Kristmas in Kampala

Lots has happened but we have suddenly become even busier than normal with work and parties.  More updates to come.  We just thought we would share some pics from our Christmas so far.

Christmas cookies and our Disco Christmas tree

Deb posing with the tree.  Note the My Little Ponies, a gift from our cleaner.  Not sure what it is suppose to symbolize, but is a nice addition as our nativity scene.

Christmas Eve lunch with our friend Rachel.  No snow here, just lush trees.

We are off to Zanzibar.  See you in 2011!!!

Lots of love from Kampala and we will chat soon! 

Deb's first publication....sort of....

Okay - so it's a bit of a stretch, but I can now claim that my name has been published in the academic domain!!  Here's the link to an article I helped work on (I did some editing, made the figures, and did all of the online submitting (which takes a lot of time)).  You can see me if you scroll all the way down to the bottom to the 'Acknowledgments' section.  I told you it was a bit of a stretch...haha  The paper itself might be interesting for you clinical and public health folks... ;)

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0013438

Otherwise, all is well here.  In my new 'less work' lifestyle, I don't work on Saturdays, so yesterday Stu and I went to a music festival in town and then to the finals for the Uganda Basketball Association aka UBA (like the NBA - but a lot less flash).  The game is played at the outdoor concrete court at the YMCA and people crowd in everywhere to get a slice of the action.  Luckily, the team we were cheering for, D-Mark Power, won the championship!  We cheer for 'Power' because my colleague used to play on the team, but had to leave this season to come and work for us.  Playing in the UBA is not nearly as lucrative as the NBA, so many players have to leave when a good job comes up.  I'm sure Stu will have more to write about the game itself and the style of playing, I just enjoyed being in the action.

Well, I have to get back to work now...yes it's Sunday...but this time next week we'll be off to Zanzibar, so I can't really complain!

Thanksgiving, Glühwein and Chanukah

So after a great visit to Canada we are getting back into the daily grind here in Uganda.  It was so nice to be back to see friends and family but with so much going on, we almost feel like we need another vacation.

While some things in Kampala have changed (most notably that everyone is electioneering leading up to a national election in February), we have setting back into our routine with surprising ease.  Within the first month we have already had two visitors come and stay with us.  As always, we are happy to have people visit and it provides and excuse to travel a little bit. 

Erin actually timed coming to Kampala to arrive on the same flight as Deb back from Atlanta.  While I am sure they got lots of gossiping in on the plane, we thought that we still needed a relaxing weekend out of the city.  We headed to the Hairy Lemon, a resort on the Nile farther upstream than we normally stay.  We didn’t paddle this time around but did relax on this beautiful island.  It was the perfect place to get away.  While we usually stay on the other side of the river, which provides a great party, the Lemon is unbelievably serene and a perfect place to read in a hammock, go for a swim, or play water-volleyball.  I am a little surprised that we have not made it up there yet.  All I can say is that I am looking forward to going back.

We have also been bringing in the festive season in style.  As Melissa is American we decided to host another Thanksgiving dinner (as if we really needed much prodding….).  Last weekend we had 12 friends over for dinner from around the globe to celebrate the British colonies first harvest in America (I have sworn that I won’t discuss the true history of American Thanksgiving anymore, but it is interesting to see the different histories from those around America (and a British, American History grad)).

This thanksgiving was a little different than those in the past.  Yes, we had the usual, pumpkin pie, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., but this time our turkey was a free ranger who was walking around our own backyard!  Since we see so many chickens and turkeys running around, we thought we should get some of our own.  We have chickens for eggs (not going so well, they don’t seem to be laying for some reason), meat and then our thanksgiving turkey. 

Needless to say, the process of getting a walking turkey onto the table was interesting.  Having never killed a turkey before, we asked two locals to help us navigate the way through.  They were happy to show us what to do in exchange for a taste of the turkey once it was cooked (they had never had turkey before as it is too expensive for many locals here due to its size).  Getting the turkey ready for roasting was surprisingly easy and (as Mel remarks in the video) was very more ‘tame’ than anticipated.  For those interested in watching the video it is here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgVmIwR4Sm4).

Dinner was a resounding success.  Once again, everything seemed to make it on the table just at the right time and everyone had a blast.  It is always so fun for us to get together in an international environment and share our culture with others and also learn from them.

 As if we didn’t eat enough at thanksgiving (we were all way over stuffed to the point that one couple needed to go home!), we were invited to two separate parties the next day to celebrate the first advent.  Apparently advent is a very big part of German’s Christmas celebrations so we could not turn the invites down so off we went to see what advent is all about.  The core of the celebration surrounds lighting the advent candles (there are four), but along the way much Glühwein (mulled wine) and baked goods are consumed. We could not be happier to have partaken.

To round out our holiday week, this Wednesday was the first night of Chanukah. Despite the fact that we don’t have a menorah we were not to be swayed from our latkes. We assembled a menorah made from used bottles and went to shredding the onion and potatoes, while trying to avoid taking of our knuckles (Stu already cut of the top of his thumb while making Thanksgiving). The latkes were delicious and happily shared with our friend Mark.

Who knows what the plan is for the next holiday but we are looking forward to it!

Update on our update

I just came home to find these three little chickens sitting on my kitchen counter...and Stu sitting on the balcony drinking a beer. See, all is well in Kampala.

