SUNDAY
Last full day of the handshake and we are all working feverishly to get everything done before out 4PM showcase with the local organizations we have been working for during the last month. Lucy and I have created a powerpoint that we are going to show to the group tonight discussing everything we have done in the last month as well as recommendations for the future.
After we did that we finished with our last minute touchups of our section of the website, updating photos to go along with the articles we have already posted.
At 4pm we had our showcase with JGI, CSWCT, and UWEC showing our work we created for them over the last month. This was the first time I had seen the majority of the videos and the games that were created and they were truly amazing. I was a bit embarrassed by showing Anthropology team’s work (which was a powerpoint) because of course it didn’t work properly. We made it on a PC and were promised we would be able to use a pc at the presentation but of course there was only a mac set up when we got there. I won’t go into it but talking about research after you watch these amazing games and videos. it makes your stuff not as cool as everyone else’s. That being said I had a lot of people coming up to me after the showcase telling me how interesting it was so maybe they were just being nice but it’s all good.
We then went back and relaxed all looking a bit lost not knowing what to do now and not being given orders by the leaders anymore. A large group of us just sat around a big table and started drinking some beer and chatting. Cook team didn’t have to cook and instead Chinese food was brought in for us which was a nice surprise for the group. After dinner we watched the rest of the videos and games that was made for Kibale Forest organizations and ended the showcase with a slideshow of pictures of the volunteers throughout the trip which made many people start to bawl, however I was one of the tearless people even though I really did enjoy the month.
The rest of the night was just hanging out, drinking, and an impromptu dance session.
Monday
We awoke up around 8 and were treated to pancakes by the last cook group of the month. After breakfast we had the big task of cleaning the truck from top to bottom, inside and out. This took many hours and a lot of hard work as the truck was just full of dirt (and actually a rat). We had to clean every seat, everything in the lockers under the seats, all the kitchen boxes (and the supplies within), etc.
Around 1 we went down to UWEC café to have lunch. My lunch came first! (Except they forgot half of it and that half never appeared). During lunch, Peace came down to say good-bye to us which was very nice. She is such an amazing person and she was quite choked up about the whole thing. She gave everyone gifts of beads as that is a big tradition in Uganda and called us all family and told us we all have a home here in Uganda if we ever get lost.
After lunch we all packed up our bags and the ones heading to Jinja put them back on the truck while the few that were staying back to catch their flights home the next day just relaxed. We all hung out for about an hour laying on each others beds just joking around and sharing funny stories of the month. It was really nice as we haven’t been able to relax during this trip much because we so much work we had to be working on all the time so this was the first time we could just hang out as friends and not colleagues.
Around 5:30 we were told the truck was leaving and we had to say our good-byes to Bethan, Sophia, Jessica, Kate, and Ben. It was surprisingly hard especially when Jess broke down in tears when we hugged. I really wish they could stay on with us for another couple of days but it didn’t work out.
We said goodbye and drove off (knocking a branch into the truck that was full of spiders so we had to brush off of us for the entire trip to Kampala). When we got to Kampala we dropped of Lucy so she could go to her hostel where she would be picked up in the morning to go gorilla trekking. While we dropped off Lucy we stopped at the grocery store to buy some snacks for dinner since it was getting late and we still had a 3 hour drive to Jinja.
We arrived late in Jinja at this great hostel right at the source of the Nile only to find out our booking was for their sister hostel in the city. So we stayed around there for about an hour having a drink at the bar and saying good-bye to the leaders who were staying there for the night and then heading down to S. Africa on the truck early the next morning. As I wasn’t very close with any of the leaders except maybe Jonathan this good-bye wasn’t too hard.
The taxi ride with 9 of us and all our bags (and instruments people have bought along the way) was extremely interesting. It took forever to load the taxi as we had so much stuff and people had to sit on eachothers laps or stand with their head sticking out of the moonroof so we could all fit. The car broke down a few times on the way there and for the majority of it the driver was for some reason driving in 1st gear with the back windshield wipers on even though it wasn’t even close to raining. It was all quite surreal and would have been extremely scary if we weren’t all in it together.
When we arrived at the correct hostel we split into two groups to fit into two different dorm rooms which were already occupied. The dorm I got put into had three naked guys passed out on top of their beds with one guy in his tighty whities just staring at us as we walked in. Quite bizarre. By this point though we didn’t care as we were all exhausted and we all quickly fell asleep.
Tuesday
This morning I slept in until 9am which was amazing. I woke up took a shower and made it in time to say good-bye to the five people that were going rafting on the Nile. The rapids are grade 5 and very dangerous so I had to stay back as my neck would not handle the ride. Gemma, Katie, Nic M. and I stayed back while, Eileen, Fiona, Nic S., Conor, and David went rafting.
This morning we all relaxed and had a lazy breakfast and waited until noon to catch the bus back over to the original hostel on the Nile as we got our place booked there for the night. It seemed like a much nicer place so excited we are going over there soon.
Unfortunately the last few days in Africa have been extremely busy and lack of internet or wall outlets so the following writing is written while I was in the Dubai airport trying to remember the last few days in Africa.
We took a large truck/bus over to the backpackers hostel overlooking the nile. It was really amazing to finally see the view as the night before when we were there it was pitch dark so we had no idea what an amazing view we were standing next to all night long.
During the day while we waited for the guys to get back from their day of rafting we really didn’t do much at all. We pretty much just hung out on the patio enjoying the view and tasting their yummy smoothies they offered at the bar. It wasn’t until the night for the real fun to begin.
After the others got back from rafting we pretty much went straight into a hard night of drinking as for some it was the last night there so we wanted to have a bit of a celebration. Many hours later and who knows how many drinks later (much thanks to the random drinking games we came up with to play) we all went to bed.
Fortunately, I remember to have my camera out for the night so I got some great candid shots of everyone just relaxing and having fun together for one last time (for some).
Everyone petered off to bed at different times but luckily we all managed to not be to hung over the next morning and all got up at decent times to enjoy our next day.
Wednesday
The morning was pretty relaxed as we were recuperating from the night before and many were quite sore from the rafting trip. Fiona had to catch a taxi back to the airport (about a 2-3 hour drive) at around 2 so we all said our good-byes to her and then David, Conor, Nic S., Nic M., Eileen, and I decided to walk down to some fishing boats ( more like wooden canoes with holes so you had to pour out the water at the bottom of the boat a few times during the trip) so we could just go out on the nile (especially for the ones who didn’t go rafting). What a great experience! We had two locals go out on the boat with us (besides the driver) and the explained all the rapids we went by and the local area and then we stopped to boat in a little cove area and it started to down pour! So we decided that there wasn’t a better time to jump into the river and go for a little swim. The Nic’s stayed on the boat as they were leaving to go back to Kampala that night and didn’t want to be wet for the ride, but David, Conor, Eileen and I jumped right in. The water was nice and warm and clean. There is nothing better than swimming in the rain. We did that for awhile and then jumped back in the boat and relaxed there for a bit. We could move the boat for a bit because they were getting ready to do some blasting down the river a bit where they are building a new dam so not get caught up in it all the driver decided to stay tucked away until we heard the blasting stop. After the blasting we went around the river a bit more getting out once more to hike over some rocks to see some really nice rapids.
After about 2 hours on the water we went back to the land paid our guides and made the long hike up an extremely muddy road back to our camp. By the time we got there the people with sandals on were covered in mud and the ones with boots on (me) had about 2 inches of mud stuck to the outside of my shoes. I’m actually wearing the same pants as I did that day and they are still covered in mud but I never had a chance to get them washed before I left and even though they are all muddy they are the cleanest pair of pants I have left.
At around 6 pm, the two Nicola’s caught the free shuttle bus back into Kampala and then we were only down to six, David, Conor, Eileen, Gemma, Katie, and I. That night David made plans to have dinner at a local restaurant where our guide on the boat that day was also the cook at the restaurant. When I say restaurant it is just 4 picnic tables in wooden hut down the street but it was the local restaurant. Everyone went except Katie as she wasn’t feeling the best.
