Jinja Town

Familiarizing myself with this new town, my home for the next 5 months, has been like making a new friend. Timidly I began scampering on the sidewalk, hugging the shade, dodging boda bodas (motorbikes), bicycles, goats and chickens.I have finally learned, after a few close encounters, to look first right and then left when crossing the street here - as traffic drives on the opposite side here compared to the States. Jinja (even the name is fun to say, like jumanji or juju) is a slow moving town - traffic is mostly caused by the hundreds of bicycle taxis here. I prefer taking a bicycle over a motorcycle, not only is it cheaper (.25 cents as opposed to .50) but safer, and environmentally friendly too!

The town sits on Lake Victoria, right where the massive lake transforms into the longest river in the world. Everything here is bathed in red dust - the streets, buildings, money, goats and trees are all tinted sunset copper.

In just two weeks, this town has become home-like. I know where to buy my vegetables in the market - that I can buy 4 eggplants for 400 shillings (20 cents), and the most delicious pineapples I have ever had for only 50 cents. The vegetables here are luxuriously cheap and tasty. I can find Okra, passion fruit, peppers, cucumbers, cilantro, fresh eggs, ginger, garlic, onions, bananas, oranges, sweet potatoes, beans, lentils, plantains - and much much more to discover! The meat section of the market is less appetizing - most of the meat is exposed to hoards of carnivorous flies. When entering the meat section you are exposed to offensive putrid smell as well as a plethora of unidentifiable animal innards - which wiggle like jello in the hot sun. If I want to cook chicken I have to buy it a line and either slaughter it myself or pay someone to butcher it. I nearly accomplished this the other day, but as I held the bird - and it clucked warmly in my hands - I couldn't bare to sentence it. So, alas no chicken for us. We do however live next to a hotel that serves Thai food as well as delicious steak! Fore very cheap.

The people here are unbelievable friendly. Most town-dwellers speak English, and I am trying to stutter a few words of Luganda for adventures to surrounding villages. Glenn bough a bycycle this week, as he peddles me to the market - people yell "Muzungu Boda", roughly translating to "white man bicycle taxi!"

We are also the proud parents of a 5-week old puppy, brought to us by the electrician, Richard. The puppy, named Milo, was plagues with fleas and worms when he arrived - but he is now de-flead, de-wormed, gaining weight and very happy.


I am working now with The AIDS Support Organization in Jinja. Tomorrow I am going out into the field to do testing. I will write more soon - but now I am off to make dinner...

On Safari

From Murchison Falls National Park, Northeastern Uganda
Febrary 27th

The soil and air are damp from the recent rain - which cooled the scorching afternoon. The birds are purring in the moist shrubs - announcing the sun's departure. Glenn is off photographing a family of warthogs (one male and 3 females) who inhabit red chillis campsite, where we are sleeping.

We woke this morning at 6, when the stars still blinked brightly above us, and set out for a very early morning game drive. The land here changes as rapidly as the weather - from rain forest to grassy savanna in just moments. As you make your way into the grasslands, the land become speckled with red sand castles - built by industrious but invisible termites. I can see the silhouettes of giraffes, like leafless trees, bobbing on the horizon. We see Uganda cob (tiny elegant grazers - or lion macnugguts), spotted bush back, heartbeats, water buck, powerful water buffalo and temperamental elephants roaming the savanna. We also stumbled upon a pride on eleven lion, all females and youth. We stayed snapping photos and admiring their large paws and sharp teeth for about a half an hour. Then, while turning around we got stuck in the deep sand along the road!! Not more than 50 feet from the lions! Their interest definitely perked while the braver members in our group (myself not included) got out to push. Luckily we escaped before the lioness decided to investigate.

The "roads" feel as in you are literally driving on a washboard. I was sure that our van would crumble apart from the endless rattling and shaking. I too felt close to breakdown. "This'" our guide Steven jokes, "is an African massage." By the time we reached the falls my body was numb from the shaking and my mind baffled both from the rattling drive and the magnificence before us. Murchison falls is not the tallest waterfall in the world but it is one of the most powerful. The mighty Nile river is forced into a s meter slot between basalt cliffs - the roaring could deafen. After the squeeze, the water boils in temperamental heaping waves inside what is accurately named the Devil's Cauldron. No life can survive these falls.

