The Muzungu meets Wandering Trader in Kampala
Wandering Trader Marcello Arrambide wandered into Kampala last week.
Marcello is a fellow travel blogger. I saw he was in East Africa and made contact. We swapped e-mails about gorilla trekking in Uganda, what to do in Kampala, and the pros and cons of driving in Kampala. I’d said he could stay for a couple of nights. This seemed like a good idea until he told me his flight was arriving at 2 AM!
I fell asleep on the sofa and woke with a start at 6 AM to realise that he hadn’t called me from the airport for directions. Weird. Checked on the laptop and my first Twitter message of the day was from him saying (to the whole world) “your phone was off!!!”
I was secretly disappointed that Marcello didn’t come and stay with me – in a regular house – and experience what it’s like to live in Kampala these days: power on and off for 12 hours at a time every other day for weeks on end now.
My phone wasn’t off. It turns out someone had input my number incorrectly!
I located Marcello’s hotel and rocked up at 11 o’clock. The receptionist called him and he told me to go up to his room, not something I normally do on a first date (or do I?)
My friend Sheila was a bit disturbed when I’d told her that a random (male) stranger was coming to stay at my house. “It’s okay, he’s a blogger,” I mock reassured her.
Her words were in my thoughts as I knocked on Wandering Trader’s door. What would she think?
“Come in, it’s open,” I heard a man’s voice cry – and there he was, lying in bed.
“Come give me a hug!”
“Er… you’re all right,” I said, keeping my distance.
He patted the end of the bed. “Sit down.”
I sat on the chair.
“Oh God you’re so English!” he said.
So what do you say to that one?
“Welcome to Kampala!”
Party with your closest relative!
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary – the Flagship project for the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT) – is fundraising to refurbish the sanctuary enclosure / electric fencing system for the sanctuary. The electric fence – erected about 10 years ago – today helps staff, visitors, students, local communities and tourists view the Chimpanzees with minimal or no contact.
The forested island of 100 acres is located 23 km offshore from Entebbe and provides a safe haven where orphaned chimpanzees are free to roam. It offers a unique opportunity for close viewing of chimpanzees in their natural environment. Prearranged supplementary feeding brings the chimpanzees within metres of the raised walkway, specially designed for easy viewing. It’s a fantastic vantage point for photos and to appreciate the almost chimps now resident on this small island.
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary is a fantastic experience. If you live in Uganda – or are visiting – it’s a must-do experience and a great day out (you can even stay overnight on Ngamba Island!) I’ve visited twice and can’t wait to go again! CSWT’s CEO Lilly Ajarova has been a volunteer Director of UCF (the Uganda Conservation Foundation) for many years and it’s always an honour to support such a committed lady, a fellow marketer and conservationist. She’s been a inspiration to me.
UPDATE: This event was a great success!
To find out about upcoming kids events, fundraisers and more at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, email reservations@ngambaisland.org
or call +256 414 320662 / +256 758 221880.
The photo was taken at the cafe in the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), also known as Entebbe Zoo. Free entrance to the zoo is included in the entry ticket to Ngamba Island and it’s a lovely place to chill out.
Have you visited Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary? What was your favourite part of the experience?
Lessons in parenting from Mweya’s Mongooses!
A morning with the famous Banded Mongooses of Queen Elizabeth National Park
I often forget when we go out on safari how – even on short distances – a vehicle is necessary. And so, armed not with a gun or a machete, but a long radio antenna, we jumped into the back of a pickup truck and headed off the main track and into the scrubby bush.
The sun was shining as we watched Pink-backed Pelicans sailing down the Kazinga Channel towards us. Within just a few minutes, our researcher guides Solomon and Francis had tracked down our family, one of six habituated groups of Mongooses* living on the Mweya peninsula in Queen Elizabeth National Park, western Uganda. Over two decades of research have given Solomon, Kenneth and Francis an intimate knowledge of Mweya’s nine families of Banded Mongoose.
Our job for the morning was to weigh each of the 32-member family. But where do you start?
With a call of “coo-coo-coo-coo-coo” the mongooses come trotting out of the bush, snorting, sniffing, whistling and chirruping.
Well, would you believe it – these guys can be identified by their different haircuts! Every two weeks each mongoose has a number clipped into the fur onto its back to identify it. Regular monitoring is invaluable in monitoring their health.
As the mongoose family rolled up, we set to work. Each mammal was individually weighed and its personal number and weight noted. (What impressed me was how Solomon managed to remember which individuals he’d weighed). Later, the data is compared to check that the mongoose pups are growing healthily and to monitor any pregnancies.
During the weigh-in, the researchers told us about Mongoose society
Known as ‘cooperative breeders’ the female mongooses all give birth on the same day. Incredible! As many as 15 pups will be born in a day. A pup can be suckled by any of the females. Pups will then choose which male – the babysitters of the species – will care for them. According to Solomon, a pup can distinguish between a good or a bad parent. (These fascinating creatures could surely be good role models to a few men we could mention!)
