Sunday, June 23, 2013

Settled in at MUBFS

I am sitting at the Garden restaurant in Fort Portal sipping a delicious cappuccino and taking advantage of the good signal strength for my Orange network internet connection. It is a beautiful day here, and on the way down we got our first view of the Rwenzori Mountains. It has been too hazy up to this point to see them at all.

We have our house and kitchen all set up and are just about settled into a routine at MUBFS (Makerere University Biological Field Station), which feels like my home away from home. I am staying in a different bungalow than I did in January, but there is really not much difference. We did get a new door for our shower this week which was exciting. Here is the house and the car we will be using, a nice Toyota Land Cruiser that can seat six.
The kitchen is in a separate building in back, as is the latrine. We have had visits by red colobus monkeys and baboons thus far. We also have some interesting lizards that like to sun on the side of our house.
 There are also, of course, some interesting insects around and this giant millipede I spotted on the path to upper camp.


Part of my field work this trip will involve collecting data on land use and how land use decisions are made via surveys. Over the last week I have been working with my field assistants to get the survey translated and tested. There are a few questions that still need a little work, but I think we will be able to begin administering the survey and collecting soils this week.



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