I had a full and fantastic first week in Uganda. I made a lot more progress than I had anticipated and am revising my plans to include more work in the upcoming weeks here. So far, I have visited five villages and collected 40 soil samples from 10 farms. I am still surprised by how dark and rich the soils look. I was expecting to be sampling nutrient deplete Oxisols here. Next week I will be visiting villages in the Isunga area and collecting more soil samples. I have also arranged for a guide to take me into the forest for further soil sampling. The people I have met in the villages are all very welcoming and are so happy to get the soap we provide as a token of appreciation for their time. They are all very eager for me to return and share my results. I have had someone in each village say to me that they want me to tell them what to plant so that their fields can be more productive. I only hope I can provide some data that can help them in their land management decisions, but honestly, I don't know that I can live up to their expectations and provide them all the answers they need.
Their have been elephants passing through field station each night around 9 or 10 so we have all been avoiding the roads around here at night. I would like to see an elephant, but really would rather not stubble into one in the dark. The baboons have been staying in upper camp. I have a new friend there that had a bunch of bananas stolen by a baboon from here living room this week. This morning, I woke to find a large group of baboons behind my bungalow, including two very cute babies playing in a nearby tree.
Last night I went with a large group into Fort Portal to a dance club called Extasy. We hired a taxi for the evening that fit 15 of us and then danced until 3 am. It was a super fun evening and we turned some heads in the club, three mazungus (white people) dancing with the 12 Ugandan men who are field assistants.
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