Quick Update

Well, in just 5 days we will be touching down in Canada – we’ve been looking forward to this visit back home for some time now. When we haven’t been thinking of coming home, we’ve been moving along just great here in Kampala.

I (Deb) have been working to the brink, but making really good progress. We just received ethical approval for our main trial, ‘The ACT PRIME Study: Evaluating the impact of enhanced health facility-based care for malaria and febrile illnesses in children in Tororo, Uganda’ and are awaiting ethical approval for our supplementary trial, ‘The ACT PROCESS Study: Evaluating the process, context, and impact of interventions to enhance health facilities in Tororo, Uganda’. While it may seem boring to the outsider, receiving ethical approval is a big challenge and quite a lot of work, but also integral to the study design process. Over the past few months, we have been really thinking through the science and practicalities of how we will run our studies and how we will achieve & measure our outcomes. For our studies, we’ve had to apply to four ethical boards (2 in Uganda + London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine + University of California, San Francisco), most trials only go through one or two boards.

In addition to these ethical approvals, I have been working like mad on developing our ‘health facility intervention’ which is to train health workers at lower-level government health centres in the areas of ‘health centre management’ and ‘patient-centred services’. It’s been a really awesome experience to develop training for health workers from the ground up and I’ve been leading a really great team. We still have a ways to go and many challenges to overcome – so it doesn’t look like my 70+ hour weeks will be ending anytime soon...

Stu has been keeping busy as usual doing all of the manly things he likes to do - like cooking and baking. Today (while I am at work), Stu is preparing a Canadian Thanksgiving for 12 of our friends. The menu, developed and prepared entirely by Stu, is: Deviled Eggs for appetizer (my contribution here is to bring some chips from the corner store), Roasted carrots, Mashed potatoes, 3 beer can chickens (with different spice rubs on each), Stuffing, and Salad for the main course; and Coconut cream pumpkin pie with ginger snap crust for dessert! Phew! Stu woke up early this morning to go to the meat packers to get fresh chickens...and the rest of the dinner is in progress...

We are looking forward to seeing some of you in Ancaster/London/Cambridge/Waterloo/Toronto, Atlanta and Amsterdam very soon! For others we won’t be seeing this time around – we are sending you much love and kisses from Kampala! Come visit – Stu needs taste-testers...!!

D&S

Dolla J, Silent Discos, Goat races, and the Cranes

Many people have asked us what Kampala is like at night and what there is to do here. As we have said numerous times, Kampala has so much to offer. Aside from the outdoor activities (game drives, whitewater kayaking, and climbing) that are an easy weekend adventure, there is all kinds of things to do in town. Over the last couple months we have been getting much more into the Kampala scene. The city has a surprisingly good art scene, the largest music scene in East Africa (although some might debate this) as well as all kinds of activities aimed at expats.

The music in Uganda is a mix of 90’s Hip Hop and Dance Hall. They idolize the North American bar music from the late 90s and early 00s (and also unfortunately Celine Dione). Modern Uganda music (like that from Kenya) includes a lot of these beats but adds a much more dancy feel. The Ugandans love to dance. They really get going to any beat at all and use their whole bodies to get into it. Some of the biggest musicians are Bebe Cool, Chameleon, Radio & Weasel, Rachel K and Kid Fox. After a particularly eventful night, we got to meet an aspiring artist named Dolla J (I have no idea what his real name is). He has taken me under his wing and tried to teach me a little about the music scene. It has been great to have a local show us around the music scene. Needless to say, both Deb and I have had some crazy nights out dancing away with the Ugandans. They usually head OUT at around 11…..and that is usually to a bar serving as a meeting place. The dancing doesn’t get going until around 3 and the bars stay open until the patrons leave. We have not been there yet, but there are many bars still pounding out the music at 10am! I am not sure I could walk out of a bar after a night of dancing and have the sun come up….although we may have to once as a ‘cultural experience’.

One of the coolest Ugandan music experiences was at the annual Bayimba festival, which highlights some of the best musicians and artists. The weekend featured many great artists on the main stage (including the one and only Ugandan rock band, who were surprisingly good). However, the best part was a silent disco. For those who have never heard of this concept, a silent disco is when all attendees wear head phones wirelessly connected to the DJ (or in this case, DJs which you got to choose between). It is a surreal experience when you see hundreds of people dancing away in complete silence with DJs at the front egging on the crowd.

While not dancing, we have also attended several sporting events. The most notable was the Royal Ascot Goat Races. The races are organised annually as a fundraiser for a variety of different charities around Uganda.  We had no idea what to expect with the day but everyone told us that we needed to attend.  Needless to say, the day did not disappoint. The event took place at Munyoyo, which is a very posh resort that was set up for the 2007 Commonwealth conference (as is much of the Ugandan infrastructure). The core idea behind the event is to raise money and have fun. It is hard to have fun when you see ten goats ‘run’ around a track with hundreds of people cheering on the goat they bet on. Needless to say, most of the ‘race’ involves the goats eating grass and slowly moseying around the track. The race is sped along by caretakers who push a giant board to make sure the goats move and encouraged by live play-by-play worthy of the Kentucky Derby. Next year we are going to buy a goat and cheer it on with all we have got.

