Mukwano and MyThree Month Summary

Dear Blog,

I’m so sorry I haven’t written to you in a while. You see, I have been really busy with the Kasiisi Project.  I’ve been overseeing five construction projects, the anticipation of eight volunteers living with me in the Guesthouse, a Debate Cup, World Environment Day activities, an International Clean Stove Competition, 600 chickens, 6 piglets, 6 staff members, legal documents, board of director meetings among many other things. I also got sick, bought a dog, attended weddings and church, jumped in crater lakes, tended the gardens, and visited Queen Elizabeth National Park to see some wildlife. I still haven’t watched TV in 4.5 months, minus the 1980’s music videos on the bus between Fort Portal and Kampala. News? What News? Shame on me.  Although the stress of the job can make me crazy every now and then, I still love my job and am grateful to my boss for the opportunity. 

Mukwano, "Friend", rescued from Uganda Society for the Protection Care of Animals

The chickens started laying eggs in May

New piglets arrived at the farm once the piggery was built

Tasha's wedding in Kampala

To me, Uganda is one of the most aesthetically pleasing places on earth, reflecting both natural environment and cultural beauty.  It’s no wonder the guidebook, Lonely Planet, rated it the most visited place for 2012.  Mom and Dad, are you sure you can’t make a visit possible?

It is so interesting how life develops.  Throughout my life, as I searched for ways to find nature between the cement cracks of Chicago, I found nature by being a zoologist and working hands-on with animals.  But there is something else; I have hid a secret from myself and only realized it this year. I always wanted to be a botanist and farmer too.  You know, like live off the land directly, the way it “used to be”, what I believe humans were meant to do.

I wrote a little poem within the first month that I came back to Uganda with a permanent, paid position with Kasiisi Project.  This is the first poem I have written since I had to write a book of poems in second grade. I meant to share it with you, Blog, many months ago…

Back to the Earth

The water I drink falls from the sky

The food I eat is plucked from volcanic soils

The air I breathe is the breath from a forest

The trees I see are older than me

And the birds have many places to be

Everything surrounding me is Technicolor green!

  

Construction projects

The Kasiisi Guesthouse, where I reside, has been undergoing renovations for 4 months.  It began with improvements to the kitchen, electricity in every room, furniture including beautiful bookcases made by a local carpenter, and gutters. Then a tent platform was built, a fence placed around the back of the house property, a slate walkway/patio was laid and a garden added to each side of the porch.  Last week everything finally concluded and I feel like I can relax a bit around the house, except now I am hosting six lovely visitors, a cook and two housegirls.  Privacy is not really in my vocabulary anymore, but I don’t mind as I love my job and this is part of it!

Tent platform and a new walkway under construction

Inside the guesthouse

Other construction completed in the last 3 months included a chicken house and quarantine room, piggery, and rain barrel tank bases.  Current construction: biogas digester and dormitory, both on site at Kasiisi Primary School – where the Guesthouse is also located. The biogas digester will eventually power the Guesthouse and Porridge kitchen (to provide lunch for the students where we are currently using wood eco-stoves).

Activities

The International Clean Stove Project was hosted by Rich Lehrer of Brookwood High School. The Kasiisi Project was kindly invited to participate because our students make eco-stoves near Kibale National Park to decrease firewood use and smoke inhalation, among other things.  Eight students from Kyanyawara Primary School were chosen to build a 16-brick eco-stove, an Earth stove, and a tin/rocket stove.  Then the stoves were tested. The students shared their results with students in the U.S. at Brookwood via three Skype sessions while also sharing about their lives.  The cultural exchange was priceless. The competition included schools from Brazil and Rwanda.

16 brick stove (left), Earth stove (right)

Tin stove

Nature Walk – Rweetera Primary School to Kibale National Park

One of our active Wildlife Clubs (WLC) initiated a nature walk to the edge of Kibale National Park, a one hour walking distance through crater lake hills and farmland.  Francis, Kasiisi’s Environmental Educator, joined the WLC teacher in the educational experience. They covered topics such as eco-farming, soil erosion, water pollution, the importance of indigenous trees, and more. When reaching the forest, they spent 10 minutes inside to compare the two environments and appreciate the forest and its services.

