All About Business

What a long day, a long day that started at 5:50am for me. I toke up, and I made sure that I had everything packed as carefully as I could.  After being satisfied with my packing, for now, I quickly got ready and started to drag my suitcases to meet the bus. The bus was supposed to be at Red Chili at 6:30. However, there must have been some miscommunication because it didn’t arrive until 7:15, which was 15 minutes before we were supposed to be leaving to start our day. Oh well.

We loaded as fast as we could, and we were at MUBS for a really quick breakfast by 7:40. I was glad that I just eat toast this morning, especially since we were rushed to get our breakfast done as fast as possible.

We finally left for Jinja around 8:20am. Jinja is pretty much straight East of Kampala from what I gathered, and I guess it isn’t too far from Kenya either. Don’t quote me on any of that though.

On our way to Jinja, we passed numerous tea and sugar cane plantations. I can honestly say I didn’t realize sugar cane looked the way it does. It was almost as tall as fully-grown corn, but it looked more similar to huge blades of grass. We also passed through Mariba Natural Forest. It’s one of the few natural rainforests in this region of Africa, but it wasn’t anything like I pictured either. It was just a lot of tress on both sides of the road. It didn’t really look like all of the pictures I’ve seen of rainforests, but it was still gorgeous nonetheless.

We arrived at a small village around 11am where we were supposed to talk about microfinancing. We did, but not in the way any of us had expected. They performed a skit for us demonstrating how they used to bank compared to how they bank now. The village used to bury their money, hide it in pots around their house, or hide it in their roofs. Now they have a type of banking that they can get loans from, and they can save and form interest on the money. They do this all without even needing to go to a bank. It is all done within their own community. It was really interesting, but it was also hard to pay attention to. They performance they gave was in their native language, and then after a while they would stop and it would be interpreted for us. However, the interpretation was more of a summary of what they had been explaining. Since I have no business background whatsoever, I was lost for a bit, and I started asking questions to one of the MUBS students sitting next to me to make sure that I was truly understanding what was going on. I think I finally got it.

Because of the language barrier, our time there was a lot longer than we had originally expected. It was kind of neat having that barrier though because it definitely made me realize how fortunate I am in the United States to be able to always understand what is being said. This experience also helped me realize what it must be like for those people in the United States who do not speak English or do not speak it as their first language. I am definitely learning to appreciate what I have and I’m coming to realize just how fortunate some of us in the United States truly are.

After the rural village, we left for the President Chairman’s Family home where we ate lunch. I had white and brown rice, chicken, and chapatti. Once again, the food was good, but I’m really starting to get tired of eating the same things over and over. While we were at the house, an acrobat came to entertain us. He wasn’t all that impressive though, at least not to some acrobats I’ve seen at circuses in the U.S. He sat on his bike and spun around in a circle. Then he made tea sitting on his bike and drank it in under 4 minutes. He did a few other tricks as well, but he was unable to walk the tightrope due to a thunderstorm we had while at the President’s house. It had made his rope and shoes too wet.

He finished his performance, and we left to go to Jinja. We made it to Kingfisher Resort around 6pm. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and it has an amazing view of Lake Victoria. We each get our own room that has a queen size bed and our own bathroom with a shower.

We had a buffet style supper that I ate rice and chapatti. We spent the rest of the night just enjoying each others company and playing a few card games. Then it was to bed pretty early.

The agenda for tomorrow includes a talk about gender issues and visiting the Source of the Nile.

Until then though, I leave you with this...

*This is as much time as I have to update for now. I apologize, but the internet has been scarce lately. I will publish the last of my posts once I am back home in the United States. I will also post pictures at that time too. Once again, I apologize that the internet has not been as reliable as I thought it would be, so my posts are not daily as I had planned on them being. I will still get them all up once I'm back. They are written, they just need to be posted. I'll be back home around 9pm on Wednesday, so they might not be up until Thursday because I have no idea how jet lagged I'll be. Remember I have an 8 hour time difference to adjust to. Thank you for reading and for your understanding, and once again my sincerest apologies.

"We Go, We Go! Uganda Cranes, We Go!"

This morning I woke up at 7:45am, which was earlier than I had planned. However, the birds here always seem to have other plans for me. Breakfast was at Red Chili this morning, and I had pancakes and bacon. Absolutely delicious! Their pancakes more closely resemble crepes than actual pancakes, but they were scrumptious!

