"I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list."-Susan Sontag

Monday, June 14, 2010

Chillin' with the Pumbas

Time for the blog about the safari!!!

But first some thoughts about life here,
For those of you who don't know we are really living IN Africa... I look out my window in the morning and see a cow and chickens running around, as well as people cooking outside and picking plantains to eat. Eric and I have to boil water to drink it and are the only white people in this whole town.

Also, pineapple here is amazing for lack of a better word! We figure its because they don't farm it here, it just grows wild, so there aren't any pesticides and the soil isn't over farmed like it is on plantations. I wish I could take some home but I don't think they would let me.

Another thing is people here love Obama. Once anyone finds out we are American we get so many questions about him. We even get them from other tourists from around Europe.




So back to safari talk,
Thursday we had school but I wasn't feeling well, I'm pretty sure it was because I got dehydrated, so I stayed home and got better. Everyone in the neighborhood wanted to diagnose what I had and almost had me convinced I had malaria. Even though I knew I didn't, people were insistent and it made me nervous. That night after I was feeling better Eric and I left for the Backpackers Hostel because we were leaving for our trip early the next morning. After taking advantage of the free internet there and having some Nile Special Lager we had an early night.

Friday morning we were up early for the long drive to Mercheson Falls Park. At this point, the circle of life from the Lion Kind began to get stuck in my head. The safari ended up only being Eric and I, along with another guy named Carl from Norway. He was really interesting to talk to because he was on his last week of a 6 month trip around the world. Many hours later after entering the park we stopped to view the top of the falls. The fall was quite amazing, we could hear them from about a mile away and when we got there we were getting wet from all the spray. (pictures to come, but even those don't quite show the magnitude of the falls). After viewing the falls we drove to the Red Chili Rest camp where we were to be staying (seeing many groups of Baboon's along the side of the road along the way), and had dinner overlooking the Nile River. At the camp sight there was a group of Wart Hogs or Pumbas as the call them here, as do I thanks to my love for the Lion King, and that being the theme of my weekend.
We got to meet some other tourists on the same safari from different companies here, one of the most memorable was Dave, a man volunteering in Kampala who was HIV positive himself, and came here to use that to help get through to some kids. He was a truck driver from Mississippi, and fit the stereotypical southern mold. He had gone through a lot of hard times and had so many interesting stories. One of the most interesting being his experience with Hurricane Katrina, because when it hit he was in jail for dealing meth and had an amazing story of how the prisoners were treated during a crisis when all the legitimate law enforcement had abandoned the city, at points they were left to die as the jails flooded, a remarkable story that I could never do justice retelling but it really opened my eyes to some things that go on, even in our own country.

Saturday was the big day. We woke up super early for the game drive around the savanna. We crossed the Nile by ferry in out small van and proceeded onto the plains. Here I saw so many more animals than I could of imagined! Right off the ferry we saw a group of hippos lounging in the river, then along the drive we saw elephants, giraffes, buffalo, antelopes, monkeys, wart hogs, and birds. Not to be disappointed, our driver did a little off trekkinng (driving off the road, highly illegal in the park), and we got super close to some giraffes, and dangerously close to some LIONS! There were a few other cars that had discovered the lions as well, but we saw a mother lion and her two cubs lounging in a bush, dining on a baby antelope she had recently killed. The pictures are amazing, and we have some video as well, where you can literally hear the bones of their dinner cracking as she eats it. Eric and I are still in shock we got to see this and get that close!
After stopping for a snack of pineapple, my fave! We drove back to the river crossing and back to The Red Chili for lunch. After lunch we went to take a cruise on the Nile up to the base of the falls. On the way we saw a ridiculous amount of hippos, and even some crocodiles! The cruise was great until it started storming and we were all soaking wet! Quite a cool experience but extremely uncomfortable. Eventually we made it to the base of the falls and tied the boat up to an island in the middle of the river and some of us got to climb out onto the rock, fun but if we had fallen we would of been swept away by the ridiculously rough current. We eventually cruised back to camp and spent the rest of the evening having dinner and sharing stories with other travelers.

Sunday was another early morning as we headed out of the Chimp Trek in the rain forest. This was cool getting to search for chimpanzees in the African Jungle, and I mean search. We definitely trekked as our guide created our own paths by chopping through brush with his machete and we were deep in the jungle. We even got to see a whole lot of chimps, which was a luxury being that many groups don't even see any. I ended the trek covered in mud and scratches but I couldn't help but be grateful making it back. Never being too scared or feeling like I was in actual danger, I did think of the rebel groups like the LRA, who have made appearances in this jungle, given the park is so close to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The night before I had heard about a group of American tourists being taken a few years before. But with that said don't worry everyone we are still alive and safely back in Kampala!

