Car troubles and more from last week.

We had so much happen last week that I didn't get it all into my last blog entry! One of the things I didn't mention last week was the car trouble we had while at Queen Elizabeth. As we were driving to catch the 3:00 channel boat, we blew out a tire. We had a spare of course and after some wrangling with the jack and careful incremental movement until it was in the right position we were able to get the tire changed out. Ten minutes later as we are again driving to catch our boat, the spare tire we just put on flies off into the bush! My driver Emma was great and kept the vehicle under control while bringing the vehicle to a stop on the side of the road. We had all watched Emma tighten the lug nuts on the spare and couldn't figure out how the tire could have come off. After trekking through some bushes we finally located the tire and as we walked back down the road were able to locate the lug nuts that had fallen off one by one. We hitched a ride with a family from Germany, but missed the 3:00 boat. Fortunately the Mweya Lodge had a boat the was leaving at 4:30 that actually turned out to be nicer than the Uganda Wildlife Authority boats, and they served drinks during our outing. While we were enjoying the wildlife, Emma collected some other drivers and went back to the car to get the tire back on. When we asked him how in the world they were able to get the car up off the rim and get the tire back on Emma just said "we were many." In addition to the tire difficulties, our Land Cruiser, which we named Besse, started have engine troubles and we had to make our way back from Queen Elizabeth very slowly. On Monday of this week we traded Besse in for a vehicle that is ubiquitous here in Uganda, a 4WD van made by Toyota called a Hiace. I drove us in to Fort Portal on Monday and was very impressed by the way it drives and handles the roads here. On Tuesday we again made the long trek down to Rwimi to give a presentation with soils data from January, in the village of Kajumiro. On the way back the van overheated and started burning oil, we had to stop and let it cool then add water to the radiator, before slowly making our way home. The vehicle was not drivable after that so I decided to just send it back to the leasing agency in Kampala and rent the same vehicle I used in January that belongs to Kato, the assistant director of MUBFS.

Enough about cars, we also had some wonderful experiences this past week. On Sunday, Mike and I attended a special mass and party celebrating the ordination of Emma's brother into the Catholic priesthood. It was an incredible celebration, with at least 3000 people gathered from all over the country, including two choirs and two groups of young girls that danced while the choirs sang. The range of colors in the women's clothing was stunning! I was glad I brought a nice skirt with me so I could dress up a bit. When the service ended, they had 6 different serving stations set up and provided food for everyone there. It was really quite an amazing experience and was I am so happy we were invited.

While we were in Kajumiro on Tuesday, we went to the primary school to meet the children and deliver some school supplies that Stuart had brought over and a couple soccer balls. The children welcomed us wholeheartedly, and sung up a storm for us. When I get back to the states and have a decent internet connection I will upload some movies. They were so happy to get the school supplies and were thrilled to get the soccer balls. Then we gathered everyone for the presentation and they all seemed to hang on every word I had to say, even though they had to wait for the translation from my field assistant Liz.

We are continuing to give presentations to all the villages I visited in January, so more about this in the next entry.

BUSY and full week!!

The final member of my field work team arrived last week, my collaborator Dr. Stuart Grandy, also from UNH. On Monday we all went to the Kibale National Park visitor center and took a nature walk. We learned a bunch about the forest trees and plants and what the monkeys and chimpanzees like to eat.

With his help we finished off the field work, visiting 51 farms in two days, in the most southern area I visit, the large village of Kajumiro. The farms here seemed to be a bit larger on average and there was definitely much more reliance on the production of maize, although many alternate between rice and maize each season. The hills were larger and in many cases steeper here as well.It is also noticeably dryer in the south and many of the maize fields had already been or were actively being harvested.

 
The people there were all of the Bakiga tribe and as usual were very helpful and generous. We were offered a variety of fresh fruits vegetables and drinks. Mike tasted the local millet porridge, which in case you were wondering is fermented and does contain quite a bit of alcohol. I was lucky enough to witness a family making banana juice, and then got to sample a large cup full. It was made by cutting up banana leaves and the matooke bananas then pouring water over the top, then crushing and mashing it all together by hand, with the resulting juice collecting in the bottom of the large tub. I tasted the fresh juice, but they also allow this to ferment into a very tasty alcoholic beverage that I hope to sample later this week.

Because we were able to finish the field work early this past week, I decided to take Mike and Stuart down to Quenn Elizabeth National Park for some wildlife viewing. We stayed the first night in the Mweya Safari Lodge, which was extremely nice. There was a very cute family of mongooses that lived around the hotel, and I saw this one eating a little green snake.

We had a great visit and saw a ton of game, including two lions and a leopard!! Pictures are worth a thousand words, so enjoy.

Week of the monkeys

We had another good working week, got quite a bit accomplished. On Monday, our driver Emma dropped us off and we finished some more surveys and soil sampling in the area closest to the field station while he took the vehicle to be worked on in Fort Portal. It had been making some squealing noises and we were afraid one of the belts might be about to go out, and we didn't want to end up stranded somewhere far away from help. When we had finished the field work we just hiked back to the field station which was only about 2 miles away. The village we were in is called Kansojo and just about all the maize fields we wanted to survey were at the bottom of a large, steep hill or on the hillside on the opposite side of the valley. I ended up climbing up an down that stupid hill four times so that by the time I had walked back to the field station I was exhausted. Definitely the most tiring day of work thus far.

