone reception, the army ants attacking my latrine and my kitchen, the rain. . .Abe and Joel are here now and that's kept me busy.

I'm staying in town for two nights to get my head together and grieve as well as hear from family with less difficulty. I chose a hotel that I knew had good electricity and would have full reception and I can be just another mzungu. Didn't want to go to any of my sites because I didn't want people doting over me. I want to be left alone by everyone other than my family.

I'll get it together. I'll come back and finish and then I'll go home. I'll come home to Virginia and try to heal with everyone else. Please keep our families in your prayers. I'll see many of you when I return. I promise to have it together enough to finish my time here.

Take care of you all,
Amy

Happy June!

The days just run together for me. If it weren’t for a list on my makeshift calendar I wouldn’t really be able to remember anything that I’ve done!

Friday I had an interview with Richard Tooro who runs Kabarole Tours. I was relieved to find him there and that he remembered that we had an appointment. He’s full of great information and even suggested another site that he is trying to help promote. He’s pretty interesting and I feel that he genuinely has a good heart and the best intentions even if others don’t feel that it’s always such. Nevertheless, when it comes to advertising activities around here, he does it very well and everyone is getting the same price—works out best for us foreigners who are always suspect that people are trying to rip you off.

After that, Erimosi and I have lunch and then went back to the Guest Farm. However, the owner mistaken that I said 10am and not 1pm. So we saw some of the sites but have to come back next week to talk with her. Since I haven’t received a phone call stating otherwise, it looks like we will be doing so Monday morning. Beautiful place and seems to be mid-level at about $70/night (compared to high-end $295). They have horses though that look pretty thin—it pains me to see large animals (or any animal!) with their ribs visible. She’s going to have to do something if she hopes to continue to keep mzungus satisfied; they won’t like seen thin domestic animals. The flowers are still gorgeous.

Saturday Erimosi and I went on a hunt for individual basket weavers in the morning. He has located 3 last week while I stayed at camp working. I guess people are still surprised when we ask for them because I don’t think anyone has ever talked with basket makers before in this area. So it’s been difficult to find them. But once you talk to one. . .man, all of a sudden, EVERYONE starts coming out and bringing their baskets! In one area, we can probably spend at least half a day there because all these women kept showing up. The problem though, with the individual basket makers is that they aren’t making them for tourists—at least the ones we have found; they are making them just for locals. I going to rework the questions—particularly targeting more resource type questions and see if Abe wants us to continue looking at the individuals or if we should stick with just the groups.

In the afternoon, we went to our women’s group appointment. It rained on us pretty heavily and we were squashed inside the chairperson’s house until the end. They were so lovely and I learned a bit more about their baskets and the dyeing process and baskets of the past. They were pretty interesting. Some were still a bit bummed that I only wanted to talk about baskets but Erimosi has gotten pretty skilled at explaining why I can’t really look at anything else at this moment—perhaps the PhD. =) At the end of the meeting, I took group pictures, was forced to pose the African way with the only dude in the group (he makes cards, not baskets)—thank God the picture isn’t on my camera! Then they sang their anthem, which just tugs at your heart strings because they are great singers and performers. I’m such a sap that I got a little teary-eyed.

Then it was off to find my cook somewhere in the market. She was getting her hair done and the ladies in there wanted to get a hold of mine. No thanks! I have seen my former students beat their heads because the braids were so tight and they couldn’t scratch! We left without her since she had a ride and instead brought home the clinic directors wife--which is a whole other story only said to some of you in private since she is such a "character".

Anyway, we're in town and are doing groceries, email and pork! I'm so excited to get pork! WooHoo! I've manage to lose a little weight to the point where I can fit into some pants that I brought. Go me! I'll try not to destroy this success by stuffing my belly with pork but it's the only meat I can get for a while.

Take care of you all!

The Week without Lights

Well, I had really wanted to be good about writing up this week but we had an issue with power. A heavy storm came through and wiped out power for a while and then when it tried to come back on, we had a brown out. There wasn’t enough juice to power the tea kettle, much less a computer. It was pretty miserable—the tease of having electricity but not really. Luckily, Wednesday night, it came back on. I was a little panicky because I really needed to stay at the station Thursday to get things caught up in data entry (among other things) and was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to do any of it.

