Life on Bushara

Woodpecker Cottage

sunrise

Catching tadpole in shower water, before heating on the stove.

Filling the shower bag

Hoisting the shower bag...man these captions are lame!

six pineapples = 2000 ugandan shillings or $1.25 cdn

mangoes, bananas, avocados, tomatoes $2.50 cdn

that thing in front? pumpkin - go figure!

we bleach then filter our water before transferring it to our drinking water...tank/holder?

water still tastes bad...like lake...mixed with bleach...mmm, so we drink a lot of tang

rice is available with or without rocks. at the start we were cheap and bought the rock variety, which involved about half an hour of 'sorting' before cooking...we now buy the marginallly more expensive kind...and eat rice more often!

before joel tried to fix our oven, we enjoyed baking. this involved a pole wedged between the oven and cupboard across the doorway to the kitchen to hold the gas knob in. temperature regulation? opening and closing the oven door...keeping a close watch on the thermometer.

mail wall! and yes, you too can be on it (again even)!! we were shocked to discover that mail takes less than two weeks from Canada!!

we live with many friends. bry kept finding these friends in bed...we thought maybe it was the same one, but no - five carcasses proved otherwise!

a nasty discovery one morning when bry went to put on her skirt. she wore the green one instead.

other friends?? wagtails. they come and go as they please - sometimes surprising us in the kitchen which results in a lot of sqeaking and flying at your head. happily they eat the centipedes we step on in the house.

laundry. ahhh - is that rain? run run run...madly taking laundry off the line. then we attempt to fit it all on this indoor contraption...where it never dries and drips onto the floor, causing hazardous puddles - sometimes we remember to wring it out periodically.

last thursday we ran out of gas. no big deal, we would pick more up in town the next day. only...Kabale had no gas - and still has no gas. luckily we are experienced wilderness campy people and took matters into our own hands in collecting this large pile of leaves (and wood...but mostly dry leaves)

desperate for a warm shower, we tried to get some of the wood burning and failed miserably due to the fact that it's rained almost everyday since November...and all the wood is wet. So we burned leaves! A little labour intensive, and a bit of a raging inferno, but hot showers were had. We've had cold ones since...

no gas has meant a lot of chocolate peanut butter

Going to town

We meet the restaurant staff at 8:30am and load up the boat with empty jerry cans, bottles and boxes.

Rosette (restaurant manager), Edith (office manager), Enos (maintenance manager)

the boat ride is about ten minutes to Rutindo, where we pick up the truck.

We go into town Mondays and Fridays, which are market days at Rutindo. People come in dugouts from all over the lake to buy and sell goods.

only 1000 shillings to get into town in the back of one of these

coming back from town, we unload everything at the dock - jerry cans of gas and milk, sodas, beer, boxes and bags of produce, meat, bread and other supplies. we then load up the truck with kids for the ride up to the parking lot

walking back to the boat. the kids speak rukiga to us, we speak english to them, we don't understand each other but it doesn't seem to matter.

Work

one of the best things about community visits is walking through banana groves - it's like 'honey i shrunk the kids'!

we're always amazed at the views of the lake from communities

sometimes we work from home. nice to avoid the two minute trek to the office...

our most recent project - testing out recipes for a nutrition workshop. Took advantage of a sunny day to prep outside!

No really, we actually do work

So we started to notice that most of our blog entries are about our holidays, thought we’d try to remedy that. We may live on an island with a tourist camp, but most of the time we actually work here. Usually we think we even freak the tourists out a little, greeting the staff in Rukiga, walking past the ‘staff only’ sign into the kitchen, carrying paddles, flutterboards, picnic baskets of bananas and thermoses, wearing rashguards and board shorts, skirts and leg warmers…tonight was a new one, walking up to the restaurant with our pot of half-cooked dinner after we ran out of gas.

There’s no such thing as a typical work day, but we’ll try to give you an idea of some of the things we’ve been up to. Between running our second month of swim camps, January kept us busy with a number of different projects.