At 9:00, just about everyone opted to go shopping. By shopping, I mean we went to a craft market pretty much geared for tourists in downtown Kampala. It was a lot of fun, and I always enjoy going through their shops. Once again though, each shop tends to have very similar items, so I really question how profitable their store can be for them.

We finished shopping around 11am, and we went back to Red Chili. I was amazed at how much traffic there was already. There is always traffic in Kampala, always, and you’re extremely lucky if you don’t get in at least a small traffic jam. However, today’s traffic was completely different. This was a huge traffic jam all because of the soccer game that started at 4pm!

We left Red Chili for lunch at MUBS shortly after 12pm, and the trip that usually takes 15 minutes max, took over 35 minutes. I knew I loved small town Iowa for a reason J Lunch today consisted of chapatti, rice and fish.

A little after 1:30pm, we left MUBS for the soccer game. Once again, traffic was ridiculous, and I was really beginning to question if we would make it to the soccer game on time, if at all. We did, about an hour and a half later. Of course the area around the stadium was packed! We were all told to keep our belongings close to us and to make sure we stuck with our group. It was insane! Almost everyone was wearing their Uganda Cranes jerseys, hats, or carrying vuevuelas, which are horns they blow into and are really loud.

Once we finally had managed to weave our way close to a gate, we waited and waited and…you get the idea. After waiting for a while, the line finally started moving. Apparently some people at the front of the line started pushing or something too aggressive because the next thing we knew the crowd was moving back, really fast, and policeman had gotten out their night sticks and were beating people! Yeah, it was scary. Yes, I was worried I was going to fall and be trampled to death. Obviously I wasn’t, or I wouldn’t be posting this. However, I definitely owe a big thank you to the MUBS students who made sure we all made it through that mess alive.

Shortly after the pushing, the police saw the huge group of muzungos (white people), and they let us pass through. We quickly found what was left of the VIP seats. The only difference between VIP and regular seating? We had a little bit of a plastic seat instead of sitting on just cement. Definitely special treatment ;)

Once we had taken our seats everything seemed to move rather quickly and smoothly. They game started right on time. I frequently asked questions to make sure I understood the game or to make sure I had understood what was happening correctly. I usually had to ask my questions multiple times though because the stadium was so loud. It was literally packed full of people, and it was definitely over capacity. There were people standing in the back and sitting in the aisles. In the first half the Cranes managed to score, and they added another goal in the second half to secure the 2-0 win over Guinea Bissau.

I can’t believe how united the crowd had been. They were constantly breaking out in the infamous Cranes’ chant, “We go, we go! Uganda Cranes, we go!” There are more lines to it too, but only they seemed to know when they were suppose to be inserted and when they weren’t. It was fun though. After the game, the crowd didn’t immediately disperse, which really shocked me.

We decided to remain seating after our experience earlier. It took us over 3 hours after the game ended to get back to Red Chili, where we ate supper. Tonight I had a BLT, minus the lettuce and tomato…so a bacon sandwich. It wasn’t bad, but I’m definitely starting to miss “American” food, a lot!

After supper, it was time to pack since we’re headed to Jinja tomorrow and won’t be back at Red Chili. I was extremely proud of the fact that I have one suitcase that is full, and the other one is half empty...okay, maybe more like a quarter empty. My biggest concern now? Hoping nothing breaks on the way home and that my suitcases are under the 50 lbs limit. Right now, I think I’m okay. Hopefully the scale says the same thing when I get a chance to weigh them before we leave.

Today I realized that while lines can seem like a huge pain in the United States, I love them! It causes a lot less confusion, and they tend to lessen the amount of pushing and shoving I experienced today. I will never complain about having to wait in a line again (well, at least for a while anyway) because I’d rather stand in a line than be scared of getting trampled in a crowd.

So on that light note, tomorrow we leave for Jinja, which is the second largest city in Kampala. What’s in Jinja? Well, I’m told there are tea and sugar cane plantations. We also have a microfinance lecture to attend, and we are supposed to have lunch at the President Chairman of MUBS’ family home.

So until then, I leave you with this…

Definitely a Difference...