While not cheering on goats, we have been encouraging the Cranes with our money and our voices. The is the Uganda Cranes football (soccer) team who are in the process of qualifying for the Africa 2012 Cup of Nations. The atmosphere at the stadium is unbelievable. Ugandans take their football seriously and once you mix in nationalism, things can get a little out of hand. Fans dress up and cover themselves in full body paint, jump, scream, play drums, and blow vuvuzellas at all times (and I think all the hoopla about them at the World Cup is garbage! Talking to some people who went to the WC and the qualifiers, they were mush louder in Kampala and I love them. I think South Americans and Europeans just didn’t like that their songs could not be heard over the sound of their chants). One fan even brought an air raid horn to the game!!! Having been to some games in Europe and South America, nothing competes. Everything here is at such a high intensity; it is hard to not get wrapped up in all of the emotion. Thankfully Uganda won their game and are still sitting on table of the table. Can’t wait for their next home game!!!

How to buy a 'new' car in Kampala

In some of our previous blog posts we have mentioned ‘Suki, our trusty Escudo which has been chauffeuring us around Uganda.  She came to us about five months ago from a shipping bond.  Vehicles in Uganda are almost all imported (mostly from Japan) and then sold of as new at these bonds.  What new really means is that the vehicle hasn’t yet been on the pot-holed paths they call roads here.  Most vehicles don’t last more than 4 or 5 years before things begin to fall apart in a serious way.  Getting our little Escudo proved to be a nerve-racking experience.  To begin with, I (Stu, Deb decided that as long as it was green and ‘not too big’ she would be happy with whatever I got) went around with our friends Paul and Robert to more than 10 shipping bonds.  Each one of these bonds is filled with the slimiest of used car salesmen who are looking to make a cut.  They even follow you from bond to bond to try and explain why their vehicles are better.  We ended up having to go out several weekend in a row because we could only stand an afternoon of being heckled and pestered to buy vehicles that I would not feel safe with my enemy driving.

Finally, we came across a nice new-ish looking GREEN vehicle that matched everything we were looking for.  After taking so long to find the car, I wanted to move on it to ensure that it wouldn’t be sold to someone else.  When I inquired about what the next step was, I didn’t really know how to answer.  I needed to find money to pay for the car….in cash…and they wanted it in USD if possible.  I had no idea how I was going to find the money, let alone in dollars. 

Up until then, we did not have a Ugandan bank account and had just been withdrawing money from the ATM.  Finally with a little finagling, we managed to secure the appropriate cash, but walking around with this much cash, especially in Kampala, was terrifying.  It isn’t like you can hide it very well.  Because of the exchange rate, we ended up with a huge stack of bills.  When the time came to pay for the car, the bills got shoved down my socks, into pockets, anywhere possible for people not to notice we were carrying a big wad of cash.  

 

All I have to say is that we are so happy about our little car, and I would be happy to go through the whole ordeal again.

This is our backyard...

Ok, so backyard is a bit of a stretch.  One of the bonuses of Nikhil’s visit is that it gave us a little push to get out on weekends and enjoy what Uganda has to offer. After our weekend away in Jinja, Nikhil headed down south to check out the gorillas.   After his return, the two of us jumped into ‘Zuki and headed up to Masindi and Murchison Falls National Park.  After five hours and a couple wrong turns (we ended up on a 45 km stretch of horrible potholed road rather than fresh tarmac) we ended up at the park. 

We were instantly met by baboons, warthogs and birds.  These animals were literally on our doorstep, porches and tables.  The attraction of this national park is Murchison Falls which is the end of the Victoria Nile and the beginning of the White Nile, heading up through Sudan to Egypt, and the game drives.  

The waterfall is spectacular 100-foot drop.  Most impressive is the power of the Nile powering through a 20-foot gap. This area is ecologically important as it is one of the last homes of the enormous Nile Perch (I definitely need to get back up here for a fishing trip).  It is also home to many Nile crocs, hippos, elephants, waterbucks and hundreds of birds.

Our adventure in search of game started early with a 7am ferry across the river.  On the way we picked up Jimmy, our guide for the game drive.  Having not been on a game drive before, I have nothing to compare to.  However, the game driving up here is truly wild.  Not only do you drive your own car (the guide is in the back to help you spot animals), but you also get to go looking for the animals anywhere in the park.  

We set off on our drive and were interrupted by a traffic jam of antelope on our road.  We soon had seen so many antelopes that we no longer stopped to have a look at them.  We must have seen hundreds of them in the first 20 minutes.  We continued to drive and saw herds of giraffes, buffaloes and kob.  After about an hour, Jimmy asked us what we wanted to see.  Not knowing what to answer, we told him to take us to all of the best stuff.

Jimmy promptly decided that we should then take a sharp right and drive to find the lions.  I stopped the car to make sure I heard correctly.  There was in fact no road to the right and the savannah was covered with trees and shrubs.  Jimmy told us not to worry and that if we wanted to see a lion, that is where they were.  On we drove on, we couldn’t find anything.  Then, Jimmy asked me to drive towards the pile of dirt about 100m away to see what it was.  It turned out to be a giant male who had just finished breakfast!!!  Then to our left, we noticed two more females.  We had hit the jackpot! We stayed in amazement for more than 30 minutes, just staring at these giant beasts.  We were even lucky enough to see three cubs with females.  It was absolutely amazing how close we were to these wild animals and how few other people would be see them today.