Monday we were back in school! After a late start Eric and I made it to class and I decided today I would teach about Marketing. I had some good reactions, and some bad, but overall I felt the kids learned something, and a few came up to me later in the day asking if I had any marketing books and wanting to know more, so the made me really happy. After classes a few of the girls and I were talking and many had some interesting questions about things like relationships and sex, it was cool they felt comfortable enough to talk to me about those things and I felt I got through to them. Another thing a few of the girls expressed is that they wanted a pen pal from the US. So as of now I am looking at maybe getting the school here connected with a school in the states to set up a pen pal exchange. I'm not exactly sure if it would work given they don't all have access to computers here, or the ability to pay for postage on snail mail, but its something I'm going to look into.

That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed the tales of Safari, and I can't wait to show you all the pictures and video!

Love and miss you all!!! Still having an amazing time, but can't wait to be home!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

On to the next one! Africa 2010

All ready for a quiet summer in san diego, i'm now in Uganda for a month with my brother Eric! After about a month at home having some relaxing time in Walnut Creek and two wild weeks in San Diego with a 21st birthday to be rivaled I took a plane ride that was way too long and we are here.

Not until I boarded the plane did I really even find out what and how we were getting here. Two years ago, Eric and Jill came through the global volunteer network and were placed at the Springs of Hope High School outside of Kampala, Uganda. Now Eric has created a close relationship with the director Angelo and this time we came directly through him and the school. While here we will be teaching English (i know ironic being that I am horrible at the subject) and other topics we see fit, such as Marketing and Customer Service for me, and Music for Eric.

Off to a good start I had forgotten my malaria medications so a rush delivery of those was a nice cost. That all being ok thanks to Jill who willingly did the foot work for me and got them sent off! When we arrived the night of June 1st into the Entebee Airport we were greeted by Angelo who was very excited to see Eric and meet me. The car ride to his house consisted mostly of me trying to stay awake and drifting off now and then but we had some interesting talks and I learned a little bit about the country. Angelo was talking about the bill they have in congress right now making homosexuality illegal and those breaking the law could be killed on the spot. Yikes! Quite a different world.

After we got to their house they showed us the attached house we would be staying in, it is pretty simple but comfortable. We set up the mosquito nets and went to bed.

The next few days we hung around a bit. Wednesday we went into the city. Quite an experience getting into the taxis from their town, large 14 passenger vans that people piled into, and then from the busy taxi park in the middle of the city with many people yelling mzungu (white person) we walked the streets a bit through the crazyness and Angelo showed us his favorite movie store, where you could get pretty much any film you wanted for under 2 dollars. After, we hopped on motor bikes to the mall called Garden City. Here is little europe, there are white people everywhere. We had lunch and watched a movie and did a few other things, then back to Bulenga (where we are staying) for the evening.

Susan (angelo's wife) makes us dinner every night, usually some form of rice and beans and plantains. Its pretty good but is getting old.

The next day was a public holiday so more hanging around. Moses, the headmaster of the school and Angelo talked to us about what we wanted to teach and when we should come to the school.

On Friday we went to our first day of classes. It was awkward at first and all the kids just stare at us because they can't understand us very well. We got a lot of stares and giggles. We taught a few classes of english and had the kids write about themselves. They write surprisingly well but you can tell they have a lot to still work on.

Saturday was a slow day, Eric was sick for a while so we had gotten him medicine the day before and chose today to rest. We played a lot of cribbage and Rage (like crazy 8's). I won't play rage anymore because I am so bad and got too far behind... I'm rarely a sore looser but it just wasn't fun anymore.

Sunday morning Angelo's cousin John took us to church. It was a catholic church, but in english so wasn't much different from a service in the US. On the way back we walked through some markets which was pretty interesting. That night Angelo took us out for dinner at a Karaoke type place, which was basically blasting ugandan rap music and some people would kind of sing along. The food wasn't very good but we sampled some Ugandan Beer.

Monday we were told we were not needed in class so Eric and I headed into town to plan a Safari! We booked one for this weekend so I'm sure my next update will be talking about that. After that we went to the Cafe Pap, a famous coffee shop in Kampala, which is also where I am now using the internet.

Tuesday we had another day at school, after a misadventure getting to the campus we taught some more english and Eric taught a little music. The kids really enjoyed that. Towards the end of the day we were supposed to be teaching another class but we ended up just hanging out the the kids, playing a little guitar and playing on the photo booth on the computer. The kids seemed to enjoy that much more than our pitiful excuse for an english lesson.

Wednesday (today) we have another public holiday so Eric and I decided to come to town and use the internet then head to school to hang out with the kids that live on campus.

Overall my experience so far has been really nice. Cold showers are one thing but we have running water (most of the time) and plenty of food. The people are amazingly nice compared to what i have encountered in many other places. People are excited to see Americans rather than think we are all fat and uneducated. Especially the kids, the ones at the school are all very interested in our lives and the young kids on the street are so excited to wee white people and are very friendly.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to add now but they will all be put up at some time after we get back to the states. Sorry it has taken me so long to update, but I hope this gives you an idea of what we have been up to.