After dinner Conor, Gemma, Eileen and I decided to go over to the locals bar (again this was an even smaller hut with just one picnic table like thing). That is when the night got a little crazy. Conor being the white guy who brought with him three white girls became quite the popular man. The locals quickly asked Conor which girl he was with so they could see who they could try and get with. Conor not thinking said he wasn’t with any of them so the girls were quickly pounced on. Lucky me, I got a very drunk guy proposing marriage to me and kept trying to get me to leave with him back to his hut. I, OF COURSE, turned that down and quickly pulled Conor aside and told him to step in. Soon after I grabbed Conor and told my new “friend” that it was time for Conor and I to go to bed. We left there and just went back to the bar at the hostel. We all just relaxed and talked for a few more hours only dealing with random travelers who were either drunk or on something every once in awhile. The place was really nice there but I don’t think I could handle staying there for long as every night people (employees and travelers) would just get wasted and high. It would get so boring after awhile, let alone extremely dangerous.
Thursday
The last day there I slept in quite late compared to everyone else. Luckily I wasn’t hungover just really enjoying my sleep. Katie, Gemma, Eileen, and I were catching the shuttle back to Kampala that night and David and Conor were going to catch the overnight but the Kenya so we all just spent our day packing and relaxing together on the patio with the Nile as our view.
Around 5pm we said our good-byes to Conor and David and headed back to Kampala.
Our hostel in Kampala was absolutely dreadful. The people were so rude and nothing like all the other Ugandans we had met on our trip and the facilities were crap (except for the exceptionally hot and powerful showers). When we arrived Nicola M. and Lucy were already there at the bar eating dinner. We caught up with them but we were all exhausted so we didn’t do much. We all went to bed early at around 10 or 11. We said our good-byes to Nicola M. last night though as her flight out was very early this morning unlike the rest of us who flew out at 4 this afternoon.
Friday
This morning after packing and showering Lucy, Gemma, Katie, and I said good-bye to the last handshaker, Eileen. She is staying in Uganda for one more day. We said good-bye to her and then we caught our taxi to the airport. It took us about 2 hours to get there thanks to traffic and being pulled over by the police only to discover our driver had forgotten his license and he had to talk his way out of the situation.
The people at the airport were also extremely rude so by the time we got on the plane we were all ready to leave Uganda. We all absolutely loved our trip but our last day there was very stressful with some very rude people. Oh well, it just made us excited to travel home instead of depressed for leaving.
Saturday
We arrived in Dubai at around midnight and just walked around in a daze for a little bit. We stopped at Paul’s café and had a coffee/water and played dead for a few hours. About 3 hours before our flight left we moved over to our gate and laid down. Unfortunatly all the seats had armrests but luckily I was small enough to wrap myself around the outside of the armrest so I could still lay down and fall asleep for a little bit. I got about 2 hours of sleep before I had to wake up and load the plane.
The plane ride to London was uneventful, luckily I was in and out of sleep for the majority of the trip. When I landed in London, Lucy and Katie’s boyfriends were there to meet them so we met them as well and then said our good-byes leaving just Gemma and I at the airport. We went and had a coffee/hot chocolate and talked for a little bit before gemma decided to catch a bus home and I caught the bus to Gatwick airport. When I arrived at Gatwick I then caught the hotel shuttle to Holiday Inn where I checked in.
After checking in I took a bit of a walk down the road to find a gas station to buy some cheap food (avoiding the crazy prices at the hotel) for dinner. After I arrived back at the hotel I got online and caught up with a few people online. I then took a very nice long hot bath which was wonderful but then I became quite ill after so that was not as fun.
Because of this I decided to just got bed around 8:30 and I gladly woke up 12 hours later.
Sunday
Today I showered, got the hotel shuttle to the airport, ate lunch by myself at some restaurant, and then labeled all my pictures from Uganda by proper names. At 3 the plane departed Heathrow and I am now on the plane back to the states. So excited to see everyone and share my amazing stories from Africa!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Thursday
Hello All,
Today is going to be probably a pretty short entry as not much has happened. We have all just been sitting in front of our laptops all day long trying to get all our work done for our showcase we will be giving at UWEC the last night of the handshake.
Lucy and I finished writing up are reports on all the places we have visited and got most of them up on the web today. Don’t forget to check them all out under the research tab at www.primatehandshake.org
Lucy and I decided we should create a powerpoint to show during the showcase since everyone else has cool videos and games to show we wanted to be able to show something. Anyways, so the majority of the afternoon that is what I have been working on.
It’s quite cold here today, overcast and lots of thunder but luckily just a little bit of a sprinkle. SO nice to hear the thunder though, I find it so relaxing.
Friday
Last night we had another pop quiz, this time from the group that won the last pop quiz, Luce, Nicola S., Gaynor, and Jonathan. I am very glad to report my team won this week time. It was Kate, Bethan, Eileen, and I and we all brought our skills to the table. Jonathan came up with quite a number of bizarre and trick questions, but I was on to him so luckily we managed the win.
Our last day at Kibale Forest National Park was spent working away in our outdoor office looking out onto our view of a Crater Lake. This morning a few of us commented on how we hadn’t experience a proper African downpour, but by mid-afternoon that all changed.
We worked all morning long, listening to distant thunder while the sun was shining down on us. After lunch of leftover soup with extremely crunchy peas from last night’s meal we started back at work for about an hour before the rain came. It started off with just a little spring but quickly turned into a true downpour, and not only was it a downpour it was a sideways downpour. We thought we would be safe under our roofed outdoor workspace but were quickly proved wrong, leaving us all scrambling to protect all of our very expensive equipment we had laying about. I unfortunately used my hoodie and rain coat as covers for the many miscellaneous laptops laying on the table, only to hear that Jess’s and I’s rain cover on our tent had come off and that we had to run out in the rain to try and fix it. Jess and I ran out quickly and tried to get it covered back up but it was all pretty much drenched already. We quickly ran back to the workspace completely drenched and freezing. Luckily, Conor gave me his hoodie while Jess was given someone’s dry rain coat. It was all quite exciting even though it wasn’t the best timing to take a break since this is our last full day to complete all of our projects.
They are trying to get the fire back up so we can have dinner, but they have been working on it for quite a few hours so I am guessing we will all be going to the restaurant for dinner as cooking on a open fire (once you actually you get the fire going) takes ages.
SATURDAY
Today was such a long but very uneventful day. We woke up at 6 and took down our tents and packed up the truck before having what I would consider the worst porridge of all time. We tried to leave by 7:30 but that of course didn’t happen. We probably left more like 8 or 8:30 and headed to Fort Portal before making the long trip back to UWEC in Entebbe.
We stopped in Fort Portal so everyone could take money out of the atm and to stock up on snacks at the market for our long drive. The morning part of the drive was extremely quite as pretty much everyone had their ipods on and passed out on top of each other on the seats.
For lunch, we stopped randomly on the side of the road so we could prepare a meal. As usual, children came out of nowhere and literally watched us the entire time...unpacking the food from the truck, cutting up the food, serving the food, eating the food, cleaning the dishes, packing up the truck, driving away. I know we are white and all but I can’t imagine what the fascination is to stand there and watch us for about 45 minutes straight.
Soon after we got back on the road we started to get closer and closer to a very dark and ominous cloud. We pulled over and put down the sides of the truck so we would hopefully stay dry. Soon after that the rain began and the wind really picked up. The wind actually ripped the plastic tarp windows off of the truck causing many of us to get wet. We pulled over and Steve hammered the windows back onto the truck and we sat off again.
It rained probably for the next hour or two of the trip but again most of us were passed out or at least listening to our ipods. As we got closer to Kampala the rain cleared and we all slowly woke up. We stopped at Nakumat (only 24 hour store in Uganda) to have dinner in the food court and to pick up more snacks for the rest of the trip (only til Monday!). I really can’t believe how quickly the 4 weeks have gone, it’s really going to be quite sad Monday night saying good-bye to everyone. Luckily, I won’t be saying good-bye to everyone as a few of us are going to go to Jinji (the source of the Nile) for a day or two afterwards before we have to catch our flights home. Most of the people going to Jinja are going the to go rafting but the rapids are grade 5 here and I have been told by many that it would be way to hard on my neck. That is disappointing but still be fun going and Katie is rafting either so the two of us will hang out.
