Bush Medicine or the Witch Doctor?? May 27, 2008

 

The other day when I was sitting with Zamzam, (the local council leader), waiting for the women to mobilize and I noticed a couple of the children were picking up there heads and looking around.  I couldn’t spot what it was they were looking at until one of them picked up a stone and threw at some small green creature.  A CHAMELEON!  Being an avid wildlifer and generally very fond of reptiles, I ran over and picked it up.  To say the least this COMPLETELY freaked everyone out! 

The poor little bugger had apparently had a run in with some other bratty kids in the last day or two because one of his forearms was completely mangled.  The hand was swollen, the skin was filled with dirt and some dirty fly and already found the wound and laid a slew of eggs.  Since the meeting was already an hour and a half delayed with no sign of starting soon, and expecting that my mother would be calling sometime in the next 20 minutes, I excused myself.

On the walk back to my house I continued to freak people out with the green monster in my hand.  Muzungu malalu (crazy mazungu).  Luckily for me I am used to freaking people out and generally find it hysterical.

So when I got back to my house I made a decision.  Surgery.  And since I didn’t have a razor blade and couldn’t be fussed about explaining WHY I would need it I went to my medical kit and removed some gloves, anti-bacterial wash, scissors, antibiotic ointment, a needle and floss.  Granted this is always something I’ve said I COULD do, cutting up a live animal is something I hadn’t done yet.  I am very used to labs, slicing open any variety of dead animals to identify and remove various organs, tissues, and so forth.  But this was a first for me.  So I cleaned the scissors in hot water and the wash and made the first cut where the arm was the most mangled.  No reaction, easy enough.  Now I had to make the real cut—just above the elbow joint in the upper arm.  I got all the way through the flesh and when the scissors hit the bone the chameleon made a loud hiss and a good effort to bite me.  Can’t say I blame the kid, but I apologized, told her to bite the bullet and completed the cut.  I kept pressure on the cut long enough to stop the bleeding then stitched it up with a sewing needle and floss.  Bush medicine. 

So now word is spreading that the crazy white girl has a three-legged chameleon. (Her name is Grace by the way, because she is a Slender / Graceful Chameleon, and as far as I can tell, she is really a she and not a he. This is probably a win-win-win situation for me.  I wanted a pet, but cannot have domestic animals in the park, and I have bad allergies to furry animals.  Graceful Chameleons like to eat beetles, arachnids (spiders), and arthropods (centipedes, millipedes), so I have bug control.  And probably the best reason for having a chameleon, security!  People fear dogs, but you can win them over with meat. 

There is a lot of folklore in East Africa about chameleons being evil creatures and bad omens.  Chameleons and their body parts are common in witchcraft.  They also believe that they have a venomous bite, which is also inaccurate.  One example given was that if a chameleon crosses your path from right to left that you should turn back immediately.  If you continue, someone that you meet on the remainder of your journey will soon die. 

So as a generalization, people here REALLY don’t like chameleons, I am crazy, and I am housing an evil being at my residence. 

Not much to say May 14, 2008

This has been an unusually slow week.  I took a wee bit of time to come to Kampala to try to kill a couple of birds with one stone.

I have a lot of project ideas rolling around in my head like loose marbles- museum curration, creating intrepretive infomation boards in the park, developing bush camping sites, creating IGA (income generating activities) for the communities around the park.  Its just that thinkgs take time.  I have found a ranger to work with who is motivated and has a lot of good ideas himself.  The ideas area all there, really, there are enough ideas to keep me fully occupied for at least two years, its just a matter of settling a lot of logistics to get things moving.

If anyone wants to check out the park, this is the official site:

http://www.uwa.or.ug/index.html

 

I sent my mom a disk of  photos since the internet here is terminally slow.  She can upload them and i will link the site to my facebook account as well as this blog site.

 

I appologise for not having much to say.  i will clear the dust off the old brain cells for next week!