Rickettsia: A tick and flea borne disease  

At first, I thought I had malaria because I finally went off anti-malaria pills due to overuse. But it wasn’t malaria, because the post-treatment pills didn’t completely work, all my symptoms came back a week later partnered with a chest infection.  When I went to the local clinic, they took my blood pressure (70/35 – surprising that I wasn’t passed out) but there was nothing else they could do, especially since my veins had collapsed.  So I thanked the spirits that I had brought Gatorade with me and rehydrated for the rest of the day/night so that the next day I could travel to Kampala – only a 5 hour bus ride - to the “mazungu” clinic.  They tested me for everything and gave me Western medicine, all for about $50.  I took the drugs for the suggested 2 weeks and it worked, now I am Rickettsia free, hooray!

Earth Day, April 21

World Environment Day, June 5

On Earth Day our Wildlife Clubs were invited to a collaborator’s annual function in Bigodi, on the other side of the park.  Our Kasiisi girls played a football, AKA soccer match, against Bigodi girls to kick off the day.  We also had a booth presenting our WLC activities  - indigenous tree seeds, laminated animal pictures, environmental messages and of course chimp pictures and paper mache animal masks. It was a fun day!

On W.E.D our wildlife clubs marched into the trading centers to pick up rubbish and teach the community about the importance of a healthy natural environment and why we are all responsible for keeping it clean. Five schools reached out to five trading centers!

Dominic the Harvard student

One of our Kasiisi scholars was admitted to Harvard, a huge accomplishment for him and the Kasiisi Project. It is one of those stories where Dominic walked 3 miles to and from school every day with no shoes and worked on his family’s farm and didn’t eat a lot.  We had a send-off dinner for him and he leaves for the US this week. He asked questions about cultural differences, and we tried to give him advice, but he will just have to experience it for himself! We are so excited for Dominic, Congrats Amooti, you will be missed!    

Feeling like home...

I was so excited in the middle of the night it poured for about 5 minutes, all I could think about was more water in the rain barrel, halleluhia!  But anyway I paid the boda driver 2000 shilling, $1 for 4 jerrycans so I’m actually doing quite fine.  My cute 18 year old house girl who goes to University on the weekends, Daphine has been a great help.  Since I have been alone this week, she helps M-F mornings.  She cooks fresh meals and brings me fresh lemon grass for tea, then we chop up fresh ginger, mmmm the tea is sooo nice!  We even mopped the floor today and did some laundry yesterday, though I’m pretty sure the soap wasn’t rinsed out…   

My runs this week have been really nice.  The people are getting used to me for sure now.  Do you remember the blog about the college guy who ran half the way with me? His family now greets me by my pet name Akiiki, by hollering from their house as I pass by!  So funny.  Then I am recognizing some of the old ladies always walking on the road or in front of their houses. And there is an old man who always thanks me, “Webale!” as I pass.  Then I tell him, “Webale nkuncima!” which means, thanks you for thanking, or thank you for appreciating.  I find myself with a permanent smile as I run. Even with the dust it makes it so much more enjoyable, adding to the fact that the weather is still perfect here so all the runs are enjoyable, minus the dust which tends to stick in the air even longer when it rains or is misty in the morning.  I have a plan to run with my camera one of these days to show you all what I’m experiencing in pictures.

Happy Friday!  This weekend I was invited to spend in Fort Portal on a sleepover/business meeting with Michelle of the UNITE program – NC ZOO. They work in Bigodi, on the other side of Kibale NP, and our Conservation Education Program, previously known as Kasiisi Wildlife Clubs, received a 3 year grant to work with UNITE on making conservation films for children about Great Apes, specifically chimpanzees and gorillas.  We have a lot to dicsuss!

Next weekend I am invited to kitty-sit in Kampala in a beautiful house near where Dom and I used to stay.  I will have a free place to stay and a hot shower while visiting all my friends and running errands for the project =)  Uganda is starting to really feel like my home now!  This morning I planted 4 rare tree seeds in a paint can that I just finished, while painting the outdoor kitchen shelves and mesh cabinet.  And I finally started to really try to get rid of these rats last night, who ate through 5 pieces of produce!!!! Grrrrr. Pictures next time!