After Kampala we drove to Entebbe and back to Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) where we are staying for the last few days. Tomorrow is our end of the month showcase with all the local organizations we have done work for. That is at 4pm so we have to wake up early and work hard all day (before 4) to get everything done in time.
When we got into UWEC we quickly unloaded the truck and moved everything back into the dorms we started in a month ago. A few of us quickly took a shower and was reminded of how painful ice cold showers can be. Anyways, that being said I need to go to sleep as I am also cook group tomorrow so I have to wake up earlier than everyone else.
NIGHT!
Hello All,
Today is going to be probably a pretty short entry as not much has happened. We have all just been sitting in front of our laptops all day long trying to get all our work done for our showcase we will be giving at UWEC the last night of the handshake.
Lucy and I finished writing up are reports on all the places we have visited and got most of them up on the web today. Don’t forget to check them all out under the research tab at www.primatehandshake.org
Lucy and I decided we should create a powerpoint to show during the showcase since everyone else has cool videos and games to show we wanted to be able to show something. Anyways, so the majority of the afternoon that is what I have been working on.
It’s quite cold here today, overcast and lots of thunder but luckily just a little bit of a sprinkle. SO nice to hear the thunder though, I find it so relaxing.
Friday
Last night we had another pop quiz, this time from the group that won the last pop quiz, Luce, Nicola S., Gaynor, and Jonathan. I am very glad to report my team won this week time. It was Kate, Bethan, Eileen, and I and we all brought our skills to the table. Jonathan came up with quite a number of bizarre and trick questions, but I was on to him so luckily we managed the win.
Our last day at Kibale Forest National Park was spent working away in our outdoor office looking out onto our view of a Crater Lake. This morning a few of us commented on how we hadn’t experience a proper African downpour, but by mid-afternoon that all changed.
We worked all morning long, listening to distant thunder while the sun was shining down on us. After lunch of leftover soup with extremely crunchy peas from last night’s meal we started back at work for about an hour before the rain came. It started off with just a little spring but quickly turned into a true downpour, and not only was it a downpour it was a sideways downpour. We thought we would be safe under our roofed outdoor workspace but were quickly proved wrong, leaving us all scrambling to protect all of our very expensive equipment we had laying about. I unfortunately used my hoodie and rain coat as covers for the many miscellaneous laptops laying on the table, only to hear that Jess’s and I’s rain cover on our tent had come off and that we had to run out in the rain to try and fix it. Jess and I ran out quickly and tried to get it covered back up but it was all pretty much drenched already. We quickly ran back to the workspace completely drenched and freezing. Luckily, Conor gave me his hoodie while Jess was given someone’s dry rain coat. It was all quite exciting even though it wasn’t the best timing to take a break since this is our last full day to complete all of our projects.
They are trying to get the fire back up so we can have dinner, but they have been working on it for quite a few hours so I am guessing we will all be going to the restaurant for dinner as cooking on a open fire (once you actually you get the fire going) takes ages.
SATURDAY
Today was such a long but very uneventful day. We woke up at 6 and took down our tents and packed up the truck before having what I would consider the worst porridge of all time. We tried to leave by 7:30 but that of course didn’t happen. We probably left more like 8 or 8:30 and headed to Fort Portal before making the long trip back to UWEC in Entebbe.
We stopped in Fort Portal so everyone could take money out of the atm and to stock up on snacks at the market for our long drive. The morning part of the drive was extremely quite as pretty much everyone had their ipods on and passed out on top of each other on the seats.
For lunch, we stopped randomly on the side of the road so we could prepare a meal. As usual, children came out of nowhere and literally watched us the entire time...unpacking the food from the truck, cutting up the food, serving the food, eating the food, cleaning the dishes, packing up the truck, driving away. I know we are white and all but I can’t imagine what the fascination is to stand there and watch us for about 45 minutes straight.
Soon after we got back on the road we started to get closer and closer to a very dark and ominous cloud. We pulled over and put down the sides of the truck so we would hopefully stay dry. Soon after that the rain began and the wind really picked up. The wind actually ripped the plastic tarp windows off of the truck causing many of us to get wet. We pulled over and Steve hammered the windows back onto the truck and we sat off again.
It rained probably for the next hour or two of the trip but again most of us were passed out or at least listening to our ipods. As we got closer to Kampala the rain cleared and we all slowly woke up. We stopped at Nakumat (only 24 hour store in Uganda) to have dinner in the food court and to pick up more snacks for the rest of the trip (only til Monday!). I really can’t believe how quickly the 4 weeks have gone, it’s really going to be quite sad Monday night saying good-bye to everyone. Luckily, I won’t be saying good-bye to everyone as a few of us are going to go to Jinji (the source of the Nile) for a day or two afterwards before we have to catch our flights home. Most of the people going to Jinja are going the to go rafting but the rapids are grade 5 here and I have been told by many that it would be way to hard on my neck. That is disappointing but still be fun going and Katie is rafting either so the two of us will hang out.
After Kampala we drove to Entebbe and back to Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) where we are staying for the last few days. Tomorrow is our end of the month showcase with all the local organizations we have done work for. That is at 4pm so we have to wake up early and work hard all day (before 4) to get everything done in time.
When we got into UWEC we quickly unloaded the truck and moved everything back into the dorms we started in a month ago. A few of us quickly took a shower and was reminded of how painful ice cold showers can be. Anyways, that being said I need to go to sleep as I am also cook group tomorrow so I have to wake up earlier than everyone else.
NIGHT!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE
Wednesday
I went chimp trekking this morning and saw tons of chimps!!!! We really couldn’t have asked for a better experience. We walked down from our campsite to Ugandan Wildlife Authority head office at 7 in the morning. The trekkers were Lucy, Jess, Nicola S, Eileen, and I and we were all insanely excited but still worried we weren’t going to find them in the forest.
UWA staff driver then drove us to the forest where the trek was beginning, which meant another fun ride in the back of a truck on a very dusty African roads (really quite fun actually). We were the first of the tourists to arrive for the morning treks, so the five of us quickly and happily paid our $90.00 and departed with our guide quite quickly to get a head start on the rest.
Literally, as soon as we walked into the forest we heard all these chimpanzee calls and they all sounded extremely close. We walked maybe 20 steps farther into the forest and witnessed our first chimp, a high ranking male. He was on a boardwalk/trail section and he saw us and then slowly walked down the trail and we of course followed gitty with excitement. It’s absolutely amazing how easy chimps make it look trekking through the forest. The girls and I were getting tangled up in all the vines but we were so excited we didn’t let it slow us down.
The chimp then met up with some other chimp members, climbed a tree, and started to feed off the seeds from a palm tree. We happily started snapping photos (thank you Jess) and I filming video. The chimps just relaxed and ate and sometimes jumped from tree to tree (especially the younger ones we ran into). There was one chimp there that we were warned to watch out for as he was known to throw things at the visitors and aim his excrement. True to the guide’s words he tried both, but luckily missed!
After about 20 minutes of watching them there (and after other stupid tourists came in behind us…one actually quoted as seeing the chimp and asking “what animal is that”) the chimps decided to move and then quickly departed and we rushed to stay semi close behind. The chimps of course didn’t use the trail system so we followed suit and started running through the forest, hopping over branches and dodging the thorny vines. It was such a rush, I absolutely loved it!!!
The chimps then decided to cross one of the roads going through the forest and we lucked out to get a bit ahead of them so we could see them clearly cross the road. The guide seemed to really be getting into at this time as well, so as soon as the chimps passed he really started running up the hill and we followed suit and then cut back into the forest to try and catch the chimps walking through, and WE DID!
We then watched some more chimps relax and eat some food for quite some time, all the while smiling from ear to ear. After about an hour of visual contact with the chimps our guide informed us that it was all we were allowed to see in one day, which was alright as the chimps were starting to wander off again and we had to get back to the rest of the handshake group.
As we turned around to head back towards the entrance we saw a chimp laying right behind us on the path we had planned to take back just relaxing and looking at us. That being said, we got some more close up shots. He slowly got up and walked away, we said our good-byes (“laters”) and headed back to the head office.
I AM JUST SO HAPPY I don’t even know how to tell you what I am feeling right now. It was so amazing. This was the best experience of my life, I have been dreaming of this day since I was 11. I truly couldn’t ask for a better experience. SO HAPPY!!!