 

Amusing quips and antidotes May 5, 2008

1) On my Sunday trip to the Masindi market one of the women I bought some vegetables from called me back after an unsuccessful attempt at buying red beans. The conversation went something like this:

Woman: there is a man I know, he thinks you are, uh, handsome!

Me: AH! Neebo*, you mean pretty! Handsome is the word for the man!

Woman: Yes! Ah, pretty! He wants to know if you will ever marry!

Me (with a huge, stupid smile on my face): Oh Neebo! I will probably never marry! I am too much for one man! Do you know what it means to be a handful??

Woman (makes a face of confusion)

Me (quick to think): Ah, let me explain. (I pick up one tomato). This tomato is easy to carry because it is only one. (I put it down). But if you tried to carry all of these tomatoes at once, that is not easy. You would have your hands very full. That is like me!

Woman (cracks up): OH!! You are difficult!!!!

Me: You have NO idea! Tell Sebo that he is confused. Tell him I am very difficult and he doesn’t want me!

Woman: (Yells to the man… probably somewhere in his 40s, what that I am difficult, it is all in Runyooro/Rutyooro (the local language).

Man: (laughs at me….that is a common response to most things I do here)

Me: Sebo! I am difficult! Trust me, you don’t want me!!!

(to the woman) Okale kurungi! (Stay well) See you next week!

*Neebo is basically the equivalent for m’am. It is a polite/formal greeting for a woman.

**You all have Chris Ayers to thank for me sharing this one. I mean I always think I am funny, but I am typically also full of crap too. So with Mr. Ayers’ laugh, which I took as his seal of approval, I bring the rest of you the story.

—–

2) Talking to my mother on the phone (again, approximately what was said):

Me: yeah, I think I got a bit burned on my face when I was out this week.

Mother dearest: GOD! Be careful! You know you live at the equator? The sun is hot there!

Me: I have an agreement with the sun.*

Mother dearest: Wear sunscreen.

Me: I decided a while ago, I am not going to wear sunscreen here.

Mother dearest: You know, you live in Africa, but you aren’t black.**

Me: Well damn, I am going to keep trying!

*I have an agreement with a growing list of things here– the sun, the warthogs, the bugs, I just don’t know how well they understand their contracts.

**Funny to me, who gets called Mexican/Hispanic (depending on how pc the person is) at a regular basis at home, in addition to getting called mullato, half Chinese or Indian, or whatever else non-white nationality someone happens to think I am. Now here I am and my mom is exclaiming that I’m not black! You know every time I take my clothes off, I get concerned! I have these freak arms and head that just don’t match the rest of my body, by a wide degree of shades. I’m VERY two toned here. (Sha-ka-kon, what did I tell you?? I knew this would happen!) However, the Ugandans appreciate my effort to become black. They show this by smiling and What? LAUGHING AT ME!

Creatures May 5, 2008

So as most of you are probably now aware, I am living in a national park, so that means I am surrounded, more or less, by wild(ish) creatures. God knows that makes me SOOO interesting, so I thought it prudent to share with you some of my wildlife experiences.

In essence I have traded squirrels for warthogs and the occasional dog for an occasional baboon. Maybe it’s just the mefloquine (anti-malarial) talking, but I am increasingly convinced that the baboons look like dog-people. They have those certain humanoid characteristics that all primates have, yet they have dog-like faces. Go look at a picture of a baboon and think about what I’ve said. I swear its true!

As for the warthogs, there are two sows that each have 3 piglets (or warthoglets). One group is slightly, maybe a week or two older. There is also a male or two around. I know one male is quite old and is contented to plop himself any ol’ place for a siesta. The first time I found him in a “traffic circle.” (I say it in quotations because there is hardly any traffic around here). I asked Jim, one of the managers or Red Chili, if he was ok, or if he’d been hit by a car, or what?? He just chuckled and said, “Oh no, he’s just old. He sleeps where he wants.” I’ve also found him wallowing in the mud on the side of the road. Anywhere is fine for the old guy.

