Gorillas in the mist

Been a while since my last update. My apologies to those very few people who are keeping up with my life in Uganda and thanks for reading my blog...

So I gave in and decided to head out to Bwindi, the impenetrable forest, to trek the endangered mountain gorillas. Few families of gorillas roam around the forests in Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo but are endangered due to poachers. In Uganda, it costs $500 for the permit to see the gorilla. The permit includes a guide but that is just ridiculously expesive. But it goes to conservation and I couldn't possibly leave Uganda saying I didn't go see the gorillas so I gave in and decided to go. Anshu from section 3 (I think...) also convinced me to go see them. She is traveling all the way from Kenya to see them so why couldn't I.
We decided to splurge and get a special hire for 3 days. Yes, another major expense (like $100 per person for the whole weekend). It was either that or a super bumpy bus ride for 10 hours or so.
The drive was really about 10 hours in total but it wasn't a bad one though. We passed by the equator, the forest, and Queen Elizabeth National Park where we saw elephants, Uganda coop (?), baboons (ofcourse!), and water buffalos. The elephant charged us like a mad man. It scared me a lil bit 'cause he was so cute but so dangerous at the same time.


Our lodge in Bwindi was amazing (below). let me tell you. Amazing!! Anshu, the Indian negotiator, got the price down to $20/ night instead of $23. Was super greatful for her. Katharine and I are such push-overs when it comes to these things. Anshu also managed to get discounts on all our meals too. It was amazing to see her at work. We never really hung out in Fuqua but it was so great to see a common Fuquan in East Africa, an immediate bond. So much fun.
It really only took us 1 hour each way to find the gorilla family, Habryama (?). I was really ready to sit down and rest by the time we found them though. It was really a tough trek. Up and down some super steep hills. At one time, we were walking in a pile of brush and the ground was about 1 meter down. The gorillas were quite shy but almost acted like they didn't notice the humans around. There was one blackback who was definitely not shy though. (his photo at the top of this blog post) He kept posing in front of us. A different pose about every 2 minutes. It was awesome. The babies were really fun to watch too. Even the smallest little boy gorillas pound their chest and stand up really tall to show that they are in charge. It was so cute. The gorillas are such gentle creatures and they literally eat & sleep all day long like pandas. You can never tell if the moms are pregnant or not because her belly's always full and big. It was really amazing to see them just a few meters away.




It was just a really incredible experience. I recommend to all whose going to Uganda to try this one.

Trip out to western Uganda

-->The most manliest looking woman sign ever.

I took a trip out to western Uganda to visit a few more BRAC branches out on the field...

After arriving in Kampala at 7am on Tuesday morning to meet Prossy, my research assistant, we found the coach bus for Bushenyi (southwestern part of Uganda). According to surveys, Bushenyi is supposed to have one of the best sanitation in regards to the % of people who own toilets (or pit latrines). We got on an empty bus at 7am. I had a bad feeling but the bus ended up waiting in the parking lot until 10am until the bus was completely full. Then, 5 minutes after we took off, the bus got in a crash and ran into a car. The driver of the car & the bus driver were arguing for about 30 min with a crowd of people around them listening while they argued. The passengers in the bus were complaining and moaning but no one seemed to go outside to stop the arguing men. The police finally showed up and escorted the two somewhere else. 30 min later another driver hopped in the bus and we were finally on the go. Prossy told me that the originally driver got his license revoked.

We arrived in Bushenyi around 4pm and the branch manager was still there so we asked if we could visit some community health promoters. The community health assistants (?) brought us to the CHPs so we could survey them. As we arrived at one of the CHP's homes, the husband came out to greet us, offered us passion fruit juice, and was really begging for attention. After realizing that we were there to interview his wife, he went away. But as I was leaving his house, he begged me & Prossy to stay over at his place that night. I said no thank you but he insisted that I do. Then, he asked for my phone number... I was taken back and didn't know what to say. Then Prossy told him I don't have a phone. Thank god. She later told me that he said he wanted me... gross. On top of that the CHA tried to embezzel out of Prossy and I. She told us a different price for the boda than it actually is and we were pretty sure she got a cut from the boda drivers. She also tried to do the same with the guest houses she took us to. I was so shocked that someone at the office would do something like that. But I should have known since she kept complaining about how underpayed she was.