Highlights of the week:

Saturday: Went searching for this lodge that is supposed to be around this botanical community garden. Almost got T-boned by this idiot as I was trying to turn right—he was trying to pass me on the right. I think I’ve mentioned this in my previous blog. . .if not, I’ll share the story with you when I get back.

Sunday: Hung out here for a bit and then headed into town with the Chapman girls and Kat so that she could pick up her friend. Got treated to some pork (I’ve been craving protein!).

Monday: Went searching for a couple of lodges that were new or we didn’t get a chance to look at last year. There’s a new farm that took a while to find but when we did. . .WOW!! You enter and drive through huge flowers to this open area of about 70 acres. There’s a swimming pool, organic gardens, a kick-ass bar! Holy cow! The owner I think is married to a mzungu (white guy) but I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, it’s absolutely beautiful and we are conducting that interview on Friday. We headed over to this other lodge—Ataco that specializes in weddings. It’s a pretty neat sight too and the people are very nice. I need to email the owner so that I can get permission to talk to the manager since the owner stays in Kampala. Then we took a look at another place but this may be a last priority because it’s questionable that they even have mzungus as guests.

As nice as this was, I also felt like a total jackass on this day. Not a couple of days before, some of Freerk and Goesha’s former employees came by. The great thing about a long term project is that you can sustain salaries for a while. The bad thing about a long term project is that many of these people employed may not know how to save or just don’t. So the new mzungu in town gets the visitors. First the cook came. I was a bit annoyed at this because I had the doors completely closed and she still knocked. I was exercising and was sweaty and didn’t want to open the door all the way. She wanted me to loan her money and I had to tell her that money was not mine and I couldn’t loan her money nor could I employ her—I already have a cook. Then another one came around, who is still employed at least for half a day and we looking for work—which I don’t have. She started to tell me about her struggles and how she has to pay for transport because the bike these researchers bought her got stolen. I apologized a lot and told her that I couldn’t employ her. Well, then Monday morning, she comes by again. Asking, again. I became annoyed because now I can’t eat breakfast outside and enjoy the morning—and it became cold. She wanted me to tell Joel of her problems but I told her that I didn’t have contact with him but he’s coming soon but even then, I’m not sure what he could do. Then she asked me to talk to Patrick about the new clinic that is going to open up. I told her that I have nothing to do with the clinic and even that I don’t think Patrick does either. I hate being placed in this position to say no—I feel like a total mean jackass. Then after she left, Kiiza came by trying to sell a stool that he made because he wanted to buy sugar. Kiiza must be in his 80s and I knew that he wanted sugar so when I interviewed his wife, I bought soap and sugar. So I told him that I gave him Sugar the other day. He realized that he wasn’t getting more from me and then sold the stool to Tom’s crew. Then I got into an argument with the parking girl because she didn’t give me the correct change. It just was a way off day. And the big rains came and knocked power and reception for the phone out. Scott tried to call like six times but we couldn’t talk. I text to call in a few hours but by the time he got through, I had had a glass of wine and a small glass of Amarula and just beat down from the day—I think we only talked for about 15 minutes.

Tuesday: We went out on a search for this Rural Family homestead that was about 15km from Fort Portal. It seemed longer than that. I thought we were heading into DRC—we are on our way to the border town. We finally found it—pretty decent but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to stay this far away but we’re talking to him next Saturday morning. I can’t decide if he is opportunistically shady. Then we went to the Amabere Caves because they have a group of women who make baskets for the gift shop. I’ll be talking to them next Monday at 2. So then, we went back into town to eat and wait for Diana, a researcher under the Chapman’s. She works for a radio station in Montreal that does programs about Africa. She wanted to join me to talk to the women’s group about basket making. It was my first group interview and I was pretty nervous about it but I agreed. It went better than I expected. These women were so nice! Some of my questions don’t work well so I need to work around that a little. But in the end, I was nervous about my gift for them. We’ve had people not be happy about soap in the past—wanting sugar or money. We passed out a long bar to each woman who were so appreciative. I thought I would cry. They were saying that soap is too expensive for them and they can’t afford it (many of them are looking after orphans in addition to their own children). After we took pictures of them and their baskets and gave soap, one of the women came back and gave both Diana and I a coffee basket—it’s beautiful, navy blue and brown. I know she must have worked extremely hard on it and to give it away, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t expect it at all. Again, being from a highly emotional family, I thought I would cry over this. I can’t wait to go back and bring them the photographs. We had to drive back in the rain—something that completely stresses me out, it’s a wonder I don’t have a panic attack. We made it home and it was a nice way to end the day.

