Back in the US

Donna and I are enjoying the comforts of being back in the USA from the Univ of Minnesota hospital. Donna is getting rehydrated after persistent intestinal troubles (we prefer to call it "vervet monkey flu"). So we are staying in Minneapolis at least for tonight and we both hope to continue on home tomorrow - me to Wilson, WY and Donna to Pullman, WA.

Please keep Donna's health in your thoughts.

Pictures to come soon!!

Pictures from the last week

Donna with all the students and staff at the Cleveland School

Donna and Aggrey plant a mango tree at Aggrey's family home

Donna places her hand print in cement on the sign honoring her block of the Cleveland School

Leslie and Juliet shell ground nuts (aka g-nuts), a close peanut relative that grows commonly & is eaten often in Uganda

Connecting to Community

February 19-25, 2012

The last week has been about connecting to community.  Donna – through friends and friends of friends – has helped us to connect to the expat, rural, missionary, and conservation communities around southern Uganda.  We have had the incredible opportunity to meet many people as well as visit another school as we traveled from Kampala to Kaliro to Jinja and finally back to Entebbe (where we are preparing to fly out this evening). 

We began our final week connecting to a friend of a friend of Donna’s, Vicki. Vicki has lived in Uganda for over 20 years working in a variety of capacities.  Vicki took us to her church in Entebbe, where we were the only Muzungus in attendance.  We then spent a long, rainy (seems like the rainy season is beginning) lunch with Vicki at a delicious Indian restaurant in Kampala learning more about her experiences and life in Uganda over the years.  When she drove us back to our hostel, we spent almost 2 more hours continuing to visit in her car!  We rounded out day with the owner of our tour company attending a cultural show (with traditional music, dancing and food) for the evening.

Our travels next took us to the small village of Kaliro about 150 km from Kampala. Kaliro is the home of Donna’s friend Aggrey and his family.  Donna met Aggrey 10 years ago when he came to the US and Cuyahoga National Park on an exchange to be an instructor at Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education center with Donna.  Aggrey currently lives about 40 km away from Kaliro where he teaches at Iganga High School but his family – wife Juliet, sons Andrew and Stuart, and daughter Molly – still live at the family home about 5 km from the center of Kaliro.  We stayed with Aggrey and his family for 2 nights.  As guests, we were treated incredibly kindly – we toured the area, were given gifts of a chicken and fruits and vegetables from the neighbors, and were able to visit the Cleveland School. 

The Cleveland School was a dream of Aggrey’s after visiting the US 10 years ago.  He found a group of teachers who shared his vision for a more integrated, cross-curricular education, and 5 years ago they opened the Cleveland School (named after Aggrey’s experience near Cleveland, OH in the US), a private secondary school (serving the equivalent of about 6^th to 12^th grade in the us) with mostly day students and a few boarding students.  Aggrey is one of the founders of the school and on the board of directors, and rather than teach there, Aggrey prefers to serve the school in a volunteer capacity.  When the school first opened, Donna wrote a small grant to buy and send school supplies, and in her honor, a block of the school (one building with 2 classrooms) is named after her “Donna Daniella”.  At the Cleveland School, we presented the school supplies that we brought (thanks to many of you!!), taught the students how to throw the Frisbee (although given mine and Donna’s poor Frisbee abilities, most were more self-taught), and we had the equivalent of the 6^th grade class write letters back to my Girl Scout troop in Wyoming.  We closed out our visit to the Cleveland School with a ceremony in which Donna put her hand print on the sign honoring her and we both planted mango trees on campus.  Our entire time in Kaliro was hard to describe – humbling, inspiring, joyful…

We left Kaliro and headed next to Jinja, where another friend of Donna’s connected us to a US missionary family living and serving there.  Misti and Anthony have served as missionaries in Uganda on and off for the last 6 years with their two elementary-aged daughters.  They were kind enough to host us in their lovely home in Jinja, where we re-connected to the outside world with food, TV, internet, and did a lot of souvenir shopping.  I spent a lot of time playing games with the two girls, and thoroughly enjoyed long conversations with Anthony and Misti about missionary work and science & religion (Anthony’s area of study from graduate school).  Unfortunately, the end of our time in Jinja was tainted by a stomach bug that hit Donna pretty hard. 