After our time with the lions, we drove on and saw hundreds more animals including schools of hippos and elephants watering themselves by the river.  We even got to see the incredibly rare Shoebill Stork (apparently people travel to Uganda just to see them… and other than this time, hardly ever seen in pairs).   

After the fabulous game drive, we jumped on a boat for a four-hour cruise up to the mouth of the falls.  The trip was a wonderfully relaxing way to enjoy the Nile, see the animals and birds and have a knowledgably guides teach you about the ecosystem.  

 By the end of our trip, hippos, antelope and warthogs had become the norm.  We hardly even stopped for many animals.  It is amazing that this is hear and so untapped.  I can’t wait to come back and see what else hiding up hear.

I haven’t been able to put all of my photos on the blog.  If you want to see the rest of my photos, they are available here http://picasaweb.google.com/114379842904288416190/MurchisonFallsAug2010?feat=directlink.

Back to the whitewater

So after our wonderful three-week sojourn in Italy, we thought we needed a vacation on our return so we headed back to Jinja with Nikhil to try our hands at some whitewater kayaking.  After our rafting trip we swore that we would come back to try our hand at some more paddling.  What a better way to spend a weekend then paddling in 25-degree water.  The best part is that getting dumped is a pleasure.  There is none of the shock from the water that we have in Canada.  

 We thought that we better get some lessons before we jumped into the big stuff and joined up with a kayak school run by a Scot.  Our instructors are worldclass paddlers who really know what they are talking about (check out one here…. http://vimeo.com/4665426).  We quickly went over the basic paddle strokes and began learning how to role.  Being that the water is so large, it is pretty important to know how to get back up.  The real question is not whether you are going to flip but rather how much.  After a couple of hours of practicing we headed out onto the water to try our hand at some grade ones and twos.  Along the way we practiced what we had learned in the morning.

Frustratingly, although I feel perfectly comfortable upside-down, I couldn’t quite get my boat back over on my own.  We definitely needed another day of practice so we headed out on Sunday to try our hand again.  We were joined by David, one of our instructors from the previous day, and Deborah’s new best friend.  We played around in for the first couple of hours and practised our roles and then headed off to the river to try our hands and some bigger stuff.

Although we are still very much beginners, we had a great weekend away.  I can’t wait for the next one when we can really start to feel comfortable in our boats.

The bed and breakfast is open…

We are frequently jeered for running a bed and breakfast out of our apartment because of how many visitors we have come and stay with us.  Needless to say, we are happy to take all the jokes because we just love having our friends around.  Although Uganda is a bit more inaccessible than Toronto or London, we have already had two visitors and have more coming in September. 

Our friend Nikhil decided to come and visit for two weeks before he started a new job in Amsterdam.  We were happy to play hosts and loved the many dinners and BBQs (Nikhil is a PRO!!) we got to share.  It is always so nice to have friendly faces around to share our world with.  

Sojourn in Tuscany

Tickets…check

Passports…check

Tuscan villa…check….whoa, wait a minute!  Tuscan villa?  Yes, Tuscan villa!  As July ended, we headed off to Italy for a three-week adventure that was to take us through many parts of Tuscany.

The idea of this trip started about 18-months ago when our friend John Schram bid on a week at the villa during a charity auction.  We had committed to joining in Italy but never really thought it would happen.  Yet here we were, on our way from Kampala to Cortona.

We were sharing the villa with John, Ashley, Josh and Julia.  We could not really imagine something more lovely.  To make matters more interesting, the week we picked for our visit happened to be when Cortona was hosting the Tuscan Sun Festival, a celebration of food, wine and music.

We could not have asked for a better week.  We got to relax and enjoy with some of our best friends, drink copious types of wine, cheese and pastries and enjoy all that Tuscany has to offer.  We participated in several of the organised activities including cheese making (which included an amazing 6 course cheese menu), winery tours and a ‘competition’ between Australian and Tuscan San Giovese wines.  

Aside from stuffing ourselves at the Tuscan Sun Festival, we also visited Lake Trasimeno for a visit to some ruins and a boat trip, Arezzo for an incredible antic market (think middle ages and then include original Rembrants and Dalis!), and of course the local area. 

The best part of the week must have been the food.  The restaurants were amazing.  However, we spent most nights in our place cooking with fresh vegetables and trying out wine from wineries we had visited or had been recommended.  Our wonderful chefs kept us stuffed to the brim.  We rapped up the week with a visit to a great restaurant in the countryside and got treated to some modern Tuscan.  All in all, we could not have asked for anything more.  It truly was a week to remember.  Highlights from the week are here http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/Cotona#

The end of the week did not mean the end of the trip.  After our stay in Cortona, we rented a car and drove through some of the top wine regions.  We took in tours in Montalcino, Montalpulciano and several days in the Chianti region.  We tried many wines we liked and many that were not so good.  The drives though were spectacular.  The scenary in the region was so beautiful it was a pleasure to just drive around.  Of course, visits to restaurants that serve a seven-course meat menu (http://www.dariocecchini.com/solo_ciccia_eng.html) are not too bad either.  Along the way, we also visited several medieval towns including Voltara and San Gimingnano, the medieval Manhattan (so named because of the 14 towers surrounding the town).  Photos from our road trip are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/TuscanRoadTrip#

Sadly after four days, we had to say goodbye to Josh and Julia and were on our own in Florence.  Deb has been trying to get me to Florence since she visited with her sisters ten years ago.  The most amazing thing about Florence is the architecture.  Every building you look at is steeped in history.  It is not hard to imagine what life would have been like there 500 years ago with the Medicis.  We stayed in a small apartment outside of the downtown about 250 meters from the Arno.  The apartment was perfect for us.  It has a nice kitchen (and Deb loved cooking with all the fresh Italian food stuffs!), had a coffee shop nearby and was close enough for us to walk into town.