:)
Anyways, after we got back to the entrance the five of us sat at the café and had an omelet and some chapatti and talked about the amazing experience and of course a little gossip about the rest of the group that wasn’t there. Around 1, the truck showed up with the rest of the group to pick us up and take us to Julia Lloyd’s (primatologist) house. She actually graduated from Oxford Brookes University 2 years before me.
She has been living in Uganda for 12 years working for JGI and then Kibale Forest studying the habituation of chimpanzees in the forest. She seemed really nice and interesting so that was fun. She lives on top of a hill looking into Kibale Forest. Truly a dream come true for a primatologist living in Africa.
After that quick meeting (about an hour) we headed to the Wetlands to do a trek there. It was so hot and we were all so tired by this point, but as soon as we started trekking and running into FOUR monkey species we picked up our pace again. I can’t believe I saw so many different primates today. It was PERFECT!!!!!!! We saw red tail monkeys, red colobus, black and white colobus, and grey cheeked mangabey. WONDERFUL!!
This evening a lot of us ate dinner at the campsite restaurant. I did actually get my food tonight however I ended up getting charged more than everyone else who ordered the same thing! Honestly, what is my deal?
Would love to post this blog up tonight but the internet is down. David just trip over the satellite wire and it’s too dark to see how to realign the dish. So I guess I will go to bed instead and hope the net gets up and running tomorrow morning.
NIGHT!
I went chimp trekking this morning and saw tons of chimps!!!! We really couldn’t have asked for a better experience. We walked down from our campsite to Ugandan Wildlife Authority head office at 7 in the morning. The trekkers were Lucy, Jess, Nicola S, Eileen, and I and we were all insanely excited but still worried we weren’t going to find them in the forest.
UWA staff driver then drove us to the forest where the trek was beginning, which meant another fun ride in the back of a truck on a very dusty African roads (really quite fun actually). We were the first of the tourists to arrive for the morning treks, so the five of us quickly and happily paid our $90.00 and departed with our guide quite quickly to get a head start on the rest.
Literally, as soon as we walked into the forest we heard all these chimpanzee calls and they all sounded extremely close. We walked maybe 20 steps farther into the forest and witnessed our first chimp, a high ranking male. He was on a boardwalk/trail section and he saw us and then slowly walked down the trail and we of course followed gitty with excitement. It’s absolutely amazing how easy chimps make it look trekking through the forest. The girls and I were getting tangled up in all the vines but we were so excited we didn’t let it slow us down.
The chimp then met up with some other chimp members, climbed a tree, and started to feed off the seeds from a palm tree. We happily started snapping photos (thank you Jess) and I filming video. The chimps just relaxed and ate and sometimes jumped from tree to tree (especially the younger ones we ran into). There was one chimp there that we were warned to watch out for as he was known to throw things at the visitors and aim his excrement. True to the guide’s words he tried both, but luckily missed!
After about 20 minutes of watching them there (and after other stupid tourists came in behind us…one actually quoted as seeing the chimp and asking “what animal is that”) the chimps decided to move and then quickly departed and we rushed to stay semi close behind. The chimps of course didn’t use the trail system so we followed suit and started running through the forest, hopping over branches and dodging the thorny vines. It was such a rush, I absolutely loved it!!!
The chimps then decided to cross one of the roads going through the forest and we lucked out to get a bit ahead of them so we could see them clearly cross the road. The guide seemed to really be getting into at this time as well, so as soon as the chimps passed he really started running up the hill and we followed suit and then cut back into the forest to try and catch the chimps walking through, and WE DID!
We then watched some more chimps relax and eat some food for quite some time, all the while smiling from ear to ear. After about an hour of visual contact with the chimps our guide informed us that it was all we were allowed to see in one day, which was alright as the chimps were starting to wander off again and we had to get back to the rest of the handshake group.
As we turned around to head back towards the entrance we saw a chimp laying right behind us on the path we had planned to take back just relaxing and looking at us. That being said, we got some more close up shots. He slowly got up and walked away, we said our good-byes (“laters”) and headed back to the head office.
I AM JUST SO HAPPY I don’t even know how to tell you what I am feeling right now. It was so amazing. This was the best experience of my life, I have been dreaming of this day since I was 11. I truly couldn’t ask for a better experience. SO HAPPY!!!
:)
Anyways, after we got back to the entrance the five of us sat at the café and had an omelet and some chapatti and talked about the amazing experience and of course a little gossip about the rest of the group that wasn’t there. Around 1, the truck showed up with the rest of the group to pick us up and take us to Julia Lloyd’s (primatologist) house. She actually graduated from Oxford Brookes University 2 years before me.
She has been living in Uganda for 12 years working for JGI and then Kibale Forest studying the habituation of chimpanzees in the forest. She seemed really nice and interesting so that was fun. She lives on top of a hill looking into Kibale Forest. Truly a dream come true for a primatologist living in Africa.
After that quick meeting (about an hour) we headed to the Wetlands to do a trek there. It was so hot and we were all so tired by this point, but as soon as we started trekking and running into FOUR monkey species we picked up our pace again. I can’t believe I saw so many different primates today. It was PERFECT!!!!!!! We saw red tail monkeys, red colobus, black and white colobus, and grey cheeked mangabey. WONDERFUL!!
This evening a lot of us ate dinner at the campsite restaurant. I did actually get my food tonight however I ended up getting charged more than everyone else who ordered the same thing! Honestly, what is my deal?
Would love to post this blog up tonight but the internet is down. David just trip over the satellite wire and it’s too dark to see how to realign the dish. So I guess I will go to bed instead and hope the net gets up and running tomorrow morning.
NIGHT!
Tuesday, Aug. 11
This morning I was on cook group so I met up with the rest of the cook group around the campfire at 7. We then had to go out and gather wood to get the fire started. We were having a huge problem so we got the “great” idea of using a can of deodorant to help get the fire started. Later on we were told we actually had a can of kerosene (oh well, our fire smelled nice and fresh).
After breakfast we all started our work day (check out www.primatehandshake.org for some articles I posted on the research section). A car came and picked up Gaynor, Laurence, and Steve so they could go into town. Gaynor and Laurence went to pick up more food as we were pretty much out except for some expired fruit and Steve went into catch a ride into Kampala (about 6 hour drive) so he could go find parts for the truck so it could start working.
Around noon cook group, Ben, Simon, Sophia, and I started to cook lunch. Like I mention just above we were pretty much out of food so it made it a bit difficult. However, Jonathan came to our rescue and said we should create flatbread which actually is very easy! All you need is just a little water, flour and oil. So we did that and fried them up over the fire and when Gaynor and Laurence returned we quickly cut up some vegetables for lunch. Luckily, it went over very well.
Today is the first day we are all really hot. The weather is much like Missouri summer weather, where it just feels like the sun is boiling your skin. I’m guessing it didn’t help that Sophia and I had to stand over a fire for an hour flipping flatbread.
This afternoon I have been writing up my notes from the last few days so I can get them approved and then up on the website in the next few days. Tomorrow we will be having an outing so we won’t be able to work on the site tomorrow. We are going to the Wetland sanctuary and meeting a famous primatologist (whoops I can’t think of her name right now). Everyone keeps coming up to me and asking me how excited I am. I feel a bit odd about it all, because I’m not that excited. I’m happy we are going to meet a primatologist while we are here but at the same time I know a lot of primatologists now so it’s not that big of a deal. Anyways, it should be great and always good for a little networking.
Dinner was a hit for the cook team, I made garlic bread for everyone so it was pretty easy to please. After dinner we had a group meeting to discuss the midtrip evaluations we filled out over a week ago. One of the things that came up was of course that many were pissed that they didn’t book us chimp permits like we had thought and therefore have been unable to go. This all led to some very exciting news….I’m going chimp trekking tomorrow morning!!!! There have been cancellations so the five people from the trip who wanted to go trekking get to go trekking tomorrow!!! I’m so excited! I hope we find them in the forest, no guarantee. Must get some rest now!
After breakfast we all started our work day (check out www.primatehandshake.org for some articles I posted on the research section). A car came and picked up Gaynor, Laurence, and Steve so they could go into town. Gaynor and Laurence went to pick up more food as we were pretty much out except for some expired fruit and Steve went into catch a ride into Kampala (about 6 hour drive) so he could go find parts for the truck so it could start working.
