Tuesday August 18: Home!

After many long plane flights, we finally made it home safe and sound. Amazingly all of our luggage made it as well. It was nice to see our family welcome us home at the airport.

We are going to miss Uganda greatly, but encourage everybody to support Conservation Through Public Health. Beth has created a facebook page for the organization and any help in making CTPH more known to the world is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading our blog and caring about us and the environment!

Sunday August 16: Traveling to Entebbe and preparing for departure :(

We have accomplished a great deal during our three weeks here. It has truly been an amazing experience! Today we traveled from Kampala to Entebbe, only an hour drive. It's always fun to spend time with Dr. Gladys, Lawrence and the kids! We had a nice lunch and went through all the materials we are leaving with them. It is sad to be leaving Uganda in the morning, but we know that it won't be our last time here. There is still a lot to do from home to help CTPH including editing the website, creating postcards, creating posters and helping with publicizing CTPH. So in essence we won't really be leaving too quickly.

We took a short walk and found a local restaurant which served traditional food of matoke (non-sweet banana steamed in banana leaves), stew and chiapati. We entered a local market and bought some spices and tea to remind us of our travels.

It will take us two full days to return home, and will post to tell that we have arrived safely when that time comes. For now we conclude this trip.

Saturday August 15: Final day in Kampala

Lawrence came to pick us up from the hotel, covered the gorillas chairs with material, took a photo of the wooden mother and twin gorillas and headed to the office.

We had lunch at iZone where Ndhego was evaluated for computer classes. The rain down poured but since it is dry season, it is much needed.

After that we went back to the office to complete our tasks before we leave the country. Jerri-Ann copied the videos from the video camera that we are leaving behind and Beth worked on the slide show adding words to the photos and finding some other photos from our camera. We worked until 9:30pm when we left to celebrate with Margaritas at Lotus Mexican Cantina. The food was ok, but the conversation and company was great.

Friday August 14: Hard at work

Chichio picked us up from Athina Guest House to find an ATM machine to extract more Ugandan shillings but it was not the next day in the US so we were unable to do so. We went to CTPH offices and worked on projects while waiting for Gladys. After our meeting with Gladys, Rachel and Chichio accompanied us as we went out to do errands. We searched for an open ATM and was successful, purchased colorful material for Gladys for her Animal Expo in San Francisco and ourselves, and a cardboard box for the gorilla chairs. The weather was hot and humid, so when we were finished we were glad to be back at the office and out of the traffic.

Lawrence and Beth had a brainstorming session and started a facebook while Jerri-Ann played with Ndhego.

We met Dr. Gladys's mother, Rhoda, today as well, she is a very esteemed woman and has brought Uganda a long way. She was the first woman to take a typing class and the daughter of a Prime Minister, first woman in politics. She was issued in African Woman two months ago. This months issue of African Woman features Dr. Gladys! After more meetings we all met Uncle Moses at a Thai Restaurant which was right next to our hotel. We had Thai Tea and some Pad Thai noodle dishes and wonderful conversation which lasted until almost midnight. It as a full table because we also had Rabuchey with us, Ndhego's 12 year old cousin who is here for vacation, he lives in England with his parents who just had a baby boy named Sam.

Then Beth continued to work on the slide show that she is creating for the Expo in San Francisco, until late into the night.

Thursday August 13: Traveling from QENP to Kampala

Today was a travel day from QENP to Kampala. We had a few stops, one of which was for lunch in Fort Portal, and an ATM for me. We also stopped to buy Matoke (not sweet bananas used to make a traditional dish that is similar to mashed potatoes), and other vegetables before we got to the bigger towns and city. It is much more expensive to buy these items in the city and harder to come by as well.

We made it to Athina Guest House before dark, around 6:30pm but we started around 10:30am. A very long day.

Had a nice dinner, a COLD coke was never so refreshing!

