Crater Lake Hike and Ndali Lodge

Today was our last day. We first went to the see the Crater Lakes on a hike. But what happened was that we were dropped off at the wrong starting point, walked an hour to the right starting point, and then finally walked two hours (up a small mountainous hill) to this remote trading post. Along the ways we saw Crater Lakes and little children shouting ‘muzungu’ and following us. It was very interesting to see how little contact with westerners these villages had. We then went to Ndali Lodge for a final Ugandan lunch. The hotel was very fancy and very scenic. It was basically built on a cliff. Our final activity was going to see Joshua, the Fort Portal Secondary headmaster. Joshua has a farm that has many different tropical fruits and we got to sample all of them and bring some back to the field station for dinner. We learned a large amount about the crops of Uganda, and how they are grown and eaten. For example, we learned how you chew sugar cane (no need for silverware!).

Fuel Stoves and Chimp Masks

I got to see my friend Bashir today. He is a student at Knyawara, and I just love him. He is the head boy there, and probably my favorite Ugandan. He helped Ms. Bator and I make our chimp masks and the three of us bonded. But I didn’t get to see him until the late afternoon. In the morning, we got to sleep late, until 9ish. Then we had breakfast, pineapple of course, and headed down the road to meet Beatrice’s sister, Margaret. She works with the Fuel Stove Project, and we went with her to help build a fuel efficient stove for a local family. It’s a really cool, really simple idea actually. The current stoves used by most families are just three piles of two bricks situated at each point of a triangle, and wood is placed in-between the three. It wastes a considerable amount of energy because the heat can escape in many different places; it’s basically just an open fire. The new stoves have a greater resemblance to bread ovens. They are like a box, with a hole where a door might be in a house, and a hole on top to let the heat transfer onto a pot or something. It’s hard to describe, but it makes much more sense than the current model. We were first shown how to construct one, and then we went into the kitchen area and started to build. I helped in applying the second layer of mud, which was used as cement to hold everything together. I got to throw mud at a pile of bricks, every young boys dream, and it actually helped complete something! The finished product was amazing, they have done comparative workshops using the old and new stove, and where the old stove has to use 10 kilos of wood, the new one only uses 4. There was also this adorable little girl walking around. She cannot have been more than 3 or 4 years old, but every time someone pulled a camera out, she started to pose like a seasoned model. It was hysterical. Once the stove was completed, we moved onto our next activity; visiting the clinic with Katya. She says that they only get like 10 patients a day, which must get pretty boring, but the set up of the clinic was nice. We had a nice packed lunch back at the field station, and then we finally got to go to Knyawara. I was so excited, it’s my favorite school. When we arrived, the mask club was waiting for us. Bashir and Steven quickly found Ms. Bator and I, and showed us to our masks. They had been pre-painted with black paint, and were ready to be varnished. They looked so cool with the varnish. At one point, this other boy came to sit with us, and he said that his name was Wilson. He and Bashir are best friends, which I thought was so sweet. They like to read together after school, and if Bashir has a football game, sometimes Wilson goes to watch because he does not play. I also found out that Steven was captain of the football team; he’s a good kid too. I really hope the three of them get to go to secondary school, they are all so smart. Steven and Wilson want to be doctors, which is great, but Bashir wishes to be a teacher when he grows up, how great is that? He is good at it too, he always helps the students around him, and when we were making the first part of the masks, he had Ms. Bator and I do most of it on our own so we could learn better. Making masks was really fun, and we had to leave too soon. After dinner we had a good game of presidents going in the dining hall and Dr. Maloney read everyone’s horoscopes. That was a good laugh. Today was a great day.

Mugusu Market and Fort Portal Rock Concert

This morning we went to a local market called Mugusu market. It was incredibly colorful and busy and filled with more people and animals and clothes and shoes and food than I’ve ever seen. It was a really fun atmosphere. One thing I didn’t like so much was that I kept passing chickens half of which were dead, the other half alive and I couldn’t predict ahead of time whether they would move at me or not. The people were so interesting. The teacher that came with us helped me bargain for a basket. The boys from Kasiisi, Steven and Edward, were so nice. They taught us to bargain in Rutooro. ‘Zingha' means 'how much,' and ‘No sera muno’ means 'too expensive.' Two very key phrases. Stephen carried the basket for me the rest of the time in the market. They were so nice.
After we went to lunch at the Rwenzori View Hotel. Katya told us it was pork and zucini. I’m not a fan of either so I wasn’t sure how good it’d be but I sat down with a semi open mind. They brought out pork. Then zucini. Then vegetables then potatoes then string beans then rice then a few more things I can’t even remember. It was all AMAZING. I even loved the ‘zucini explosion’ as we called it. I was so full after the meal and then they brought out desert. We had fresh fruit and home made ice cream. Once again amazing.
Then we headed of to a ‘rock concert’ at Fort Portal high school. I had no idea what to expect but I was pretty excited. We got there and I was in no way disappointed. There was music and dancing but not anything like what we saw at the primary schools. Joshua, the headmaster, is the best. He’s always smiling and joking and definitely always does things his own way. And the rock concert was proof of that. There was both a calypso and a bread and butter dance, two songs that are popular in Uganda. We were excited to hear them because we had heard them a couple days before and they had become two favorite Ugandan songs. The celebration was good because we were able to see what teen culture in like in Uganda. They even presented us with gifts individually. It was so nice of them I couldn’t believe it. I got a really cool straw bag. And of course they gave us even more food. It was very nice but I was ridiculously full. All the students were very friendly. I’d say over all, a great day.