If a subordinate female becomes pregnant, when the dominant four females aren’t, she will be “beaten up” in Solomon’s words, and forced to abort. If she’s lucky, she will then be allowed back into the group (the risk is that if subordinates keep getting pregnant, they threaten the dominance of the group). Examples of this behaviour were captured on the BBC TV series Banded Brothers, aired in 2010.
When I commented on how healthy the mongooses looked, Solomon replied “Yes, these are rich guys. They live near the Lodge!” Rubbish from Mweya Lodge and the Uganda Wildlife Authority hostel is collected and taken to a covered pit, but with so many tourists passing through Mweya, it’s inevitable there are still scraps of food to be scavenged.
When they find a rat “they go crazy and make a lot of noise” to attract the rest of the group to the hunt. We watched as a Mongoose (carefully) attacked a giant Millipede, bashing it against the ground to first remove its poison. The others were quick to dive in and help him eat it.
When they’re not busy foraging or fighting, mongooses can be seen removing the ticks and lice from compliant warthogs. Did you know this behaviour only happens in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park? Other unusual behaviour witnessed here was the Mongoose who took a dip in the lodge pool!
To get closer to the action, I sat on a tuft of grass at the edge of the track. Note: sitting down on the bare grass is not recommended. By afternoon, my legs were itching like crazy!
As we talked, we heard a car pass along the track above us. Every Mongoose was on high alert, heads turned in the direction of the noise, on their back legs, scanning the horizon. With a piercing shriek, the crew scattered. They headed for cover, as one.
“If they see a Leopard they will just freak and run. Even if they find the dung of a lion, they run!” (And so might I!)
The Mongoose’s greatest enemies are the Leopard and the Python. Just recently a Leopard had attacked their den and eaten five of them. At Kabatoro Gate, a Python had eaten a mongoose wearing the radio collar. They’d tracked the perpetrator of course!
How to book the Mongooses Experience
A few hours – or longer – in the presence of these knowledgeable researchers, who so obviously love their subjects, is a great way to get up close to nature, support conservation and see the park from a different angle. Unlike some other wildlife experiences, you can get out of the car and even let the Mongooses run between your feet.
The experience can be booked with the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
What is so special about mongooses?
There are 32 species of Mongooses in the world, of which only four are social: the Meercats, the Dwarf, the Yellow and the Banded Mongooses.
The Banded Mongoose Research project is run by the universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Zürich (and has links to more photos and video footage). And why are they studying Uganda’s Banded Mongooses? “These ‘cooperatively breeding’ societies pose a challenge to evolutionary theory because natural selection is expected to favour selfish behaviour that maximises an individual’s reproductive success. The banded mongoose population at Mweya provides an opportunity to answer questions about the evolution of cooperation and the resolution of conflict in wild mammals.”
*One Mongoose (singular), several Mongooses (plural).
Have you taken part in the Mongooses Experience?
Lonely Planet votes Uganda No. 1 for 2012!
Lonely Planet Uganda: Lonely Planet votes Uganda No. 1 for 2012!
This is my shortest post ever – the title says it all!
I’m so delighted to be part of something that is helping promote the beautiful country of Uganda, and her fabulously warm and welcoming people. I’ve been voting for Uganda every day since I arrived two and a half years ago.
Diary of a Muzungu has been appearing on Lonely Planet, as part of the travel bloggers’ Blogsherpa programme since 2009.
“We go, we go, Uganda – WE GO!”
Read the short review on Lonely Planet here:
Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel: top 10 countries for 2012 – the results
Jebale bassebo! Jebale banyabo! “Well done!” as we say in UG.
Here is what the Lonely Planet judges wrote about Uganda in 2011:
“It’s taken nasty dictatorships and a brutal civil war to keep Uganda off the tourist radar, but stability is returning and it won’t be long before visitors come flocking back. After all, this is the source of the river Nile – that mythical place explorers sought since Roman times. It’s also where savannah meets the vast lakes of East Africa, and where snow-capped mountains bear down on sprawling jungles. Not so long ago, the tyrannical dictator and ‘Last King of Scotland’ Idi Amin helped hunt Uganda’s big game to the brink of extinction, but today the wildlife is returning with a vengeance. This year Uganda also celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence; Kampala, one of Africa’s safest capital cities, is bound to see off the event with a bang. Still, Uganda still isn’t without its problems. Human rights abuses aren’t uncommon, and the country breathes a collective sigh whenever President Museveni thinks of another ruse to stay in power for a few more years. But now, as ever, explorers in search of the source of the Nile won’t leave disappointed.”
What is the muzungu doing in Uganda anyway? Read Interviews with the muzungu.
A close encounter with lions!
One of the incredible benefits of working with UCF, the Uganda Conservation Foundation, has been work trips to the Bush – and free game drives. Friends and family back home may be under the impression that’s all I’ve been doing for the last two and half years! Unfortunately, once I’d got the hang of the projects, trips and wildlife encounters (in the Bush at least) were few and far between and I spent as much time chained to the laptop as I did in any other office job I’ve ever had, writing one funding proposal after another.