Wednesday August 12: Workshop and Boat Launch

After we had breakfast we picked up Stella from the TeleCentre and went to her father's village, Hamakungo. After the introductions Stella's father mentioned education in a rural area is difficult, the government did not help open the schools, the people of the town did.

The talk centered around the health of the animals such as Brucilosis in the goats, New Castle Disease in the poultry, and Mastitis in cows. They came up with some recommendations.

Beth took a group photo and then took individual photos so that we can start the process of making them identification cards as well.

Alfonse, Stella's father, showed us the schools that go up to Senior 4. He would like some communication to help the students. It is a fishing village and it surrounds QENP and they have many problems. The lake can not sustain all of the fisherman. They need new skills to help with sustainability.

We then went to a house where we had a delicious Tilapia and soup with Chipati and something like Posho, but made with millet which makes it purple. It had a very gooey/chewy texture and not much flavor. We ate with our hands in the traditional manner.

We then had a lovely adventure on a boat launch around the Kzinga Channel where Lake Edward & Lake George connect. There are 840 species of animals there there. We saw many hippos, elephants, Uganda Kob, Warthogs, Jack Pig (rare to see), Cape Buffalo, and Crocodiles. We also saw a variety of birds such as: cormorants, ocpeckers, pelicans, Ibis, Kingfisher, Maribou Storks and more.

After that we drove to the UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) offices to say hello and go with them for a drink at the Uganda Safari Camp Lounge. We listened to scary animal stories. Gladys had a conference call and we played with Ndegho and Tendo.

We skipped dinner but had a slumber party with Ndegho, who slept through the night.

Wednesday August 12: Workshop and Boat Launch

After we had breakfast we picked up Stella from the TeleCentre and went to her father's village, Hamakungo. After the introductions Stella's father mentioned education in a rural area is difficult, the government did not help open the schools, the people of the town did.

The talk centered around the health of the animals such as Brucilosis in the goats, New Castle Disease in the poultry, and Mastitis in cows. They came up with some recommendations.

Beth took a group photo and then took individual photos so that we can start the process of making them identification cards as well.

Alfonse, Stella's father, showed us the schools that go up to Senior 4. He would like some communication to help the students. It is a fishing village and it surrounds QENP and they have many problems. The lake can not sustain all of the fisherman. They need new skills to help with sustainability.

We then went to a house where we had a delicious Tilapia and soup with Chipati and something like Posho, but made with millet which makes it purple. It had a very gooey/chewy texture and not much flavor. We ate with our hands in the traditional manner.

We then had a lovely adventure on a boat launch around the Kzinga Channel where Lake Edward & Lake George connect. There are 840 species of animals there there. We saw many hippos, elephants, Uganda Kob, Warthogs, Jack Pig (rare to see), Cape Buffalo, and Crocodiles. We also saw a variety of birds such as: cormorants, ocpeckers, pelicans, Ibis, Kingfisher, Maribou Storks and more.

After that we drove to the UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) offices to say hello and go with them for a drink at the Uganda Safari Camp Lounge. We listened to scary animal stories. Gladys had a conference call and we played with Ndegho and Tendo.

We skipped dinner but had a slumber party with Ndegho, who slept through the night.

Tuesday August 11: Traveling to QENP

We said our good byes to the CTPH people in Bwindi: Hilary, David, Alex, Joseph, Abraham, the Chef and others. We really enjoyed the Buhoma area and tracking the gorillas and seeing the night nests.

We drove to Queen Elizabeth National Park, crossed the Equator and stopped at Simba Safari Camp, where we waited for Gladys and her 2 boys, Ndhego and Tendo. During their lunch they met with another veterinarian from that area, Dr. Kulale to prepare for our meeting with CTPH at Katwe and Nyakatonzi Human Wildlife Conflict Resolution (HUWI) and Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWS) who mostly disucssed animal disease transmission such as Brucilosis from Cape Buffalo to cattle and vice a versa.

Beth took photos of people so that we can start the process of making identification cards for them, and Sam wrote down the names.