Bryony organized a second visit to the lake by TASO, an organization in town that offers free HIV/AIDS testing and counselling. This time, they went to a trading centre on the far side of the lake – close to Rwanda – giving her the opportunity to meet the pygmies, who make regular visits to the trading centre to sell bamboo, buy banana liquor, and dance up a storm. Some visits were made to communities with volunteer swim instructors who were trained last year to assess how their programs were going in their schools. Unfortunately, volunteerism isn’t valued here the same way it is at home and people are reluctant to offer their time without monetary gain. Therefore, the swim programs at the various schools are not running as intended by Stacy. Plan B. LBDC is going to hire a second instructor to teach consistent swimming lessons at schools on the opposite side of the lake from Norman. Interviews will be held in the upcoming weeks. There are similar issues with the HIV/AIDS education volunteers in communities, so LBDC is looking to hire a staff member to work in this area of their programming as well. Bryony is currently working at creating an assistance program for people living with HIV on the lake. One of the biggest challenges these people face is the cost of transport to receive care and counselling services in town. The assistance program would help people get into town for CD4 count tests and access anti-retroviral medications. The HIV/AIDS staff member would be a trained counsellor who could help people access funding confidentially as there is still a lot of stigma towards HIV.

Emily met with the community agroforestry groups that were started by Amanda last year to assess the program in each community. They did a seed multiplication program to introduce new varieties of beans and sweet potatoes, which went well. LBDC is hoping to expand the program into more communities. Organizing farmers into groups is an effective way to work with them and helps them to access support from outside organizations. LBDC has now helped one of the communities that participated in the program last year to join a government program that will allow them to access more resources than LBDC could provide. Ben, the agroforestry manager, has shown a lot of interest in learning how to write proposals, so we’ve been putting together a resource on writing funding proposals and Emily will work with Ben to write his first. The LBDC demonstration site for reverse slope terracing (RST), a technology whose terraces slope into the hill to conserve top soil and water, has had its first harvest, and results from the experiment to compare RST to the terraces more commonly used around the lake, are pending. The results look like they will be favourable, so Emily has been visiting other organizations working in the region to gauge interest in partnering with LBDC to try to get RST into communities. The terraces are very labour intensive to build, and thus prohibitively expensive for most people. But, as the results appear to be promising here, and Rwanda reports a 20% increase in production with RST, the results seem worth the effort.

What does a community visit involve? Well. First, there’s a paddle of varying length. This is followed by a trek up steep dirt paths to the road. If we’re lucky, it hasn’t rained, but it rains most days this time of year, and the paths are slick. Fun on the way up; even more fun on the way down. We’ve both ended up on our butts at least once, much to the amusement of our Ugandan counterparts. And then, there are the children, who follow you yelling, “How are you?” “Give me my money.” You can’t visit more than one community in a day, partly because it takes awhile to get most places, but also, once there, you can spend considerable amounts of time trying to find the people you’re meeting with, visiting people, stopping for obushera – the local fermented millet drink, which usually involves chatting with men from the village comparing Canada and Uganda…or even a haircut for your Ugandan counterpart. Community visit days are some of the days we enjoy most, exploring new places and usually getting an awesome view of the lake.

Other days we spend on the island, doing paperwork, computer work, and making phone calls. This involves bundling up, as both our house and the office are quite chilly, and a fair amount of raging, as the solar power cuts out at least once an hour on a rainy day…and we haven’t seen much sun since the end of November.

At least one day a week, we’re in Kabale town to do our shopping, but also to visit organizations. Up until this past week, we took in an ACTS truck, a beat up white Toyota Hilux, with a squeaking clutch, clanking gear box and just enough power to make it up the mountain. It was great having access to a truck, as many of the people we visit have offices on the edges of town…until you get a flat. The Ugandans insist on changing it for you, despite having very little experience with cars. And how many people does it take to change a tire in Uganda? One driver to make sure the jack isn’t on the suspension, two Ugandans to actually use the tools, and about 15 onlookers to supervise…But now we have no truck so we won’t need to worry about that anymore….