Feline like a quickie in the Bush – then time for breakfast
Yet the Bush is still within a day’s drive from home, UCF has given me some wonderful contacts in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and I am indeed a very lucky girl to (continue to) have this experience. I make the most of every day I have in Uganda – here’s a highlight from last week:
The driver had promised us the earliest of starts (although I was disappointed that the agreed game drive would happen in a bloody saloon car!) I’d insisted that we should go in a 4×4 but come 6.30 in the morning, I’d buttoned my lip, deciding to make the most of the cheap price and trusting in the fact that a locally based guide should be able to find all the wildlife straightaway.
Eddie the driver gave us the normal tourist platitudes, and I switched off. UCF has spoiled me. We’ve travelled with rangers off the beaten track; we’ve followed the lion researchers at night and heard all kinds of wildlife close-encounter stories round the campfire.
At the famous Kasenyi track, south of Lake George, we headed for where the lions had last been seen. With the grass long, thanks to the seasonal rains, spotting a lion can be near impossible. Sometimes all you see are the tips of their ears or a flick of a tail.
Awesome, truly.
“Look, he’s just finished mating! Now he will want to hunt.”
Three handsome adult lions, a female and two brothers, were in a lazy, playful mood and Eddie anticipated their next move.
I was captivated: I had never seen male lions at such close quarters. They really are magnificent.
The males casually sauntered off to our right and the female lay down to drink water. As we slowly drove past her, I suddenly had a tight feeling in my stomach, realising what a powerful, and potentially lethal, animal I was approaching.
We stepped on the gas to head the lions off, further along the track. And there they were, not at all perturbed by our presence, two magnificent male lions walking directly towards us (walking directly towards us?! Hang on a minute shouldn’t I be scared?) Admiration turned to fear right at the last minute as the two enormous lions walked the length of our car just a metre from us. I grabbed the camera.
What a handsome creature!
As the big pussycats and I made eye contact, I felt myself slide down my seat (much to the delight of my friend, who giggled and poked fun at me from the back of the car). The lions crossed the track heading for the Uganda kobs’ mating ground (their favourite place for breakfast). I’m just glad it wasn’t me on the menu…
These aren’t the best wildlife encounter photographs. To photograph wildlife requires a good zoom lens and more than an impromptu five minutes with the animals in question. I’m pretty pleased with my x10 optical zoom but hey, when wildlife gets this close – who needs the zoom anyway?
Kampala to Nairobi by bus – 14 hours of speed bumps!
Travel by bus between Uganda and Kenya – with tips and links to some of my favourite travel stories!
It was a terrible night’s ‘sleep’ – a 14-hour bus journey from Kampala to Nairobi: the speed bumps shuddered us awake every few minutes. I swear I woke a hundred times. I awoke cold, shivering and aching.
A few glasses of Waragi – it was my birthday after all – would have knocked me out, but I daren’t drink too much when I know (from the equally long bus ride to Kigali in Rwanda) that the bus drivers have bladders like camels and only stop once, twice if you’re lucky, on the whole journey.
Cowhides for sale along the road to Nairobi from the Uganda border
As night became day, I heard Chinese say “Nagawa, look!” and she pointed to a beautiful caldera (volcano), tinted pale brown, with a pale blue sky and mist in the distance. What a magical sight.
An hour before reaching Nairobi, I watched people walking to work: a man carried enormous lidded baskets over his shoulder, donkeys trailed box carts, a man lay on the ground inspecting his bicycle. Stalls sold cowhides displayed at the roadside.
The bus sped past the ‘Master Kitchen Hotel’ and ‘Hotel Paradise’, two-room shacks painted in bright vertical stripes. Despite their simplicity, I enjoyed the variety of the architecture, in contrast to the uniformity of Uganda.
As we passed tree plantations, I thought of Professor Wangari Maathai founder of the Green Belt Movement and wondered whether they were her work? She died just a few days before we travelled. Since 1977, the Green Belt Movement has planted over 45 million trees in Kenya, and thousands of women have been empowered to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. In 2004, Wangari Maathai became the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I’d been thinking about her all week and what an incredible role model she was so it was quite moving to be racing through Kenya and seeing plantations of young trees.
In Nairobi, street sweepers’ brooms have handles! – unlike the back-breaking work in Kampala where the ladies are bent double, laboriously sweeping the roads by hand, as rush hour traffic speeds past inches away from them.
Despite the grubbiness of downtown Nairobi (why do bus stations always take you to the shittiest parts of town?) I had to smile at the wonderfully named shops ‘Recovery Pharmacist’ ‘Arise and Shine Fashions’ and ‘Best Care House Girls.’