Wednesday: Headed to Bigodi. Was a little concerned because we didn’t have much of a program because we couldn’t get a hold of Peace—there’s hardly a network down there. I did interview a group of 2 women who are trying to start their own basket group. Again, some of the questions couldn’t be applied to them. Went over to KAFRED to try to find the chairperson of the women’s group and to run into Andy Lepp who did his PhD at UF and was now a professor at Kent State and was taking some undergrads around. He’s a cool dude. Did his PC service in Katonga Wildlife Reserve. Made a program with the KAFRED women and then went onto Mantana Lodge to schedule a program too. Then came back to try to talk to the chairperson of Parent’s Concern who had a group of women who made baskets—many of them widows or looking after orphans. So we were able to get that taken care of. We crashed an event for the founder of Parent’s Concern. A missionary group from Alabama was there to visit. I got to see the children do the traditional Batooro dance of shaking their booties and the women do the traditional Bakiga dance which I have a funny feeling they are going to teach me on Wednesday. I can’t keep myself still when I watch them and am unconsciously moving to the beat—some of them noticed and I don’t think that my field assistants are going to let me leave until I learn. We shall see. . .

Thursday: I’m at camp trying to get some stuff done while Erimosi is out looking for individual basket makers—this group may be more difficult but we’ll see how it goes. It’s nice to stay home and it’s quiet for the most part.

Friday: The plan is to interview Richard Tooro about his tour operation (I pray he remembers) and then head to the guest farm at 1pm. I’ll post this in the afternoon and then head on home.

Hope all is well with everyone. Feel free to email or send a message via facebook. Take care of you. =)

Another Week Finished

I haven’t felt like writing much though much has happened. I’m just really tired at the end of the day. I’m sleeping but I don’t think I’m getting that deep sleep that I need. The peeing every 2 hours in the night doesn’t help either.

Let’s see if I can recap the highlights of the week:

My shoes got fixed. They sewed them back together and they work really well. I won’t be bringing them back with me though. They are comfortable still and are useful for the light walking that I have to do.

Kat and I had more than us at dinner the other night. We were joined by 3 other UF students who are in zoology. One of them is an RPCV who did his service in Uganda back in the 90s. I can appreciate the dry humor he has. . .he was pretty damn funny. Paco, the Italian chimp researcher with the Pacific Island tattoos all over his body joined us also. When he decides to be sociable, he’s really neat to talk to. The main topic of discussion at dinner was mainly about lice. Yep, lice. One of the UF students studies lice and how it transfers to different monkey groups. Two years ago, she was here darting monkeys and putting colors on them. Something happened with the groups—I think they were darting 2 different groups and didn’t know it. Now she’s back taking poop for DNA testing of the ones she has. Somehow that conversation when to human lice too. As gross as that may sound, it was pretty interesting. Then the conversation changed to Paco witnessing chimps eating colobus monkeys in West Africa—that was pretty sad. It grosses me out. Anyway, we had a great time with the talk and stayed up pretty late. Those guys are gone now traveling before leaving.

The next few days are kind of a blur for me. My brain must be just fried or something. I do remember almost getting into a couple of accidents. I was trying to turn at a fork in the road—looked right, looked left and then back to the right to see this minibus flying and not even moving over. He must have been a few inches away from us. Not my fault. Remember, I’m driving on the left side of the road. I was on the tarmac yesterday and had my signal on to turn right and I was slowing down to turn right and this asshole behind me decided that he didn’t need to wait for me and decided to PASS me on the right as I was trying to turn. I saw him in my sideview mirror—and stopped turning so that he wouldn’t hit me. Then he had the nerve to honk his horn at me, like I was in the wrong. Oh if he would have hit me. . .he would have wished he hadn’t. Again, I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t get it. Africans in general are laidback and time isn’t that important but put a steering wheel in front of them and all of a sudden, they have to get somewhere and EVERYONE is in their way. It’s the damnedest thing.