All in all, we’re enjoying what we’re doing here. Funny how ACTS said we would hit our stride just before we left…and how true that’s proving to be. Things are really getting busy and we’re finally figuring out how things work – just in time to be wrapping things up. Currently, we’re trying to fit a few more days into the month of February…we’ll let you know how that goes.

Deepest Darkest Almost the Congo Africa

Our long weekend in January got pushed back a few days due to the opening of Bushara’s new Conference Centre. It was a fun day, many distinguished guests attended including a representative of the British High Commission, who was repeatedly referred to as “His Majesty”. The day was complete with the cutting of the tape, dancing, many speeches and a delicious lunch.

Straight from the ceremony we raced the sun as we drove to Mbarara…our last time in our truck as it has been moved to a different “more important” project site. Apparently driving construction crews and materials every day warrants a truck more than two trips to town a week. Sigh. Unfortunately the sun won, and we discovered why we are not supposed to drive at night. Basically, Ugandans don’t know how to drive at night. Headlights? Optional. Highbeams?? Always. And hey…what’s that one headlighted thing driving down the middle of the road right towards us….AHHH! Don’t worry…we’re writing this blog entry aren’t we??

We reunited with the other interns, most of who were spending a quiet off at Canada House. Five days in Mbarara?? Tempting, but no. We, along with John and Joël hopped in a truck the next morning (which required push starting), and headed West.

Not too long into the drive, we reached Queen Elizabeth Park, where we were lucky enough to spot many animals by the road. Our first entertainment was a bunch of baboons who were enjoying bananas which had been thrown out of the tanker in front of us. We then spotted an elephant conveniently posed next to an acacia tree – just like you see in the documentaries. There were a few more elephants just down the road so John and Joël ran into the bush after them for the photo op. The photos of them running after the elephants were better than the photos that they got. Next we saw a herd of gazelle, a water buffalo and a waterbuck. We were quite pleased about this free safari. Too bad there weren’t any lions. We had lunch while on “Operation Detour”. Tasty.

We reached Kasese and our final destination was in sight – the Rwenzori Mountains, Africa’s tallest mountain range. Not much is open in Kasese on a Sunday afternoon, so guides would have to be found the next day.

So, it was off to find a place to camp. We had visions of ourselves camped in the middle of the African savannah, so we turned down a dirt road hoping to find a good spot past the agricultural land. Unfortunately for us this road led to a small village where we encountered a ditch crossing the road with a giant pipe in it. We took some photos to make it look like we meant to end up there…and then awkwardly turned the truck around as we were being gawked at by several villagers and what John specified to be a ‘fine specimen of a goat’.

Our second attempt at finding the perfect camping spot in the savannah turned out to be more successful. We hid our white truck behind some cactuses and set up camp. We enjoyed a camp fire under a full moon with gazelles prancing in the distance….and locals making animal noises. The sunrise the following morning was beautiful. Joël thought that he spotted some ostrich…which turned out to be locals on bicycles. Oops! We packed up and were on our way…well, not exactly – first we had to push start the truck. Tricky finding a slope in the savannah. Not so inconspicuous pushing a truck in circles. We finally got it started, but not before all entertaining visions of us pushing the truck all the way to Kasese… In Kasese we hired guides and porters and bought food – then headed to the mountains. Somehow we missed the trekking office and ended up at the park entrance, where we were told we needed to come back when we had porters and guides. So, we pushed started the truck again (with the help of the park official, who was suitably amused) and headed back to the trekking office. There we met our guides, Rauben and Johnson and had our packs weighed. And we were off for three days in the mountains!

The entire circuit is a seven day trek – too long for our off, but we were thankful for the three days we had. We got good weather, with just a bit of rain while we were hiking on the first day.