We drove to the Congo border to see it! It was a very busy town there even though the crossing was closed.

Monday August 10: Primary School Visit and Home Visits

Today we visited the Buhoma Community Primary School. Unfortunately only the P7 class was in session because all the others had already been released for vacation time. We spoke with the head master and then the pupils. Hopefully we will be able to arrange a project between the primary school and one of the High Tech Middle schools.

From there we walked to some nearby houses to conduct home visits in order to do a small survey of the area for CTPH. We walked with Sam, Alex, and David. The first home was actually very nice, everything was kept very tidy. The second home was also nice, but not a clean. They family was much larger and they did not use their mosquito nets properly. The final home was the most dirty, but we were actually able to talk to the head of the house. He was very kind, but did not keep his home or family in the healthiest conditions. Their goat shed was filthy and the goats themselves did not look very good. They did not have mosquito nets and his grand daughter had many infected cuts on her legs. We assisted her with some hand sanitizer, neosporin and Band-Aids.

We now are back at the camp and we are going to edit the form which is used for interviews/ observations at the home visits.

Visiting the homes was very interesting, we learned a lot of eye opening information and have formulated many ideas for projects that we can do to help these communities.

Sunday August 9: Church and Community Walk

Today was a very exciting day! We started out by attending a Protestant Church service on Sunday. It was quite the experience, there was a baptism and then the main prayers. What was a practically empty room with bare walls and a dirt floor any other day of the week, was a joyful and energy filled hall on Sundays. People were dressed up in what ever western style dresses they could find along with the children. Many of the prayers began with a traditional African call and response, but once everybody responded the women rushed to the front to dance! They also collected money donations where they would march in from the back of the hall and once they payed their dues they all danced together up front. This church was also unique because if a member could not pay cash, they brought something from their home (sugar cane, a rooster, potatoes, a jack fruit, nuts, etc) and at the end of the service they auctioned them off. It was very exciting, Hillary and Sam got up and danced, but the rest of us just danced in our seats!

We had our pizza pie Uganda style for lunch at the Silverback Gorilla Camp while the service continued. Kakandy drove us to where the Community Walk began. Our first stop was at a woman's craft shop where she showed us how to make baskets and what they used. As we were walking toward the Traditional healer, Daniel explained to us about how to pick tea leaves and the process and how to know when coffee seeds are ready. Then the healer explained most of his plants and how to prepare them to help people with their ailments. If his method does not work he sends them to the hospital.

There were big drums over 3 rocks and heat that was distilling banana juice into banana gin (40% alcohol). We also learned the process of how to make banana juice and banana wine and had a tasting. After that we visited the Pygmy community where they showed us some dances, songs and sold some crafts.

Steve gave us a very informative tour of the hospital that is near where we are staying. Most of the children that come there are treated for malnutrition so they teach them how to grow green vegetables like beans and to cook with it using the leaves. There is a kitchen area for the people staying there visiting so that they can cook their own food (no cafeteria). It is not a full hospital but they do treat for HIV/AIDs Maternity which has their own building, Malaria, teach about Family Planning, etc ... They do about 3 Caesarians a week. Those women would have died otherwise. In July they had 100 births at the hospital per month, which was their goal. In the past there were 30 births per month at the hospital. Most women are too far away to make it to the hospital so they have a building for expectant women to wait. The hospital services 41,000 people.

Saturday August 8: Livestock Projects

Today we visited the livestock projects that CTPH has started by purchasing a few cows or goats for a community in order for them to have a steady income for their community as a whole.

We began at a goat project in the Bujengwe Parish. The shed for these goats was a good size however the family failed to sweep away the feces under it often enough to prevent parasites. Two of their goats had died, but they did not inform CTPH in a timely fashion, so there is no way of knowing why they died. Many of the young goats had parasites, so they were treated with ivermectin injections.