Kigarama and St. Maria Goretti

Last night we had to decide whether to sleep in and go to Fort Portal all morning, or go with the teachers to Kigarama and help them teach their lessons before going to Fort Portal. We decided to go with the teachers, and I’m so happy about that decision. I went to the P1 class with Ms. Hunt and the kids are the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. They were so excited but so polite and well-behaved. I held the book while Ms. Hunt read about buttons in Rutooro. After reading the book, we taught a Rutooro counting song about buttons that Ms. Hunt wrote. Hearing the kids sing that song was wonderful, but my favorite was when they sang a lullaby for us. After the singing, we helped the kids make button necklaces and then we got to pass out the dolls made the Weston community, which was my favorite part of the day. The kids were so happy, and they were smiling so much. Some of them started cradling their dolls and playing with them, and nothing in recent memory has made me so happy. After assisting the teachers, we left for Fort Portal. Since we knew most places we wanted to go, I got all of my important shopping done. I got presents for everyone I needed presents for, and some necklaces and a bag for myself. For lunch, we sat outside and ate our peanut butter sandwiches and ordered fries. We then left for St. Maria Goretti. I had expected it to be a little awkward, since we would be interrupting exams, but it was actually really fun. We all separated and went with different groups of students. I went with the S1 girls, and they asked me a lot about America, and they sang some of their favorite songs and tried to teach me the words and the dances. They also asked me to sing, but I just sang lullabies, so it was pretty easy. Then their entire class all showed me around the school. They wanted to show me their rats, which made me really nervous, but it turns out that they were just guinea pigs. They showed me how to play net ball and raced me around the field. After they showed me around it was time to leave.

Fort Portal and Kyebambe Secondary School

Today was a very good day. We slept in to rest after last week’s exhausting pace. The day was fairly strait forward after that. We first went in to see Fort Portal. A fairly large city, Capital of the Tooro Kingdom and other assorted uses. The main street is lined with shops selling CDS, clothes, and crafts. I planned on ordering a shirt and bought some fabric for that purpose. After about an hour or so, we went to Kyebambe Girls Secondary School. There we were greeted by the appreciative scholars, who we interacted with and then ate a lunch together. It is pleasing to see how much the students valued their education. It really made me re-evaluate how appreciative I am for free secondary school. We then went back to the field station for the rest of the day I am glad for the change from scheduled activities to more unexpected experiences

Mweya Safari

Today we had to wake up at five fifteen to drive to Mweya for our safari. Five fifteen is REALLY EARLY. I was planning on resting during the drive but I ended up talking to the headmaster from Kigarama. Even though I didn’t get to rest, I started to have more energy later in the morning. We drove across the equator and stopped to take pictures. When we got into Queen Elizabeth National Park we started to see a lot of animals, like warthogs, Uganda cobs, antelope and a lot of birds. After we drove through the park for a while, we pulled over at a lake where salt was mined. There, the teachers switched vans with us so that we had the one where the top lifted up so we could stand up and look out. I was standing next to Charles, the student from Rweetera, and as we were driving, he pointed out this bird with a bright blue head. He told me it was called a goose, and I have to say I was really jealous because this bird was so much cooler than the geese at home. When we got within sight of the lake that our boat would be going out on, he pointed out some elephants on the opposite shore, which I loved, since elephants were what I was really looking forward to seeing. After we got on the boat, Alice and I went up to the top of the boat so we could see everything better. As the boat was going, we saw hippos, water buffalos, crocodiles, and more elephants, really close up. I got some really good pictures of elephants. We passed a small fishing village and then came to the Congo border, where we turned around and went back to the dock. We went to lunch at the lodge, which was amazing. I had a salad and the best veggie stir-fry noodles ever. After lunch we ordered ice cream and fruit salad, and then got back into the vans to drive back to MUBFS. Like last night, I had a lot of energy in the evening. We had a fun night, but not as much fun as the dance party with all of the kids last night. After dinner we stayed in the dining hall and hung out with everyone for a while, then we said goodbye to Ian, Elizabeth and Dr. Wrangham since it’s their last night. They’ve all been really great during our trip. After that, we went up to our room and got ready for bed.

Chimp Trekking

This morning we picked up four students and one teacher from Rweteera and headed off for the chimp trek. We weren’t even sure if we were definitely going to see chimps. We got there and there was one in the fig tree at the parking lot! I’d say it was pretty insanely lucky. We then traveled about an hour into the forest looking for more chimpanzees. Along the way our guide taught us about the different trees and their uses. We were also able to speak with the students from Rweteera about their families, school life, and favorite things. Once we got into the forest our guide took us to see three chimpanzees that were high up in the trees. They were difficult to see without binoculars. At this point, we thought our chimp luck had run out. We saw more, however, on the walk back. We got to see a mother with a baby on her back. It was a very exciting thing and definitely a once in a life time chance. I’d say a very lucky day.
After the chimp trek we went to the eat lunch at Tinka’s house. Tinka was a man who had set up a traditional Ugandan lunch and tourists could come and learn about traditional Ugandan food. We sat on cushions on the ground in a circle. We started with amazing Ugandan lemon grass tea (so good we visited the botanical gardens in Fort Portal to buy some a couple days latter). Then all the food was put out there were probably about ten different dishes. We had actually already had all but one of them. It was still interesting to learn about it all, to know more about what we had been eating, and the correct way to eat it. The students that had come along seem to have a good time and we all did to.