Leah’s Travel Page

I made it through the border in record time, didn’t even have to pay any bribes. That’s got to be a good thing.

We’re staying at another ICIPE station in Mbita, Kenya. My bedroom looks out onto the beach and Lake Victoria, and at night I can leave just my screen door open and hear the waves rolling up against the shore at night… So amazing, I wish I could go swimming, but then I’d get schistosomiasis, which would really suck, to say the least, because it’s about the grossest parasite ever. A group of 10 of us got to go on a boat ride in Jinja where we went down the Nile and into Lake Victoria, and we got splashed by water a lot and we kept on joking that we were on the schisto ride. Seriously, the odds of us getting schisto (aka bilharzia) from that is virtually none, so don’t you all freak out now. Anyways, it was worth it, getting to boat down the Nile. We didn’t get to see too much of Jinja, except enough to see what we thought were giant swarms of birds that turned out to be giant bats (they were even there at 10 am!). Kind of cool. Kind of creepy.

Today we went to another hospital, here in Mbita. It was in much better shape than the one in Fort Portal. I mean, it wasn’t perfect, but it was much less chaotic, and at least here patients’ families didn’t have to supply all their own food, bedsheets and mattresses (yes, that was how it was in F.P.). We also got to talk to some traditional healers, which was kind of a neat experience.

Oh, and I also wanted to make a comment about elections in Africa. It’s the national elections in Uganda on February 23rd, so it was totally amazing to be there and see all kinds of campaign posters for President Museveni and others. Just to put it in context, Kenya had a referendum on their constitution last year, and since many people are illiterate, they had ‘banana’ for yes and ‘orange’ for no. In Uganda, it’s a similar thing, but with hand gestures. As we were driving through towns in our big mzungu truck, people passing by kept giving us the thumbs up or a peace sign. At first, we kept randomly returning the hand signals and people laughed, until we realized that thumbs up is the symbol for Museveni and the peace sign (two fingers) is his main opponent (FDC party). There’s also a flat palm, for Milton Obote’s wife who’s running in the north (aka bad), and a clenched fist, for the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Party, very VERY bad). I just think it’s such a fascinating way of practising democracy so that all people can be involved…even if it is at the expense of the dignity of a bus-load of travelling mzungu.

I’m in Jinja, Uganda right now. My hotel room overlooks the spot where Lake Victoria turns into the Nile River. It’s sunset and fishermen are canoeing out in their boats to drop their nets for the evening… It’s pretty spectacular!

I’ve just spent the last two and a bit weeks in Uganda, and we leave tomorrow for Mbita, Kenya (which is also on Lake Victoria). That’s good because a) I’ll have solid email for 5 days, b) my cell phone will start working again, and c) well, Kenya’s pretty darn cool. But I’m also kind of sad to be leaving because Uganda has been absolutely beautiful and amazing. I only have time to mention everything briefly now, but I’ll add more later.

We spent the first 10 days at Kibale National Park in the west of the country, near Fort Portal (for anyone interested in looking on a map). We stayed at a really remote field station in the North of the park, where you could look out your bedroom window and see troops of 50 red colubus monkeys soaring through the trees, and where the banana bread and avocado salad is made with fresh produce from down the road! (I’ve never eaten so many bananas in my life…potassium overdose is imminent). We also had several incidents involving baboons breaking into people’s rooms to steal food…they are major pests and crop-raiders, not nice at all! For my human geography class, we got to spend most days in the tiny village of Kanyawara, adjacent to the park, and got to know a bunch of the villagers quite well (I even speak a bunch of Batoro, the local language). The poverty is pretty extreme but it’s subtle and below the surface in a way I didn’t expect, so when you’re confronted with it it hits you pretty hard. There are kids everywhere because it’s during the two-month holiday, and they are so great! When we’d drive out to sites in the back of the pick-up truck, they’d be running after us for ages, shouting “Goodbye, friends!” I think the best part has definitely been all the people we’ve gotten to know.

My class also had the chance to visit many hospitals and health clinics, which was a pretty shocking experience. I’ll talk more about it later, but the most vivid memory is at a public, government-funded hospital in Fort Portal. They have 2000 in-patients, even more out-patients, and only 9 doctors in the entire facility. Walking into the labour ward, the rickety metal beds were packed so close you couldn’t walk between them, there were mothers and newborn infants sleeping on mattresses on the floor all over, hallways were so packed with foam mattresses there were only a few inches to walk by, and IVs were hanging from door handles. The entire ward had probably about 80 people in it with one nurse, whose resources were so limited she didn’t even have a blood pressure cuff! (We were able to buy her two later…it was extraordinary when we returned to give them to her and within 5 seconds she was using them on patients…they cost about 10 dollars each). The whole place had a huge impact on our group (there are 12 students in that class), the conditions were sooo much worse than I imagined, and I thought I’d imagined the worst!

I’ve hardly been sick since I’ve gotten here (one day of major throwing up but that’s about it…some people are sick with fevers, and frankly as long as I don’t have diarrhea, I’m okay).

After leaving Kibale, we drove down and spent a night at Queen Elizabeth NP, where we went on a boat ride on the Kazinga Channel and got REALLY close up to elephants, hippos, water buffalo…uh, warthogs. It was my first experience in a fully outdoor shower and with only three walls, and I got to share this special experience with two cockroaches the size of mice!! There was also a warthog (officially the ugliest animal on earth) and her baby in the sink area, so no one could go in…well, one girl tried and got charged and run over, so we all stayed far far away! There was also a brief moment when we thought three members of our group got eaten by lions after foolishly walking around at night, but it turned out they were just sitting around talking somewhere… You can never be too careful with massive predatorial mammals on the loose under cover of darkness! (that’s my new motto)

Then we went to Lake Nabugabo, a freshwater lake off western Lake Victoria, which is amazing because it has no schistosomiasis (a REALLY gross parasite), so you can go swimming!!!! It was amazing! The pest of choice there was the vervet monkey, which would swoop down from the rafters and steal the bread right from your hand as you’re bringing it to your mouth (all with their baby clinging to their back!). We also had some of the best fish and chips I’ve ever had (mmm…Nile perch), although I might just have thought that because I was sick of having rice, matoke (banana mash), beans and meat every day for the last two weeks!

After two days there, we drove a very long LONG drive to Jinja, through Kampala. Seriously, every single road in this country is under construction! When we arrived at the Sunset Hotel overlooking the Nile, we were all in paradise…although my standards have dropped substantially: 2 stars, there’s a whole in the ground somewhere that you can go to the bathroom in (my aim is now impeccable); 3 stars, there are walls around it; 4 stars, still a pit toilet, but has a seat (preferably don’t have to go outdoors)… 5 stars, flush toilet!!! Bonus points for having toilet paper, enough of this BYOTP already!

Well, it’s almost supper, our big Uganda send-off, plus we just had final exams (for one course) today, and it’s one guy in the groups birthday, so we’re having a big fiesta later! I’ll write more once we get to Mbita tomorrow (if we ever do…12 hours drive including my first African land border crossing and a ferry ride…gulp)

Hope Pittsburgh wins the Superbowl (that’s my one bit of foreign news!) and that the Canucks and Habs are lighting it up!