From Jinja we returned to Entebbe on Friday by way of a long stop in Kampala (not to be confused with a “long call”, aka “chase the bear” or #2 J ).  In Kampala, we connected briefly with Aggrey’s oldest daughter Stella, at college there, and re-connected with Vicki for lunch.  When Vicki heard of Donna’s stomach-status, she suggested a visit to a local medical clinic to get a check-up before our flight on Saturday evening.  Donna and I visited the clinic and found that she was suffering from an infection that thankfully our travel meds were well suited to treat, and so we headed on to Entebbe.

For our final night in Entebbe, we are fortunate to be staying at a hostel at the Jane Gooddall Institute, near the zoo where we stayed before.  We had hoped to travel with them to Ngamba Island (a chimp rehabilitation facility on an island in Lake Victoria) this morning, but rain and thunderstorms that began early, early this AM have persisted through this morning.  So we will spend our final day in Uganda visiting with the staff and other guests here at the Jane Gooddall Institute, and if it stops raining… perhaps a final walk around the town.

More pictures from the journey

Donna and Leslie relax after a long day of gorilla trekking.  Pants are tucked into socks to avoid having the fire ants crawl up your legs... and of course for style.

Donna and head of school of the Kazinga Primary School look over the students.

Our wonderful guide Robert warms up his swimming skills in case the boat doesn't make it to Bushara Island.

Lake Bunyoni, Bushara Island and our return to Kampala

February 17, 2012

Bushara Island
Windy, thunderstorms, and birds
This place will grant peace

February 18, 2012

Donna and I enjoyed our final time on Bushara Island with a final hike around the island and a delicious breakfast.  Then we headed back to mainland by boat to meet Robert and return to Kampala.

Our drive was proceeding uneventfully when we came across a terrible car accident.  Many people were running towards the overturned truck and car and to loot at take sheet metal from it.  The accident looked terrible and likely fatal.  We kept driving past for fear that we might get caught up in the mix.  Robert did call the police and stop at a police department in a nearby town to alert them of the accident and looting.  However, shortly there after, possibly still shaken from the accident, Robert hit a big pothole and we could tell it wasn't good.  It appeared that at least the alignment had been impacted, so we continued on slowly to Mbarara and hoped to find a mechanic.  Robert dropped us off at a restaurant to eat lunch and wait while he fixed the car.  Five hours later we were back on the road to Kamapala.  We arrived at about 11 pm ready to be done traveling and settled back in at the Red Chilli.

G-day: Donna and Leslie meet the gorillas

February 16, 2012 – G-day (G for gorillas)

We woke up early – 4:30 am – to depart for our 2 hour drive to the briefing for gorilla tracking.  Donna and I slept most of the way to Bwindi National Park in the dark but woke as the sun was rising to see that we were in some mountainous country and that the road had some very steep drop-offs.  Luckily, Robert had his energy drink so he just cruised the whole way while Donna kept her eyes closed and I leaned inward to try to will the vehicle to stay on the road J

We were the first to arrive for the briefing at about 7:15.  We checked in and waited as 22 other Muzungus and their guides joined us for a brief overview of the park, gorillas, and conservation efforts.  There are currently 10 habituated gorilla groups in Bwindi National Park – 9 groups for up to 8 tourists per day to observe and 1 for researchers to study.  Bwindi National Park is home to 340 of the world’s remaining 700 mountain gorillas.  The rest of the gorillas are in other parks in Uganda as well as in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The cost is $500 per person (which I calculate out at about $36k of income per day and over $13m per year for the Uganda Wildlife Authority in gorilla tracking fees).  Our group – Kahungye – was one of the more recently habituated groups and had 24 member gorillas ranging from silverbacks (older males) to blackbacks (younger males) to females, juveniles, and infants.  This is one of the larger groups, and the guides and trackers believe it will split any day now.  We also learned in the briefing that the hike can be quite strenuous (3-8 hours over steep terrain) and almost daily people who can hike no further are carried out on stretchers for the fee of $300.