Last night was pretty eventful with having a hippo a few tents away from mine. I think it might have even walked between my tent and the tent next to mine. However, I don’t know for sure if the rustling noises I “heard” were real or just me being paranoid. Guess I’ll never know…

This morning I woke up at 6:40am because it was so loud with people talking and vehicles leaving that attempting to sleep was becoming pointless. Instead I got ready, and I went and had breakfast. This morning’s breakfast was French toast. While it wasn’t the same as at home (like all foods here), it was still really good.

We all packed by into the vans around 8:30, and left to go to see Murchison Falls. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. Once we arrived, we got to go on a short hike that took about 20 minutes. It was a lot of fun. It definitely reminded me of how much I love climbing around on rocks. The path wasn’t the greatest in some areas, but I really enjoyed it. The view off to our right of the falls definitely made the hike even more enjoyable.

We were able to see Murchison Falls really well. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we got so close at one point that I could feel mist from the waterfall! There were lots of pictures taken of the scenery, and of course, we all had to include ourselves as well.

After we were satisfied with the number of pictures we had taken it was back to the vans for the journey home. We stopped in Masindi again for lunch. This time I had had fish and chips, aka fish and French fries, and it was absolutely delicious! It’s probably one of the meals that I’ve actually eaten almost all of the food on my plate. The MUBS students were proud of me and shocked that I had eaten so much.

On the way home our van stopped three times! I honestly didn’t think we were ever going to get back to Kampala for a bit. It seemed to be taking forever. My van also witnessed our first car accident on the way home. Just to clarify, we didn’t actually see the accident; we just saw a semi on its side and the other semi that had crashed into it. With the way Ugandans drive, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more.

The closer we got to Kampala, the more I realized what I hadn’t noticed before since all of my time had been spent in the city. First, it was extremely dirty. Murchison Falls was the only place I have seen signs that say no littering, and people didn’t just throw their trash everywhere because there were garbage cans around, unlike in the city. I also noticed that the air was definitely not as fresh. There seems to be a constant haze, some smog, and dirt in the air. I’ve also noticed now that there is a slight smell to the city. It mainly consists of occasionally smelling a burning fire (since garbage is either burnt or just thrown wherever here), though I also noticed a sewage like smell (apparently we went by a sewer treatment plant though). I definitely prefer the National Park’s atmosphere and environment better, but I guess I’ll adjust back to this since I didn’t seem to notice before.

My van arrived back at Red Chili last around 5:15pm. We unloaded the vans and showered (because it was so hot and we had all been super sweaty on our hike) before we left for supper at Faze 2.

At dinner I had something similar to a quesadilla, though I don’t remember what it was called. It was pretty good though. After dinner, we had the choice of going to a club or heading back to Red Chili for the night to relax. For those of you that know me, I’m sure you can guess where I ended up J But just so there is no confusion, I went back to Red Chili.

Back at Red Chili, I worked on my blog post for the class that I had to complete, and I wrote my journal entries. I also worked on this blog; however, the Internet connection has been bad, so posting for the class came before posting for my readers.

On the agenda tomorrow is shopping in the morning because the speaker we were suppose to have had a family emergency and has postponed our talk, and in the afternoon we are going to a football game (which is soccer to us in the United States). We’ll see how that goes. I’m not a soccer fan, at all. In fact, I grew up being told soccer players are “lawn fairies,” and as a softball player I was pretty much taught to dislike the sport. Oh well, I’m sure it will still be great.

But until then, I leave you with this…

A True African Tourist

We woke up really early this morning (and by this morning, I mean Thursday morning. I promise I'm working on catching up. They are all written, but internet is in short supply but high demand. Please be patient with me.) in order to try to be the first to pick up our packed breakfasts that we had ordered the night before. My packed breakfast consisted of a ham sandwich and chapatti. Yes, that is what they considered 'breakfast'. There was another fairly large group staying as well, and we wanted to beat them to the ferry that we were suppose to take to start our safari. We grabbed our breakfasts that were put in brown paper bags and left to meet the ferry around 6:30am.

We reached the edge of the Nile River about 5 minutes later. While we waited for all of the groups to arrive, we got to watch a beautiful sunrise. Some of the Drake students started singing the beginning of "Circle of Life" from The Lion King. It was definitely fitting. After a few group shots with the rising sun, the vans drove on the ferry, and we headed to the other side of the river. There we climbed back into our respective vans, and we were off on our safari that was to last 4 hours.