Our group stumbled, bleary-eyed, out of the bus and jumped in a matatu (slightly less battered than the Kampala ones!) and headed to our hotel in a leafy part of town. I couldn’t believe it when we pulled up next door to the HQ of the Green Belt Movement! The Hashers made for the bar; I made my way to the condolences book and paid my humble respects, alongside tributes from governments and politicians from across the world. I couldn’t believe the timing – I confess I’d only recently known of Professor Maathai’s work and here I was staying a few metres from the base of this fantastic operation, during the week of condolences.
Paying respects – condolences book. late Professor Wangari Maathai
This cross-border bus journey marked the start of the epic Nairobi to Naivasha Relay which Kampala Hash House Harriers have emulated with our equally awesome Kampala to Jinja Relay!
I love the Hash – together we have travelled all corners of East Africa – and beyond – to Hoima, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Malindi and even to the border with South Sudan (where some silly muzungu got rather lost!)
If you enjoy my cross-border bus journeys, read The real ‘boda boda’ – Nagawa travels sidesaddle into Kenya and MASH-tastic the muzungu’s bus tips from Kampala to Nairobi.
The real ‘boda boda’ – Nagawa travels sidesaddle into Kenya
There were plenty of seats on the bus – so why does the big man always have to sit next to me? As we prepared to leave the Kampala bus park, he reclined his seat and wedged two greasy paper bags between us. “Do you even have an apple to eat?” he asked me as he proceeded to munch fried chicken from one hand and a chapatti from the other; he sprawled in every direction for 14 hours.
We drove straight into heavy evening traffic – and the side of a car. After ten minutes of arguing and arm waving, the consensus was that the car was the one-size-fits-all-Ugandan-term: “stubborn.”
The journey to the Uganda Kenya border passed without incident until one in the morning, when I was roused from the night’s only decent bit of sleep to see somebody in a uniform wave some banknotes right in my face.
In my effort to not be ripped off at the border, I got ripped off at the border – not so much by individuals as by the system: money from my British bank account was issued in Ugandan shillings at the ATM in Kampala. I changed some into Kenyan shillings for the border crossing. Much to my annoyance, I then had to purchase a single $50 note for my visa! (They wouldn’t let me pay the equivalent in either shilling). I don’t even want to think how much money I literally threw away but I didn’t have much choice: my special (work) pass ran out with my Voluntary Services Overseas placement and I needed to leave Uganda in order to reenter on a new tourist visa while my new special pass is being processed.
As the only muzungu on the bus, it was hardly surprising that the bus drove off without me while I took time to change money and fill in forms at the border. “It’s ok” Dirty Dick said “we’ll get on the bikes” and he pointed to the two boys who’d just appeared on pushbikes next to him.
I hitched up my dress and lifted one buttock onto the small padded seat above the back wheel and the four of us pedalled off into the darkness of the no-man’s-land between Uganda and Kenya.
Kampala’s (in)famous boda boda motorbike taxis – that seem to swarm around Kampala like cockroaches – started here, on the border crossing between the two countries. Like them or loathe them, they provide an invaluable public transport service and we couldn’t do without them now.
A big bat swooped beneath the arc of a solitary street light as we coasted down a short slope through a lorry park. The place seemed deserted. I felt the bike wobble (or was that my *kabina?)
Crossing back into Uganda three days later, under my Ugandan name Nagawa (according to the bus ticket) I was issued with a 3 month visa which says I – travelling on a British passport – am a citizen of the USA!
*A kabina is what a lady sits on – the bigger it is, the more compliments she gets!
Nairobi to Lake Naivasha Relay – local people watch as runners and carloads of Hashers motor through to Naivasha
This cross-border bus journey marked the end of the epic Nairobi to Naivasha Relay which Kampala Hash House Harriers have emulated with our equally awesome Kampala to Jinja Relay!
I love the Hash – together we have travelled all corners of East Africa – and beyond – to Hoima, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Malindi and even to the border with South Sudan (where some silly muzungu got rather lost!)
If you enjoy my cross-border bus journeys, read MASH-tastic the muzungu’s bus tips from Kampala to Nairobi and Kampala to Nairobi – 14 hours of speed bumps and No hurry in Africa.
Still counting myself lucky! 2 years on …
As I stumble home through the craters of Tarmac, alternately blinded by oncoming motorbikes and plunged into darkness, thanks to yet another power cut (who knows how long for this time) I count myself lucky: for the last two and a half years as a volunteer, I’ve essentially worked from home in a quiet, controlled environment. I haven’t had to fight through the dust and the traffic every morning, sit on stuffy public taxis or risk being pulled over by hungry Traffic Police on the way to work. I’ve been able to (mostly) get on with my job (give or take electricity / internet connection / resources!) Eva mops the floor, makes the bed and does the shopping – it’s therefore no surprise I’ve become fat!
I haven’t had to visit patients in the slum whose pathetic makeshift houses flood every time it rains. One medic friend told me how one of his patients (sick with HIV and tuberculosis) had turds floating through his home when he last visited. There’s no such thing as a bed base, just a foam mattress, which absorbs whatever enters into his house. As a visitor, hospitality dictates that you take the seat you are offered.