Ok. My trip had a rocky start but my trip to Fort Portal was a very pleasant one. The branch manager and the staff at Fort Portal were really sweet. The photo on the right is one of the staff, Irene. She kept calling me Hellen.

We stayed in a cheap guesthouse at the beginning of the trip ofcourse but after Prossy left, I decided to splurge and stayed in a nice guesthouse (well... it cost $25 but that's big money) and ate an $8 homemade meal at the guest house. The guesthouse was super cute. It's called Rwenzori View Guest House and overlooks the Rwenzori mountains. Its owned by a Dutch man and he was a friendly one. The set up of the common area really reflects his personality. The guests all sat around this huge table and shared the Dutch/ Ugandan homecooked meal house style. The guests were all older travelers from Europe. I ended up talking to this 67 yr old British man sitting next to me the entire time and even after his daughter retired to their room, we kept on talking... about Africa, agriculture (he is retired and has a farm as a hobby), wildlife, ecology... He had a lot of stories to tell and super interesting. I was just amazed at his vitality and hoped that at his age, I would have as much curiosity about the world & vitality as he did.

My room was pretty sweet too. I think my bed was like a king size and had the nicest looking bednet =) I even had my own front yard... really convenient for hanging all my laundry I had from my trip.

I really wanted to lounge around but I also had a dire need to see the town & all the wildlife around Fort Portal so I hired a special hire and took a trip out to the Bigodi swamp for a 3 hour hike with a private wildlife guide. Saw a bunch of monkeys, baboons, and exotic birds with my guide, 23 yr old Ivan. Ivan was super shy in the beginning but opened up as we started walking. He comes from a family of farmers so he knew a lot about the crops grown around the swamp... Tabacco, maize, coffee, tea, bananas... pretty much everything was there. But every Ugandan I had met seems to be pretty knowledgeable about farming. Its always very impressive.

Ivan was really nice but Paul the driver on the other hand was straight up obscene. All his conversations seemed to end up somewhere along the gutter. I played it off and was laughing at all his sexual jokes but that seemed to have encouraged him even more and told me that I should date a black man so we could be sister and brother. Well, as long as he could get me safely back to the guesthouse, that was all I cared about. The roads were really curvy and no one seemed to drive on the right side of the road.

I took another coach bus back to Kampala and arrived safely back to my hostel. Had an avocado & fruit salad with a bunch of dried soybeans... my favorite snack. Reminds me of setsubun in Japan.

This trip ended up being a really pleasant one at the end. Fort Portal is definitely a recommend for anyone traveling in Uganda!

Kampala weekend after a bedridden Malaria week

After a bed-ridden week of Malaria sickness, I had a great weekend in Kampala.
On Saturday, we went to an Ugandan vs Tunisia rugby match. It was my first rugby match viewing actually and ashamed to admit, I didn't really know the rules. Fortunately a British older rugby fan behind me had narrated the entire game out loud shouting "come-on winger, where are you"? "Oh that was a great penalty kick" and all that so I sort of got what was going on.
Uganda lost and it was a bit sad but I really liked their uniforms with the yellow sleeves. Katharine and I were saying they looked like pretty birds... Another thing we noted at the game (all completely unrelated to rugby) were the wonderful haircuts of a few Tunisian rugby player. All different styles of mullets. No. 14 in the picture below had one of the most beautiful mullets. I wish I could have captured him better in this picture.



After this adventure, we headed out to the International Arts Festival at National Theater. Surprisingly, this free festival ended up being very entertaining. First we watched a movie tribute about Tupac, a fashion show, then watched a modern dance performance about Obama's dad (they are really into Obama in Uganda), and sat outside while artists played a few songs one after the other... So many different genres from reggae to hip hop to traditional music to pop idol. To the right is a pix of the pop idol Cindy. She was actually really good. People seem to know her but the fans were definitely not like Shaggy concert. Although there were many guys dancing crazy and having a REALLY good time. It was a good time.

On Sunday, we decided to head out to Speke Resort by Lake Victoria. It was a beatufil resort with a pool, gym, and a horse stable!
We hung out by the pool enjoying the sun and appreciating the fact that we didn't have to walk on dirt roads. My feet have seen better days. It's become impossible to scrub the dirt off my feet.
We walked over to the Lake and spotted an enormous & most vivid rainbow we'd ever seen. It was so bright and colorful that it really looked painted on in the sky. We all took pix of ourselves holding the rainbow... Here's me to the right. Pls ignore the hair.