We brought Adheeryi some food the other day. She was so grateful. I told her that I expected her to be fat by the time Joel gets here. She’s so sweet. Got new pictures for her too since her kids took hers.

Went looking for this lodge that we heard about around Fort Portal. Went over this countryside to find this site where log cabins are being built. Super cool. The dude is British and has been here for a few years. Taught himself how to build log cabins and trained some guys to do so as well—hoping that they can start a business after finishing these. His site is right at a crater lake that is not like one I’ve seen—it’s U-shaped and huge! Quite nice. His market will obviously be up-market and he hopes to be open by Christmas. Said some pretty interesting things about the community and having to get workers from Masindi rather than from the area but things are slowly turning around.

I have two interviews this week with women’s groups. Both seem really excited to meet with me and so I’m hoping to get some really good information from them about their group and basket weaving. Other people around camp seem really interested in what I’m doing too—I’m a bit surprised but I guess we are all a little self-conscious about our work and are surprised when others take an interest in it. We’ll see how it goes. One of the girls works for a radio station in Montreal and wants to tag along to get some soundbites.

So the Chapman’s crew is here and so is Tom’s crew. Amazingly, it’s pretty quiet but everyone is nice and it’s mostly girls. We’re slowly getting to know everyone but it should be a nice summer.

I talked to Keith, guy who was a recruiter in Atlanta, the other day. He’s interning with Mercy Corps this summer in Kampala. When I called to see how things were going, he was sitting on the top of Garden City at this Indian Restaurant getting ready to have dinner and then go see the new Indiana Jones movie. I was so bummed after that! I have way too many movies to see when I get back.

Nothing else too terribly exciting going on. We went for a walk in the forest this morning to try to see as much as we could. We didn’t see a whole lot other than avoiding safari ants and lots of trees. We did see the black and whites and red colobus monkeys. It was worth getting up on your day off. I think we are heading into town to pick up Katrina’s friend and eat at a pork joint. I don’t really want to go anywhere but my body is craving protein—more than I’m getting from eggs. Besides, their pork here is so good.

Hope all is well and I will do a better job writing next week, I promise.

Tread Off My Tires

We started off this week trying to finish what we began: contacting LC’s and getting them to sign the letter we generated for being in the area. Making contact with the LC’s makes it easier to work with communities and it’s the polite thing to do. It just takes up so much of your time.

Monday, we were on MUBFS side of the park getting signatures and greeting LC’s. We spent over an hour and a half waiting for the LC 5 (highest LC) to sign the damn paper. I watched as all these people barged in front of us. In the end though, he was really supportive. He happened to be a former researcher who studied ecotourism and insisted that I get a copy of the district tourism report. He put in some calls to this guy, Sam. We went to the building but the document was in a locked room and so we can’t retrieve it until Wednesday (hopefully). Did some other signatures but missed a few because of market day. We called it an early day and I came home to work on some spreadsheets.

Tuesday, we went to Bigodi to work on getting signatures there. And we ended up with a lot more than we expected. Peace knows EVERYONE. It was good to see him again and Bigodi is a pretty peculiar place—a little crazy but with really nice people. There are still a few more signatures to get but we definitely made progress.

Note to self: Make sure your old pair of tennis shoes are still in good condition. I thought mine were and didn’t notice they were falling apart until I was walking and walking felt funny. My entire bottom of the shoe came off! Well, it’s hanging on the tip. When we go into Fort Portal tomorrow, Erimosi will take it to a shoe guy in the market to glue it

on. Everyone tells me that they are still a good pair and that the problem should be fixed with no problem. I’ll test it out. I may have to get Scott to bring over my other pair of old tennis shoes so that Abe can bring them. I should have just invested in a good pair before leaving but just didn’t have the time. I’ll know better for the next time.

Anyway, I ended up buying a pair of flip flops and wearing those the rest of the day. And if it couldn’t get any better with my relationship with “tread”, I blew out a tire on the vehicle on the rocky terrain. Well, it wasn’t a complete blow out. Got out to have lunch and heard this hissing noise and the tire going flat. We changed the tire and put on the other one we had. Took the flat tire back to Bigodi to get fixed and to put air in the tire we put on. Everything is cool now. The tire is fixed but needs more air. We’ll do that in town tomorrow while the tires on my feet get glued on too.