Around noon cook group, Ben, Simon, Sophia, and I started to cook lunch. Like I mention just above we were pretty much out of food so it made it a bit difficult. However, Jonathan came to our rescue and said we should create flatbread which actually is very easy! All you need is just a little water, flour and oil. So we did that and fried them up over the fire and when Gaynor and Laurence returned we quickly cut up some vegetables for lunch. Luckily, it went over very well.
Today is the first day we are all really hot. The weather is much like Missouri summer weather, where it just feels like the sun is boiling your skin. I’m guessing it didn’t help that Sophia and I had to stand over a fire for an hour flipping flatbread.
This afternoon I have been writing up my notes from the last few days so I can get them approved and then up on the website in the next few days. Tomorrow we will be having an outing so we won’t be able to work on the site tomorrow. We are going to the Wetland sanctuary and meeting a famous primatologist (whoops I can’t think of her name right now). Everyone keeps coming up to me and asking me how excited I am. I feel a bit odd about it all, because I’m not that excited. I’m happy we are going to meet a primatologist while we are here but at the same time I know a lot of primatologists now so it’s not that big of a deal. Anyways, it should be great and always good for a little networking.
Dinner was a hit for the cook team, I made garlic bread for everyone so it was pretty easy to please. After dinner we had a group meeting to discuss the midtrip evaluations we filled out over a week ago. One of the things that came up was of course that many were pissed that they didn’t book us chimp permits like we had thought and therefore have been unable to go. This all led to some very exciting news….I’m going chimp trekking tomorrow morning!!!! There have been cancellations so the five people from the trip who wanted to go trekking get to go trekking tomorrow!!! I’m so excited! I hope we find them in the forest, no guarantee. Must get some rest now!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10th
This morning I woke up with a sore back and a sad stomach. After breakfast of porridge and little morning workout my stomach decided to get rid of the porridge. So not fun, but am feeling better now. Today we have just been sitting around playing catch up for the last few days of slacking off on safari. It’s our last full week on the trip so we all have lots of stuff to get done.
Lucy and I have finally got some of our write-ups approved to be put up on the website so this morning Lucy and I have just been learning how to make the anthropology page and figure out what exactly we want to put up on the page. We are a bit tired today so we are both moving a bit slow.
After lunch, Lucy, Gaynor, Laurence, Kate, Katie, Sophia, Eileen and I “tried” to go back to Kasiisi Primary School to sit in on another XO laptop class. I say tried because about 20 minutes into our trip going up a steep dirt hill we heard a big snap and the truck jerked to a stop. It turns out we snapped an axel and so we quickly discovered we would not be making it to the school. We sat on the truck for about an hour while Steve (our driver) tried to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, Gaynor was able to get a hold of Uganda Wildlife Authority and they were nice enough to come by and pick up the volunteers and take us back to the camp. Laurence, Gaynor, and Steve stayed with the truck.
We arrived back to camp and broke the news to the rest of the group. Everyone was starting to freak out because the majority of their belongings were on the truck. However, about an hour or two later Nox (the truck) had returned!!! She is not fixed, but Steve managed to fix it enough to make it back to camp so he didn’t have to live on the side of the road with it. The place we broke down was next to some shady kids who were a bit cocky and kept aiming their slingshots at us, so luckily he got out of there.
For the rest of the evening before dinner Lucy and I worked on creating pages for the website to showcase our work we have done while we have been here. We have a few stuff posted already, just need to get some photos up with them now. Jess, the photographer, is extremely busy with everyone asking for shots so trying not to stress her out for more photos for our pages. If you go to www.primatehandshake.org/research you will see our exciting research.
After that, Jess, Katie, and I went up to the restaurant for dinner as we didn’t feel like eating pretty much the same thing again around the campfire. As usual it took over 2 hours to get our meals (everything goes at such a slow pace here) and even though Jess and I ordered the same thing mine came out after she had already eaten and paid (my good luck with customer service follows me everywhere).
We then all hung around the campfire for a bit and then hit the sack as we were all very tired as usual.
Lucy and I have finally got some of our write-ups approved to be put up on the website so this morning Lucy and I have just been learning how to make the anthropology page and figure out what exactly we want to put up on the page. We are a bit tired today so we are both moving a bit slow.
After lunch, Lucy, Gaynor, Laurence, Kate, Katie, Sophia, Eileen and I “tried” to go back to Kasiisi Primary School to sit in on another XO laptop class. I say tried because about 20 minutes into our trip going up a steep dirt hill we heard a big snap and the truck jerked to a stop. It turns out we snapped an axel and so we quickly discovered we would not be making it to the school. We sat on the truck for about an hour while Steve (our driver) tried to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, Gaynor was able to get a hold of Uganda Wildlife Authority and they were nice enough to come by and pick up the volunteers and take us back to the camp. Laurence, Gaynor, and Steve stayed with the truck.
We arrived back to camp and broke the news to the rest of the group. Everyone was starting to freak out because the majority of their belongings were on the truck. However, about an hour or two later Nox (the truck) had returned!!! She is not fixed, but Steve managed to fix it enough to make it back to camp so he didn’t have to live on the side of the road with it. The place we broke down was next to some shady kids who were a bit cocky and kept aiming their slingshots at us, so luckily he got out of there.
For the rest of the evening before dinner Lucy and I worked on creating pages for the website to showcase our work we have done while we have been here. We have a few stuff posted already, just need to get some photos up with them now. Jess, the photographer, is extremely busy with everyone asking for shots so trying not to stress her out for more photos for our pages. If you go to www.primatehandshake.org/research you will see our exciting research.
After that, Jess, Katie, and I went up to the restaurant for dinner as we didn’t feel like eating pretty much the same thing again around the campfire. As usual it took over 2 hours to get our meals (everything goes at such a slow pace here) and even though Jess and I ordered the same thing mine came out after she had already eaten and paid (my good luck with customer service follows me everywhere).
We then all hung around the campfire for a bit and then hit the sack as we were all very tired as usual.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday Part 2, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Wednesday Part 2
The tree house was amazing (but SCARY)!!!! Gemma, Katie, Jess, and I went to the treehouse at around 6pm to see it before it got dark and to have our hot showers! We had 50 litres of hot water for four girls, the first three lucked out, but Gemma (the fourth) only had about two minutes of hot water. In between each other showers (and the bitchfest we had about not getting to go chimp trekking) we were sitting out on the deck of the treehouse looking out into the forest when a snake slithered out from underneath Gemma’s chair. Gemma stayed calm and just said “oh look, a snake” I on the other hand saw it and screamed like a little girl!!! It was very skinny and long and red. We never found out what type it was, but he seemed very scared of us because he tried to get away from us quickly. He slithered off the deck and onto a branch nearby and stayed there and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Jess took lots of pics but I didn’t get any of them as I was of course to scared.
After that exciting event Gemma went in for a shower and Katie and I were hanging out on the deck when we heard a very loud noise on the otherside of the tree house. It was a very large sound (as if a monkey just jumped on the tree house) and Katie and I jumped and held each other We yelled to Gemma and she said she saw something small crawling up between two track with a very long tail. She guessed it was a big rat. Whatever it was, it made a lot of noise!
After the showers were done and we heard enough noises to freak us out we headed back to the campsite for dinner. After dinner we had a few drinks at the bar and then had to have a guide back down to the tree house (after dark you have to have a guide take you back).
The bedroom was amazing. You had a 360 degree view of the forest with one double bed, one twin bed, and then a twin mattress on the ground all with big mosquito nets already set up for us. Unfortantly, because of staff meeting and a long dinner we didn’t get there till late so we were all pretty tired so we just went to sleep quickly after we got there. The sleep was amazing. Katie and I shared the double bed and honestly it was an amazing sleep. It was so nice to have a mattress after a few days of camping. Supposedly there were chimp hoots in the middle of the night but I slept like a log so I didn’t hear them (but that is okay because I have heard them lots lately from the campgrounds).
Thursday
In the morning we had to wake up and be at breakfast at the restaurant (it came with the tree house deal) at around 7 (as we had to leave soon after for a day trip). WE got up, packed up, and said good-bye to our lovely treehouse, but before we left we saw some L’Hoest monkeys jumping from tree to tree a little ways back. So nice to see!