With all this new information in mind, we loaded back up and drove the final 10 km on dirt road to the trailhead.  The trailhead was the end of the dirt road in the village of Kahungye (yes, same as our gorilla group).  There, we grouped up with our guide, gunmen, and 2 members of 8 person tourist group hired porters to carry their belongings.  Three trackers had left early in the morning to find our Kahungye group and tell our guide for the day, Richard, by radio where to lead us.

We started hiking up a big switch-backed hill.  In addition to our group of 13, there were also many villagers walking with us to tend their gardens along the sides of the trail.  Three local women headed up to tend their gardens with bare-feet, babies on their backs, and food & water for the day on their heads, passed us on the way up this hill; humbling.

After several kilometers of hiking, we got word that the trackers had found the Kayungye group a bit further away and down a steep hill into the valley below.  We hurried down into the valley where we continued on less well defined trails.  Our guide was communicating by whistles now with the trackers to lead us to them and the Kayungye gorillas.  Then we heard some loud, barking and screaming noises along with the movement of something coming at us along the trail.  It (and us) stopped quickly, and Richard told us to hold our ground and wait.  After conferring with the trackers, Richard decided that a wild (unhabituated), lone silverback gorilla had bluff charged us and was in the area to try to split up the Kayungye group.  With our hearts beating a bit faster, we continued on a short distance further to where the trackers had located the Kayungye gorillas.

In the clearing with the trackers, we were given a few final instructions (no flash photos, no sudden movements, do not run if charged) we left all but cameras to see the gorillas.  With that, Richard and the trackers started hacking an entry point to the next clearing where we would find the gorillas.

There we saw a female descending a tree, a mom and an infant under some branches and a silverback resting under some cover.  They were all under brush and difficult to see (the female had quickly descended the tree).  At one point the silverback bluff charged us with the barking-screaming hybrid, and we learned that our norm for the day would likely be an “unstable and unsettled” group of gorillas who were aware of the presence of the lone, wild gorilla would have the Kayungye gorillas on edge. 

As the gorillas moved around the area, Richard and the trackers cut paths and views through the dense forest for us.  We had some good views of individuals, and we were bluff charged on several occasions by silverbacks and blackbacks.  On one of those occasions, I was in the back of the line with Richard when a blackback bluff charged the two of us from the side.  Richard jumped between the gorilla and I, and I fell back.  The gorilla probably came within 2 meters of us (you are asked to stay at least 7 meters away from the habituated gorillas), but the brush was so dense that I could hardly see more than a shadow of it.  It was frightening, but the Richard and the tracker’s confidence in the situation provided some comfort and a feeling of some ease.  After about an hour spent following and observing the Kayungye gorillas (all you are allowed to spend with the habituated groups), we returned to our belongings and began our hike back to the trailhead back a little after 5 pm.

This was not what I had expected from all that I had read and heard about the gorilla tracking.  I’d foolishly pictured something along the lines of the gorillas and humans sitting peacefully together in a small clearing watching each other.  Eventually, maybe they’d come over and pull the insects and brambles out of my hair…  Though, not what I had expected, I am so grateful and in awe of my experience with the gorillas.  Though habituated they are still wild animals (I guess?), and their behavior does not seem to be completely predictable. 

I am left humbled and curious.  It was an unbelievable experience, and I hope to learn more about gorillas, habituation, and how the few remaining gorillas are managed in the 3 countries where they still live.  Thanks for making it this far; this has been a long one!

Kazinga School Visit and Lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park

February 15, 2012

Today we finished our visit to Queen Elizabeth National Park with an early AM game drive. We were fortunate to see 3 lions! Our first was a female who was lounging in the tall grass, near the road after feasting on a nearby, late night kill. The second two were a female and a cub strolling parallel to the road near the main highway.  We were able to observe all three for some time and capture a few pictures.  Excellent!

Robert, our driver, was also so kind to allow us to swing by the Kazinga Sure Trust Primary School within Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Donna’s red suitcase of school supplies was geared for this school (thanks to Jennifer in Uganda and several folks at Washington State University and the Pullman community).  We were able to spend about 30 minutes there with the principal, teachers and students.  The students serenaded us with the national anthem and a few other songs.  We took several pictures (too slow to load them now), and a few videos of the singing.  Everyone seemed very appreciative of our gift, and we enjoyed getting to see this school within the park.