On the walk back, our guide broke open a termite mound. The angry soldiers, withe swollen red heads, marched to defend their mound. The local people here actually use these soldier ants as sutures to stitch deep woulds. You need only catch a few, place their fangs on the wound and break their bodies off once they have clamped on. The heads also make a tasty snack, as long as the pinching fangs are clamped. I tried one on the crunchy termites, it wasn't too bad!

The Mountains of the Moon

The Rwenzori Mountains (Rwenzori in Bokonjo for rain makers) are the tallest mountain range in Africa. They are also home to the fastest melting glaciers in the world. This fact along with the desire for adventure brought My father, his friend Tam, and I to the mountains in early February. The following are a few of my journal entries while I was in the mountains:

February 11th

What a hike! We have just arrived at the first hut in the Rwenzoris after a day spent scrambling straight up for 3000 feet. The peaks, valleys, and rivers around us are magnificent - although i spent most of the hike looking down at my feet because the "trail" was so precarious.

The snow line here is receding up and up - so much that the guides are being trained in rock climbing to prepare for no snow! Some of the local Bokonjo people believe that the snow is melting because they have not been sacrificing to the mountain god, although our guide assured us that the melting was simply due to global warming.

February 12th

I have never in my life sen such strange territory. I felt as if every few feet of hiking I was moving back Milena in time - back to the primordial beginnings of life. The entire trail is layered in thick mud, it is almost impossible to move with out submerging my boots in muck - up and up and up through endless rivers of mud. Along the trail where trees covered in wizard-like beards of pale green moss. We hiked for 8 hours to Nyabita hut.

February 13th

Another exhausting day! We set off this morning at 8 and crossed (hopping from rock to rock) a river before entering the lower Big-O bog. Luckily there is a high boardwalk that crosses this bog, although the boards are 6 inches apart, so you still cannot pry your eyes away from the footing. After the bog, we reached a small hut. Tam, who has been struggling a bit with the hike (it is extremely difficult, and even the most fit people find the hiking strenuous) decided to stay with the second guide Dezi, while my father and I continued up.

The rest of the hike was intensely difficult. We climbed a ridge (the trail of course was covered with mud) and down into the upper Big-O Bog. The bog has no boardwalk, and we plugged along through the mud - hopping from tussock to tussock. (Tussocks are round bulges of vegetation). After the bog we climbed STRAIGHT up a muddy creek bed, scrambling on muddy rocks and swinging on branches from log to log. We crossed a roaring stream several times, and each time I barely let myself think what would happen if i slipped on the slippery wooden planks. At the top we found beautiful lake - only to realize that it was surrounded by another bog!!! Again we jumped from e tussock to muddy rock to submerged log - one wrong step and you are up to your waste in mud. By this time we were so high that the temperature had dropped significantly. My hands were freezing, and a cold misty drizzle fell on us most of the afternoon. We made it to camp by four, around 13,000 feet, my hands were so cold i couldn't change my clothes - But luckily i got a basin of hot water and soaked them - and jumped in my sleeping bag to warm up.

February 14th

We woke this morning at 6, for an early start up to Mt. Speke. After climbing straight up for 30 minutes, the back of my head started pounding - and i felt splitting pain through to my left eye. also started hyperventilating and getting nauseous - all the signs of altitude sickness unfortunately. So with much disappointment and a few tears I turned back to camp, while my father and our guide continued to the glacier. They returned to camp at 1:30 and we descended.

I am sorry to leave these majestic peaks - who only reveal their faces for moments before dissapearing behind wispy mist. I am sorry that I could not reach the peaks, but I realize that I am small in the presence of these giants. I leave the Mountains of the Moon humbled and with deep respect and gratitude for reminding me of my human limitations.