We spent four days leisurely touring around visiting the many churches and squares, a byzantine synagogue (very unique), and of course the art galleries.  Florence is known for the Academia and the Ufizi, two of the most famous art museums.  Even though neither of us are really into renaissance art, we had to visit.  As they say, when in Rome…. It did not disappoint.  Seeing the best of the best is so much different than the rest of the renaissance work.  The pieces here are really in a class of their own.  Photos from Florence can be found here http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/Florence.

Having taken in more art than we had seen in the past 5 years, we headed south to Siena to visit Lucia (a friend from my Masters in Brighton) and take in Palio (this is the horse race at the beginning of the last Bond movie).  Palio is a spectacular event that is hard to explain and whose continued existence is difficult to comprehend outside of those who live in Siena.  For the Sienese, life stops for five days, twice a year for this 700 real old ritual.  The race itself is a 90 second bareback race around the central square.  For the winner: a coveted silk banner (the palio), for the losers: utter humiliation. 

Siena is divided into 17 town districts or contrades (there use to be 42), each with their own traditions, symbol and colours, and its own church and palio museum.  The streets are lined with the various flags and plaques clearly drawing battle lines for the different quarters.  For five days, the contrades come together to protect their horse, their jockey and their pride. 

We were inducted in to the Valdimontone (mountain goat) contrade and stayed with them for most of our time there.  There are specific rituals and practices that happen leading up to race itself.  The horses are allotted to districts by lot, there are four trials to race and of course the festivities.  There are three feasts in each contrade honouring the horse and jockey.  We attended the final feast, a six-course meal fed to over 2000 people dining in the street!!!

The day of the race is a stressful one.  The contrade march in their horses to singing at the top of their lungs.  The largest men stand at the front, chests pumped out, protecting their horse and jockey just as footmen going to war.  It is truly a freighting affair.  The order of the horses is in an ancient ritual of lots.  After which, the horses are called one by one to the starting line, a rope hung across the dirt track.  The jockeys all poke and prod each other and the horses trying to ensure that their enemies horses will be too agitated to focus on the race.  It can take up to an hour to get all of the horses in the right place.  Our race must have been reset almost 10 times.

When the horses are told to leave only to be called back in order, the jockeys give and take bribes of up to $500,000.  The bribe may be to start slowly, to bother an enemy or even to purposely loose.  The only rules that exist during the race is that a jockey can not touch another jockeys reins.  It is an all out war with horses and anything goes.

Although Montone didn’t win, neither did their enemy so it was not a complete loss.  This years winner was Tartuca (turtle), Lucia’s unlce’s (and frequently our tour guide) contrade.   After the race, we retreated to the district for some consolation drinks and to watch the race again (the locals can watch each race 100 times and it was on loop without commentary for 24 hours).

Sadly, we were off on an early train to Rome for our flight back the next day.  Our three week tour had come to a triumphant ending.  We were back to Kampala and a life of matoke, Tusker  and pork.  Some times you don’t know what you miss until it is gone.  Siena photos are here http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.solomon/Siena02#

A trip west

Now don’t get me wrong… we love Kampala.  But after weeks of black exhaust fumes, countless piles of trash, loud nights, we needed a little break.  So after very little planning and a desperate need to see what else Uganda has to offer, we jumped in ‘Zuki (our semi-reliable Escudo) and headed west.  The four-hour drive to Fort Portal took us through the rolling Ugandan countryside with equal doses of roaming cows in the road and waving children chasing the car.  The drive proved to be far easier than anticipated thanks to huge investments in transportation from the Chinese resulting in new roads around the country.  We had beautiful views of huge tea plantations, fields of papyrus, and the beautiful Rwenzori mountains in the distance.

We decided to stay at the beautiful Ndali Lodge, which lies on the rim of an extinct volcano.  The lodge is owned by a British family who have owned the land for almost a hundred years.  Staying here was a bit of an indulgence but we thought we had earned it.  The lodge currently owns more than 1000 acres and produces many of their own fruit and vegetables, vanilla, and meat.  It was so nice to be served fresh local produce that didn’t consist of sweet potatoes, plantain or stewed chicken (don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE this stuff though).  The site itself was absolutely lovely.  There is very little better than having sun-downer cocktails overlooking a beautiful valley with huge mountains in the background.

The real reason to head out to Fort Portal wasn’t just for a relaxing weekend away.  What we really wanted to do was check out Kibale (pronounced chi-bal-eh) National Park.  The park is renowned for their chimpanzees.  It is estimated that there are about 750 chimps in the park, divided between several different communities.  The park is also filled with many other monkeys (different from other primates as they have tails), forest elephants, small antelopes, and many many birds. 

