Uganda

After hours and hours of trying to get a video on here, I have decided just to put one picture and the text up and try again later to get the video on here.....

It’s been a long 6 weeks in Uganda….but I’ve seen a lot of things, which is evidenced by all the pictures I have. I'm trying to download them as I write this, but there are lot of them, so it is going to take a little while. So keep checking back, because they should be up hopefully soon. But I'll try and do a little recap here before I get all the pictures up.

We flew into the airport in Entebbe by C-130, stayed in the capital Kampala for a couple of days and then we headed to Gulu where we did all our work. We had two different teams made up of U.S. military, students and faculty from the veterinary school in Kampala (Makerere University)and vets and technicians from the Gulu District Veterinary Office. Over the span of 4 weeks in Gulu, we went to 41 different sites and treated over 75,000 animals. (Which surpassed the estimated number, which was about 50,000) Our record for animals at one site was in Opit, where we did over 2200 cows (our usual average per day was about 1,000 cows or less per site) and probably 5,000 animals total-that was an extremely long day. Most of the trips out to the sites involved travel on what they called roads, but most of us would call them off-roading trails. The pictures do not even do justice to how bad they are. On our first day, it took us 4 hours to get to our first site, which was probably 20 kilometers away from Gulu. Thankfully it got better after that, but as our driver put it, we were able to get an ‘African massage’ every day because the bumps in the road threw us all over the vehicle. I thought we were going to get stuck more often than we did, but our drivers are very skilled at getting through the mud. They make driving through snow and ice look easy.

We stayed at a motel called the Acholi, which was not bad. However, we never knew if we were going to have hot water, or if the power was going to stay on. Every bed had mosquito netting over it, and you definitely had to use it. And I will never take a washing machine for granted again….I spent four weeks washing all my laundry by hand. It’s not fun trying to wash poop off a uniform in your shower. Another thing I will not take for granted…boneless chicken. Apparently my idea of boneless chicken and Africa’s idea of boneless chicken are two different things…..

As part of the VETCAP, they do radio advertising, so we even got to do a radio show where people could call in and ask questions. I said about two words, which was fine with me. The questions were handled by the district vet and one of the vets from the university since they spoke the local language. The radio host asked us our questions in English, and then the rest of the show was in the local language. I guess it was a good show, but since I couldn’t understand a word of it, they could have been making fun of us the whole time and I wouldn’t have known it.

We were also able to celebrate Uganda Independence Day while we were here. We went to a 'parade' which was basically a drill and ceremony type of demonstration by the UPDF (Ugandan People's Defense Force) and the other police units and prison security guards. They also had some local dancers and local dignitaries speak. Not quite the same as fireworks in Bangor on the 4th, but still very interesting.

By far the highlight of the trip to Gulu was the ‘safari’ we took to Murchison Falls one weekend. It was about a 3 hour drive from Gulu to the entrance to the national park. Once we got in, it was about another hour drive to the Paraa lodge. On the way we got to see a bunch of animals, and even drove through a herd of giraffes. Which, I think, are my new favorite animals. (Grandma Pralle…you had the right idea-I’m going to follow your example and start collecting giraffes now! :-) I tried to bring one home with me, but for some reason they wouldn’t let me…go figure!

The lodge was absolutely amazing. It overlooked the Nile River and had a pool with a swim up bar (which I did use). I would drive the 4 hours just to back and eat the food-can’t even begin to describe how good it was. Especially compared to what we had been eating in Gulu…The day we got there we took a small boat down the Nile to go see the falls. And of course we had to bring a cooler with us…so I was drinking a Nile beer while on the Nile River-I thought it was very appropriate. Along the way we saw hippos (and yes Jeff, they yawned at us!!), elephants, baboons, crocodiles, birds and warthogs. The next day we got up early and went for the actual safari. Our van had a top that popped up, so we were standing up, looking at all the different animals. I think the only thing we didn’t see were zebras (because they don’t have any there). We even saw lions, which was impressive, because they don’t have that many there and they are hard to find. But my favorite had to be the giraffes. They were impressive when I saw them in Kenya, but to see them in their habitat was just amazing. They look like rocking horses when they run, which is why I am trying to put that video on here, because I thought that was the coolest thing. And for how they big they are, you would be surprised how they seem to just appear on the horizon and all of a sudden you are right there amongst them. If anyone is looking to take a trip to Uganda, I would highly, highly recommend going to Murchison Falls.

Since this is getting pretty long, I will continue it after I get all the pictures posted...to be continued.....