The breakfast was so nice. Anything is nicer than porridge. Unfortunatlye, Katie woke up feeling very sick so she didn’t eat (she didn’t even go out to work for the day at the school).
We went to Kisisi Primary School to see the XO laptop in work. We arrived and met with Jeff (one of the two guys who helped get the XO project working at the school) to learn about the XO program there. They had received 100 laptops and have 160 kids working on them (so actually they just use 80 of them and have two per child). They have only been working with them for three weeks and they can’t leave the school with them but they hope in the future they can let them take home (just right now the security is just not good enough). After that the education team and anthropology team went to a Primary Five class (the grade that is being trained with the XO) and sat in on their science class for about 45 minutes.
We then let them go to lunch while we went back to our truck and cooked ourselves lunch. After lunch the P5 students had their laptop lesson so we sat in on that. Each one of sat with a pair of students and watched them play on the laptop. The laptop is on a different program system so we didn’t understand how to use it so the kids had to teach us (which was just a cool experience since just three weeks ago they probably had never seen a computer in their life). I sat with two sisters called Annette and Aisha and played the different games on the computer with them. Their English was decent and their spelling was amazing, the only sad part was when they asked me if I had a father and I said “yes” and then asked if I had a “mother” and I then said yes, I then asked them and found out that they were orphans. Both of their parents had passed away…most likely from Aids (as that is usually the case around here).
After the laptop lesson the school day was over and we were getting ready to leave, but of course before we left we had about an hour of taking pictures with the kids and amazing them with being able to see a picture of themselves (always one of my favorite experiences of all our outings).
On the way back to our campsite we picked up Ben and Kate!!! They had been released from the doctor’s care in Kampala so caught a bus out to Kibale to meet up with us. Kate is still ill but is doing much better so she wanted to get on with her trip. The doctor says all of the volunteers should go and get tested for amoebas before we leave Uganda as the doctors back home probably won’t think of testing for it if you start to feel sick, and supposedly you can have amoebas before you start to feel sick. I probably won’t have time to get checked before I leave here but I will ask Dr. Chapman to check me out when I get back as I am sure he will be happy to do.
We were all exhausted when we made it back to camp so we all decided to just eat at the restaurant that night. Unfortunately, Africa doesn’t rush to do anything, so our orders took over 2+ hours to get. After a very late dinner we then went quickly to sleep.
FRIDAY
On Friday we had to leave by 8am to meet at Ugandan Wildlife Authority headquarters. We had a quick meeting there just to learn what they did before a smaller group of us (Fiona, Katie, Gaynor, Gemma, Jessica, Lucy, Kate, David, and I) went around with UWA to their many community projects.
For the little outing we all climbed into the back of one pickup truck (throughout the day I say we had about on average 11 people in the back). I was a bit worried about the adventure before we started because I was worried about my neck, but by the end of the day I still had no headache and an amazing adventure of standing in the back of the pickup truck experiencing Africa.
Our first stop (after a very long, bumpy, dusty, scary road) was at a village that did a beekeeping, goat management, pineapple gardens, and a fish farm. Check out Jess’s blog about the day on the main website (www.primatehandshake.org) as I am way to tired to explain it all at the moment.
The next stop was at an elephant trench. A lot of elephants in the area raided the locals crops so the locals hate the elephants. To try to stop the killings they have created a 3 km long elephant trench (deep trenches to make it hard for elephants to cross to get to the crops) .
Our third stop was the entrance of the Wetland Sanctuary. We didn’t walk around (as we are suppose to go back with the whole group next week) we just stayed there to eat our packed lunch, check out the womens handicrafts (for purchase of course) and to interview the head of the wetland conservation.
Our fourth and last stop was at a women’s drama/music group. They were amazing and I took lots of video of them singing and dancing about conservation themes. We also go to go see their handicraft section (for purchase of course). One disgusting little tidbit about this part of the trip is that while we were walking to the handicraft I felt something go down the back of my pants. It really started irritating me so I started to worry that it was a bug, so I warned the other volunteers around and said I was “going in”. To my horror, I felt something on my bum but as soon as I touch it it moved to the front of my pants!!! I then warned the other volunteers that I was “going in” again but from a different angle and this time I caught it and when I pulled it out to see what it was, it was a HUGE green bug that flew away!!!!!! It was horrifying!!!
We then caught a very long truck ride back to the camp (over an hour at least) where Gemma, Fiona and I stood up the entire time. It was so dusty and dirty on the ride but it was so fun and it made the hot shower we got when we got back to the camp a thousand times better.
This was our last night at this camp so after the shower we had to repack our bags, pay our bar tab that we had been collecting over the days and catch an early night sleep.
SATURDAY
We woke up and left about 9:30 after eating breakfast and packing up our tents back onto the truck. We then headed off to Queen Elizabeth National Park for our mini holiday (within our working holiday). The drive took about 6-7 hours so we had to stop and have lunch on the side of the road on our way there.
We arrived at our campsite which turned out to be right outside of QE Park and right next to a large lake. Oh and did I mention there were LOTS OF HIPPOS? Hippos in the water and hippos in our camp! We quickly set up our tent, grabbed a drink at the bar/restaurant and then jumped back on the truck to go through the park for an evening safari. Before we even got into the actual park we saw elephants on the side of the road. They were beautiful, a bit far away for a good picture with my camera, but still close enough to see them. I think that was the number one animal we all wanted to see on safari so we were all very happy. Once we were actually in the park we saw many buffalo and warthogs.
After a couple hours of driving around we headed back to our camp. When we arrived back to our camp before we even made it all the way into the campsite we encountered tons of hippos. There were probably more than ten hanging about. (Ten equals tons when you are talking about wild hippos walking around you campsite). When we parked and got out of our vehicle we heard that a hippo was by the campfire so we ran over there and he literally was right next to the campfire!!! Luckily, the guards were with us and stayed with their torches on the hippo until the hippo walked back down the hill to the water.
We have run out of gas to cook with so now we are stuck to cooking everything over fire, which is nice but takes bloody ages to get it done. That being said, we didn’t have dinner until about 11 at night. The exciting bit of the night really didn’t come until after everyone went to sleep. In middle of the night Connor got up and went to the toilet. On his return to his tent he saw a hippo standing right out front of the entrance to his tent (which was right next to Jess’s and I’s). He of course didn’t want to disturb it so he ran and jumped on to the truck. He ended up being stuck on the truck for the rest of the night with no blanket or light. He said he poked his head out of the truck once and saw that another hippo was standing right next to the exit of the truck.
Throughout the night we were all woken up by hippo noises all shaking in our tent scared we were going to be trampled by a hippo any second. Even though it was a bit scary and we could have been killed if the hippos decided to step on our tent instead of around them it was all really exciting! Unfortunatly didn’t get any good pictures of them up close because couldn’t use a flash (for fear of scaring them) and it was extremely late at night.
Sunday
Sunday morning we had to wake up and be on the truck to leave by 6:30AM so we could go on a sunrise safari drive around Queen Elizabeth Park. We were all tired but all very excited to see some wild animals. Once again we really lucked out and saw tons! We first ran into some elephants, then some hyenas passed the road right behind our truck, then many warthogs, buffalo, “bambi’s with horns and just bambi’s”. With some others, I took a position up on the beach (part of the truck where you can look out from the roof) which I think was the best location to be during a safari.
We then went back to our site just to pack up our tent and load everything onto the truck to get ready to drive back to Kibale. We all were tired of eating porridge so we all splurged (a whole 4 dollars!) on a nice sit down breakfast at the campsites restaurant. After that we headed back out to the park for one more drive thru before we went back to Kibale. Lucky we did because we got to see a lioness and a leopard!!! A bit far away but looked nice through the binoculars (thanks Bruce!).
The drive back to Kibale was long and dusty so when we arrived at our new campsite in Kibale we were all exhausted. We set up our tents in the dark, took a very nice long and much needed hot shower had dinner and then passed out.