After, we went over to the music festival one more time and saw a monologue about a guy talking about genital mutilation & street kids, then watched some bands play. We left after a few hours, grabbed some Chinese food at the Great Wall & drove back to our hostel.

To a great weekend in Kampala with my roomies Naishin and Katharine, friends from Backpakers, and Nik.

The first Malaria experience

After coming back from the rafting trip, I swore I had food poisoning since I couldn't keep any food down. Even drinking water hurt my stomach. I was trying to look back and think about all the street food I had eaten the last few weeks to think which one had done the trick.
I woke up this morning sweating and felt really hot so I asked my roommate Naishin if I could use her thermometer and my temperature was about 102 degrees (about 39 degrees). That's relatively high for me but I thought I'd wait it out to let the heat kill the bacteria in my stomach.
Naishin and Katharine left for work and I decided to rest at home today.
Had to run to the bathroom about 7 times feeling sick through the day but after Peter called me at 2pm and sounded extremely worried, I thought I should really go see the doc. Katharine and Naishin picked me up with BRAC's driver and took me to a clinic in town. I was extremely dehydrated from not being able to keep water down that I felt extremely dizzy and couldn't really sit still.
After finally seeing the doctor of what it seemed to be of a really long wait (although it was prob only about 30 min to an hour), he let me go lie down on a bed and take in some IV fluids while running some blood tests.
The doctor came back telling me that there were small signs of Malaria in my blood. I was a bit confused, does that mean I have Malaria? I always thought Malaria was either you have it or not. But I think the symptoms I had were in the early stages 'cause I didnt have those hung-over like headaches or really bad fevers like I'd read about.
Anyhow, I got my shot in my butt and I gotta take a few pill cocktails for the next few days but Malaria is even more common than the flu so thank god I got it here... But I can't believe I got Malaria after 3 weeks in Uganda and after taking Malarone which cost me $400. I'm definitely gonna try to get that money back...
Well, all I gotta say is thank goodness for my lovely roommates Katharine and Naishin. Wouldn't have made it without them!

We shall take a trip to Iganga and Jinja...

After deciding to do my field study in the eastern area of Uganda, Prossy and I took the taxi over to Iganga. On the way to Iganga, we passed by Jinja... where I ended up at the end of the trip.
After we got off the taxi, we took a bicycle boda to the branch office. I met the area mgr who recommended us that we should stay at the Mwaana hotel, that all foreign guests stay there. After hearing the price per night, 40,000 shillings per night (about 16 dollars per night), Prossy and I decided it was over our budget and stayed in a place called Tip Top for $6 per night. It was actually not of a bad place as I imagined. They actually had bednets. Was happy about that... But definitely no toilet seat and no hot water. Toilet seat seems to be a luxury in Uganda. I think my thies are gonna get stronger from the squatting.

The random picture to the right is a local market in Iganga with a row of ladies selling banana for matoke, the staple Ugandan meal.
When I was in Iganga, I tried to eat as much of the local food (and as cheap) as possible. Prossy and I ate local food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My favorite is still matoke and gnut sauce. Its simple and tasty. The tilapia is not bad either. Especially the deep fried whole tilapia.

While visiting the microfinance ladies and adolescent club girls who aren't in the schools, I realized that personalities in Uganda really differs depending on the region. According to Prossy, the people in the area (Busoga trible) that I visited where a bit more reluctant to help out and more protective. Well, that opinion may have been completely biased since she is from Kampala, Buganda tribe.

I was really hesitant to take out my camera the first few weeks but I bust it out everywhere now. Some people here love having photos taken of them. They dont smile though. I have a few serious profile shots of women and I'm supposed to develop and send them pix. But to be honest, I have no idea where to develop photos here or if the mail system is reliable. I requested the girl with the blue shirt to smile. It was a hard task =)

After my time in Iganga, I left for Jinja to conduct field study. First night, Prossy and I found a guesthouse for 5dollars/ room. We shared this tiny room and talked til late at night. I realized that a lot of Ugandans (including Prossy) are extremely religious. She brought her bible with her and read me a verse. She told me that the church is trying to promote monogomy and that she will only want to be with a man that is monogomous. Polygomy is still common in the rural areas in Uganda and accepted. Marital affairs are also very common and the percentage of HIV positive people in Uganda are supposed to be higher within married couples. I thought it was really inspiring to hear Prossy talk about her religion and seeing how dedicated she is to it.