The sows I think are getting used to me and starting to approach me with increasingly less apprehension. My nerdy side says that it would be really cool to have one walk up to me, but my commonsense reminds me that they can still be dangerous and they have tusks, and the wildlifer in me reminds me that its most likely a horrible idea to habituate wild animals to people cause it tend to do little other than create problems. But just like with the elephants, as long as you keep a calm energy the animals really seem to be aware of the fact that you are calm and are content to carry on with their business.

I have a toad that comes on to my back porch. And I have a pair of lesser striped swallows that have a nest under the overhang on the side of my house. There are some really cool birds that hang around “my back yard.” There are blue-napped mousebirds, weavers, common bulbuls, and occasional honeyeater and several others. I had some sort of francolins at the edge of the scrub the other morning making ear-piercing calls. There was a small group of them and they seemed all worked up about something!

There are other really fantastic birds here, but I don’t see them in my yard. I don’t have photos of everything, but as most of you are probably gifted with the graces of high-speed internet, I would suggest that you Google the critters I talk about and have a look for yourself……grey-headed kingfisher (I don’t know why you would focus on its grey head when it has electric-blue wings and tail, but eh, until I find my own species who am I to criticize?), pygmy kingfisher, pied kingfisher (these kids have an amazing ability to stop and hover in mid air while they look for fish), goliath heron, black and white casqued hornbills, Abyssinian ground-hornbill (freakin monster dinosaur birds! males are distinguishable from females my the red versus blue skin, respectively, on their heads), white-faced whistling ducks, lilac breasted rollers, African green pigeon, pin-tailed whydal (gorgeous little birds that seem highly hindered by three incredibly long retrocies (tailfeathers)), red-cheeked cordon-bleus, black-bellied firefinches, two species of lapwings and numerous other long-legged water birds, in addition to a great variety of birds of prey which I have yet to distinguish between yet. It is also very common to see nightjars and owls on the road at night.

In general diversity here is amazing. Even dungbeetles! They are any number of sizes. Some are small and metallic green and work in pairs (yeah for teamwork!), and others are larger, metallic purple-merlot colored and work alone. I have found a great many kinds of Io moths (I reckon that is what they are; it’s what they are at home). These are generally large moths with eye or “scare spots” on their wings. Typically these spots are on their lower wings and remain covered by their upper wing. They are also typically brightly or contrastingly colored. When a hungry predator like a bird or frog comes along to eat said moth it quickly spreads its wings and reveals its eyespots. To the predator, they believe that they are now somehow staring into the face of something much larger…something that as serious consequence on their place in the food chain. They believe that they are now they prey and will often to their best to quickly get out of dodge, thereby sparing the clever moth’s life. (Ok, moths really aren’t that clever, but nature is cool, predator diversion/survival tactics are more remarkable the more you understand how they work).

Last week we went out to “check the game tracks,” this means we drove around the park all day on more or less one big game drive. And yes, I was giddier than a school girl the whole bloody time. We saw several different species of antelope- waterbuck, oribi, Ugandan kob, and hartebeest. Some of them had come down to the water and were there in huge herds. There are no Zebra here; however, there are dikdiks (the smallest of the antelopes) and leopards, although they are rarely seen. There was also reports in 2003 of a cheetah in the park, so who knows what you might see. There are also lions, but I still haven’t seen any, YET. We also saw a couple herds of giraffe and elephants, plus hippos and Cape buffalo. (I learned the other day that water buffalo are the Asiatic equivalent of oxen….I’d been calling them completely the wrong thing. There are only Cape, not Water buffalo here.)

Part of our purpose for the day was also to drop off some workers to clear a bush camping site down on the delta. The site they slashed (“cut the grass”) is right on the river under some huge trees. After you cross the river, you are out of the park. Fishing is legal here. Some local fishermen came up in their wooden boat and sold some tilapia to the UWA staff I was out with. I think I have some amazing photos of this, but its on film, so everyone, even me, will have to wait to see these photos.