Need I say more?
The view over my compound wall. Namuwongo ‘go down’ by railway Kampala
One day, I don’t know when, I’ll miss the sounds of human activity from beyond our compound that connects my sometimes isolated life to the real world. The music and the drums, the screams of babies and a hammering of tin mabati roofs can annoy me though. As for the man who slowly pushes a frozen food container along on his bicycle, up and down the railway track, every afternoon to the sound of Greensleeves played on his cheap Chinese speakers; I can’t say I’ll miss him – but I’ll never forget him. He always seems to come at that moment in the afternoon when we’re all feeling lethargic or trying to rework that crucial bit of a funding proposal.
It’s only 8.15 pm but it’s pitch black and I’m exhausted after a late-night working and a few Waragis (local gins).
I’ve been bitten to buggery this evening.
I’m often aware of how easy my life has been here in Kampala. Simon, a VSO doctor, tells us of the clinic he’s trying to develop in Lira, Northern Uganda. You expect to hear about a lack of resources and a lack of facilities. There is no question of them having any medicines – that’s not such a surprise either. But, you would think the hospital might have some stock of sutures (stitches) and surgical gloves. So, if you need a Caesarean section, the deal is this: you go to the hospital, are given a shopping list and you then nip to the shops and buy your sutures, gloves etc. Sometimes people come back an hour or two later with the wrong items – at which point they are sent back to the shops. Needless to say, many babies – and their mothers – simply die.
Last week I gave blood to help a seven-year-old boy who was very sick with Sickle Cell Anaemia. It’s the first time I’ve ever known anything about the person who receives my donation. The urgent plea for donations came from a nurse Diane, another VSO. The urgent request came because the blood bank had said they didn’t have any the right type of blood left. An official letter had been written, e-mails were sent and favours were asked. By the time we arrived at the blood bank, they said they had plenty in stock! I don’t know how I would cope with this kind of bureaucracy and lack of communication on such a crucial issue. We’ve had plenty of setbacks at UCF, but to have to physically run between buildings on different sides of the city, when you have very sick people in your care, I think I would have gone berserk.
On a personal note, however, I was delighted to get through the blood screening straightaway, no longer anaemic (for the first time here in Uganda). The diet of iron tablets and the occasional bit of stringy chicken are obviously working!
Link to my blog ‘Count yourself lucky’ written exactly two years ago.
Percy the Rescue Puppy – the first 24 hours
Within just one day, Percy the rescue puppy has snapped two leads, (something that Baldrick hasn’t ever attempted in two years); he has chewed and destroyed the doormat, eaten several banana leaves and the lower leaves of the avocado tree!
Is it the first time Percy has encountered all these things? He waved his Get Out of Jail Free card yesterday and left confinement at the USPCA in Mbuya. (Or is his behaviour simply that of a little Fokker?) I guess he’s teething and trying out his new teeth.
He’s very happily trotting around the compound after Baldrick, who has been giving him the cold shoulder most of the day.
It was sad to split the two surviving puppies, but I can’t have three dogs. (I told Ronald to keep reminding me of this!) I thought it best to leave the pretty one behind because she’ll have more chance of attracting a new owner.
Percy was immediately submissive and affectionate to me so should be an easy first puppy for me – I hope!
Percy and Ronald Kyobe, great friend and owner A to Z Mobile Dog Training Unit Kampala
Ronald bundled Percy up and put him in the car as we left the USPCA. He didn’t make a sound, although it did take Ronald a few minutes to yank him out from underneath the passenger seat when we got home!
Baldrick inspects the new arrival
The new arrival was wedged under the car seat hiding!
The first thing Ronald did was put Percy on the lead and drag him round to the outside tap for a good shampoo (he did whiff). No sooner was Percy clean and glossy then he lay down in a big puddle of course. I think he enjoyed the warm water, although it must seem very strange to him: the smell of the shampoo and all the different sounds out in the big wide world. I wonder what he thought of the loud Sunday afternoon drumming from the slum by our house?
A nice clean puppy! Don’t you love those white socks?
Percy glugged down his bread and milk in seconds, giving me shifty looks, daring me to take it, racing against the clock. I guess that’s a hangover from life at the USPCA – there were 83 hopeful dogs in there yesterday! They’ve done a fantastic job with him.
Two months ago, Ronald and I delivered Percy and his brother and sister to Dr Alex the USPCA vet. The puppies had severe mange, anaemia, allergy to fleabites and had to be quarantined. One died. They were rolls of skins on bare bones; their transformation is incredible. Unfortunately, there are few facilities or money for neutering animals, hence this situation is very common.
I often look in drainage channels for puppies as my first dog Baldrick was a rescue too. I thought I found one puppy – one closer inspection, there were THREE!