Day One
Started with a relatively relaxing hike through forests similar to Savegre Valley for those of you who have been there. Apparently elephants frequent the mountains – didn’t see any elephants, but saw some other rather convincing evidence. Elephant poo is gigantic!! Along the way, our guides inquired about our ages. They were shocked to find out that John was not 42, and even more shocked to find out that em was older than him. We’re pretty sure they thought we were a family of four.

Had an awkward lunch stop…we hadn’t packed a lunch or raingear in our day packs – not sure what the guides thought of us…Following lunch we started a steep climb in the rain up to the first ridge. Our guides wanted us to stay dry under a tree – we wanted to get to the first hut. So we pushed on…stunning views at the top, and soon we arrived at the first hut. Unfortunately our porters were not there, along with every article of warm dry clothing. So, we sat shivering fighting over the privilege of hogging the hot Nalgene full of tea. Our guides oriented us to the hut, pointing our where the chicken and toy were. Translation? Kitchen and latrine. We were getting pretty excited about the chicken – we thought we had to provide our own food. Eventually the porters arrived. We then tried to start cooking dinner. Too bad the people we spoke to about packing dishes, pots, and stove for us didn’t communicate with the porters. Oh dear. Our guides, “you don’t have plates?? a pot? do you need utensils too?”, they were probably thinking, “What did they bring? yahoos”. Anyways, thankfully our guides and porters shared what we needed. After a good meal of mashed potatoes and stew we headed to our sleeping bags to escape the cold. John retired to his book – an epic journey…about moles. Yes, we mocked him thoroughly. Night visits to the latrine turned out to be less of a nuisance due to the nearly full moon, silhouetting the peaks.

Day Two
We descended into a valley, crossed the river on a swinging wooden bridge and started up again. The terrain started to change as we got higher. Rocks covered in orange lichen, old man’s beard drooping from every tree and our first glimpse of snow covered mountains.

We enjoyed lunch beside a frigid mountain stream.

After lunch, the mud began. It was quite the game – jumping from one slippery log to another, thinking you were jumping onto solid ground, a rock or a log, only to discover yourself mid-calf in mud. Our guides did the whole thing in gumboots. Crazy. We reached the John Matte Hut early afternoon. Perfect timing for a quick dip in the river? Yes please. It was…refreshing…in a submerging yourself in ice water kind of way! John posed with his local Camrose, Alberta newspaper, hoping to win a photo contest. The Africans thought we were crazy. Joël went exploring while the rest of us attempted to warm up and passed a rainy afternoon watching the clouds roll through the mountains, sipping tea, reading and journaling.

It was a beautiful spot, and we were thankful to be the only ones at the hut. Just before dinner, our guides joined us for a trip up the path to the bog, where the vegetation changed again. Giant grass tussocks, and lobelias grew out of…waterlogged grasses. Beautiful.

Dinner was a three course meal – mainly because we only had one pot to cook with. It was even colder at John Matte, so straight to our sleeping bags once again! John with his mole book.

Day Three
Morning greeted us with frost on the grass. It was a cold night. Freezing if you will. Breakfast was hot porridge and the mother of all pineapples. Too bad the pineapple, nutella and peanut butter were all frozen. We shared the pineapple with the guides and porters, who were probably thinking, “we carried this pineapple all the way up here?!??!” Delicious.

And then began the long descent. Nice weather and speedier. We encountered several people (62 altogether) who were carrying lumber and supplies to build a new hut. Wow, what a job. We were sad to leave the National Park that afternoon, but hoped to return someday to do the whole circuit. Returned to the trekking office, sore knees, mud covered legs, blisters…ready to push start the truck once again. Apparently our guides were still in disbelief about em’s age, since they asked “this one drives?” Our whole team loaded into the back of the truck for a lift into town. The drive back through Queen Elizabeth Park was less eventful – just a warthog and a few gazelle. Boring. Kidding!

And now, back to work! February and March will be busy months. Hard to believe there are only two months remaining of our internships. Lots to do before we go. More on that later.