(The beautiful sunrise over the Nile River)

(One of the four vans we took. This shows how the roof lifts up.)

Each van took a different path, and each van saw some of the same animals and some different animals. It was nice not staying in a group the whole time because I'm sure it would have scared some of the animals away a lot sooner, and it would have been hard to see some of the animals we did see. First of all, the view alone was breath-taking. The scenery was exactly what I picture when I picture Africa. Lots of green grass with some bushes and trees everywhere. Plus, there was the massive blue sky, with the perfectly fluffy, white clouds. It was absolutely gorgeous. Add in all of the animals that we got to see in their natural habitat, and it was like a dream come true.

We got to see lots of gazelles, water buffalo, water deer, antelope, giraffes, wart hogs (or Pumbas, as my van called them), lots of different birds, and hippos, among lots of other animals. The van I was in was lucky enough to see three female lions and a male lion as well. They all got really close to us. I would guess they were probably within 30, if not 20 feet of us at one point. It was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen. In order to find the lions we had to do some off road traveling, which was extremely bumpy, especially to those of us sitting outside of the vans on small metal rods that made little squares. Plus, those of us that sat in the front continuously bumped our shoulders against the roof of the van. However, it was completely worth every bump, bruise and sore muscle or body part that I have. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget and never regret.

(Giraffes!! My new favorite animal!)

(The male lion we saw! He got within 20 feet of us, if not closer!)

My van was also lucky enough to get to see a python that had most likely eaten lunch quite recently. It was still extremely fat in the middle, so we assumed it was still digesting its lunch. We saw the python right before a few of us got to glimpse a leopard descend from a tree. Luckily, one of the other vans had been right by the tree, and they got a lot of really good photos of the leopard in the tree and coming down. We also had another van see a lioness with her cubs. There was definitely a lot of variety among what the different vans got to see, which made the experience unique for each of us.

At 11am, we left the safari to head back across the river for lunch at Red Chili. We all ordered, ate and played some more games before we left for the boat tour at 2pm. For lunch, I had a hot dog. It was not what hot dogs are supposed to taste like. It definitely makes me miss American food and miss home, where I would be eating REAL hot dogs (if you can call them real) while watching some Go-Hawk softball.

After lunch, we headed back to the Nile where we boarded our boats. We were all originally on a big tour boat together, but for some reason my van got moved to a smaller tour boat.

The boat tour was absolutely gorgeous, and our tour guide David did a great job of explaining everything we saw and answering our questions. He also had amazing eye sight. I'm still not sure how he was able to see half of the wildlife we saw. It usually took me a while to see it when we were close to it, so I'm still baffled out how he saw some of the animals from so far away.

After we took of on the Nile River, we spotted a baby crocodile almost right away. When I say we, I really mean David, but he pointed it out for the group so the rest of us could see it too. We also passed by a house that was constructed for Queen Elizabeth's mother. It looked like it was a very nice house from what I could see of the outside.

We quickly made our way along the river spotting lots and lots of hippos. We learned that they spend over half of their lives in the water, spending only 9 hours a day on land. Their time on land is spent grazing, and they usually travel around 6 kilometers when they graze. David also told our group that hippos and elephants only go to the water if it isn't raining. However, if it rains they stay on land because there is no need for them to travel to the water to get wet or cool down. Along with seeing hippopotamus, we saw water buffalo. David pointed out that once water buffalo reach about 18 years of age (they live to be about 20), they are kicked out of the heard because they tend to lose their eye sight and are seen as weak. When this happens they spend most of their time on the edge of the water. They strategically face the land and have their back towards the water. This makes predators, such as lions, believe that they can see them approaching, and it makes the water buffalo less vulnerable because there isn't anything that should attack them from behind.

(A hippo that wasn't actually underwater!)

As we moved down the river we saw water bucks, wart hogs, lots of birds, baboons, some black and white monkeys, and elephants! The elephants were really amazing, and we even got to hear them make their trumpeting noise! However, they didn't stick around for long because we were too loud for them since they have extremely sensitive ears. Of the birds we saw, the Red-Throated Bee Eater was by far my favorite. It contains all seven colors of the rainbow on it! It was extremely beautiful. We also saw two different kinds of Kingfischers, African Eagles, and a few more. They were all gorgeous, and it was hard to capture their true beauty on the camera.

