Well, Mom and Nana arrived late Sunday night, fresh off a 36-hour flight from RDU through London. We didn’t make them repeat our experience of the midnight airport-to-Kampala ride of terror, instead putting them up at a quiet little inn run by a nice Irish woman within range of airport propeller sounds. Turns out, it was also just a couple of blocks away from one of the President’s estates, so when the sound of a loud party elicited calls to the police, they just shrugged and said that they couldn’t really do much because the party-hosts called the shots.
Despite it all, when we finally showed up after a long, dusty car ride from Fort Portal, the ladies were looking well-rested and refreshed. We took them out for a traditional Ugandan meal (pizza and sandwiches) before a short excursion to the nearby Botanical Gardens and the banks of Lake Victoria. We saw our first Black-and-White monkeys (Nana says all monkeys are “tricky” and to be avoided) and Denise spotted the first brilliantly colored Woodland Kingfisher of the trip. We also played with our van’s “pop-top” which allows us to stand in the car to watch wildlife, and met Chris, our driver (whom we ourselves had met only that morning). Chris has proven to be friendly and patient, and a skillful driver through challenging and unpredictable Ugandan traffic-- although he suddenly started driving at a snail’s pace when Nana got in the van and we had to encourage him to go faster or we would never get to our destinations! After another night at the hotel we set off for more great adventures!
This Fall, Jess (Abwooli) and Andrew (Araali) are living and working in Kibale National Park, in western Uganda. The hilly landscape is overlaid with a patchwork of communities, wild and wonderful, human and otherwise. To help understand how the park affects local livelihoods, we are working in four communities bordering the park to measure how land-use by farmers and crop-raiding by wildlife has changed over the past 20 years since Jess's advisor did her PhD here. This blog is meant as a way to help us document our thoughts and experiences, and hopefully will allow our friends, relatives, and colleagues to share our glimpses of this part of the world. Thanks for reading and let us know your thoughts!