Ronald picks the puppies out of the drainage channel in Namuwongo
Percy and brother – ‘fresh’ (and stinking) from the drainage ditch, where they had been abandoned
Sunday morning, Baldrick seemed off his food. I had to call him over and point his nose into his breakfast.
Percy, on the other hand, has no problem eating! He spent his first night in the warmth of the garage. He squeals and whines a bit if you close the door on him, but soon shuts up.
I tied him up under a tree after breakfast, so he can start getting to use the toilet area. Within minutes I could hear him run round the back of the house. While Paul mended the yellow and black lead, I tied Percy up using the purple one. Just one minute later, I hear the sound of the chain again as little puppy bounds round the back of the house with a second snapped lead!
I just stood staring at him for couple of minutes, I couldn’t believe this tiny puppy had broken free. Incredible – those teeth again. I gave up at that point – well, I rang Dog Trainer Extraordinaire Ronald Kyobe. He suggested a chain and luckily for me, he came round to sort Percy out.
There was incredibly loud squealing and yelping earlier, I ran outside to see Baldrick standing over Percy, leaning on him. Not sure exactly what happened, whether it was just heavy-handed play or amateur dramatics.
Getting the dogs to bond – Baldrick and Percy eat their first meal together
Later this evening, general whining turned into incredible yelping and I steamed outside to see Percy had wrapped himself tightly around the tree (the toilet training post), had one paw stuck between trunk and metal chain, and was half strangled. For a second, I thought he’d choked to death!
I ran out of patience, locked him in the garage and can now hear plaintive howling! I wonder if Paul – in the room right next to the garage – will get any sleep tonight?!
See the full puppy rescue story in pictures (some of the photos are quite shocking).
If you’re looking for a dog trainer in Kampala, I recommend Ronald. He’s highly professional and dogs adore him! Reach him via his A to Z Mobile Dog Training Unit Facebook page.
Last days as a VSO volunteer …
“Watch that binge drinking!” Warned Mum, on our last phone call. The fact is, the socialising is making up for the binge working I’ve been doing recently: trying to tie up my last projects with UCF, recruiting and training my replacement, and looking for a job. I’ve always felt there are lots of opportunities in Uganda, but when I found out freelancing wouldn’t be as easy as I thought ($1500 for a year’s work permit), and I realised in two weeks’ time I may be homeless – as opposed to simply being a penniless volunteer! – I had to pull my finger out and submit a few job applications.
It’s strange to think that I won’t be a VSO volunteer by this time next month. VSO has been my reason for coming here in the first place, and it’s been the link between me and so many people here. It’s been a wrench when many of my VSO friends have gone back home, one of the reasons I threw myself into being Cluster Chair for Kampala volunteers. It seemed like a good way of reconnecting with VSO.
“Dr Rasta” has left his placement at Mulago Hospital and headed off to Mengo, where they call him “the Nigerian Doctor.” He’s neither a rasta nor Nigerian but at least they appreciate him at Mengo. Last week a grateful patient invited him to his home where they killed and cooked a chicken especially in his honour.
I miss him and he’s still in the country.
Damn that Jamaal – his songs always make me cry.
Save Mabira Forest! we can live without sugar
To everyone’s horror – but few people’s surprise – the President has decreed that ‘the degraded part’ of this ancient and fabulous forest, protected under international law, should be cut down. And for what crucial development project?
The president says the current scarcity of sugar warrants giving away the Forest. Ugandans aren’t silly (and they love discussing current affairs); everyone thinks that the President is just using the high price of sugar as an excuse.
The Mabira issue is in every paper and on TV every day. Conservation organisations have come together to issue a statement with Nature Uganda supported by Friends of the Earth and Uganda’s National Association of Professional Environmentalists.
So, the President (against the wishes of many in his Cabinet) plans to give away one third of the 30,000 hectare rainforest to SCOUL (the Mehta Group’s Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd), a producer with significant operations in the area, near Jinja. A planned giveaway was opposed in 2007, culminating in a demonstration that left three people dead and a boycott of Mehta sugar. The victim people often talk about was Indian, the same ethnic group as Mehta’s owners. This man strayed into the angry demonstrators and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and beaten to death. Thus not only do we have the very real possibility of violence, but I’d hazard a guess that increased racism against Indians is likely, and will last well beyond this debate. Rumour has it there are soldiers guarding Mabira forest.
The President claims opposition politicians and activists who supported the giveaway in 2007 are to blame for the current sugar scarcity. On August 13, he said “how can Uganda import sugar? This indiscipline should stop. We have defeated armed terrorists. We cannot accept to be defeated by unarmed terrorists.”
In the last few weeks, the price of sugar in Uganda has risen dramatically, from 2,500 shillings* / kilo to a high of 7,000 shillings / kilo and has since dropped to approximately 3,500 shillings / kilo and today the inflation rate is at 21.4%, the highest in 18 years. The rising cost of living is affecting everyone and everything: high fuel costs, high commodity prices, a badly weakening shilling and economic strikes, walk to work campaign, and strikes by taxi drivers, traders, teachers and doctors. *(Normally I’d convert this into dollars / sterling but that’s losing meaning as the shilling continues to fall).