Twenty Paces April 27, 2008

This week has been the usual, quiet, SLOW, but there have been a few events that I find rather remarkable and worth sharing.

 

After a few failed attempts to cross the river (failed because the ferry won’t pass if there isn’t a vehicle crossing), I finally caught the ferry and made my way up to the swanky lodge to use the internet to upload the above blog entry.  At the end of the day that was a failed attempt and an expensive half hour– thank god for weekend trips to Masindi to restock and communicate with the outside world!  The evening ferry schedule runs every other hour (less frequent than the morning… and again, depending on if there is a vehicle crossing).  So after draining my funds for half an hour I still had about an hour and a half to kill so I swung around to the abandoned poolside bar to look out over the landscape.  The bar tender came around and I introduced myself to him telling him that I was the tourism warden’s PCV and that I would be here for two years.  I asked him about the fire that was burning off in the distance on my side of the park and about the elephants that are rumored to come right up to the pool and drink.  Yet another confirmation, cheeky buggers.  I told him that I was not going home until I saw a lion, elephant and a shoebill stork, even if it meant I had to stay in Africa longer.  After a short time he left to carry on with his work.  I continued to scan the bank of the Nile below for elephants, but didn’t see any, so I took early leave of the lodge and headed back down to the landing, and wouldn’t you bloody know it!!! 

As I rounded the bend there was a herd of elephants at the ferry landing!  There were two little ones with them as well, about seven or eight in total. There was another herd, or another part of this herd about a half mile down the river.  I was cautioned not to get too close, so I passed in a wide arch and sat down to watch them.  As they browsed they came out away from the river bank and closer to me.  I just sat there. It was incredible and a bit scary.  The closer they got the bigger I realized they were.  Nonetheless I am generally stubborn and was very intrigued, so I stayed there.  The one with the smallest baby (which by virtue of that fact, probably makes here the most dangerous), ended up coming about twenty paces away from me before the ferry came.  I stood slowly and reverse my arch and made my way to the ferry… walking.  I personally believe that its best to remain calm around animals, especially ones that are reasonably intelligent and unquestionably stronger, bigger or faster than myself.  The locals responded the way they seem to do to most of the wildlife around here, with a degree of fear.  They ran frantically onto the ferry.  They yelled at me to run… again, I am stubborn, so I walked. 

It surprises me that a culture that is relatively not that far removed from its “aboriginal roots,” people seem quite afraid of many of the creatures found here, from beetles and toads up to elephants.  Sure some of these things like bugs, can bite you and elephants have the ability to crush you like you are a bug…. But isn’t it better to try to develop a mutual respect with these animals than to breed a mutual fear??

—

Saying that I think this may also be an appropriate point to mention the three superlative I won by a landslide vote.  One of the other trainees in our last week decided to create superlatives.  I got three by a huge margin: Loudest, Most Likely to go Feral or Command a Monkey Army, and Most Likely to Lose a Limb by COS (Close of Service).  I was pleased to overhear Mona in the process of filling out her superlative exclaim, “Yeah!  I know Sabrina messes with everything, but she’s smart about it!  She knows what she’s doing!”  Thanks for your vote of confidence!  I reckon that unless some freak accident happens where, after I go feral,  I accidentally happen upon some large or ferocious animal, yell out in fear, and my monkey army fails to come to my aid, I may in fact lose a limb.  Otherwise I am fairly confident that I have made it twenty-four years harassing all sorts of wild beasts and I still have all my fingers and toes, much less, all four limbs.  Not to mention that a year of that time was spent in the land down under which, through its own evolution, has created slew of strange and dangerous and/or venomous creatures.