The second project we visited was also a goat project. All of the goats were healthy, however the shed they lived in was too small. This was a good problem because their goats had reproduced quickly!

Our final visit was to a cattle project. When we arrived at the community, tourists had just gotten back from tracking. The community had arranged a youth group to perform for them in order to raise money. It was exciting to be greeted like this as well! We were welcomed into the home of the community leader for the livestock project. He offered us tea and hard boiled eggs. We tasted the both an egg from a local chicken and an egg from a caged chicken, we found that the local egg tasted infinitely better than the caged! Because he was also a CTPH volunteer who informed his community about public health, his living room was decorated with anti-sex posters and young childhood development tip posters. After this lovely and refreshing snack, we went to go see the cattle.

Two of the cows had miscarried, so we were there to investigate. Stephen took blood samples from each, along with dung samples. The second cow had not relieved herself while we were there, so Stephen had to retrieve a sample from the cow. It was so difficult for him to enter that he made the cow tip over as he was pushing.

On our way back to the car, we saw a woman give birth on the side of the road. The average family has 7 children in Uganda; it could not have been her first because it seemed much to easy. The baby came out a very light color, but we found out that it will darken shortly.

Once back to the camp and fed, we went to purchase crafts for Dr. Gladys. She will be speaking at a symposium by San Francisco in October and needed crafts to sell. We have made good friends with this shop keeper in the past few days!

Friday August 7: Secondary School Visit

We visited the Nyamiyaga Secondary School. The school borders the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which is the primary reason we chose to work with this school in particular along with the fact that one of the local CTPH staff was a student there. A secondary school was chosen in an attempt to see if we could start a project linking them with one of the High Tech High Schools. We asked the students to come up with some project ideas, which they did, and chose a boy and a girl leader from Senior 2 (Sophomore). One of the student teachers approached me and he will try to facilitate the projects. There are many stumbling blocks to defeat, but it is possible to overcome their lack of internet or computer (only 2 or 3 students had ever seen a computer), no electricity - poor lighting, etc. Francis, the book keeper, took David's (the CTPH staff member that attended Nayamyaga Secondary School) computer class at CTPH and will help David with the technological aspects of this project.

We then drove to a home visit in the Bujengwe Parish to find out if these families have proper facilities for the restroom, kitchen wear cleaning and drying, how they tend to their livestock and more.

Saw some cattle that were bought for the community livestock project and saw where they are housed. The cattle were healthy so Stephen talked about other community projects that will help with sustainability that will help the community such as refrigeration for the milk, making butter and cheese.

After dinner we asked Sam and Hillary to come and get a very huge spider out of our tent only to find another one in the shower above my head in the morning. Everywhere I look I see this kind of spider, we think it is a wolf spider.

Thursday August 6, 2009: Visit to the gorilla night nests

Today was an early morning for Beth, she went out with the HUGO members in the Advanced group to see gorilla night nests and take fecal samples.  Luckily the gorillas had slept less than a 10 minute walk from the UWA Office, so the scramble through the forest was not too difficult.  

We regrouped at the camp for closing discussions, lunch and a speech from the warden. Tours of the gorilla clinic/lab were given after the workshop had been closed for the HUGO members that were interested in seeing where the fecal samples they take were being analyzed.  

We are now posting the last three days from the nearby hospital back in Buhoma.  There has not been internet or cell phone network for the past few days and we are glad that we can communicate to those outside of Uganda again!

Wednesday August 5, 2009: HUGO Training Workshop # 2

Today we had another HUGO (Human Gorilla Conflict Resolution) Volunteer workshop with the Mukono, Bujengwe, Kwenda parishes.  We waited for the officials from UWA to arrive before we began.

Expectations of the meeting were listed and Dr. Gladys said what would be covered and delegated other tasks.

Beth's flip charts were used again for this workshop, so it was a mix of relaxation and boredom during the speeches.