This deceptively beautiful green is a tea plantation. The two trees are all that remain of this section of Mabira Forest
The most obvious challenge (well, to me with my conservation hat on) is environmental: Mabira is home to 300 bird species, including the endangered Nahan’s Francolin, the Papyrus Gonolek and nine endemics (species not found anywhere else in the world). Mabira is the only remaining large natural forest on the northern shores of Lake Victoria.
Uganda has 4.9 million hectares of forests and woodlands cover, according to the National Forestry Authority. Mabira is categorised as a ‘protection forest,’ crucial for safeguarding watersheds and catchments, biodiversity, ecosystems and landscapes. In 2007 the World Bank, the National Forestry Authority and an inter-ministerial committee all advised against the Forest giveaway.
Environmentalists say the revenue lost to government by giving away part of the Forest for sugar growing, in terms of carbon credits, is estimated at US$316m. The value of the land is estimated at US$5m and the value of the wood at US$568m. That means the Ugandan public stands to lose almost US$890m, about 1.5 trillion shillings, equivalent to 25% of the 2011-2012 national budget, as a result of the government’s plan to degazette part of the Forest, according to the NGO, Environmental Alert.
Note: this is just valuing the land and the timber, how do you value a catchment area for Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga and three rivers including the River Nile? What about the lost livelihoods of local people who are dependent on the Forest? How do you value biodiversity? A species? What will the impact be on tourist dollars?
If the President gives away this Protected Area, what about the others, where will be next? In 2010 he announced he would let the Madhvani Group build a golf course right in the middle of Murchison Falls Protected Area. “Where is the pollution from golf? Where are the fumes?” He is reported to have said. Thankfully that idea got mothballed.
The Mabira issue is not just an environmental one, it gives a fascinating insight into Ugandan society. Some of the other issues, discussed in this week’s media:
Alternative solutions to addressing the lack of sugar have been offered:
Let the president take the land offered by the Baganda kingdom offered as an alternative to Mabira in 2007. This isn’t the first time the Baganda kingdom has offered alternative land for sugarcane growing. If the issue is to increase sugar production, then the kingdom’s offer will suffice. Otherwise, insisting on Mabira would imply there are ulterior reasons to giving away the natural forest land, since sugarcane can grow almost anywhere.
The Church of Uganda is also said to have offered land for the same purpose.
Other people have suggested plots of land right across the country; in fact many say that Mabira is not good land for sugarcane growing: there is too high a water content in the cane and a comparatively low ratio of sugar extracted (all while polluting the local rivers and using disproportionately higher levels of electricity).
Here are key parts of an interview with respected commentator Godber Tumushabe, Executive Director of ACODE (Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment).
Q. What will be lost and gained if the Forest is given away?
Apart from being a vital water catchment area from Lake Victoria, if you’re building dams around River Nile* you do not want to do anything in the hinterland that will disrupt the hydrological feature. Forests are considered to be one of the major carbon sinks, if you then destroy a forest like Mabira you would have destroyed a very important sink very close to the capital city with a fast-growing industrial sector. We have not developed the technological capacity to cope with adverse climate change and ecological disruptions. We would lose the climate modifying element of an important forest like Mabira.
*The new Bujagali hydropower project is being constructed close to Mabira, due to come online within the year. Currently, the country is experiencing major power outages throughout the day. Lack of capacity, inefficiencies at the providers, high cost of fuel, increasing population size are all blamed.
Economically, agricultural communities around Mabira depend on the forest’s resources, and are therefore highly vulnerable.
*NEWSFLASH*
In an interesting twist, today Mehta say they don’t want the forest land and never asked for it. The Indian business community are understandably worried about how the proposed giveaway affects them and have come together to form their own lobbying group. Even without any protests, Indian businesses must have been losing revenue these last two weeks.
We watch the news with interest! Now what will the President do?
Information sources
Extracts from The Independent magazine Aug 26 – Sept 1 2011
Bwindi – eye to eye with my totem
Nagawa meets the Red-tailed Monkeys of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
THUMP!
THUD!
CRASH!
If ever there was a rude awakening, this was definitely it.
It’s early.
It’s been one hell of a journey to get here (a whole day’s public transport from Kasese to Buhoma). The house rat has kept us awake half the night and I need my shut-eye… I turn over and try to get back to sleep.
But it’s not to be.
Above my head it sounds like the gates of hell have burst open!
At any moment I feel the tin roof will give way and whatever’s out there will land right on top of us. I can’t imagine what’s making such a racket.
The noise seems to move from one side of the roof to the other.
“What the hell …?” I shout loudly at Steve above the noise.
The unholy din subsides. They’ve gone.
Woken from my deep sleep, I’m not appreciating the hullabaloo created by the family of Red-tailed monkeys – locally known as Nkima – emerging from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to clamber across Stevie’s little tin-roofed shack in search of their breakfast.