The rest of our day was spent driving south to Kabale, near Bwindi National Park, for our gorilla tracking on Feb 16. The drive took us through beautiful countryside with increasingly steeper terrain, cooler weather, and on to Kabale, the highest elevation town in Uganda.

Valentine's Day - Ode to Robert

(We did write and intend to post this blog entry on Feb 14; however, we had no electricity all day at the Simba Safari Camp on Feb 14 and have had no internet access since... more to come!)  In honor of Valentine’s Day, Donna and I have written four short poems (haikus) for the most important man in our life at the moment, Robert. 

Robert, jolly guide,

“So shy, the bushbuck” he says

“very natural”.

Faithful Toyota

Navigating dusty roads

Our driver, hero.

Cell phone by side

Birding by sound and by sight

Peaceful, praying guide.

Gestation 6 months

Life span 27 years

African Mammals.

Thank you, Robert, for all you do for us!

In addition to Valentine’s Day, today was chimp trekking day for us!  We woke early, had a candlelight breakfast (thanks to no electricity), and headed out for the morning.  We met our guide Bernard at 8 am at the top of the Kyambura Gorge.  The gorge is 16 km long and 100 m deep and home to 20 chimps that are habituated to humans.  After hiking for about an hour, we found a group of 10 chimps eating fruit from a fig tree.  We were able to watch the chimps for about an hour, and enjoyed every minute of it!

In the afternoon we went on a boat cruise through the Kazinga Channel (separating Lake Edward from Lake George) and saw MANY animals – elephants, water bucks, buffalo, hippos, and lots of birds (a highlight being a big group of great cormorants standing together and letting their neck skin flap in the breeze to cool them off).  We ended our day back at the Simba Safari Camp meeting with Donna’s acquaintance, Jennifer, from Washington State University who currently lives in Queen Elizabeth National Park working for US AID.

Rafting the Nile & Ugandan National Parks

Lots to tell since our last post! We've been busy.

February 8-9, 2012

Our time in Kampala was spent preparing for our upcoming safari tour and travels to schools following the safari. The highlight of our time was certainly a surprise visit by Aggrey, Donna's Ugandan friend who she had not seen in 10 years! Aggrey currently teaches in a high school in Iganga, about 3-4 hours from Kampala. Aggrey took a taxi to Kampala to see Donna and join us for dinner. Donna was thrilled to see him, and we made plans to visit him in Iganga following our safari tour.

Less notably, we were able to visit the Garden City Mall in downtown Kampala, where we were able to change travelers cheques, find a few souvenirs, and explore a great bookstore. The mall is frequented largely by expats, tourists and some Ugandans. Outside of the airport, it was the most "Muzungus" (non-Africans) in one place since we arrived in Uganda.

February 10, 2012 - THE NILE!

Today we rafted the Nile River near Jinga, Uganda. It is the only place (as far as I can tell) that commercial rafting is possible on the Nile, mostly because there are no hippos or crocodiles in the section near Jinja. The river was HUGE. At least a 1/2 km wide in most places with multiple channels, islands, class 6 rapids. We rafted a 22 km stretch with 8 rapids and 1 portage. There was a lot of flat water, but the rapids and waves were big.

Big J, a native of Jinga, was our guide and our crew was rounded out with 2 other Americans and 2 Canadians. We paddled hard into each rapid and spent most of the ride through in the bottom of the boat. We flipped in the 3rd of 8 rapids, one called "go left and die". Everyone was fine through the flip, just ingested a little bit of river water. Donna had the only loss during this rapid – she sacrificed her sunglasses & beloved NRS sunglass strap to the Nile. The 4th rapid, called "the bad place" was the class 6 rapid and we portaged most of it. Over the 100 meter course of the rapid there were drops of at least 30 meters.

We returned to Kampala that evening exhausted and looking forward to moving on for the safari the next day.