I was reunited with my 3 yr old “boyfriend” again. He’d forgotten about me and didn’t really know who this crazy white lady was. But then he started coming around and waved good bye to me and blew me a kiss. I took Peace and Erimosi back to wait on the tire and get a soda. As we were sitting there, Aaron (my little boyfriend) comes running looking for me. I see this little guy walk past the restaurant we were in—this little shadow. Then the breeze picked up the curtain and I see him staring at me. He comes in and has a sip of my soda, waves goodbye and goes back to his grandmother. Later he comes around and is in my car wanting to drive away with me and tells me that he’s going to marry me. He’s as cute as buttons!

We saw Adeeryi, the old woman that seems to have been adopted by the project. Every time she sees us, she starts to cry. She is looked after by the school children she lives next to. Someone was able to bring water to her place and now someone is building her a new house. She’s been ill and told us that she spent 3 months in the hospital this past year. We’re going to bring her some food when we go toward the end of the week. She’s such a sweet woman.

Finally, we went to take a look at a new place called Chimp’s Nest. Not expecting much because it wasn’t even thought of last year, I was blown away by what they already had. What a nice little place to stay! All locally made and tastefully done. The guy who owns it is Dutch and said that he would be happy to participate in my research. I was very happy to see that I had another interesting place to look at. I’ll show pictures when I get home. While the internet lines are faster here than they are on my office computer, I don’t want to mess with the mojo with uploading right now.

Came home just before the rains hit. We hadn’t had really any rain since I arrived—which is good for driving but not good for anything else. Our huge water container was empty from when they fished out the dead lizard and cleaned the tank. We’ve been taking water from another container and that was was getting low too. It just didn’t rain, it poured! For a straight hour it rained heavily and the wind was blowing and it was actually getting on the porches. It’s still raining now at 8:30pm but it’s getting lighter. There were puddles all over the place but when it let up, the ground soaked it up quickly. My very dirty and dusty vehicle was washed clean of the dirt. I think we got a decent amount of rain in the water container—now I hope it stops. If it keeps raining through the night, then the roads are going to be a wicked pain in the ass tomorrow.

The weather went from pretty hot to “Damn, I need a sweater,” with the incoming rains. It’s nice that these houses are pretty insulated and you can feel the degree difference when entering. I still have the tea going for more warmth.

Jolly is trying not to cook as much food but she still doesn’t quite get it. How many different carbs could you possibly have at one meal? So far for me, I’ve counted 4! I’m hoping that if she sees that I have devoured all the vegetables and left much of the carbs, she’ll get it. She brought over matoke—the potato banana that I could care less for. This is going to be a work in progress if I am to “reduce” my size.

Tom Gillespie’s students came in last night. Haven’t seen much of them but I’m sure they are good people. Tom is good people and I can’t imagine him bringing in crap. I think once they get used to the place, they will be more sociable. I hear the Chapman’s and their army of students are coming in Thursday. I may have a roommate. I’m not too excited about it but what can you do? Hopefully I’ll still have my bedroom to myself and just have to share the common area. It’ll make exercising a little more difficult but I’ll figure it out. With all these people coming in, I’m not really sure where Abe and Joel will stay. I’m not going to worry about it until closer to time. Can’t do anything about it now.

Ok, I see that I’m rambling now. I’m sure things will get more interesting next week when I actually start interviewing people and things start getting interesting around camp. I’ve been hanging out with Katrina since she’s my neighbor and she’s cool. We’ve been eating dinners together and decompressing from the day’s work. She’ll be heading out soon though. Anyway, hope everything is well on your end and I’ll report back with an update by the weekend sometime. =)