Nagawa’s totem, the gorgeous Red Tailed Monkey, nkima, clan totem of the Buganda Kingdom. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
There’s a rat in the rafters, what I’m a gonna do… [to coin a popular UB40 song].
Across the field of pineapples, tucked away in a damp corner at the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, stands my home for the week-end. It’s a typical Ugandan house construction: a coating of plaster covers a wattle and daub box; wooden shutters cover the two paneless windows. There’s no electricity, no running water and the toilet, an earthen pit latrine, is a two minute stumble in the dark from the house.
My first night in Bwindi, mosquito nets tucked in tightly, we take bets on “whose bed the rat will scamper across in the night.” We snuff out the kerosene lamp.
As our laughter subsides, the house comes to life. There’s a definite pitter patter of small rodent feet. It’s getting louder.
“It’s in the rafters above us!” Steve cries. “IT’S COMING OVER!”
The house has two rooms. The wall that separates them only extends two metres high. We’ve attempted to pull the warped wooden door shut to keep the rat out of the bedroom but rats make their own rules. They love height. It will obviously climb over the top. I try not to snigger; I secretly look forward to a rodent encounter.
The morning after
With “the upstairs neighbours’ party over” – but unable to sleep again – I get up to make my morning tea. As I strike a match to light the gas ring, the rat leaps out from its nest inside (yes, inside!) the stove’s metal casing. It’s a WHOPPER!
Tea mug in hand, I wander outside to investigate the bird-like ‘tut tut’ coming from a nearby tree. I twitch, ready to reach for my binoculars.
A blue face peers down at us. He sports a white, heart-shaped patch on his nose. Pure white cheek whispers frame his distinctive features. Seen straight on, the effect is quite alarming.
Resting to feed on some leaves, the Red Tailed Monkey’s sumptuous long copper tail loops suggestively around a branch. He quietly chomps away. His thick tail fur glows russet in the sun’s early rays.
Red-tailed Monkey on roof. Bwindi Forest
“He must like women,” Steve comments. “He’s never let me get this close before,” he says, sounding slightly put out. (I can’t help but smile at my luck for such a close encounter!) Steve has lived a stone’s throw from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for months. We are fellow VSO volunteers.
Wildlife enthusiasts like me thrill at the chance to get so close to nature. However, my work with the Uganda Conservation Foundation has shown me what a grind it is to deal with noisy, foraging animal behaviour every day. It’s hard to imagine how the average poor Ugandan farmer copes, especially when you have your own family to feed. But, I admit to a real soft spot for these forest guenons.
The early morning sunshine glow of a Red-tailed Monkey in Bwindi Forest
Protecting my totem, morning tea in hand. Nagawa meets Red-tailed Monkey. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Nagawa, protector of Nkima, the Red Tailed Monkey
At an exhibition by the artist Taga, I bumped into a Ugandan lady called Nagawa in front of this painting of our totem! Nagawa, enkima clan, protector of the Red-tailed Monkey
“If you stay in Uganda, you must have a Ugandan name,” my tour driver friend Rashid had insisted one day, and so I was named Nagawa, protector of the Nkima (or Enkima) clan. In Buganda culture, each clan is represented by a totem, which can be an animal, bird, fish or plant – even a mushroom! You are not allowed to hunt, eat or kill your totem. I am honoured to have been awarded custody of such a fabulous creature.
Back in Bwindi, our red-tailed observer follows us around the forest clearing as we finish our tea.
The sunlight picks out a spectrum of colours in the grizzled brown fur of his back. The white fur on his belly looks as soft and downy as a baby rabbit’s. I imagine how it might feel to brush my face against it.
Takeaway chicken
A little later, Nkima pauses on the dry banana leaf roof of Steve’s chicken shed, peering beneath his front feet into the empty shed below. (The chicken was carried off by the Safari ants one week-end when Steve had left Buhoma).
Safari ants can be vicious – and put the organisational skills of the average human to shame! As we leaned over them to take photos, the big guy waved at us menacingly. His job is to protect the worker ants
The chicken may have gone but a bag of chickenfeed remains to tempt a hungry monkey. He quickly climbs down the outside of the shed and hops inside to grab a handful of feed before he jumps away across the tin roof of Steve’s house, back to his family group waiting in the larger trees.
Monkey business done for the day, a cold ‘bucket shower’ and a breakfast chapatti beckon the bazungu!
The celebrated Ugandan artist Taga Nuwagaba has dedicated many years to researching and painting Uganda’s totems, in order to preserve their culture and promote conservation.
African Elephant painting by Taga
Visit the Buganda Kingdom web site for more information on clans and totems. (The Baganda are not the only tribe in Uganda to have clan totems, but their system is the most complex and best documented).
This story took place on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, south western Uganda. It was my entry into this year’s BBC Wildlife Nature Writer of the Year competition. Alas I was unsuccessful – fingers crossed for another year then!