New news:  A Lowland Gorilla in Congo was found to have HIV.  A person must have eaten a gorilla and got HIV.  They are trying to figure out if the gorilla has a dormant form of HIV which mutated when it went into the human.  How did the gorilla get it?  Dormant?  One good thing can come out of this, maybe people will not eat gorillas for fear of contracting HIV.

After the workshop we dropped off some of the UWA officials and looked at some property that Dr. Gladys was thinking of purchasing.  The land has beautiful views of the mountains and is on a slope.  Some concerns are the MTN antennae which will be built nearby and there is fear of radiation, the rainy seasons effect of the foundations, and we are still unsure of the acreage.

Tuesday August 4, 2009: Walk from Nkuringo to Buhoma

The view from Clouds Eco-Tour Hotel was amazing, just the feeling when you walk into the lobby was clean and modern.  Gary and his wife run this very high end establishment with running water and electricity using a generator.  They provide their own fresh vegetables and herbs from their gardens.  A fruit smoothy with ice was very luxurious for us after a week without seeing ice. Gary gave us a tour of the facility containing a cottage, spa and best of all the Lou with  View. 

We packed up our lunch and headed to the Nkuringo Ranger office where we bid fair well to Deus and began our walking journey from Nkuringo to Buhoma which took a total of 6 hours in dense rainforest.  A good portion of the trail ran beside a river, the scenery and sounds were brilliant!

When we got close to the Ranger Office in Buhoma we were diverted to the Waterfall Trail to by pass the road where the gorillas were passing.  We bumped into Godfrey, the minister of tourism when we reached the ranger office and Beth showed him the pictures of the Nkoringo gorillas she had taken the previous day. He was impressed that she could name which gorilla was in the picture, but she told him it was because Silver had pointed them out to her!

While having dinner with Dr. Gladys and Rachel, our hike leader, Dr. Gladys mentioned that Ndhego had malaria and that it was her anniversary. We always have a great time chatting after dinner and lose track of time.  What great company to share this experience with!

Monday August 3, 2009: GORILLA TRACKING!

The day we were waiting for has arrived, today we track the Nkuringo group of gorillas.  We walked to the UWA Ranger Office from our campsite, where the rest of the tourists were waiting to be briefed by Augustine.  Rules and refunds were explained to us before we left and also we were offered porters to help carry our bags.  Fred was our porter who I asked after the fact since we kept going down, down, down on very rough terrain.  Augustine radioed often to find out where the gorillas were and where Dr. Gladys and Silver were tracking the night nests earlier with the other HUGO group from Nkuringo.

There were 17 gorillas in one area crowded together.  We first noticed the twins and the mother, who were amazing and adorable.  The experience has been indescribable to see the entire group together.  Dr. Gladys was worried when the mother laid back on top of her twins but then they climbed up on her and were relaxed.

When the other tourists left, Posho came down from the tree he was in to say hello to Silver.  When he came close to Silver, he went down on his front elbows almost like a bow.  Silver has been following the Nkuringo group of gorillas for 12 years and can identify all of them by their nose print.  He keeps record of all the births and worked with Beth to identify the photos that were taken.

As we were leaving we saw Mama Christmas and Rafiki, a Silverback, which made 18 in all.  We were told that we were very lucky to see all of the group at once.

Dr. Gladys mentioned that there were many insects flying around the group, which she thought was unusual.

As we returned to the Ranger Station for lunch we were totally surrounded by the mountains, which was only 5 - 10 minutes away from the gorilla group we saw, but it took us 1 1/2 hours to locate.

We had a graduation ceremony to receive our certificates, which was an accomplishment.

We then went back to the community hall that held the workshop yesterday in order to have a final discussion with the HUGO members.  The HUGO members were trained on how to find night nests, how to take fecal samples, and how to determine what type of gorilla the droppings belonged to (i.e. silver back, black back, adult female, sub-adult, juvenile, infant).  

Overall it was a long, but absolutely amazing day!