—-

 

But back to this week, my other close encounter.  The President of Uganda, Museveni, himself paid a visit to the newly formed district of Bulisa.  I have read that Bulisa is one of the poorest districts in the country.  It is also known to have potential, untapped oil resources, so there’s a definite potential for development and growth.  Bulisa also boarders MFNP to the west, as such, quite a number of the park wardens and staff were extended invitations to come and hear his Excellency come and address the people of Bulisa.  Almost as soon as we had left the park gate the road slowly became increasingly congested with people flowing out of distant villages to come and see their president.

 I was on my way to Bulisa to meet with BIRUDO (Bulisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation). My meeting, which I arrived in proper African time to (about an hour late due to transportation issues), took about an hour to complete.  Afterwards the directors I met with took me and my escort, Charles- a CC ranger (community cons), to ‘Unique Restaurant’ for lunch.  As we ate the stream of people continued, most of them on foot, some on bike (which means at least two and sometimes three people per bicycle).  Everyone was coming looking very SMART. (I cursed the Brits quite frequently during training for this one.  Looking “smart” means that you are dressed up, or at least looking professional, clothes ironed, shoes shines, and if you’re a female, you MUST be in a skirt!)

Charles and I finished our meal with the directors—posho (sorry, I have no way to equate this for you, but I like it and prefer it to matooke, just know it’s a staple food) and meat we managed to find a UWA vehicle to drive us down to the meeting place.  

Ugandans love ceremony.  I am not sure if the event was supposed to kick off at 2:00pm or if the president was supposed to arrive at two, but we got there just after two and were entertained for several hours by school choirs, women’s groups, and several others who sang songs for the occasion and performed traditional dances.  I really like the song for the president and the local government officials which mostly consisted of calling out different positions and then singing “we thank you your Excellency for the hard work you are doing.”  Sometime around 6:00 the President arrived.  Even the president who arrived nearby in a helicopter, and then was rushed over in black (I’m pretty sure ALL high government officials arrive and leave in speedy black vehicles) in proper African Standard time.   A few local officials came and spoke, some in English and the local language.  I managed to pull a few words from the air, scarcely enough to make any sense of anything.  Then Museveni spoke for about 20 minutes.  A small black pickup– with somehow built-on stairs and a podium drove out to the middle of the sea of black faces.  The president ascended and addressed his people, all in local language, while sipping a Coca-cola.  I have no idea what was said for the next 20 minutes so my brain drifted off to think about potential home repairs.  I felt a bit bad, he wasn’t even speaking a Bantu language, and I felt that it really couldn’t be helped.  I’d been sitting still for over four hours now and my ADD was taking hold.  Without the singing and stomping to capture my attention I was lost on my own head.  Occasionally, Christine would lean over and give me a wee re-cap of what was being said.  The president was sure to welcome the oil developers who sat in front of us, but never made a mention of UWA or the park—until he told the masses some apparently charged misinformation about resource sharing and recent arrests.  He assured people that the issues would be corrected with a heavy hand.  However, on the ride back, UWA staff seemed rather perturbed at inaccurate accusations.  That’s the thing here.  You are never too far from a rumor mill and word of mouth spreads with a greater velocity than wildfire.  And anyone who’s ever played Chinese whispers or telephone knows that the thing said at the beginning is rarely, if ever, what the end of the telephone circle says.  I guess it was good that he didn’t announce UWA’s presence to the community in light of the dark cloud he placed over us.  That being said, half of us, including myself had UWA clearly showing on our shirts.  And here I was, trying to proudly show my association and our name was muddied.  This is my life.

The swarm of people who left the event was more heavily concentrated, but no less steady than the stream earlier in the day.  People were still trickling back to their homes around 9:00pm.  Bare in mind that it gets dark around 7:00 here, there are no street lights, and the moon does not rise until 8:45.  Ugandans have amazing eyes. 