February 11, 2012

Our official safari tour began today with Robert, our guide for the next 8 days from Borderless Travel, arriving at about 8:30 in the morning. I now had the cold that Donna started the trip with, and upon entering our safari vehicle, I promptly took some cold meds and spent much of the 6+ hour drive from Kampala to Lake Mburo National Park in and out of consciousness. We did stop at the equator (going from North to South), took a few pictures, and watched a demonstration about water circulation in the different hemispheres - fascinating, but not well explained for the 5000 shilling price (about $3).

We arrived in Lake Mburo National Park just as my cold meds were wearing off at about 3 pm. Robert gladly drove slowly and stopped often to show us the wildlife of the park - 7 mammals and 8 new bird species. Robert is incredibly knowledgeable about the birds and mammals (whenever we see a mammal he quickly lists the gestation period and life span; with birds he knows them by call and immediately shows us the bird in his handy bird guide); nevertheless, he is quick to acknowledge gaps in his knowledge too, hence the amusing exchange between he and Donna:

Donna - "Do you know how the land formed here?"

Robert - "It formed naturally. It's all natural here."

After our arrival, Robert checked us in to our very rustic tent camp and we settled into our tent, "brown parrot", in a scrub-type forest about 1 km from Lake Mburo. We sat and chatted on the deck until supper time when Robert drove us down to an open air, lakeside restaurant. The restaurant sits on a beautiful little peninsula into the lake where hippos and warthogs frequent. We enjoyed our supper and sunset and headed to bed shortly.

February 12, 2012

We had an amazing safari day. We began with an early morning game drive with Robert; seeing many of the same mammals as on our arrival but adding lots of new birds. A highlight of the birds was the beautiful lilac-breasted roller (pictures to come soon) perched above the road. Many cheers for Robert's great birding!

We returned from our game drive to dine at our new favorite lakeside restaurant again for breakfast. After breakfast we went on a 2-hour hike with knowledgeable naturalist and park ranger, Godson. He had lots to share about the animals and plants, and he took us through a valley near a water source for many of the parks animals. We were very close to zebras, impalas, water buck, and saw a few buffalo from afar. Godson carried a large rifle with him to protect us from any charging buffalo. We had a great hike with him as well as interesting conversations about the challenges of conservation and wildlife management in East Africa.

In the evening, we took a boat ride on Lake Mburo with another park ranger, Noel. With encouragement from two avid Canadian birders, Noel helped us find 10 more new birds to add to our list, the highlight of this birding was the woodland kingfisher (turquoise and orange in color). We also saw a lot of hippos and a few baby crocodiles sunning themselves on the side of the lake.

We finished up the day with some porch time and dinner at the lake. We slept well after all the amazing adventures of the day. (The cold meds worked; I woke up today feeling much better!)

February 13, 2012

We left early to drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park (ideally a 3ish hour drive). Although it's the dry season, we woke up to a light rain that continued on during the morning. We made it out of Lake Mburo National Park and drove on west & north. We had a flat tire about 1/2 way there that Robert quickly repaired, and we made it to our lodging at Queen Elizabeth NP by about 2 pm. With the prospect of showers, internet, and a few relaxing minutes, we settled on an evening wildlife drive later. And here we are!

Spirits are high for both Donna and I. My cold is mostly gone just a bit of lingering cough. Donna is still suffering a bit from hers but much better than before.

A few photos

We have a wifi connection now, so we thought we'd upload a few photos from the trip so far.  Enjoy!

Donna with an elder tree at the Uganda Wildlife Education Center.

The bandas at the Uganda Wildlife Education Center.

I am enjoying dinner (fried feast & Ugandan beer) next to Lake Victoria.

First few days in Uganda

We arrived!  Thanks for the well wishes on our journey - Donna and I were both able to fly out as scheduled and arrived in Entebbe, Uganda late on Sunday night.  Our shuttle to the Entebbe Flight Motel worked out perfectly, and we settled in there for 2 nights.  Our first impressions (upon arriving at about 10 pm) were of dark (few lights visible), heat, and strong smells (lots of smoke and body odor, mostly our own). 