Realities of WATER Conservation

 I am thankful to have 2 water barrels at the house.  However they were put up during the dry season which is still with us. So before the 10 visitors came, we rushed a water tanker to fill both barrels to the brim.  It is now 3 weeks since they left and there is only 1% of one tank left for me to use until the next rains come - estimated at two weeks away.  Imagine cooking for ten visitors and bathing and washing clothes for 5. I am seriously praying the rains come soon!!!  For water conservation I am no longer heating any bath water but using that only for drinking. Then boiling food only once a day. Not mopping, and waiting to do laundry until a good rain storm!!   Some people say the rains won’t be here until March, which of course is 13 days away – seems like forever.  But the clouds are already beginning to form and it has threatened to rain – a few sprinkles - 3 times now since last week.  We could order another water tanker, but it costs a lot and just seems unrealistic for just me at the house for the next month and with the rains coming soon enough.  Today, for the first time in my life, I paid someone to "fetch" 4 jerrycans (10 gallon plastic drums) of water from the borehole 500 meters away.  He had a boda (motorcycle) and it cost me 1 dollar.  Hopefully this will last at least 2 days, 3 if I don't do laundry. And I promise to bath every day (I love my bucket baths!).

second graders waiting in line to receive a empty used water bottle

getting a lesson by headmistress Lydia about water and pronunciation of "bottle"

kneeling to headmistress Lydia as a sign of respect and gratitude

they now have bottles to carry water in to have at school every day

even the boxes are re-used as rubbish bins in the classrooms

 Did I mention I am really looking forward to gardening once the rains come??  Everything grows so fast here it’s exciting!  The other 10 visitors also had some water trouble, we couldn’t boil and filter water fast enough so they unfortunately had to buy a bunch of water bottles, which I gave to the second grade students at Kasiisi today to bring home to fill with water for their next day at school. They can be used for many other things too; nothing here goes to waste, not even the cardboard boxes that the water came in. Those will become rubbish bins in the classrooms.  Empty paint cans can also be used for rubbish bins, planters, etc.

Well I hope you all are doing well. I hear the weather back home is a mild winter.  That’s a relief!

Thanks for tuning in once again to Amy Akiiki’s blog and by the way, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

Hosting 10 People and a Million Other Things

Kasiisi Students

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when there I so much to catch up on with another person, you tend to start with a discussion about the weather?  Or is that only if you have nothing to talk about with someone?   In this case it is the former. There is so much to talk about from the last TWO weeks that it just makes sense to start with the weather. It has been getting progressively warm here, but still not unbearable as long as you are not in full sunlight for more than 5 minutes.  That said, the heat is dry, unlike Chicago’s humid summers.  A few days ago we actually had some clouds pass by, then they got darker and it actually rained hard for 5 minutes, then it disappeared.  It was just enough to clean the layer of red dust over everything, even the car =) I remember after studying in Costa Rica for 4 months in the dry season, the first rain was a big storm and a huge celebration – worth running naked through the fields!  This is the driest I have seen this area, the grass is even beginning to yellow (which rarely happens here)…but not for long.  I can’t wait for the rains, because then I can face digging the softened ground to make a flower garden in front of the house, and I would really like to plant tomatoes because they are used in everything cooked here, expensive to buy, and sensitive to transport.  My colleague Francis promised he would help me plant a hedge around the yard for privacy from the 1200 Kasiisi students.  I am excited for that too, I just hope I am invited to live here long enough to see everything mature.  Even if not, these efforts will not be in vain.

My parents will be happy to know that I went to church today, in fact there is a protestant church literally next door to “my” house.  6 of the 10 volunteers, who I will now call “visitors” attended church last week and today, so I decided to join them.  It was so, so nice.  Simple, nice message, nice music, only 20 people in the room because everyone else was at a funeral of someone from the parish. It felt good to stop and take time to think, and to be in the presence of people who are thinking beyond themselves.  It was especially good for me to think beyond myself. Among a few other epiphanies that occurred to me at church, one that I’d like to share is:  Take Care of Nature as Nature Takes Care of You.  You may recognize it as the saying “do onto others…” or “treat thy neighbor….” 

