The Children

As I've mentioned many times in prior posts, we are constantly being
watched by the school children as we work to complete the libraries.
It is hard to describe exactly what it feels like to look up from your
work and see a student peering through the window and to see them
smile when they notice you looking back. These pictures capture just a
few of the beautiful faces surrounding us every day as we visit the
schools.

The Libraries

This year we completed 3 libraries in 3 days -- Wambwa Primary, Mbale
High School, and Namakwekwe Primary. The opening ceremony was at
Wambwa on Friday but of course the other schools wanted their own
ribbon-cutting as well so we made the rounds to all the schools that
day. At Namakwekwe the children lined the entrance to the school and
sang as we arrived. The Ugandans have a unique talent for making you
feel not only welcome but special too.

These "before" and "after" pictures show the dramatic transformation
of the school rooms into libraries. Even those of us who worked to
build the shelves and fill them with books are amazed at the final
product.

Namakwekwe Primary

We finished the library at Namakwekwe by mid-afternoon today -- except for the flooring. The room was challenging with low windows on two walls but we managed to build an interesting configuration of shelves that left plenty of room for displays.  The room really looks amazing with all the shelves loaded with books, posters covering the walls, and the wall map and globes on display.

 

Of course we had lots of curious on-lookers again today -- peering in through the windows and standing in the doorway until a teacher shooed them away.  By 3PM the team sat down for a late lunch and afterwards had time to enjoy talking to the students an even joining in on a game of netball.

Off to a great start

Sorry it took me so long to post to the blog... our regular Internet shop next to the hotel is no longer there and the night we went looking for an alternate place the power was out so none of them were open.  I found a place a short way down the road from the hotel so hopefully I'll have time to make a few more posts before we leave Mbale.  The attached picture is a view out my window of the K.C. Hotel and is the same road where this Internet shop is where I am sitting now.

 

The team made it safely to Uganda -- flights were ahead of time and everyone's luggage made it!  We've had 2 days working on the libraries and we are on schedule -- shelves built and books loaded at Wambwa and Mbale HS.   The women put as to shame by completing the book sorting hours before the bookshelves were ready at Wambwa.  Today we found our rhythm and had the bookshelves finished in record time. This afternoon we went over to Namakwekwe Primary to get a jump start on tomorrow's work.  Looks like we'll finish up there in plenty of time.

 

Everyone is tired but we are having a great time.  We've had some time to meet with the school children and of course they are hanging in every window watching us as we work so there is always time to exchange greetings and see their smiles.

 

Off to dinner now so hopefully I'll have more to share soon.

 

 

Murchison Falls

On our last day at Murchison Falls Park we stop at the top of the falls on the way out of the park. Just the sound of the water surging through the narrow gap in the rocks makes you feel the power of the Nile here. This is a perfect photo spot and I take full opportunity to get some good Kuk Sool Won poses captured in front of the falls.

Chimp Tracking

On Saturday morning half the group gets up and leaves camp at 5:30am to go Chimpanzee Tracking. We load into a van in darkness and travel 75 minutes back toward the entrance of the park to the chimp preserve. As daylight arrives, the 8 of us split into 2 groups and march out into the forest in hopes of getting a glimpse of the chimps. Within about 10 minutes we hear loud chimp noises and within the dim light of the trees it feels as if we are surrounded by them. Our guide stops us and as we sit quietly a few of the chimps go across the path about 30 yards behind us. We continue on into the forest seemingly leaving the large group of chimps behind us. But the guide has circled us around in place to view the 3 chimps continuing on their journey to a common feeding place. He explains that the male chimp is the leader of a group of about 8 chimps which is just part of the overall number of about 100 chimps that live here. These subgroups are often formed based on their dietary preference and apparently this group favors the bitter fruit found in this area which looks like limes but has an orange flesh. They litter the ground which means the chimps don't have to do any climbing to enjoy their meal. As we head further into the forest we leave the path and the guide spots our three chimps sitting and feeding on the fruit. As we sit and watch more chimps arrive. Some of the chimps are as close as 15-20 yards away and we soon learn how fortunate we are to have gotten this close. A voice calls out over our guide's radio -- the other team has been walking all this time and has barley seen any sign of chimps so they request help finding our location. By the time they arrive the feeding chimps start to walk off. Our trek is just about over so we start walking back. Our group shares our experience with the other one and we realize just how lucky we were to be in the right place at the right time.

PICTURE NOTE: The forest was too dark for a good picture of the chimps with my little digital camera so the picture above is actually of a baboon mother grooming her baby!

Safari

The dirt road leading to Red Chilli camp at Murchison is bumpy and it makes typing on the small XO keyboard even more difficult. We frequently encounter groups of baboons along the road. They move to the side of the road and watch us suspiciously as we pass. When we get into camp we see it is a warthog hangout -- Pumbaa and family are sleeping in the shade beside the tents and eating the grass.

The camp obviously caters to Mzungus as the restaurant menu has burgers, spaghetti, and hot dogs. Most still take the opportunity to enjoy some local specialties like the ginger soda called Stoney or Bitter Lemon soda called Krest.

After a 6 hour ride from Kampala we unpack, grab a quick bite to eat, and jump back into our vehicles for a 4 hour safari ride. We take a ferry across the Nile river where there are hippos lurking just under the surface of the water. As soon as we cross the river we start seeing wildlife including a multitude of antelope-like creatures whose names I have yet to understand from our guide. We spot a lone elephant and groups of Cape Buffalo taking mud baths. We also see quite a few Crested Cranes which is the national bird of Uganda and this is somewhat surprising to me since I thought they were reduced in numbers so much so as to be rarely sighted these days. We come upon a group of Giraffes and everyone is mesmerized by their slow graceful movements and beautiful coloring. After a while the presence of these animals gets mundane and the group wants to see something really spectacular. Our driver gets a call and he turns the vehicle around and speeds off in the opposite direction. We see another vehicle carrying the other half of our group parked on a sloping hill covered in high grass. As we approach we spot the lions they had phoned our driver about. We follow the older male of the group as it walks along before finally settling down once it decides we're not much of a threat. The females and younger male move quickly through the high grass so it's hard to get good pictures of them. Now the group has set their sights on finding a leopard but our guide informs us he has not seen one of these in quite some time.