Upon entering the park, the roads were covered with baboons (it turns out that they are a bit of a pest here).  The first thing I noticed was that they are far less mangy in real life.  The distinctive calluses on the monkey’s bums were not nearly as large.  That being said, for some reason, baboons seem so unappealing.  Not soon after we arrived, we could hear the birds everywhere. 

We quickly picked up a guide (with a gun to ‘protect’ us from the forest elephants) and jumped back into the car and drove to the area of the forest where the chimps were last seen.  After only a five-minute walk, we could hear the chimps banging trees, calling to each other and playing around.  Within ten minutes, we had our first sittings of our nearest relatives.  These animals are truly astonishing in their human-like behaviour.  I know that this should not be a surprise but when you see them communicating, playing and running around, you really can see where we all came from.  It was a truly humbling experience.  We got to stay with the chimps for about an hour and a half, observing many different family members from the newborns to the grandfathers.  The young chimps are a bit freaky but older the chimps get, the more they look like humans.  Deb swears that the silverback (alpha-male) looks exactly like her dad (this is a complement John!!!).  

After our visit with the chimps, we thought we had earned ourselves a break so we headed back to the lodge to relax a little.  Besides, the England – Germany World Cup game was on that night and Paul and I still needed to locate a place to watch the game.  We got very lucky and the lovely owners of the lodge invited us to a BBQ at the ‘country club’ on the other side of Fort Portal.  Deb and Melissa decided to stick around the lodge for some spa time and cocktails.

The country club was not anything what we were expecting.  Instead, it was a bunker placed in a large field in the middle of a sprawling tea plantation.  The club was owned by a Irish expat and the ‘bar’ was filled with a variety of international football fans.  Unfortunately most were disappointed by the result.  However, the BBQ was to die for, with beautiful ribs and many trimmings.

The next day we went for a lovely little walk around one of the crater lakes with a local guide.  The lakes are actually the craters of volcanoes.  The walk therefore took us around the volcanoes rim.  Not remotely scary as the volcano is long extinct, but an interesting tidbit.  The walk was very nice and the guide showed off many local birds and talked about rural life in this part of Uganda.  

After a hearty lunch we were on our way back home, or so we thought….Our car decided that it did not want us to leave this beautiful area.  About 6 ks down the dirt road, the car decided it no longer wanted to work.  It quickly became clear that the alternator was not working and we would need some repairs.  We slowly got the car into a garage only to learn that we would need a new alternator.  As Deb, Paul and Melissa all had to get to work the next day, I was unanimously elected to stay the night in Fort Portal to wait for the car to be fixed.  As well that ends well and I was back on the road by noon the next day after the right parts where shipped up from Kampala overnight.

This trip reminded us where we are living and showed us how much we have to see around Uganda.  We can’t wait for the next adventure.

Home sweet home

Deb here - yes, we admit it; we’ve been bad at updating the blog. Apologies. Here’s the first – all about getting our home set up here in Kampala – and we hope to add more updates soon ;)

wicker furniture

So, we live in a great two-bedroom apartment on Kololo Hill. It took a while, but we finally feel like we have really set-up our new home with furniture, curtains, plants – the whole lot. And we’ve recently acquired a roommate, Melissa, so we are having a blast.

Setting up a home in Kampala can be either really fun or really frustrating. It depends where you sit on the ‘design your own furniture, make your own curtains in Uganda’ scale of home decorating. We found it really fun, most of the time. Our couches and coffee table are stained wicker. We got them from a part of town called ‘Gabba Road’ which is essentially a road lined with stalls of people selling all matter of handmade furniture: wicker furniture, soft couches, beds, tables and chairs, etc. You just walk up and down the road trying to find what you like while trying not to look too interested. However walking up and down the road with Stu yields many people interested in us. Since Jesus was a carpenter, and most Ugandans think Stu is Jesus, we had many people wanting us to ‘bless’ their furniture. But we did go looking for furniture with my ‘Ugandan Father’, Haj, who is a private hire driver I was introduced to through a colleague. Haj takes me around town at night and in the rain and is a very sweet ‘father’. He always makes sure that he is dropping me somewhere safe and that Stu or a friend is waiting at my destination, otherwise he waits with me. When I told him we were looking for furniture, he insisted on taking us to make sure we got good quality at a good price. Which we did – and we had a blast together. Just picture me, Stu and a 60 year old Ugandan man walking amongst hundreds of half made couches deciding on which is the most stylish and would suit our apartment the best and which fabric is most durable and easiest to wash. It was kind of like the three stooges! We purchased a coffee table, a two-seater, and two one-seater brown stained wicker couches with an ‘african print’ fabric.


Then we headed to ‘Port Bell Road’, another area of town to get our bed set and kitchen table. Port Bell has a row of carpenters who can make just about anything you want. They are quite good a reproducing items from a picture. It was very funny when we said we were looking for a bed and the carpenter pulled out an Ikea catalogue!! We decided on a sleigh-bed type design with two bed-side tables. I also designed a dressing table, stool and mirror combo. Our kitchen table and chairs are also quite beautiful in dark chocolate brown. The last piece of furniture we’ve had made is a high buffet table (?). I actually have no idea what it’s called, it just a narrow 18 inches x 4 feet table that is bar height, I think. Either way, it looks great against the wall!