(Elephants! In case you couldn't tell ;)

We continued down the Nile seeing all of the animals previously mentioned, plus we added some more crocodiles. Especially when we got to an area they like to call the Crocodile Bar. By the time we got there it had started to sprinkle and the crocs were slowly moving towards the water. We got to see numerous crocodiles slither, or crawl, into the water. It was really neat getting to see it in person instead of watching it on TV.

We continued our journey until we reached Murchison Falls, the waterfall the park is named after. It was absolutely stunning. I have never seen water move so fast or so powerfully. Looking into the river seeing how strong the current was, was absolutely unreal. When we arrived at the falls, David shared a little of the Fall's history. He told us that it was originally named after a king of a tribe. This king would jump across the waterfall in order to get supplies from the other side. They also switched men and women because the men were dark skinned, and the women were fair skinned. The king on one side and the king of the other side did this to form more of a medium skin colored baby.

(Murchison Falls)

We also heard the story of Hemingway. Hemingway had done lots of traveling in Africa, and he was working on writing a book about African safaris when he decided to fly over Murchison Falls. However, his plane came upon a flock of pelicans and in the pilots attempt to avoid them the crashed into some of the surrounding cliffs. Hemingway, his wife Mary, and the pilot all survived without serious injury. They were rescued shortly after. Somehow that plane also crashed. This time Hemingway was not so lucky. The plane caught on fire in this crash. He had already suffered a broken shoulder and a cut on his forehead. While he was trying to escape from the plane he got stuck because of his size, but he was able to get out and survive. His wife and him went back to the United States, where he later committed suicide.

On the way back to where our tour had began, we met the big tour boat the rest of our group was on. We found out that something had gone wrong, so we were supposed to get on the bigger boat, and then they would get on the smaller boat since the big boat was unable to get close to the shore. However, it turned out the small boat didn't have enough gas in it to go back to the falls and make it back to the starting point, so we all stayed on the big boat. My group, plus everyone else, went to back to see Murchison Falls again. It was just as beautiful and amazing.

After seeing the Falls for the second time, we started to head back to our starting point. We continued to point out animals that we saw. We even got to see a crocodile go into the water. I have never seen anything move so fast. It moved with incredible speed. It was fascinating to watch. We made it back to the point of origin around 5:30pm, and we headed back to Red Chili for supper. Supper tonight consisted of spaghetti and meatballs. While it wasn't the same as at home, it was really good. In fact, the MUBS students couldn't believe that I almost ae the entire plate I had been served. It's about time they realized I really do eat, and I'm just fine :)

After supper, we played multiple different card games with the MUBS students since we all had split off into different groups. The group I was with taught a few of the MUBS students how to play spoons, except we used straws because they were more readily available and seemed like a less dangerous alternative. They absolutely loved it, and in turn they taught us to play a game similar to UNO.

While getting ready for bed, I just happened to look up at the night sky. I was glad I did. I have never seen so many stars. I may live in the country back home, but the night sky I got to see was by far much prettier. There was absolutely no light pollution anywhere to spoil them.

We ended the night with a campfire, and of course where there is a campfire, there are campfire songs. Patrick also played his guitar and sang. It was definitely the perfect way to end the evening. But in order to adl#c:O8}y| 8|z)Wt 0A] K
x \ j I s by the very last tents, which of course were occupied by Drake students. They were able to make it to their tent eventually, but it was weird having to worry about hippos being outside. I was glad to be tucked safely in my tent at this point.

I got to fall asleep listening to my classmates, friends and professors singing "This Little Light of Mine." It was beautiful, and after starting off with the sunrise we had this morning, I couldn't picture a more perfect day. It was what I picture as 100% African tourist. It also made me realize that Elton John nailed it in "Circle of Life." There is definitely "more to see, than can ever be seen" and "more to do, than can ever be done." But I'm extremely grateful for the experience and the chance to try.

So for now, I leave you with this...

(The crocodile we watched enter the water!)

Long Trip But Gorgeous Scenery

Wow, talk about a lot to see. We've done so much since I've last posted, but I"ll make sure to fill you in on each day individually. It just might take me a little bit, so please be patient.