African Standard Time April 27, 2008

My counterpart just strolled into the office and said it… I was supposed to leave about an hour ago now to go along with a community conservation officer.  But that’s how it is here.  You get there when you get there and most of the time no one bats an eye when you rock up well late.  So in light things that are very “African” I thought to come up with a list of “YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN AFRICA WHEN…”

 

 

…You see a man walking out of the bank in what can best be described at SWAT gear, and you don’t look twice

 

…Its normal to see a woman walking down street balancing a machete on her head

 

…You walk past a boda (motor bike) driver, and he notices your tattoo on your ankle and tells his friend, quite audibly, that you are a maliah (whore—because only whores have tattoos), to which you turn back and say with a look of false shock, “Sebo (sir)!  You are rude!”… which funny enough, is probably more rude than him calling you a whore

 

…You are a bit shocked when a child calls you “madam” or “sir” and not mazoongu (this is literally anyone who’s not from Uganda, although white people are really easy to pick out when everyone is black.)

 

…You walk through the village herds of children run to the street to yell “BYE MAZOONGU!” (mazoongu mostly means a traveler, and since you are always traveling, you are therefore leaving, thus “bye” is seemingly more appropriate then “hello”)…and they say this to a certain beat like, “byyyye ma-zoon-gu!” Even the littlest children do it.  Rhythm and beat seems to come naturally to all Africans. 

 

…On that note, you realize that you are quite freely referring to people as black or white, even though it’s not “PC” to do it at home, it’s totally normal here.

 

…you realize white people REALLY do glow in the dark!

 

…You can buy a pineapple for 800UGS (about $0.50), or a medium avocado for 200UGS ($0.12), but an apple is a luxury item.

 

…You watch 5 people trying to force themselves into one car door and the one guy who gets squeezed out just laughs, and you realize that all this happened without any ill feelings or violence.

 

…You realize that standards like a “four-seater car” or “15-passanger van” are just arbitrary numbers.  You can fit WAY more people/chickens/things in there!  Comfort?? What’s that?

 

…you think it’s normal to see a man ride down the street with about 20 chickens hanging upside down, 10 on each side of this handle bars, seemingly very accepting of their situation and fate.

 

…you realize that weight and work are merely a state of mind.  You can move just ANYTHING with a one-speed bike…even loads that would seem to send you over backwards.

 

…transportation is a thrill ride!  You were almost on how many head-on collisions because “sides” of the road become very arbitrary due to countless potholes??? Hell, you always make it.  After a while it begins to amuse you when you see other mazoongus reacting while you sit there perfectly calm.

 

 

…you have power and electricity, but you still wash your clothes the “local way”

 

…you realize that you have become very good at AIMING!  (it’s a very important skill in the pit, so as you don’t pee all over your feet or create embarrassing skids or piles).

 

…the huge roaches in the pit barely faze you, so long as they remain relatively stationary.

 

…you are even a bit jealous of the other girls…. who has mango fly maggots squeezed out of their skin!  I want a good GROSS parasite story!

 

…diarrhea and vomiting are perfectly normal topics of conversation, even at the dinner table, although this is mostly among volunteers.

 

..temperature is becoming completely subjective.  warm beers and cold showers, but you hardly mind cause you are happy to have either.

 

…Here in the park…. It has become totally normal to walk past warthogs, just like dogs or squirrels at home. 

 

 

 

You realize that everything is mporampora (local language—slowly by slowly).  It’s after 12:33 and we still haven’t left for our meeting with the local beekeepers.  Uganda is very different from life back in the states.  The sooner you recognize the difference and accept the flow, the easier life becomes.  Sometimes it’s hard to do when you are used to being very goal oriented and driven, deadlines are engrained in routine.  But here, it’s African Standard Time….

MFNP… continued. April 2, 2008

My visit to the park went well. There is a lot of work that can be done to help develop ecotourism and cultural tourism. I am really excited to begin working with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the communities around the park. I have been introduced to the head wardens in each department, as well as the leader of the local council within the park. I also got taken to see one of the airstrips in the park, and on the way to go see a herd of Rothschild’s Giraffes, Jackson’s heartybeasts, and oribis. Saw some more hippos again too.