Monday through Wednesday this week our house was visited by a very rascally baboon. On Tuesday, I was sitting on the front porch when I heard Mike say through his window "Hey, there's a baboon in here." So I said "Tell it to leave," then went in the house to find it going through a box of my stuff. I yelled at it and it grabbed a gallon Ziploc full of powdered Gatoraide and ran out the back door. Fortunately it was too heavy for him to carry and run away quickly so he dropped it. On Wednesday, I was sitting in our house working when suddenly the back door burst open, and there was that baboon again. I yelled at it to get out and it just looked at me until I started to get out of my chair, then it walk off with its compatriots, including a mom with a very young baby baboon clinging to her chest.

Finally, on Wednesday, I was again sitting on the front porch when our baboon friend returned with the idea of entering the house from the front this time. He came right up on the porch, not more than 3 feet from me and this time when I told him to shoo, he barred his teeth at me and didn't back up a bit. I finally had to pick up a chair and brandish it at him before he took the hint and slowly began walking away, with frequent backward glances and dirty looks.

Finally, on Thursday afternoon we were treated to a mass exodus of red colobus monkeys through the yard in front of our bungalow. It seemed like a never ending stream of monkeys. I was told later that the camp group, which this was, has grown to 115 individuals. These monkeys haven't moved very far and we treated to good views of their antics in the mornings and afternoons in the tress near our house.

 

Another good week

Our week was once again very productive. We visited three villages south of the field station, Iruhura, Nyabinyonyi, and Kyakabuzi and between all, 50 farms. In Iruhura I picked up another group of children to add to my growing fan club ( I think my popularity may have something to do with the candy I hand out).

 
We are about 2/3 of the way through the first part of my work. I still have to return to each village I visited in January and give a presentation with data from the soils I collected on that first trip. I also have to send some time with some of the local primary school teachers to find out what kind of things I can do or provide to help them educate their children about soils.

We experienced our first earthquake for this trip this past week, and it was actually a fairly strong one. There was only one that I felt when here in January, but it is not expected since we are so close to the Great Rift. We also had our first significant thunderstorm and rain on Thursday and into Friday. Fortunately, everything has gone so smoothly, we were finished with our field work early so we didn't get wet.

There haven't been as many monkeys around the house this time as there were in January. I guess the trees in our area don't have the same fruits and seeds they did In January to attract them. I did see this big guy out alone in front of the house though.

I guess I'll end this post with some pictures of some of the fields we visited, many of which went right up to the boundary of Kibale National Park.

Productive first week of field work

We had a very productive and successful first week of field work. We were able to visit 50 different farms to collect soil samples and complete surveys. My work this summer is focused on determining which crops farmers decide to plant, and how they make those decisions. I am also focusing in on maize because it has been pushed as a cash crop in this area and it can be particularly detrimental to soil fertility. I have been asking the farmers, mostly women, how much maize they plant each season, what they intercrop with maize, how much profit do they make from the sale of maize and how dependent their household is on the sale of maize. I'm also very interested in determining the fate of crop residues and the extent burning is used to prepare fields or dispose of crop residues. These kind of data in conjunction with soil analyses will help us better understand rates of soil fertility loss under a wide range of land use strategies as it seems that every household has a different plan for cropping and a different view of soil fertility. I have been asking the farmers what they think is the best way to increase their crop yields and have received almost as many answers as there have been respondents.

Working out on the farms this past week I was again struck by the exceptional kindness and generosity of the Ugandan people. We didn't have one household that turned us away when we asked for almost an hour of time to complete the survey. I can only imagine the slammed doors and unkind words we would have been greeted with if asking the same thing in the U.S. Even though these people have so little, we were the recipients of many gifts this week, including baskets, avocados, corn, jackfruit, sugar cane and coffee beans. I also acquired a young fan club in Mokobya.

     These kids were fascinated by the mzungu in their midst and they followed me all afternoon, just watching me sample soils and make GPS tracks of the sampled fields. The boy in the black t-shirt (no pants) was particularly exuberant and quite a character. I wish I understood the language because he never stopped talking even though I didn't have a clue what he was saying to me.

I feel very fortunate to be here and to be working with such great people. I only hope I can live up to their expectations and provide them with information that will help make their fields more productive.

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.

Goodbye to Kampala

We are leaving Kampala today for the field station. We had a good stay and enjoyed our time here at the Fairway Hotel.

Saturday night, Michael and I ate dinner at nice restaurant called Piato that is next door to the French Embassy. We sat on a cool and refreshing outdoor patio and I had some wonderful butter chicken and black forest cake. I would highly recommend Piato to anyone that finds themselves in Kampala.

We spent the day relaxing yesterday. We walked down to the Oasis shopping mall and then sat in a coffee shop reading and drinking very good espresso. Afterwards, we strolled around the mall where I was struck by the juxtaposition of Ugandan and western cultures. Last night we had a nice meal at one of the hotel restaurants that serves a combination of Indian and Chinese food. The hotel restaurants were very convenient and as a bonus the food was good really very good. KNowing it was my last for a couple months, I took a nice long and hot shower this morning, trying to savor it.