The tree house was amazing (but SCARY)!!!! Gemma, Katie, Jess, and I went to the treehouse at around 6pm to see it before it got dark and to have our hot showers! We had 50 litres of hot water for four girls, the first three lucked out, but Gemma (the fourth) only had about two minutes of hot water. In between each other showers (and the bitchfest we had about not getting to go chimp trekking) we were sitting out on the deck of the treehouse looking out into the forest when a snake slithered out from underneath Gemma’s chair. Gemma stayed calm and just said “oh look, a snake” I on the other hand saw it and screamed like a little girl!!! It was very skinny and long and red. We never found out what type it was, but he seemed very scared of us because he tried to get away from us quickly. He slithered off the deck and onto a branch nearby and stayed there and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Jess took lots of pics but I didn’t get any of them as I was of course to scared.
After that exciting event Gemma went in for a shower and Katie and I were hanging out on the deck when we heard a very loud noise on the otherside of the tree house. It was a very large sound (as if a monkey just jumped on the tree house) and Katie and I jumped and held each other We yelled to Gemma and she said she saw something small crawling up between two track with a very long tail. She guessed it was a big rat. Whatever it was, it made a lot of noise!
After the showers were done and we heard enough noises to freak us out we headed back to the campsite for dinner. After dinner we had a few drinks at the bar and then had to have a guide back down to the tree house (after dark you have to have a guide take you back).
The bedroom was amazing. You had a 360 degree view of the forest with one double bed, one twin bed, and then a twin mattress on the ground all with big mosquito nets already set up for us. Unfortantly, because of staff meeting and a long dinner we didn’t get there till late so we were all pretty tired so we just went to sleep quickly after we got there. The sleep was amazing. Katie and I shared the double bed and honestly it was an amazing sleep. It was so nice to have a mattress after a few days of camping. Supposedly there were chimp hoots in the middle of the night but I slept like a log so I didn’t hear them (but that is okay because I have heard them lots lately from the campgrounds).
Thursday
In the morning we had to wake up and be at breakfast at the restaurant (it came with the tree house deal) at around 7 (as we had to leave soon after for a day trip). WE got up, packed up, and said good-bye to our lovely treehouse, but before we left we saw some L’Hoest monkeys jumping from tree to tree a little ways back. So nice to see!
The breakfast was so nice. Anything is nicer than porridge. Unfortunatlye, Katie woke up feeling very sick so she didn’t eat (she didn’t even go out to work for the day at the school).
We went to Kisisi Primary School to see the XO laptop in work. We arrived and met with Jeff (one of the two guys who helped get the XO project working at the school) to learn about the XO program there. They had received 100 laptops and have 160 kids working on them (so actually they just use 80 of them and have two per child). They have only been working with them for three weeks and they can’t leave the school with them but they hope in the future they can let them take home (just right now the security is just not good enough). After that the education team and anthropology team went to a Primary Five class (the grade that is being trained with the XO) and sat in on their science class for about 45 minutes.
We then let them go to lunch while we went back to our truck and cooked ourselves lunch. After lunch the P5 students had their laptop lesson so we sat in on that. Each one of sat with a pair of students and watched them play on the laptop. The laptop is on a different program system so we didn’t understand how to use it so the kids had to teach us (which was just a cool experience since just three weeks ago they probably had never seen a computer in their life). I sat with two sisters called Annette and Aisha and played the different games on the computer with them. Their English was decent and their spelling was amazing, the only sad part was when they asked me if I had a father and I said “yes” and then asked if I had a “mother” and I then said yes, I then asked them and found out that they were orphans. Both of their parents had passed away…most likely from Aids (as that is usually the case around here).
After the laptop lesson the school day was over and we were getting ready to leave, but of course before we left we had about an hour of taking pictures with the kids and amazing them with being able to see a picture of themselves (always one of my favorite experiences of all our outings).
On the way back to our campsite we picked up Ben and Kate!!! They had been released from the doctor’s care in Kampala so caught a bus out to Kibale to meet up with us. Kate is still ill but is doing much better so she wanted to get on with her trip. The doctor says all of the volunteers should go and get tested for amoebas before we leave Uganda as the doctors back home probably won’t think of testing for it if you start to feel sick, and supposedly you can have amoebas before you start to feel sick. I probably won’t have time to get checked before I leave here but I will ask Dr. Chapman to check me out when I get back as I am sure he will be happy to do.
We were all exhausted when we made it back to camp so we all decided to just eat at the restaurant that night. Unfortunately, Africa doesn’t rush to do anything, so our orders took over 2+ hours to get. After a very late dinner we then went quickly to sleep.
FRIDAY
On Friday we had to leave by 8am to meet at Ugandan Wildlife Authority headquarters. We had a quick meeting there just to learn what they did before a smaller group of us (Fiona, Katie, Gaynor, Gemma, Jessica, Lucy, Kate, David, and I) went around with UWA to their many community projects.
For the little outing we all climbed into the back of one pickup truck (throughout the day I say we had about on average 11 people in the back). I was a bit worried about the adventure before we started because I was worried about my neck, but by the end of the day I still had no headache and an amazing adventure of standing in the back of the pickup truck experiencing Africa.
Our first stop (after a very long, bumpy, dusty, scary road) was at a village that did a beekeeping, goat management, pineapple gardens, and a fish farm. Check out Jess’s blog about the day on the main website (www.primatehandshake.org) as I am way to tired to explain it all at the moment.
The next stop was at an elephant trench. A lot of elephants in the area raided the locals crops so the locals hate the elephants. To try to stop the killings they have created a 3 km long elephant trench (deep trenches to make it hard for elephants to cross to get to the crops) .
Our third stop was the entrance of the Wetland Sanctuary. We didn’t walk around (as we are suppose to go back with the whole group next week) we just stayed there to eat our packed lunch, check out the womens handicrafts (for purchase of course) and to interview the head of the wetland conservation.
Our fourth and last stop was at a women’s drama/music group. They were amazing and I took lots of video of them singing and dancing about conservation themes. We also go to go see their handicraft section (for purchase of course). One disgusting little tidbit about this part of the trip is that while we were walking to the handicraft I felt something go down the back of my pants. It really started irritating me so I started to worry that it was a bug, so I warned the other volunteers around and said I was “going in”. To my horror, I felt something on my bum but as soon as I touch it it moved to the front of my pants!!! I then warned the other volunteers that I was “going in” again but from a different angle and this time I caught it and when I pulled it out to see what it was, it was a HUGE green bug that flew away!!!!!! It was horrifying!!!
We then caught a very long truck ride back to the camp (over an hour at least) where Gemma, Fiona and I stood up the entire time. It was so dusty and dirty on the ride but it was so fun and it made the hot shower we got when we got back to the camp a thousand times better.
This was our last night at this camp so after the shower we had to repack our bags, pay our bar tab that we had been collecting over the days and catch an early night sleep.
SATURDAY
We woke up and left about 9:30 after eating breakfast and packing up our tents back onto the truck. We then headed off to Queen Elizabeth National Park for our mini holiday (within our working holiday). The drive took about 6-7 hours so we had to stop and have lunch on the side of the road on our way there.
We arrived at our campsite which turned out to be right outside of QE Park and right next to a large lake. Oh and did I mention there were LOTS OF HIPPOS? Hippos in the water and hippos in our camp! We quickly set up our tent, grabbed a drink at the bar/restaurant and then jumped back on the truck to go through the park for an evening safari. Before we even got into the actual park we saw elephants on the side of the road. They were beautiful, a bit far away for a good picture with my camera, but still close enough to see them. I think that was the number one animal we all wanted to see on safari so we were all very happy. Once we were actually in the park we saw many buffalo and warthogs.
After a couple hours of driving around we headed back to our camp. When we arrived back to our camp before we even made it all the way into the campsite we encountered tons of hippos. There were probably more than ten hanging about. (Ten equals tons when you are talking about wild hippos walking around you campsite). When we parked and got out of our vehicle we heard that a hippo was by the campfire so we ran over there and he literally was right next to the campfire!!! Luckily, the guards were with us and stayed with their torches on the hippo until the hippo walked back down the hill to the water.
We have run out of gas to cook with so now we are stuck to cooking everything over fire, which is nice but takes bloody ages to get it done. That being said, we didn’t have dinner until about 11 at night. The exciting bit of the night really didn’t come until after everyone went to sleep. In middle of the night Connor got up and went to the toilet. On his return to his tent he saw a hippo standing right out front of the entrance to his tent (which was right next to Jess’s and I’s). He of course didn’t want to disturb it so he ran and jumped on to the truck. He ended up being stuck on the truck for the rest of the night with no blanket or light. He said he poked his head out of the truck once and saw that another hippo was standing right next to the exit of the truck.