Wednesday we spent driving north from Kampala to Murchison Falls National Park. I woke up around 7 am to make sure that I had everything packed up for the journey and to get it all out of our cabin. By 7:45, we were putting our suitcases in the professors cabin since it was the only cabin we were keeping. We left Red Chili around 9, which was only 30 minutes behind schedule. It's all because of Ugandan time. No one here ever seems to be on time.

The journey was going really smoothly. I was in a green van, which we nicknamed the Green Machine since the rest of the vans were white. It was me, a professor from MUBS, 4 other Drake students, and 2 MUBS students. We were all pretty tired, so most of the people fell asleep. I tried to stay awake and enjoy the scenery, but my body just wouldn't let me.

Around 10am, our bus driver received a call saying that one of the other vans had broken down. We went back, and we helped them out. Everyone that had been in the broken van was distributed among the remaining three vans along with their belongings. Then it was back on the road again.

We stopped for lunch in Misindi at the Misindi Hotel. I had chicken flakes with chips. However, the chicken flakes not only had mainly vegetables that I carefully picked out, but they were more Chinese tasting than any other kind of food that I could think of. Let's just say I was more than slightly disappointed in my lunch, and I didn't eat as much as I had planned. Oh well, I was still able to eat enough to satisfy my tummy.

(Lunch today)

After lunch, we continued our trip. Within an hour we had arrived at the edge of Murchison Falls. While traveling along the road once we entered the park we saw some baboons and wart hogs. It was really neat, and it kind of reminded me of the time I went to Alaska. However, instead of looking intensely in the trees to see if we could find bears, we were looking for baboons. Sometimes they were even hanging out in the middle of the road until we got close. Then they sprinted to the trees, and it was usually fast enough that I couldn't catch them with the camera. I tried though.

(My attempt at getting a picture of a baboon while going down the road)

Our driver was also nice enough to let us stop at a look out point and take in the beauty of the park. We couldn't believe how gorgeous the view was, so of course we took pictures to help us remember. I just wish the pictures were able to do the scenery the justice it deserves because it doesn't even come close!

(You can kind of see it behind me, however, it is so much prettier in person!)

Around 5pm, we arrived at Red Chili, where we were staying while we were visiting Murchison Falls. Yes, it was another Red Chili, and yes, it is affiliated with the one we were staying at before. This Red Chili is much less developed though. They have public restrooms and showers, much like at a campsite. They also had a majority of their 'housing' as tents that each contained two twin beds. There were a few cabins, but our professors stayed in those instead.

(The tent I stayed in)

Upon our arrival we received a briefing about our stay. We were told that we would have a lantern outside of our tent to keep animals away from it since animals are scared of light usually. We were also told that hippos and wart hogs were known to wander around the area, so if we saw or heard one we needed to stay in our tent or avoid the animal (if we weren't in our tent). We were also required to carry a flashlight with us at night to make sure we didn't accidentally bump into one of the animals. We weren't allowed to have any type of food in our tents either because the wart hogs have an amazing sense of smell. We were told they would try to get into our tents, and if they didn't succeed the baboons would. Apparently, they have mastered the art of unzipping the tents when they know food is within.

We then ordered supper and our packed breakfast for the next day. I had pasta with veggies, which were removed from my pasta. I also had the opportunity to try a slice of chocolate African cake. It is much drier, but it was still delicious. I've discovered just how much I miss chocolate, clarification REAL American chocolate.

Once we were finished eating we spilt into groups and played different card games. The MUBS students taught my group how to play matatu, which is very similar to UNO, and it was a lot of fun. When it was our turn to teach them a game, we chose Spoons. However, in order to make the game less dangerous and because spoons weren't easily accessible, we played Straws instead. They absolutely loved it! They thought it was the best game in the world, and they thought it was humorous watching everyone try to get the straws. We were fairly competitive (I know hard to imagine me competitive ;), and we tore our straws a few times. It was definitely a great time though.

(Playing cards with Pamela (Ugandan on the left), Naomi, and Maria (Ugandan on the right)).

We called it a night shortly after 9pm because we had to be up and ready to leave by 6:15 the next morning, and spending the whole day traveling had worn us out.