So, let me now explain the 10 “visitors” that I have been feeding 3 meals a day.  A young woman from Harvard undergrad volunteered for the Kasiisi Project 2.5 years ago.  She returned with 9 others to film a story from her first experience.  She received a couple grants, convinced a film friend from school, picked up a film couple in L.A., then did a casting call in Kampala and brought three Kenyans and three Ugandans back to Kasiisi Project to film for 19 days. The four Americans are staying in the duplex next to me and the six Africans are staying at the Rainforest Guesthouse –of Margaret Kemegisa.  Everyone claimed they hadn’t had bucket baths before, not to mention cold ones. We are all taking cold bucket baths.  None of them had been on this side of Uganda before, nor are they used to living in a rural area. To make a long story short, there are a lot of culture shocks going on right now. But it seems after a full, hectic week for everyone, we have found a good system to make everyone somewhat happy.  Thanks to Richard who is cooking up a storm 8 hours per day, Daphine cleaning the house, laundry and dishes, and Elizabeth for giving me a car to use to go to town to pick up food, food, food.  We have a fridge the size of a large purse, which means that buying fresh food is very strategic – like yellow, and green everything: bananas, pineapples, mangoes.  The freshest French beans, kidney beans, peanuts (called ground nuts that we must roast ourselves), kilos of sugar and milk for Uganda’s tasty tea (one coffee drinker has already turned!), fresh bread, potatoes, eggplant, cucumber, etc… The plethora of tasty freshness coming out of Uganda is unexplainable.  It makes American fruits taste blah blah and fake, so fake, except for a gala apple, are they even grown in America? No apples here.

Homemade Mondazis...mmmm fried goodness!

For the past couple of years I have become addicted to baking banana bread – a recipe my mom taught me when I was young.  When I come here I have no oven, so today I decided to make a banana bread mondazi. A mondazi is like a doughnut; fried goodness.  It was the first time I have ever fried anything.  Pouring an inch of oil into a pan seems not only wasteful, but gross.  I have come to accept it, and the gifts that an inch of oil can bring to this world, like a sad face turned happy, or a skinny face turned plump. 

We saw a pair of cranes nesting at the Kasiisi Farm!

Work has been extremely busy and good.  I am so grateful to be on this project, being introduced as the Field Director (FD), (whether I am or not is to be determined), and acting as a FD is really feeling natural for me right now.  The Kasiisi Farm which we are building up to sustain the Porridge Project has so much going on that I am visiting a few time a week. I love it there but there is much to do and we have chickens that are 5 weeks old that are keeping the farm manager very busy. On Thursday I helped with a 600 chicken vaccination – the drops in the eyes. On Friday, we had a Board of Directors meeting. I was in charge of the agenda and snacks and lots of prep on topics, Mathew sent everyone the invitation, and all but one showed up – a very good showing.  I have continued to have a painter, and 1-2 carpenters at the house every day.  The house is very busy.  Richard, Daphine, Adolf the painter, Paul and Moses the Carpenters, the gutter guy, the 10 “visitors” are all in and around my house at once while I am in and out of the office across the field to check on everything/one, running errands in town (30 minutes up the dirt road), at the farm, organizing accounts, emailing my boss in the US, demonstrating painting tips, fixing printers, caring for a goat (this one was short-lived as it was taken by the film visitors to the Assistant Director’s house), and I managed to run 5 times this week, phew!  Great time management and multi-tasking practice!  I seriously am really enjoying being a manager.  Best of all, at the end of the day, I am sleeping in the same room, in the same bed, with the same pillow. No more moving about every 1-2 weeks like all of last year!! 

 

Last night, I accidentally left a chapati (very common here, like a flour tortilla) out in the kitchen and although I was surprised the rat didn’t take it, the ants were swarming! Oops. I almost caught the rat again, it was a young one. Despite me putting away all the food at night, it still manages to find a little something to knaw on. Every morning I find a local green pepper under the gas stove. What a little shit.  I found out where one of their nests was.  In one of our outdoor kitchens/storage areas was a room full of firewood from the previous residents.  That person came and removed the wood and underneath is a pile of all sorts of interesting chewed things: plastic bags, corn husks, cardboard, among others.  According to the epidemiologists in my life, rats carry serious diseases (duh, bubonic plague/ “black death”) and cleaning up after them is not something to be taken lightly.  After doing my laundry, I put bleach in my rinse water buckets and doused the crap in that room.  Not sure if that will do anything but I am supposed to be careful not to aerosolize the cooties.

