Uganda Wildlife Education Center - Volunteer gig #2

I asked to volunteer at UWEC because it is a wildlife sanctuary, botanic garden, and education center.  Right down my alley.  This may sound familiar with the place I fell in love with, called Munda Wanga Environmental Park in Zambia. They are the same thing, though UWEC is farther ahead than Munda Wanga, based on many circumstances that I will not get into here.

The staff decided to make me a keeper his week!  So I got to be a keeper again!  It was since November that I quit the Lincoln Park Zoo job and now I am back haulin’ hay and working with [white not black] rhinos, ostrich, lions, antelope, Egyptian geese, leopard, warthogs, giraffes, zebras, an added bonus: chimps, and even golden orb spiders that are wild and naturally all over the place!  I am in spider heaven and the spiders apparently are too (which at this point if you don’t know me well, this might scare you a bit, but I swear I’m not that weird).  The week was very fun, all the staff are wonderful and the morale of the place is very positive. The head keeper wants me to assist the keepers in training the giraffes, and helping to put fly-wipe on the rhinos ankles, and I helped with a lioness sedation too.  I worked six days this week, traveling back and forth from Kampala to Entebbe (read the previous blog for more details on transport), and managed to stay a few nights, and make friends with The Jane Goodall Institute which is right down the street from UWEC. I look forward to continuing my volunteer gig at the end of the month.

haulin' hay!

feeding off the back of the truck to a very impatient cow

first day of training, the giraffes are not buying it

fresh cut elephant grass for all the herbivores

Kabira and Cherino

feeding out waterbuck and Egyptian geese with Wako, the keeper I was shadowing

the one-eared buffalo, I love these guys

golden orb spider! can you see the gold colored web?

chimp island, yes they are only separated by a wet moat

non-captive vervet monkey with new baby, AKA the most annoying mammals on the planet, next to baboons

and you wonder why they are killed for their pelts...absolutely stunning.

I am excited that Dominic will be in town for some big meetings with RESPOND, so I will hang out in Kampala and work on my side projects, visit the women’s group who make the lovely paper beads, and wait for him to come home from really long days at work.  By Friday I will be back in Kibale National Park working for the Kasiisi Project, and then by end of June, back to UWEC for 3 weeks…if all goes as planned.  Once my full month at UWEC has ended, I hope to keep visiting them and continue to get to know the staff and projects/programs.  All if this is to gain experience in the field and get to know more organizations, as well as to network and grow a reputation for myself here in Uganda.  After which time, hopefully I will land some sort of non-permanent a job somewhere.