After our field study in Jinja was over, I decided to stay at King Fischer. Awesome resort by the Nile River owned by an Indian. (as you can tell by the name) It was only 25dollars a night. Such a great deal. They have little grass hut bungaloes sorrounding a pool and own access to the Nile. It would be a really nice place to go with a group of girls or as a couple. But was on my own... It was really nice though. Read my book and hung out by the river.

On Saturday, the girls Naishin and Katharine came over to Jinja so we could go white water rafting on Sunday. On Saturday, we stayed at Explorer campsite. Really amazing facility for a hostel/ campsite overlooking the Nile. We toured the city of Jinja a little bit on Saturday along with a few other girls from our hostel back in Kampala who were on the trip with us. One Irish girl and one Scottish girl. It's still rainy season here so the roads were super muddy but we decided to trek it to the taxi stop.

After visiting some shops and going to eat some pizza at "2 friends", we decided to take bodas back since the hired car ripped us off. We had an unfortunate incident with the bodas. Completely a misunderstanding but they ended up wanting more than what we had agreed upon. It was so chaotic. I have never argued with any stranger like that in public. Anyways, we ended up settling for an amount more than what we wanted to pay but all of us were so pooped from the incident.

That night, I drank a few beers with Nik my coworker and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night with cold sweat. Reminded me a little of the way i felt in Jaipur when I got sick. I knew it wasn't good. Ran to the bathroom a few times through the night and couldn't really sleep. I was determined to go white water rafting the next morning though so try to hang in there. After a 20 minute rocky truck drive to the Nile where the white water rafting starts off, I decided today is just not the right day for this. My stomach really felt uneasy and I knew the rapids would cause me to vomit on the boat. For my sake and for the sake of the other girls on the boat, I decided to take it easy at the campsite.

Well I will go again soon!

First few weeks of Uganda

I have arrived in Uganda!! It actually has been almost 2 weeks. Decided to start writing up a blog, inspired by my roommates Naishin and Katharine. My Japanese blog about Fuqua isn’t getting updated so frequently so I hope this one does a bit better.

I landed in Kampala May 15^th and I’ve been living at this house owned by a landlord named Janet Frida (?). She is a super big woman and seems extremely motherly. But turns out she’s a scumlord just like the ones in Berkeley. After my roommates arrived, they noticed how unsafe it is. I never really gave a second look but I was the only white person in the entire neighborhood, a girl, living on my own in a house… The 15 year old kid who the landlord calls “askari” (guard in Swahili) and his little brother are super sweet but definitely wouldn’t be able to protect me from scary robbers. It really never hit me the first week and a half I was living there. So naïve…

Anyhow, we moved to “Backpackers on Natete Wakaliga Road”. Yeah! This is the total muzungu hangout. It’s a youth hostel. With a pool table, bar, restaurant, and a campground. My roomies and I are sharing a room & I feel like I’m back in Tau House again =) Hey. It’s not a bad feeling. Just something I didn’t expect from my MBA internship. I’m pretty confident that I have more stories to tell than most from 2^nd week into my internship…

I went out in the “field” today for my first time to conduct interviews and focus group discussions with women in Kalerwe. My project’s a market research project for producing low cost sanitary napkins in Uganda. BRAC (the organization that I intern at) does this in Bangladesh and it has proven to be fairly successful. They sell sanitary napkins for half the price of what the imports cost. A lot of women use newspaper, rags or anything they can get their hands on since the imports are so expensive. As u can imagine, this just isn’t very good for you… Maybe the next decade, BRAC will be making low cost tampons….

It turns out most of the women I interviewed already uses sanitary napkins… although they would love to have ‘em available much cheaper. But granted, these women are not the poorest of the poor. They receive microfinance but they all have businesses & can sustain themselves.

The research assistant Prossy showed me around the slums of Kalerwe. It was definitely worth looking around. Some of the houses are made of mud and tin. The houses are crammed together so