For my qualifying project I want to begin a craft and cultural center to support the community around the Masindi gate to the park (one of 5 gates). I hope to involve the local communities in craft making, screen printing t-shirts, and small business practices. For those of you whom I have already involved in the Worldwise Program (Senzig and Brown), stand by!!! In the next three months I will have more information as the project develops and I get settled in. It seems to be a good idea and has gotten a good response from a lot of people so I am excited to begin.

We are about to finish with our training this week and will go to Kampala for the final week.

Stay posted!

MFNP March 26, 2008

to recap the last few weeks–

we got our site assignments and I GET TO LIVE IN A FREAKIN NATIONAL PARK IN FREAKIN AFRICA FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS!!!! Not to mention that my counterpart is amazing. When we got our assignments I was overjoyed to the point of nearly being in tears, which I dont think has ever happened to me before.  I felt like I had won some huge prize.  I will be working in Murchison Falls National Park for the next 2 years. Mostly my projects will be focusing on ecotourism development and ways of involving the community. I get to see the park for the first time this week. I am actually in a town called Masindi now. It is outside the park a ways. Its a bigger town than Luweero (where we have been training), but isnt as crazy as Kampala. Initial impressions are good anway.

We visited another park recently and got to see a bunch of animals– impala, hippos, zebra, waterbucks, ugangan kob, warthog, and some others. Lots of birds as always. The head ranger was amazing. He was a walking encyclopedia of information about all the flora and fauna in the area. I was less impressed with the park director who seemed to feel that he had to have a PCV (peace corps volunteer) or concessioner to do ANYTHING in the park. It was kind of frustrating. I am hoping not to run into similar problems with my own counterpart. But I guess the lesson to take from it is to make sure that you set up sustainable project… and REALLY make sure its sustainable even when you are completely removed from the picture.  The former PCVs had set up some really good projects but they unfortunately grown in the past 10 years.  In any case it was very insightful.

If anyone has any contacts for anyone interested in setting up a whitewater company let me know. Apparently that is one of the areas for development outside the park. (One which I have a vested personal interest in.)  Nile Rafting baby!  Hell Yes!

……….

The wet has started.  That means that there are random huge thunderstorms.  That means that I am in heaven cause I love storms. It also means that its cooler and always muddy, which is also pretty amazing.

…….

Just to let everyone know I am still the same crackhead you knew before I left….

So once again I have earned my earned myself the nickname of “trouble.”  Guess thats what happens when you are always loud and outspoken.  We have been doing a lot of slacklining when we are done with training, which has been a lot of fun.   For those unfamiliar with this hobby, you have two anchor points, typically trees, which you tightly stretch a one inch piece of webbing between and then basically tightrope walk.  Its a lot of fun.  One of the climbers brought it with him.  The climbers in the group are really awesome. I cant wait until we have time to go climbing.  The chill attitude and stupid fun reminds me of my friends that climb back at home.

I have hit a one month point of gettin hit in the head on a weekly basis.  So far I have hit my head on a sharp stump, gotten clipped with an acacia branch (it was one of the species that grows thorns too), fallen backwards into a concrete wall while lifting a 70lbs child, and today my camera bag fell from the overhead and knocked the crap out of me on the ride to Masindi.  I think i should get started on some serious PC work before I beat the rest of the brain cells out of my head!

….

So if anyone has any inclination to ever come to Africa, I will be living in a PARK!  for the next two years, and my door is always open (for friends and family… if you dont know me and are reading this, dont ask).

I am gonna go wait for my counterpart so I can go see my new home!!!!!!!!!!!

