Last week was spent trying to piece together whether Acts would be able to handle a $2.5 million pipeline. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday re-visiting the source and running through the calculations, but by the end of Thursday we were no closer to having a plan that would enable Acts to submit project requests to CIDA. But we’re still unwilling to give up.
Friday morning I spent two hours going to five separate banks in Mbarara, trying to convert my surplus Rwandan francs to Ugandan shillings. But despite being a stronger currency, a major trading partner and only 3hrs away by bus, none of the banks were willing to convert the notes. Running out of time, I quickly ran to the bus park and caught the next bus to Kihihi. Once in Kihihi, I managed to get (I later realized) an absolute bargain basement deal for a special hire to Bwindi. One of the conditions was that we wait in the next town for more passengers, which was fine because it meant I was able to get lunch. It was my cheapest meal yet with beans, matoke and posho going for the rate of $0.63CAD. And it was unlimited; I could have as many beans, matoke and posho as I wanted. It was also the only option at that restaurant.
Made it into Bwindi well before dark and found a nice community rest camp to stay for the night. I’d brought my tent on the off chance the rates for staying in a room were prohibitive. But I soon found out that I didn’t have enough shillings for lunch and they wouldn’t accept my emergency stash of American dollars (they were new, but had microscopic tears). A quick calculation showed that I had enough to pay for the nights camping and local transport back to Mbarara, but not for any meals at Bwindi (which are significantly more expensive than the local villages). I was very happy I’d loaded up at lunch, and had a ample supply of Cliff bars that Liz had sent over, because that was sustained me for the next 24 hours.
Woke up the next morning at the crack of dawn and headed off to the park orientation seminar with the other tourists who would be visiting the gorillas. Its estimated that there are just over 700 mountain gorillas in the world, of which approximately half reside in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. There are currently four groups of gorillas that have been habituated to humans in Bwindi, and each group receives eight human visitors a day. The privilege of seeing the gorillas for one hour (and not a minute more) is $500US (plus all associated costs in getting the permit, which you have to pay for in cash at the UWA headquarters in Kampala, and the costs of getting to Bwindi).
The orientation was informative but I was on edge the entire time. If you’re sick, you’re not allowed to see the gorillas as they’re close enough to us genetically that they could catch our colds and don’t have the immunity to deal with it. So I’d loaded up on cold FX and ginseng tea in the days leading up to the tracking, but still woke up with a bit of sniffle. Since I’d arrived in September, I’ve had to sneeze every day, and sometimes that would develop into a sore throat. But it’s never really gone beyond that, so I wonder if I’m allergic to this country? Regardless, I was paranoid that I would sneeze during the orientation and be kicked out. I would also lose half my money and the chances of another available time slot to see the gorillas were slim.
Thankfully I didn’t sneeze (I did cough once, probably because I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to cough, but I managed to walk away at that moment and inspect a very interesting leaf on a bush), and we set off on our hike 30 minutes later. During the orientation they warned us that the hikes could range from 1 hour to 8 hours depending on where the gorillas had gotten to. So we were prepared for a long day (except for me of course, who didn’t have any money for a packed lunch, and so was relying on the energy bars) and were pleasantly surprised when we ran into our gorillas (Rushanga group) an hour later. Between the mothers clutching their infants, the juveniles constantly wrestling with each other and the big patriarchal silverback watching over it all, the gorillas seemed intent on putting on a show for us. I managed to get over 1GB of video, though I later realized that the majority of the video wasn’t pointing directly at the gorillas as I was trying to both film and watch at the same time. We weren’t allowed to get any closer than 7 metres, but the gorillas had no such restrictions and would frequently get within 2 metres of us, which was funny when one of the trees they were climbing fell down on the eight of us tourists.
Once the hour was up, we were kicked out and it was a happy hike back as the gorillas seem to have put us in a pretty good mood. I’m surprised to say that it was completely worth the money. I think half of the exercise was to see whether such an expensive undertaking was worth it and I’m pleased to say it was.
We made it back to the park gates before 11am and through a series of lucky breaks I managed to make it back to Mbarara before nightfall. Which turned out to be bad because nobody was in Mbarara, they’d all gone to the camp (which I’d passed an hour earlier) and taken all of the food with them. I was not impressed. I was also very hungry and running out of energy bars.