February 6, 2012
We spent all day Monday getting situated and taking care of a few errands - we exchanged money, acquired a Ugandan cell phone & airtime (already proving to be by far the best $30 spent!), and happened upon the Mary Reparatrix Secondary School in our wanderings.  Mary Reparatrix is where Donna's friend Aggrey used to teach in Entebbe, so we hoped that they might be able to help us find Aggrey's most up to date contact information.  We were in luck!  Deputy Head Teacher Mr. Tom called Aggrey for us on the spot.  Mr. Tom was also kind enough to show us around the school - currently enrolled at about 370 girls - most boarding and a few days students.  We saw their dorms, classrooms, dining room, and play field, and we got to meet a few of the students.  We returned to the Entebbe Flight Motel for a buffet dinner of Ugandan specialities and slept well beneath our mosquito netting.

February 7, 2012
On Tuesday, Donna and I transitioned from the EFM to the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (aka - the Zoo).  The UWEC has a few bandas (tropical style cabins) within the Center.  The UWEC fills an important niche in Uganda - allowing Ugandas an opportunity to see wildlife that they might not typically have a chance to see in the wild.  We saw few people at the zoo that day (learning later that this time of year they get few visitors because most Ugandan families have spent their money on school tuition) but during the busy season (April to October) they can see 8000 people through a day!  Without the crowds, we were able to see a lion, 2 serval cats, hyenas, 2 white rhinos, chimps, monkeys, snakes, buffalo, giraffe, ostriches, and lots of other ungulates.  The resturant sat on the shore of Lake Victoria so we ate a fried feast (fish and chips) overlooking the lake and protecting our food from the hungry and agressive vervet monkeys.  We slept to the cries of monkeys and chimps in the distance.

February 8, 2012
Today, we breakfasted again on the shore of Lake Victoria before  heading on to Kampala by private taxi (thanks to one of Donna's Ugandan expat contacts).  We are stationed at the Red Chilli Hideway for the next 2 nights before we begin our safari on Fri, Feb 10.  Our hopes are to get the school supplies safely on to the schools - 2 bags and the laptop to Aggrey's school in Iganga and 1 bag to a school near Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda (we may take this one with us on safari to bring in person); and to exchange travelers cheques for shillings.  First impressions of Kampala are of dusty, smoky air, but beautiful city situated on 7+ hills. 

Overall, Donna and I are doing really well.  Donna is suffering from a small cold (likely airplan travel induced).  Spirits are high and we are excited to continue to get to know and explore this place. 

Pictures to come soon!

Leaving tomorrow - weather dependent...

Tomorrow - Feb 4 - Donna and I are scheduled to begin our trip to Uganda!  Donna is flying out of Spokane and I'm hoping to fly out of Denver.  Denver, unfortunately for me, is getting a serious snow storm right now, and I'm getting nervous about being able to leave tomorrow.  If I don't make it, I'll hopefully join Donna a day late in Uganda.  Keep your fingers crossed for the snow to lift long enough for me to fly out tomorrow!

BIG THANKS to Jenn, my mom, Aunt Thersa, Aunt Sue, Amanda, Sylvia, Kate, and Hanna for sending school supplies to send along to Uganda!  I have a very full duffel (49 lbs exactly) full of supplies and 2 smaller carry-ones with my personal stuff and the laptop.

We have made some progress in trip planning.  We'll spend our first five days getting the school supplies safely to the schools in and around Entebbe and Kampala.  Then we'll head out on a 9-day safari with Border-less Travel (http://borderless-travel.com/).  Peter, the head of Border-less Travel, has been incredibly helpful in helping us set up our safari.  We'll hopefully get to travel to Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi, and Lake Mburo National Parks as well as raft on the Nile River from Jinja!  I'm VERY excited for all the wildlife, scenery and people. 

We hope to spend our final week in Uganda visiting Donna's friend Aggrey's school.  Aggrey's school is quite remote and has little access to internet.  We have not been able to confirm with him yet, but we hope that it will be easier once we are in Uganda. 

I'll hopefully keep the blog updated often while we are on the move, but it will depend on how frequent our access to the internet is. 

*Map of Uganda from - http://www.shoortravel.com/ugandamap.html