Creativity March 9, 2008

Things have been going well here in Uganda. I have had some very insightful experiences lately.  During our PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) visit last weekend I  began to realize how stifled creative thinking is in this country. Starting in education they are taught recitation… and sometimes it seems a bit like the blind leading the blind.  They have no arts and little phys ed., so let it be a warning to anyone out there that its imperative that we keep these subjects in out education system.  As people get older this lack of creativity falls out into business practices and even what they eat.  There really is a lot of options for food here, much of which is organic.  However, people eat really the same thing for almost every meal: matooke (think of mashed potatoes but its bananas), tilapia, peanut sauce, irish potatoes, eggplant, pumpkin, sometimes chicken…. But always prepared the same way.  It’s a bit sad to see such a lack of creativity, but it seems that it will leave a lot of room for us to help and to hopefully be able to draw creativity out of others in our villages and in our organizations.

 

I have also found out that I will be working with UWA in either Queen Elizabeth NP or Murchison Falls NP.  The official announcement goes out on Weds as to who everybody’s organization/location will be.  We can all hardly wait.  Everyone is very jealous of my placement, but I keep getting reminded by the country director that I will be very secluded.  I think I can deal with that—I will be living on a national park in Africa for Christ’s sake!!!!  The diversity in these parks is amazing—what you think of when you think of “Africa.”  So because I am “secluded” and in a park I have told everyone here that they have to visit me, and everyone seems pretty stoked about it.  Uganda has 10 NPs, I plan to go to all of them in the next 2 years.  There are also two big peaks, but in opposite sides of the country which I plan to summit.  There are 3 other guys in the group who are climbers, so we have a great little rock climbing team.

 

As for personal life, homestay is goin well.  It has definitely been an insightful experience.  My lung crud is clearing up and I am feeling much better.  We all got together last nite for a PCTs birthday and had a good nite unwinding.  We are almost halfway through training and a lot of us, me included, cannot wait to get to site.

 

Hope all is well at home.

Love,

Bri

TIA February 28, 2008

This is Africa!  i am here and i love it!  i dont have a ton of time, but i wanted to recap the last three weeks for all of you. 

the peace corps uganda group is amazing.  about 2/3 of us have formed a super cohesive group and they make my time here wonderful.  but lets back it up a little more, at jfk we had the pleasure of sitting in on the tarmack for an extra 2 hours.  our layover in brussles was only meant to be an hour and a half, so we got laid up in brussles for an extra 2 days!  poor us!  two days in brussles on the peace corps!  it was really good and we went out for one of the girls b-days (valentnines day) and hit up a gay bar for a mrs valentines pagent, which was just too packed so we moved on to a typical euro-bar for the rest of the nite.  too much partying, not enough sleep, and lots of recycled airplane air ended up gettin me sick for the first few weeks with a croopy cough.  but life goes on. 

training has been great.  the first place stayed for training had monkies to entertain us when we ate our meals.  the birds here are incredible.  i have become the group’s bird-identifier… along with much of anyother creature that passes us.  everyone always says, “ sabrina!  whats that!”

Now we are in Luweero staying with homestays.  So far it has been interesting.  Defintately a learning experience.  There is definately a gamit of homestay experiences amoung the group.  you get your good, bad, and ugly, but all in all it a lot of learning to understand and let go.  my host kids are great..  they dont really speak much english and i dont speak much luganda, but we have fun.  training does its best to be engaging.  we get to go to the field a lot for economics and see how business here operate and such.  language has been challenging because my family only speaks luganda and i am learning runtoro/ runoro.

some random note:

bodily functions and picking your nose are completely acceptable here.  so i fit right it.  just for that, i may never leave. (JK!!!) 

the birds are amazing!! and they are everywhere!  i think my favorite is the plaintain eater.  its call is manichial laughter.  and besides its just pretty cool looking.

i think ive seen a mongoose or something that resembles it.

my assignment is to work with UWA (uganda wildlife authority) to develop one of the parks in the west so that they are more sustainable and more accessable to ugandans.  i have been learning a lot about economics and business but think that this is a great opportunity to grow in the eco-tourism field.  (DREAM!!!)

i am the official hairstylist of the group.  i cut about 8 inches off of mel’s hair and got to shave shari’s head (she HAD hair past her shoulders),  trimmed up a couple of the lads and have a few more kids lined up.