In Kibale

Nothing too exciting. We arrived on Thursday. The ride was not eventful other than dodging suicidal chickens and black & white colobus monkeys. The camp is pretty quiet. Some people were leaving and I hve a duplex to myslef for now. I thought Joel and Abe were also staying in my duplex but I guess not and it looks like I will be getting a roommate by Wednesday--hope she's cool. Anyway, my neighbor, Kat, is pretty cool. She's working on black & whites looking at some behavioral stuff. She's leaving soon--she's been here since Feb or March.
We have electriciy for now. We had a dead lizard that got into our water tank. That finally got taken care of on Friday. It's unhealthy to have a dead bloated lizard in your water tank. We've been using water from another tank. It's been dry--rained a little but no heavy downpours. This is good for driving--not so good for needing to stay clean.
I'm working on getting settled, when we get back to camp, I'll do a little more organizing and make plans for next week. I'm driving better than I had expected. It's like riding a bike and the new bumps and old bumps are suddenly becoming familiar. We'll see how long the good driving lasts--it won't be fun when it starts pouring. Erimosi and I have been riding around \trying to get signatures from Local Counsel before getting started. This is pretty necessary before doing research.
While out yesterday, we found a new lodge to talk to as well as a women's initiative that makes baskets. We will be talking with them pretty soon. They seem very excited to be talking to me.
Other than that, nothing spectacular going on. The camp will be full by midweek and we will start the actually research, hopefully by the end of the week but definitely by the following Monday. Scott called yesterday. It was really good to hear from him but like every time, I burst into tears after talking. Separation never really gets any easier for me. But the countdown starts and we'll both be busy.
Watched a movie with Kat yesterday--girlie movies are awesome when no boys are around! =)

Anyway, I wish I could share with you something amazing but it's a slow start. We're heading to Bigodi on Tuesday to take care of LC stuff and I get to see my 4-yr old "boyfriend" then. WooHoo! Take care everyone. Miss you.

Funny. . .

I'm working on a computer that actually runs FASTER than the one I have at work. I knew it! Need to get that fixed when I get back. . .

Landed in Uganda

Ok everyone, I'm here. I made it. The flight was LONG and made longer when I had to sit by strangers willing to do more than their fair share of talking. The woman on the first flight was headed to Guam to see her "successful" daughter but complained about her not-so-successful daughter who was getting arrested for pot and other things. She was a little too goofy for me--especially when she wouldn't even consider that she may have something to do with her daughter being this way. The second leg of the trip I ended up sitting next to this woman heading to Romania to do some Christian work who admitted she uses Ambien to handle the plane rides and one time took too many. I was waiting for her to take another one and not talk so I could sleep. Then she prayed for me as the plane was landing. Nice lady--just gives too much information.
Had some time in Amsterdam. Became severely discouraged when I exchanged some money for Euros and wouldn't you know that $40 only gets you 20Euros?? Ended up paying something like $14 for a crappy panini and a juice. Then when I went to sit at my gate, there were swarms of white people. There were like 4 or 5 random groups heading to Uganda to help in some way or another. One was a group of young college kids for Invisible Children, another was helping orphans somewhere, aother for AIDS and several missionary groups. One group was going to some villages out west to "evangelize" and save the villagers over there. I got lucky enough to sit just behind them on the plane and got to here them singing (not well either). Thank God they stopped when the plane started to take off. Full flights all the way.
I was rewarded though. I got through customs at record speed and my bags were some of the first to be unloaded. All made it. Ran out of there before the army of mzungus and Charles had a sign with my name on it. We got out before the swarm and into Kampala in record time. I was even able to make the last call at the restaurant--got a really good chicken in coconut sauce. =) Got some sleep, I never sleep through the nights here. Felt good this morning.
Patrick and I ran some errands--got a new stove since our stolen one looks like it never returned. We got a better one this time. Piddled around looking at some of the crafts shops but didn't want to get too carried away--but got some ideas. =) Had lunch and dropped off all the necessary paperwork that needed to go. Exchanged money. It's depressing to see that $1 gives you 1652USH and the Pound will give you 3,000-something. It blows! Anyway, went and tried to buy a propane tank and they almost didn't give it to us. They wanted us to have our own can--well we didn't and how do we get a can if we don't buy and make a deposit. We were about to leave and look someplace else but they decided to give it to us. One tank will last the whole time. And Shell is the only station that can sell. I hear Ft. Portal is out.
Anyway, we head out to Kibale tomorrow. I probably won't get to email for another few days unless we have some time in Fort Portal tomorrow. We aren't leaving until 10 so that traffic can die down. Looking foward to cooling temperatures as it is hotter than hell in Kampala. Nothing else exciting yet. Heading to my favorite Indian restuarant tonight and then it's Ugandan food from here until the end. =) Take care.

Oh my number is still the same as last year. . .I think. I didn't change SMS cards, just added minutes. So it should be 011.256.773.26.3629 for anyone wishing to call.

Talk to you soon. =)