After a rather unsatisfying dinner of plain pasta and salty cream of mushroom soup (I can’t wait to get back to cupboards with real food), and an equally unsatisfying breakfast, I caught local transport back to camp. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday looking at a small source that will hopefully be large enough to turn into half a project for the Ankole diocese, but I doubt I’ll be able to complete it before I leave on Saturday. Yesterday we investigated a number of small sources that we could use to feed the local villages that will be neglected by the current project and found a promising one that could be developed to serve over 1,000 people. But again, that won’t be my project.
And then yesterday we left camp, which for me would be the last time. I hadn’t spent much time with the construction crew, but had still developed a level of friendship with them and it was hard to think I would likely never see them again. Also said goodbye to the interns who were staying in the camp, but there’s a much greater chance that I’ll see them in Canada again, so that wasn’t so bad.
So now it’s Friday. I’m leaving for Kampala tomorrow and catching a flight to London on Sunday. I’ll have a three day layover there to visit my friend Dave and then I fly back into Vancouver next Wednesday. Less than six days away.
I had an incredibly time here, and I think that while I didn’t travel nearly as much as I did in South America, by staying in one place and developing relationships with the locals, the travel was far more rewarding than visiting a place for a week and simply seeing the sights. But then again, it’s making the leaving part that much harder.
On the other hand, five months is a long time to be away from home, and I’m really, really looking forward to getting back. Especially to getting re-acquainted with sushi, dependable power, fast internet and of course, Liz.
So this will be my final “Gill in Uganda” blog entry. I’ve been amazed by the number of people who have been following it and am continually grateful by everyone’s help and contribution to help me get here. Hope to see you all soon.
Mike
Mbarara, Uganda
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Community meetings
I feel like I’m currently in “wrap up” mode. I’ve put so much effort into the proposals in Kasese that I’m having a hard time coming up with the energy to put together a similar proposal here in Mbarara. Unfortunately that would be mean less water for the people here, so I’m trying to get motivated. But it’s not easy.
We spent last Friday meeting with the communities in Kasese to whom my projects would be supplying the water. The first meeting did not start off well, with us being 1.5 hrs late, but that paled to the community leaders who were themselves 2.5 hrs late. This was a crucial meeting, where the leaders were to indicate whether their constituents would accept the agreement to provide the manual labor for the construction in return for piped water to their communities. So the fact that they were late was not a good sign.
But once they’d all arrived, things began to get better. The leaders had indeed consulted the populations and returned with such comments like “the people in the hills and all over are singing with praise for water and for Acts!”
This was good until one of the leaders from one of the more water-stressed areas communicated some very effusive praise for both the GFS system and Acts, and how grateful they were that the GFS was coming to their community.
Only one problem, it wasn’t. And it wasn’t because it couldn’t, but rather a choice between the most efficient use of the resource. I could’ve designed the line to go to their community, but it was far more sparsely populated and then the route I choose. I stick by the decision, but still, it doesn’t make me feel warm and cuddly.
Other than that, the meetings went well with the communities promising lavish buildings around the tapstands and to run the operation like a sustainable business (which is what Acts is looking for, otherwise these systems tend to fail due to lack of operation and maintenance).
We spent Saturday with our boss Tim at a basket shop near Fort Portal. These baskets are pretty cool, apparently take up to 30hrs to make and sell $5-10 each. So basically the women making these baskets earn about $0.30/hr. And while that may seem like a lot (Im joking), let’s keep in mind that these women are likely also supporting their family. Tim spent an hour accumulating approximately 80% of her stock and then 20 minutes trying to convince her that he wanted to pay more for the baskets. He’s hoping to start selling these baskets in Canada and needs to be able to say he paid a fair price for them.
Sunday we returned to Mbarara and I was able to pick up my gorilla tracking permit, once again from a man in a side alley of Mbarara, but this time from his van. The permit looks official though the original name and nationality are crossed out and my name put in it’s place. So while I doubt this man would go to the length of forging a permit to steal my $500, I’m still slightly skeptical that I’ll see the gorillas. If everything does work out, I’ve promised I would post his name and number on this blog. I also can’t be sick that day or else I will either have to switch to another day or take a 50% refund. So I’m going to spend Thursday and Friday loading up on cold FX.