I’m not learning as much Rutooro as I would like because I am not practicing or asking for new words enough, despite all the opportunities in any given day.  Embwa means dog. Chali means sorry.  What I love is that the locals love playing their music from their phones like a radio – and I love their taste in music, so it’s great because not only is my music 15 years old, I would have to use my computer to play it, and I can’t risk using up the battery if the power goes out, as I need to write reports.

OK now it is 12 February – another week later and still I haven’t posted these blogs.  I’ve barely had time in the day to go to the bathroom! Please bear with me.

The 6 Africans left on Friday after a really fun night of eating mbuzi (roasted goat), drinking a whole case of beer and danicing the night away. The four muzungus are chimp tracking today (Sunday) and leave tomorrow morning. It will be me, myself, and I for a whole week!  I am really excited to catch up with my family on Skype, reporting to my bosses in the US, grant writing and all the other things I would normally be doing in the evening while alone….. in the rural village.

fresh roasted goat, butchered and cooked on the property!

 

Since I arrived 20 January, there has been much work to manage on the Farm including the 600 chickens, and plan for a piggery.  My co-workers and I visited two local piggeries, very interesting learned a lot.  One was very modern the other less so.  I pigs eat maize bran and need supplements of greens from the farm.  One sow can produce up to 14 piglets at one time, twice a year for 2.5 years!  That means within one year you can have a full piggery!  I’m also learning when to harvest maize/corn, and timing the planting with the rains, clearing the bush from unused areas of the farm, and indigenous trees.

On Wednesday, the project car decided it wanted to have an oil leak.  For how long the oil was leaking I don’t know, but when the oil was checked it was bone dry.  So I spent 3 hours at the garage in town while 10 men worked on the car (2 mechanics training the rest).  Very interesting, I was happy to have my co-worker join me on the bench. 

 

 

The dust and the heat has really been tremendous, I wish I had a picture of the inside of the car.  You definitely don’t want to wear white when going into town, or walking on the side of the dirt road. You know it is the end of the dry season when the grasses are yellow.  Everything else manages to stay green however, this place is amazing.  Though people’s crops are suffering a bit, not happy people when one can’t eat.

The local dogs love the new compost/garbage pits behind the house and 11 people eating from here. On any given night at least 5 different dogs come through the yard. Last night I had two cows eating the compost. I woke up worrying that they would also eat my soap off the rain barrel. Animals love soap!

There is another American who lives a 5 minute walk from me and works on the Kibale Fuel wood Project.  She has been in Uganda for about 6 months and is also trying to stay longer.  She introduced me to Lake Nkruba – a crater lake – absolutely stunning, with a campsite and small restaurant to have a sundowner.  This lake was recently tested and does not carrying bilharzia, which is a disease that causes one to pee blood.  It is an easy test at the docs office and an easy cure –a pill, so people don’t tend to get too worried.  Right when we walked up to the edge of the lake, black and white colobus monkeys and red tailed monkeys were finishing their evening meals. Vervet monkeys were on the opposite side of the lake and there was a large, dark bird in the bush.  There were also 3 trailers of Europeans having braai’s (BBQs) at the top of the lake.  The water was warm for the first 5 feet, then because crater lakes are so deep, it quickly gets cold at your toes.

 

I have managed to keep running on the dirt road towards the Kasiisi Farm at least 3 times a week. My goal is at least 5 per week.  On Sunday everyone was in the greatest mood, all HUGE smiles all around, not calling me “muzungu”, but “madam” instead (so much nicer on the ears) and a few kids ran with me. One huffing and puffing but managed to keep up for a ¼ mile. I gently smacked a few toddlers butts who were on the road. People are getting used to me here. It helps that I am wearing the exact same outfit every day, a bright red shirt and black tight running pants and sunglasses, which are for as much the dust as for the sun. (yes I wash my outfit-- every 3 days and it dries in the sun in 2 hours).