Queen Elizabeth National Park

A couple days after Christmas I was still in Kasese visiting with friends. We decided to take a trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park to go on a boat safari. The trip was amazing into the park – the scenery was breathtaking and for the first time I felt like I was in a place that was like how I envisioned Africa to be – very Lion King –ish. On the way into the park we saw an elephant and I got about 20 feet away from it as it crossed the road. The animal was elegant – graceful, but powerful. It was an amazing experience to get that close to one of my most favorite animals not being at the zoo. Once we got on the boat to go on the safari we saw a plethora of animals that I have never seen in the wild before. Below are some pictures from my adventure. Hopefully sometime in the next two years I will be able to get back there to go on a true game drive – knock something else off my bucket list!

My First African Christmas

So this Christmas was very different then any Christmas I have ever had before: no snow, no cold, no Christmas lights on houses in the neighborhood or my home, no sugar cookies and no holiday inspired coffee drinks. However, one thing was the same – being with people you care about and who care the same in return (which is the most important and fulfilling part). Luckily this part of the holidays I was able to have here in Uganda.

I went to Kasese, which is western Uganda, for Christmas this year and stayed at my friend Jason’s house along with eight other PCV’s. I arrived on Christmas Eve to some of my closest friends in country there already! We had dinner at a hotel in town that gave a beautiful view of the Rwenzori Mountains that separate Uganda from the Congo. That night we all had a blast catching up and making new holiday memories together.

The next day was Christmas! We had a big brunch to start the day and the rest of the day pretty much revolved around eating too ha! Jason had a Christmas tree in his work space so that was nice to have up during the festivities!

We went to lunch at Jason’s supervisor’s home in Kasese. It was wonderful to see how open and hospitable his supervisor’s family was to all of us – it was a kind gesture on their part. Their house was decorated Ugandan style for Christmas with a fake tree filled with balloon ornaments.

After lunch we came back to Jason’s house and had a great afternoon game of Yankee Swap. Most people at the celebration hadn’t played Yankee Swap before so I’m assuming it’s mostly a New England game (unless you’ve seen that episode of The Office – someone always goes above the price limit!). There were some great gifts under the tree (on PCV Uganda standards): JIF Peanut Butter, a map of East Africa, mac n’ cheese, illegally downloaded movies, wooden spoons, kitchen towels and of course alcohol. I was lucky enough to end up with the wooden spoons and kitchen towels! Very much appreciated and needed.

That night we went to a buffet dinner at the nice hotel in town and got to have turkey for the first time being in country. It was pretty tough, but yummy! We all had a wonderful night at dinner and to end the night all went back to Jason’s to play some kosher games for the whole family :)

Holiday Break 2010

So Uganda has the system of taking two weeks off from doing most things during the holiday season. To my benefit my work follows this systemas well. I was granted two weeks off while the Youth Center was closed for the holiday season. It has been the first time since high school that I have had a break from school/work and had to figure out what to do with my time. It was an uplifting and amazing feeling to know that I could just have fun for two weeks and not have to worry about assignments, work or getting anything on my to-do list done.

The beginning of my holiday break I decided to spend in Jijna. Jinja is only a 40-minute taxi ride from me so it was definitely time to take more advantage of that! I went camping at Nile River Explorers (NRE), which is the rafting company that I did the Rhino Race with. They have beautiful facilities and a beautiful view of Bujagali Falls.

Bujagali Falls

After a night of good food, drink and camping I woke up the next morning to a day filled with one big first: I was going to ride a horse. Now I have always wanted to ride a horse, but just have never made an opportunity to do so. I would also say, as I have gotten older the idea of riding a horse have seemed scarier and scarier, but I decided to tackle the fear and just do it! The people at Nile River Horseback Riding were wonderful to me. They knew it was my first time and took care to make sure I was comfortable on my horse, knew the commands and was set for my two hours of adventure. I rode an Ethiopian Pony named Domino and though he was very good to me I think he was a tad bit irritated throughout the ride because all I was comfortable doing was walking him.

The horseback riding took place on Kigali Falls, which is the opposite side of the Nile River from where I camped at NRE. The ride was beautiful – it started by riding through the villages and nature around the Nile. It was great to ride, get to know our guide and to talk with the locals with the minimal survival conversational Luganda that I know. The end of the ride was along the Nile River itself. The breathtaking views I will never forget and it was fun to watch the people starting their rafting adventure, the fisherman fishing and kayakers play boating in the water down below. It was an amazing two hours that I will definitely want to repeat again while I’m here and perhaps even start trying to get better at riding when I get back home!

The middle part of the week I went up towards Masindi in central/northern Uganda to go to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary to go rhino tracking. Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is home to nine white rhinos (the three females are pregnant). I learned a ton about rhinos while I stayed there: white rhinos are less aggressive then black rhinos, both types of rhinos have humps on the back of their necks which makes it hard for rhinos to move their head and almost impossible to swim, but white rhinos have smaller humps, and white rhinos can run at about a speed of 35 mph while black rhinos can run at speeds up to 30 mph and this speed difference is due to the fact that black rhinos weigh about a ton more then white rhinos, and lastly white rhinos have a boxed mouth which makes it easy for them to eat grass while black rhinos have a beaked mouth so they prefer to eat shrubbery and bushes.

White rhinos used to be abundant here in Uganda up until about the late 1970’s. During Amin’s political regime he supported poachers to hunt the rhinos to extinction. The goal of Ziwa is to reintroduce rhinos into Uganda so hopefully one day the population can support itself and rhinos can roam the grasslands once again.

Two Places at Once

So I have been in two different States at once and two different countries at once so why not be in two different hemispheres at once too?

Mystery Disease Found

So sadly my hopes and dreams were not realized when the mystery disease spreading through northern Uganda was found. Now I'm not saying I wanted a disease here in the first place, but to be here when possibly new bacteria (as they were thinking) was being discovered would have been amazing. That being said, they figured out what the sickness in the north was - yellow fever. Now they know the treatment course and people should be staying healthy. I'm vaccinated so for those of you who were worried at home everything here is dandy! Just one more reason to really use my mosquito net and avoid trashy horror movies like Skeeter.

Holiday Tournament: Mweso (8.12.2010)

The second day of the YC Holiday Tournament was the board game Mweso. This is a very popular game all over Uganda and is called by different names in the different language areas. It is a game of speed and math – I haven’t quite caught on to all of the ins and outs of the game, but the staff at the YC has said that they are going to teach me which I’m excited about. Below is a hyperlink to the rules of Mweso so you can see just how it is played/how complex of a game it is:

http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Mancala%20Articles/Uganda/index.html

There were about 20 youths signed up to participate in the tournament. The games were played to the best of 3. The tournament drew a huge crowd and the people in the audience started to pick their favorites and cheer for them. I was in the office at the beginning of the tournament and I heard shouting and cheering and thought that they were watching a replay of a football match from the other day, but no – they were competing.



Josh, my counterpart, spoke to the crowd about HIV/AIDS prevention methods before the start of the tournament. He then proceeded to join the tournament and ended up winning! Congrats to my wonderful counterpart!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

I have always admired the spirit of Audrey Hepburn through out her career and life. She always amazed me with her strength, poise and beauty in everything she did. The love of her is something that I share with my mother and in a recent email correspondence with my Mom she shared this poem by Audrey with me. I had heard it a long time ago, but forgot how simply sublime it truly is. She wrote this poem when asked by the media to share her beauty tips and in fact her answer was read at her funeral years later due to the effect it had on women at the time. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!


Beauty Tips by Audrey Hepburn

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed.
Never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.