My soil sampling has almost been completed! Next week I have arranged to hire a field assistant that knows the forest so that I can collect samples within Kibale National Park. I will use these soils as a baseline to better understand how soils have changed with cultivation around the park. I will be shipping 66 soils samples back to New Hampshire for analyses and this should keep me busy until I return here next June. I was thrilled to hear today that paper work for a Material Transfer Agreement from the Ugandan government allowing me to ship the soils to the U.S. should be completed in time for my arrival with the soils in Kampala on the 29^th.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had my first experience with Ugandan medical services. I started to come down with something on Monday and by Tuesday night into Wednesday morning I was in pretty bad shape with a fever, severe achiness and chills, as well as a very sore throat. My bungalow mate Amy was very kind and rearranged her schedule so she could drive me to the Alpine Clinic in Fort Portal. With the aches and chills, and the conditions of the roads here, I’ll just say it was a pretty unpleasant 45 minute car ride into town. When I arrived, there were no lengthy forms to fill out; I just had to pre-pay the doctor’s consultation fee, which was 10,000 UGX (or about $4). In fact, before they did anything, I had to go back out to reception and pay for the service or drugs first. When I finally saw a doctor, and described my symptoms, he sent me over to the lab for a malaria test, which eventually came back negative. When I got back in to see him the second time, I again complained about my sore throat so he took a quick look with a big industrial strength flash light and immediately prescribed some antibiotics. Only two hours after my first dose my fever broke and I began to feel better. Don’t know what I had, tonsillitis, strep, or my field assistant’s diagnosis, mud flu, but I am recovering nicely now. 

As we were returning to the field station yesterday we came upon a relatively small tree with a large group of red colobus monkeys in dispute with another group on the road. As we passed through them their anger seemed to transfer to us and our vehicle and two males actually started chasing us. Amy had to stop for a couple still in the middle of the road and as the two males caught up with us I was sure they were going to try and jump through my window and I was going to have to fend off a monkey attack. Fortunately, we were able to make it through this monkey gauntlet un-scathed. Speaking of monkey gauntlets, today I was trying to get to another part of camp and my bungalow was surrounded by baboons. My cook had asked me to take some cheese and peas that were in a plastic grocery bag with me to the house I was visiting because there is a refrigerator there we have been using. Just as I was setting out she said “the baboons know that bag,” meaning they know it is likely to contain food. I had to go get my backpack so I could smuggle the food through the baboon lines. On my return, as I turned up the path to my bungalow I saw a large fuzzy shape. I made a noise and a very large male baboon raised his head up to look at me then laid back down on the path so that I had to go around the long way to get home. These baboons are, as someone else here has said, cheeky bastards.