Tomorrow we go on our safari and our boat tour. I have made sure the camera is fully charged because I plain on taking more pictures than I can count.

So until then, I leave you with this...

(Yep, this was my chocolate, and it was delicious!)

Not Just Educational, but Inspirational

Wow! What a day! I really wish I could begin to describe the numerous emotions and all of the information that was experienced and taken in today.

My morning started with getting up shortly after seven and going through the routine of getting ready. Not only did my alarm wake me up, but so did the chicken crows. They are so loud in the morning. We had the bus loaded by 8, and it was off to MUBS for breakfast. I had my usual toast. Definitely not very exciting.

At 9:30am, all of the students on the trip that are pharmacy majors, there are 5 total, left MUBS to  go visit the Pharmacy Society of Uganda, or PSU. PSU is a professional pharmacy organization that is in charge of regulating the curriculum and profession of pharmacy.

It was an extremely enlightening and interesting hour that we got to spend with the secretary of the organization. We learned about some of the requirements for pharmacy students in Uganda, how they become licensed in Uganda, and we went over some of the regulations. It turns out that there is a National Drug Administration here, which is comparable to the FDA in the United States. The differences you may ask? We are actually forced to abide by the rules and legislation that the FDA comes up with, the NDA, not so much. We were told today that many of the rules and regulations are broken all of the time because of the limited amount of resources.

We also learned that there are a total of about 300 pharmacists in Uganda, so each one is allowed to own or work at two shops, or what we would consider retail or community pharmacy. They must spend 20 hours a week in each shop, and during the rest of the time pharmacy technicians, nurses or nursing students run their shop. However, many pharmacists abuse this system by saying they are at the other shop when called, and in actuality they are at neither shop. Because there are so few pharmacists in the country, the secretary told us that many pharmacists have a poor work ethic. They are hoping to see it improve in the next few years since they are now up to having about 100 pharmacy graduates a year.

Pharmacists here have pretty much the same areas that they can go into after they graduate. The main difference is if a pharmacists goes into a hospital setting they are mostly in charge of ordering the prescriptions and making sure that they are what it is actually suppose to be since drugs are tampered with a lot, to make the strength lower or even more like taking a placebo instead of the correct dosage. We were told that some private hospitals are working on having more of a clinical pharmacist, but it is a slow growing area.

There was so much more that we learned and experienced in that short amount of time, but I don’t want to bore you all with my nerdiness. Yes, I took 3 pages of notes during our short visit. Yes, I loved every single minute of it. Yes, I made sure I soaked it all in.

Next it was off to actually see a community pharmacy that is in a urban setting. Trust me, it’s a lot different from the rural one I visited earlier in the week ;) It was really neat to get to see. This pharmacy actually had some prescription medications at it, and they enforced the need to have a prescription to get them. They also had a lot of over the counter medications as well. However, everything was stocked so that you needed the help of one of the workers to get anything.

Lunch today was at MUBS and consisted of rice and noodles. It was good and was plenty for me since my stomach decided to start churning a little bit before lunch.

After lunch it was off to visit The AIDS Support Organization, also known as TASO. This was the most incredible experience. We not only got to hear about how the organization got started and how HIV is being treated in the country now, but we got to hear their drama group perform. This group is made up of TASO volunteers, most of who are HIV positive. The group goes around performing at different functions and areas, including schools, education the public about HIV/AIDS. They did a great job! I was extremely impressed. In fact, the last song they performed today made me cry.

The organization is doing such a great thing. The drama group members introduced themselves towards the end of their presentation, and I was shocked to learn that some of them had been living with HIV since 1990! 21 years, and they seemed to be doing really well. They are definitely beating some of the negative stigmas that still can be heard at times in Uganda. They were extremely inspirational, and their music was very well put together and touching. Not to mention that is very informative. Their biggest mission at TASO is to make sure that someone who gets HIV doesn’t give up hope, and they are doing a fantastic job of it!

With renewed spirits and full of hope for HIV victims of the future, we left TASO behind to go exchange money again for those who needed to. Then it was off to a shop to buy soccer jerseys for the upcoming soccer game. Since I’m not a soccer fan, and I don’t follow the sport, I passed.

