The Pearl of Africa, indeed.

Emmanuel Amoti

At Emmanuel's farm with his beautiful children

Chapatti!!!

Eco-team

Anna and I in a papyrus swamp. Note my muddy boot.

Shopping at the Women's co-op. I've gotten a lot of compliments on my dress Mary-Jane!

We landed after a quick flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda, and then immediately boarded a bus that would take us on a not-so-quick bus ride to Kibale National Park. The difference between Uganda and Nairobi is immediately obvious upon landing- Uganda is pleasantly humid, cooler and has more lush vegetation. We arrived in Kibale three hours ahead of schedule and I loved it instantly. The forest is exactly as you’d imagine a tropical rainforest. One day, as we waited for lunch to be served, we all sat out eating fresh “timbits” rolled in sugar and chai spices and watching approximately 50 monkeys playing in the trees only 15 feet away from us. I’m realizing that as much as I love cities, I feel at home in the open countryside. In Kibale we stayed at a research field station near the edge of the Forest. The food is still delicious- I feel like I’ve never eaten this healthfully in my life- the meals have a large variety of vegetable dishes and many meals are vegetarian.

We’ve started the first of our course sessions and this session I am taking Ecology of East Africa. My professor, Lauren Chapman is incredibly knowledgeable. I appreciate her holistic style of teaching ecology: she incorporates development issues, political and cultural factors, and economic influences in our study. We’ve spent our days tromping through the forest doing experiments like catching and examining butterflies, studying forest conditions and the effects of human encroachment on the forest, and my favourite, examining the conditions and biodiversity of a papyrus swamp. When we aren’t in the forest we’re either listening to a lecture under a Eucalyptus tree or analyzing our data in the small library at Kibale. One day of lecture was devoted to learning about biodiversity outside the National Park and so we ventured out of the park and into the community to visit one of our teacher/Lauren’s field assistant Emmanuel Amoti’s farm. (Side note: my class this session is 11 people and we call our professor by her first name. She also knows all of our names. This is such an amazing change from the usual prof-student relationship.) Emmanuel is an incredible man. Not only is he knowledgeable about seemingly everything relating to the park: it’s flora and fauna, history, politics, etc., he’s also incredibly entrepreneurial. With his field assistant salary (which is comparatively high for the community) he has financed many agricultural and aquacultural endeavours. He owns many pieces of land on which he raises cows, pigs, and goats, and grows many crops including tea, beans, banana, yams, corn, millet, and groundnuts. He has recently engineered a pond to farm tilapia. He does all this to feed his family and use the leftover to sell for profit to use towards his children’s school fees. Amoti is responsible for 21 children: seven of his own, and 14 nieces and nephews whose parents have died of AIDS or, in the case of the mothers, have had to abandon their children in order to re-marry and thus have the economic support of a husband. Despite this, Amoti is not the kind of man who inspires pity. He is constantly smiling and has such an admirable work ethic. He does inspire, though contempt for the institutions that seem to cheat him. For example, Amoti’s major export crop is tea that he sells to tea factories that turn around and sell it in its slightly processed form for a ten-fold increase in price. Another example is the sorry state of education in Uganda. Primary and secondary education are supposed to be paid for by the government but in public schools class sizes are huge and teachers are sometimes absent, not to mention the expense of school supplies. Amoti is working to earn money so that he can afford to send all of his children (not just his own- he wants to be sure that all 21 feel equally cared for) to a private school where the quality of education is much higher.

Other highlights from the week in Kibale include the women’s co-op, church and the canteen. The women’s co-op is run by Rose, who was due with her third child the day before we visited the co-op. We bought handicrafts like baskets and jewellery that the women of the community make and heard about their aspirations for the future. On Sunday many of us attended church. I loved the colourful decorations of the church, the loud singing, and the unabashed piety of the entire congregation. After each song, everyone prayed out loud for all to hear. All sorts of people participated in the service from small children beating drums during the songs, to older women leading the singing and dancing, to a young man giving the sermon as the local nurse translated for us Wazungu. Next, we’re off to Lake Nabugabo, a small lake west of Lake Victoria. They’ve told us that it will be a 12-hour bus though we think that’s an exaggeration. Last time they said we had a nine hour bus ride we made it there in six.