At my 'dressing table'

The final touches to our apartment were to get some curtains made. It’s very expensive to get ‘real’ curtains made from the furniture/fabric store (and they are quite heavy and outdated), so we decided to go on our own curtain making adventure. We found out that the beautiful African fabrics can be found at Kyembe (chi-em-bay) Market. So Stu and I headed off with our window measurements. Kyembe Market is like a hardware store meets electronics store topped off with a fabric store. Except I use the word ‘store’ lightly; it’s actually a mesh of streets and alleys with stalls crammed into every space. Some stalls sell all manner of hardwares for building or fixing; others speakers, car radios and televisions; and others fabrics and sewing machines. We walked around, trying not to stick out, as not many ‘muzungos’ (white people) shop in this market.

We ended up at a tiny shop about 10 feet by 6 feet stacked floor to ceiling with the most colourful and beautiful fabrics. We were greeted warmly by Sakira and the 8 other women in the shop who were busy sewing on their old Singers. I was in heaven. First, we had to pick the fabric, which is actually quite hard and I, of course, was being picky with the colours. Shakira pulled one fabric after the other off the shelves and we had a fun go at, “no too green, no too brown, too printed, not enough print”, etc, etc. We finally settled on a fabric for the bedroom, only to find Shakira did not have enough of it, so she sent someone on a run through the market to find more. In the meantime, I had to explain to Winnie the tailor/dressmaker (who’s mother coincidentally is named Deborah, so we were instant friends) that I wanted curtains with loops. “Loops? Why loops, what about hooks?” was Winnie’s reply, and we had a debate on the aesthetics of loops versus other forms of curtain hangings. In the end, my loops won out. Then we had to give the measurements. We measured our windows in centimetres but Winnie works in inches, so Stu started on a lesson of converting cms to inches. Then we had to figure out how much fabric we needed and how best to use the 6 yard bolts to make curtains approximately 2-3 times the length of our windows (standard curtain making procedure...Mom knows what I mean!). I was utterly confused and there was Stu, knee deep in fabric, arms outstretched, going on about “lengthwise, rotate, sew, cut”... I wanted my curtains to look great; Stu wanted to get the most curtain out of the least amount of fabric. My attempts to match the pattern between the two curtain panels was thwarted by Stu’s desire to squeeze 18 feet of curtain from 18 feet of fabric not taking into account seams, hems or...the loops! Geesh... Just picture the two of us and 8 Ugandan women stuffed into a tiny colourful space going around and around in circles of centimetres, seams and loops. We attracted an audience. In the end, we settled on something, but I wasn’t quite sure what.

Winnie, Deb and Shakira in the fabric shop at Kyembe Market

Our balcony and plants as the sun is setting

I went back to pick up the curtains a few days later, and they were absolutely great! Shakira and Winnie are now our go to gals for anything tailoring and I’ve taken my roommate there for curtains. We have a blast with them and have plans to make many more things for the house.

So there you have it. Home sweet home. Now you just need to come visit so you can see our furniture and curtains in person!

Kisses from Kampala,
D and S

The Mighty Nile...home at last!

So it has been a while since our last post. We have had a pretty exciting last couple of weeks. Life here is becoming more routine. We have finally fitted our house out with (most of) our furniture and we should have a car by the end of the week. In typical Deb and Stu fashion, we have already played host to friends from around the world. The bed and breakfast is officially open!

Kampala lies about five kilometres from Lake Victoria, which would seem like a dream for water-minded folk like us. However, despite being taunted daily with view of the lake from our apartment, we cannot swim in the lake because of Schistosomiasis. This little parasite caused by water snails has meant no swimming for fear of getting ill.

This weekend we may have found the solution to all of our woes. About one hour from Kampala is a small town called Jinja that has tried to become an outdoor hotspot in Africa. It is host to the equally important source of the legendary Nile (although this is still academically disputed by some geographers) and the largest brewery in Uganda, the Nile Brewery (as a side note, Uganda has a depressingly high level of alcohol consumption. Some studies have put alcohol consumption per capita in Uganda as the third highest in the world) Jinja has recently had a huge zipline and bungee jump installed. However, we went to experience some of the biggest white-water
in the world. The mighty Nile has some amazing class 5 rapids that are easy to access and provide HUGE water.

We have rafted in some pretty big water before but it was nothing like this. The Nile is a great place to raft because the water is warm (around 25), there are few rocks and the scenery is amazing. A great Ugandan named Henry guided us down the river. He has been paddling this stretch of the Nile for almost ten years and seems to know the water inside and out. As we started, he asked us how we liked it "mild or wild". We opted for the wild and boy did we get it. We started off with some small class 1 and 2 water involving a lot of swimming and enjoying the lazy-river styles. It was great to just lie back and float. There were many birds and flowers along the bank to enjoy as we meandered closer to the big water. We could hear the rapids before we could see them. As we approached the first section with bigger
water, the guide remarked that we sure like to be in the water. The next
thing we knew, we were upside down in an infuriated patch of the Nile River, a ceiling of white water above us, all those tranquil birds and flowers along the banks a violently disappeared memory. We emerged with huge smiles and joy of the water we had been looking for.