We ate supper tonight at Faze 2, which was a mixed restaurant with lots of different food choices. I had chicken in a basket because I’m missing food from home now. I’m starting to get tired of the same foods over and over. It was really good. After a couple of hours there it was back to Red Chili for the night where I will work on my journals and packing for the next couple of days.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Murchison Falls National Park. We will be traveling pretty much all day to get there. Apparently we sleep in something similar to tents while we are there. The next day we will be going on a game drive in the morning, and the afternoon will consist of a boat tour of the area. I’m really looking forward to it, and finally getting a chance to see some of the wildlife that most people expect to see when they think of Africa. Friday will consist of the drive back.

I will have my computer while we are there, but I am not sure how much internet access we will have. I’m in charge of the blog that our class is doing, so I’m hoping the internet is good enough that I am able to get at least that blog post up for the day. I will still make sure I have my blogs written out, and I will post them as soon as I get a chance.

So until then, I leave you with this….

A Day of Rights and Royalty...Plus Homemade Chapatti

The day began with me getting up at 7:15. We left for breakfast at MUBS, and once again it was toast for me. I'm definitely starting to fight a cold, and toast seemed completely appropriate.

Once we were done with breakfast, it was off to visit the Human Rights organization. It was really interesting. They are really underfunded, and they said sometimes it can be really hard to advocate for different rights. This is because the country is really Christian, and therefore, fighting for certain rights tends to clash with some of the country's religious beliefs and values. This is especially seen in the new fight for equality with homosexuals. It isn't going well right now, and the organization is really struggling on how to help without going against the beliefs of the country.

However, they also fight for a lot of other groups. They are also fighting for women and children, and they recently went to court for better rights for prisoners, especially with fighting the death penalty. It was an extremely interesting morning, and we got to learn a lot about some of the social issues plaguing Uganda. We also learned how the Inspector General of Government is viewed by those fighting for human rights. They often think that he targets the 'small fish' instead of going for the 'big fish' of corruption. They want them to go for the 'bigger fish' because that will lead to more discouragement of committing corruption, which is making fighting for some rights even harder.

Of course, while visiting the Human Rights organization, I got a bloody nose and had to leave for a little bit. Super embarrassing. This cold really isn't cooperating with me at all. Oh well, I'm fine, just working on getting over the sniffles, cough and sore throat.

(A picture of most of the group in front of the Human Rights Organization's building)

We had lunch at MUBS today, which consisted of chicken, rice and chapatti. Yummy. After lunch it was off to visit the Buganda Parliament. Buganda is one of the five districts in Uganda. It is then divided into 56 tribes. It was originally it's own area, and it had a king. The kingdom was no longer allowed to rule in 1966, but it was reestablished in 1993. There was a huge celebration in the Buganda kingdom when the King was restored to power. It is extremely hard for me to comprehend having a kingdom within a democracy, but they work together to make sure everything runs smoothly.

(My lunch)

All national rules apply, and the King often helps to enforce rule or new ideas by telling his people to do them. However, there is some conflict among the government and the Buganda kingdom since the government hasn't returned all of the original land that was part of the kingdom since it has been reinstated. They said they were working to overcome this conflict. We learned some fun facts about Buganda and Uganda too.

When we first arrived at the parliament some of the students on the trip had on sandals because we didn't pack a lot of different shoes. We learned that they did not allow sandals to enter in the parliament if they were rubber because those are thought to be used as shower shoes here. However, they were allowed to enter as long as they removed their shoes. Apparently entering barefoot was better than entering with rubber sandals. It was a little funny, but really frustrating as well.

(The Buganda Parliament is behind the statue, but the statue is of the current King when he was first put into power in 1993 after the long break.)

It was an early night, so we invited the MUBS students over, and they volunteered to help us learn to make chapatti. We spent the next few hours learning how to make what is probably my favorite dish here. It was a lot of fun. Sadly, I don't have pictures of it. I was busy learning how to make it, watching closely and taking notes. (Don't worry Mom, others got pictures instead.)

Then it was supper at Red Chili after the chapatti since it was more of an appetizer. I had a hamburger. It was not nearly as good as any hamburger that I have ever had at home. I'm definitely looking forward to some "American" food when I get home.

I apologize for the short post, but today we really didn't do a lot.

So until next time, I leave you with this...

(This trip is definitely wearing us down. So I had to capture Evelyn while she was catching some zzz's on the bus :)