Sunday August 2, 2009: HUGO Training Workshop

We woke up at 7am in Nkuringo Safari Campsite and Jerri-Ann was invited to go pick up HUGO (Human Gorilla Conflict Resolution) volunteers from Rushaga.  Transportation is a problem in this area of Bwindi.  Kakandi, the driver, had to fix a flat tire and later, while we were at the workshop, drove to Kisoro to get a new tube.

We then picked up the rest of the CTPH team to return to the Workshop area where Deus, a Community Conservation Ranger from UWA, was waiting with the group.  HUGO is a group of community members that are trained to collect fecal samples from gorillas and are called to move the gorillas back into the park if they decide to leave the park and come in too close contact with people.  During the workshop they learn about diseases that can be transfered between humans and gorillas and the different ways to prevent zoonotics such as TB, scabies, dysentery, worms, polio, measles, respiratory diseases, ringworm, ebola, HIV, and coughing. 

Since there was no running water or electricity, we had to convert two power point presentations into a hand written flip chart.  Since we were running low on battery and there was no place to charge it at the community hall we were using, Beth and Hillary went to the nearby hospital to charge the electronics.  We had a lovely lunch prepared by a local cafe/ lodge in progress.  

After the workshop finished, we decided to interact with some of the local children. We were taking pictures of them and with them and then showing them on the camera screen.  Soon after they started to beg for money, of course we did not give them money, but we had Hillary come explain to them why begging is bad and if they want Muzungi's (whites) to give them money they should start community drummer or dance groups that will benefit the entire community.  They started to dance for us, but they seemed to be ashamed of their behavior.  

We decided to go visit Clouds, another lodge nearby, which is in partnership with the community and a private sector and is eco-friendly to the community.  We walked into the lobby, which was very luxurious and warm, out of the rain.  Gary is one of the owners and manager was visiting with other patrons so he invited us for breakfast on Tuesday morning.  

Saturday August 1, 2009: Walk from Buhoma to Nkuringo

We enjoyed our morning tea wake up call right outside our tent.  This morning we had breakfast in the Pavilion then we prepared our luggage to be transported by vehicle from Buhoma where we have been to Nkuringo, which is on the other side of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.  It takes 5 1/2 hours by vehicle on the road, only parts of which were tarmac, because there is no road for cars through the park therefore they had to drive all the way around the park boundaries. Hillary, Sam, Stephen, and the two of us decided to walk through the park instead.

First we all went to the UWA Main Bwindi Park Ranger Office and met the Chief Ranger, Minister of Tourism: Godfrey, Minister of Conservation and the accountant.  We had a great discussion ranging from sizes of gorilla groups to discussing recent wildfires to comparing tourism tactics of different African countries. 

In the forest road there is a split, one way goes to Nteko and the other straight to Nkuringo.  We decided that we were going to walk to Nteko and then take a car to Nkuringo because it takes half the time and does not climb a steep mountain.  

It took us three and a half hours to walk from Buhoma to Nteko, but it was beautiful! We walked through the lush green rainforest and were accompanied by the sounds of happily chirping birds.  There was a large river that we had to cross using a bridge made of three large logs, the river is the park boundary, so once we crossed the bridge we were on community land.  While climbing up a fairly steep section, the weather shifted and we got a true rainforest downpour.  Finally we made it to the camp site, but since we were at such a high elevation, the temperature was much lower than we had been used to.  We sat around the fire they used to boil water in order to heat ourselves and dry our shoes.  

We had a nice dinner and met the other guests staying at the camp.  After dinner we all shifted back to the fire because some of the guests were roasting a chicken they had gotten in town. There was a girl from the Peace Corp, a girl from England, a man from Scotland on a British version of Peace corp, a tourist from India and a Primatologist named Michelle Goldsmith.  We talked with all of them, but it was very exciting to meet Michelle because she knew Dr. Gladys and Dr. Vavra.

It was a late night sitting around the fire enjoying ourselves, but we truly enjoyed ourselves!