And that was just Round one. During the trip our raft flipped several times. We went flying off waterfalls. We got twisted around rocks. The whole experience was like riding a bouncy castle through a tsunami. In some places, the water seemed to defy the laws of physics, with giant, green frothy waves crashing into one another at impossible angles. The guides were careful about the crocs - which, yes, do bite, and in the few known crocodile hang-out spots, we weren't allowed in the water.
Every once in a while we'd pass fishermen paddling along in log canoes.

As we approached the last set of rapids (aptly named 'bad place') we were sad to be ending the day. It had been such a blast paddling around with friends and enjoying the outdoors. It was such a break from the chaos of Kampala. Before we entered the last set of rapids, our guide instructed us that if we fell out of the boat on this run, don't hold on to the boat; just let go or it could get hairy. As we entered the last set, the raft smacked into a torrent of white water, and in milliseconds, our bouncy castle was swamped. The river was actually swirling inside the raft, trying to yank us out. We clenched the safety rope along the edge with all our strength. Our hearts were pounding. Our grips were slipping. And then, poof! It was over, and we were floating through flat water again minus to of our friends who
had panicked and followed the guide's instructions not to hold onto the boat should we flip. They were calmly returned to the boat by rescue kayakers and we spent the rest of the evening rejoicing in our adventure, enjoying some beers while overlooking the river.

When we left on Sunday afternoon, one thing was for sure - we would be back. We had decided to join a kayak course on the Nile and hope that before long we will be bouncing through the rapids on our own and enjoying the beauty and power of the great Nile. Who could think of a better way to enjoy our weekends?

The Royal 'We'

I thought it might be worth explaining that in the previous post, the 'we' Stu refers to is not 'we' as in Deb and Stu, but rather 'we' as in Stu and Paul (Stu's friend from MA days in Brighton). I (Deb) was at work on Saturday when Stu was off exploring. And I was working on Sunday as well. Oh and I was also working 14+ hour days Monday to Friday! Needless to say, it's been a hectic few weeks with work. 'We' as in my team at work, have many deadlines to hit by June so we are working around the clock. The good thing is that today I submitted abstracts to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, so maybe I'll get accepted to the conference in November. Actually, I don't think this will happen, but I'm excited to have submitted some work based on my MSc thesis (finally!). So, apologies for not emailing or calling, but, 'we' are doing great! Miss you!

May Day

Last weekend was May Day in Uganda (I don’t know why we don’t celebrate in Canada).  We were planning on going to Jinja (about an hour away) to do some paddling and whitewater rafting.  The Nile starts at Lake Victoria and actually has a couple runs of class 5 rapids and even a couple of class sixe rapids.  As it turns out, things got really busy at the end of the week so we ended up staying around Kampala.

We decided to hit up this place called the BBQ lounge.  One of the things that has really surprised us in Uganda has been the variety and quality of food.  Before we arrived, everyone told us to be sure to get our fill (and we definitely did!) of good meet.  We were anticipating a lot of beans and goat.  Although Uganda does love their beans and goat, there is also plenty of other meats.  In fact, it seems as though the favourite Kampalan meal is BBQ pork.  I can’t say we are complaining.  It is pretty great to get pork on a stick wherever you turn.  BBQ lounge provided all kinds of other meats as well and reminded us of the Argentinean parrillada we loved so much in Buenos Aires.  The meat is cooked to order on a charcoal BBQ and we eat outdoors in 25 degree weather.  Not too much to complain about.

On Saturday, Stu headed to Lake Victoria and checked out Gaba and Munyoyo, two traditional fishing ports.  It is amazing to see how much the introduction of the Nile perch has impacted on the local fishing industry (check out Wikipedia if you need more details).  These areas are known as the places where Kampala picks up the fish from the local fisherman.  However, there seemed to be very few fishermen and no infrastructure to support fish export.  Instead, each town had a small market with stalls selling the cooked fish.  It is hard to believe that much of the catch gets to Kampala any more.  We couldn’t leave without trying the local foods.  This part of Lake Victoria fries the tilapia whole.  I wasn’t really sure if I would like the whole fish, especially deep-fried, but it was delicious.  It is amazing how good fish tastes when it is so fresh.  We definitely need to try to get more of the fresh fish into our diet.

While dinning lakeside on our fresh fish two birds that represent the polar opposites of the ornithological spectrum joined us.  The pleasant and very beautiful Ugandan crested crane (above), the Ugandan national bird, and the grotesque Marabou Stork (below).  Uganda has an amazing variety of birds with over 1000 species.  Even in urban areas, it is possible to see a wide variety of ducks, herons, hawks, eagles, kingfishers, magpies, and all sorts of birds I have never seen before.  However, around Kampala it is the stork that is king.  They scavenge all over the place.  The locals call them pterodactyls as they are frequently gliding in packs over the city.  They can grow up to five feet tall and have a wingspan of over 10 feet.  They are truly terrifying beasts.  What makes them even worse is that they are some of the ugliest things.  Their heads look like they have been in a fire, their head and neck is covered with grey hair that looks like they are balding, they have a pink neck ruff that looks like a brain, and their gular sack grows as it eats.

 It is nice to see some local fauna but we can’t wait to see some of the big game Africa is famous for.