Throughout the night we were all woken up by hippo noises all shaking in our tent scared we were going to be trampled by a hippo any second. Even though it was a bit scary and we could have been killed if the hippos decided to step on our tent instead of around them it was all really exciting! Unfortunatly didn’t get any good pictures of them up close because couldn’t use a flash (for fear of scaring them) and it was extremely late at night.
Sunday
Sunday morning we had to wake up and be on the truck to leave by 6:30AM so we could go on a sunrise safari drive around Queen Elizabeth Park. We were all tired but all very excited to see some wild animals. Once again we really lucked out and saw tons! We first ran into some elephants, then some hyenas passed the road right behind our truck, then many warthogs, buffalo, “bambi’s with horns and just bambi’s”. With some others, I took a position up on the beach (part of the truck where you can look out from the roof) which I think was the best location to be during a safari.
We then went back to our site just to pack up our tent and load everything onto the truck to get ready to drive back to Kibale. We all were tired of eating porridge so we all splurged (a whole 4 dollars!) on a nice sit down breakfast at the campsites restaurant. After that we headed back out to the park for one more drive thru before we went back to Kibale. Lucky we did because we got to see a lioness and a leopard!!! A bit far away but looked nice through the binoculars (thanks Bruce!).
The drive back to Kibale was long and dusty so when we arrived at our new campsite in Kibale we were all exhausted. We set up our tents in the dark, took a very nice long and much needed hot shower had dinner and then passed out.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Wednesday, August 5 Part 1
We woke up at 6am this morning to get packed up and ready to eat by 6:30. We had yet another morning of disgusting porridge (I usually take one bit then remember I dislike it and discard it). Well when we were all sitting around eating porridge half asleep rumors started going around camp that our truck would not turn on. Quickly the rumors turned out to be true and we all started to fear that our day doing a Nature Walk in Kibale Forest may have to be canceled. Luckily, by some miracle the truck started to work so we all jumped on and made our way to the entrance of Kibale National Park (we are camping on the outskirts of it now). When we arrived we were split up into groups of five and given a guide to take us into the forest.
Eileen, Jess, Sophia, Chirsty, and I were a group and since we were all females we figured we should have one of the few female guide employed by Ugandan Wildlife Association (UWA). Her name was Harriett and she had been working as a guide for 10 years. She was very proud of her job and very proud that she was one of the view woman that were able to be guides (here it is seen as only a mans job).
We headed out towards the forest and we ran into or heard/saw branches swaying black & white colobus monkeys, red tailed monkeys and baboons (all before we were deep into it). When we cut into the forest from the road we used a trail created by forest elephants. We passed their dung but didn’t run into them directly (the guide made sure of that as they can be extremely dangerous and aggressive). As were walking I was in the back of the line when I saw two huge African Snails I called for everyone come back and see them. I think we got some great shots of the two of the snails. We also saw chimpanzee feces (!) which was great but sadly no actual chimpanzees. Oh but when we were sitting around eating porridge this morning we heard them calling in the forest!!!! It was so cool, we were all sitting there then all of sudden these loud calls and at first you think oh someone is working on one of their chimp videos on the laptop but then we all realized no one had their laptop out yet. It made me very happy!!! Anyways, back to the hike. Harriett stopped and showed us a lot of different types of trees and plants and told us what medicinal purpose they hold (mainly were sexual aids…I’m starting to think Harriett might have been a bit kinky). Right before the end of the 2-3 hour trek we saw L’Houest Monkeys!!! She says they are very rare to see on the nature walk so that was exciting. They were a bit far away so with my zooms I couldn’t get too good of a shot of them but I think if I get in with photoshop and zoom in more they might be decent.
After the hike we went into a couple different craft shops they have there and I bought a few things for myself (I’ve been good I haven’t bought anything until today, mainly b/c I didn’t want to carry it around Uganda with me). I bought a wood carved gorilla and baby plus a wood carved chimpanzee and baby. Oh I also bought an egg made out of clay and then the world map is engraved on it, it’s cooler then I described I promise.
Anyways, there was a hope that while we were there the guides would hear of a chimp trek cancelation so some of us could go on it, but unfortunately that did not happen. We still have some days coming up so FINGERS CROSSED.
We are back at camp now working away but Lucy and I have nothing to do because we can’t put any of our completed work on the web until the leaders read over it and approve it and they are in a meeting, so Lucy and I are just playing on the web while we wait.
Jess and I went and picked up our keys to the tree house and the tree house is all prepared for us so I might go down there soon to check it out in the daytime for a bit. Gemma and Katie are staying with us tonight so it should be a lot of fun and be nice to sleep on a mattress. I think some of the other volunteers are jealous that we are doing it but we are paying extra and we planned it ourselves. I’m sure we will be having a lot of visitors to check the place out so it should be fun. I promise to take lots of pictures of it all!!!
I was feeling quite homesick yesterday afternoon but I am feeling better today. I think I was getting tired of being stuck working in one place for the last few days. It was nice to get out of the camping area this morning and get into the real forest and see some wild primates!
Eileen, Jess, Sophia, Chirsty, and I were a group and since we were all females we figured we should have one of the few female guide employed by Ugandan Wildlife Association (UWA). Her name was Harriett and she had been working as a guide for 10 years. She was very proud of her job and very proud that she was one of the view woman that were able to be guides (here it is seen as only a mans job).
We headed out towards the forest and we ran into or heard/saw branches swaying black & white colobus monkeys, red tailed monkeys and baboons (all before we were deep into it). When we cut into the forest from the road we used a trail created by forest elephants. We passed their dung but didn’t run into them directly (the guide made sure of that as they can be extremely dangerous and aggressive). As were walking I was in the back of the line when I saw two huge African Snails I called for everyone come back and see them. I think we got some great shots of the two of the snails. We also saw chimpanzee feces (!) which was great but sadly no actual chimpanzees. Oh but when we were sitting around eating porridge this morning we heard them calling in the forest!!!! It was so cool, we were all sitting there then all of sudden these loud calls and at first you think oh someone is working on one of their chimp videos on the laptop but then we all realized no one had their laptop out yet. It made me very happy!!! Anyways, back to the hike. Harriett stopped and showed us a lot of different types of trees and plants and told us what medicinal purpose they hold (mainly were sexual aids…I’m starting to think Harriett might have been a bit kinky). Right before the end of the 2-3 hour trek we saw L’Houest Monkeys!!! She says they are very rare to see on the nature walk so that was exciting. They were a bit far away so with my zooms I couldn’t get too good of a shot of them but I think if I get in with photoshop and zoom in more they might be decent.
After the hike we went into a couple different craft shops they have there and I bought a few things for myself (I’ve been good I haven’t bought anything until today, mainly b/c I didn’t want to carry it around Uganda with me). I bought a wood carved gorilla and baby plus a wood carved chimpanzee and baby. Oh I also bought an egg made out of clay and then the world map is engraved on it, it’s cooler then I described I promise.
Anyways, there was a hope that while we were there the guides would hear of a chimp trek cancelation so some of us could go on it, but unfortunately that did not happen. We still have some days coming up so FINGERS CROSSED.
We are back at camp now working away but Lucy and I have nothing to do because we can’t put any of our completed work on the web until the leaders read over it and approve it and they are in a meeting, so Lucy and I are just playing on the web while we wait.
Jess and I went and picked up our keys to the tree house and the tree house is all prepared for us so I might go down there soon to check it out in the daytime for a bit. Gemma and Katie are staying with us tonight so it should be a lot of fun and be nice to sleep on a mattress. I think some of the other volunteers are jealous that we are doing it but we are paying extra and we planned it ourselves. I’m sure we will be having a lot of visitors to check the place out so it should be fun. I promise to take lots of pictures of it all!!!
I was feeling quite homesick yesterday afternoon but I am feeling better today. I think I was getting tired of being stuck working in one place for the last few days. It was nice to get out of the camping area this morning and get into the real forest and see some wild primates!
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