Monday was spent visiting a new district just north of Mbarara called Ibanda. The past week has been a little disheartening in that we’ve seen very little that was promising in the other districts. But in Idanda, the district water officer showed us a source, proposal and design to feed 20,000 people. Unfortunately, the project is estimated at $4,000,000CAD, which is a little higher than we’re used (we’re aiming for $500,000CAD. Still, we’d prefer to be faced with a project that’s too big rather than one that’s too small. We may just try to break it up into phases. Which means my last two weeks have turned from coasting into full throttle. For which I’m grateful.
I think.
We spent last Friday meeting with the communities in Kasese to whom my projects would be supplying the water. The first meeting did not start off well, with us being 1.5 hrs late, but that paled to the community leaders who were themselves 2.5 hrs late. This was a crucial meeting, where the leaders were to indicate whether their constituents would accept the agreement to provide the manual labor for the construction in return for piped water to their communities. So the fact that they were late was not a good sign.
But once they’d all arrived, things began to get better. The leaders had indeed consulted the populations and returned with such comments like “the people in the hills and all over are singing with praise for water and for Acts!”
This was good until one of the leaders from one of the more water-stressed areas communicated some very effusive praise for both the GFS system and Acts, and how grateful they were that the GFS was coming to their community.
Only one problem, it wasn’t. And it wasn’t because it couldn’t, but rather a choice between the most efficient use of the resource. I could’ve designed the line to go to their community, but it was far more sparsely populated and then the route I choose. I stick by the decision, but still, it doesn’t make me feel warm and cuddly.
Other than that, the meetings went well with the communities promising lavish buildings around the tapstands and to run the operation like a sustainable business (which is what Acts is looking for, otherwise these systems tend to fail due to lack of operation and maintenance).
We spent Saturday with our boss Tim at a basket shop near Fort Portal. These baskets are pretty cool, apparently take up to 30hrs to make and sell $5-10 each. So basically the women making these baskets earn about $0.30/hr. And while that may seem like a lot (Im joking), let’s keep in mind that these women are likely also supporting their family. Tim spent an hour accumulating approximately 80% of her stock and then 20 minutes trying to convince her that he wanted to pay more for the baskets. He’s hoping to start selling these baskets in Canada and needs to be able to say he paid a fair price for them.
Sunday we returned to Mbarara and I was able to pick up my gorilla tracking permit, once again from a man in a side alley of Mbarara, but this time from his van. The permit looks official though the original name and nationality are crossed out and my name put in it’s place. So while I doubt this man would go to the length of forging a permit to steal my $500, I’m still slightly skeptical that I’ll see the gorillas. If everything does work out, I’ve promised I would post his name and number on this blog. I also can’t be sick that day or else I will either have to switch to another day or take a 50% refund. So I’m going to spend Thursday and Friday loading up on cold FX.
Monday was spent visiting a new district just north of Mbarara called Ibanda. The past week has been a little disheartening in that we’ve seen very little that was promising in the other districts. But in Idanda, the district water officer showed us a source, proposal and design to feed 20,000 people. Unfortunately, the project is estimated at $4,000,000CAD, which is a little higher than we’re used (we’re aiming for $500,000CAD. Still, we’d prefer to be faced with a project that’s too big rather than one that’s too small. We may just try to break it up into phases. Which means my last two weeks have turned from coasting into full throttle. For which I’m grateful.
I think.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Back in Mbarara
After a rather epic trip from Arusha to Mbarara, I arrived back in Mbarara on Monday afternoon. The trip started once Liz left Stonetown on December 31st. We’d arrived in Stonetown the previous afternoon and spent our first hour in that beautiful city going to three separate banks trying to find an ATM that was in service so we could pay the cab driver. Once we checked into our beautiful hotel room we were able to wander about and take in the beautiful mazey (yes, it’s a word) streets reminiscent of the medinas of Fez and Marrakech. The Arabic influence was so different from what I’d experienced in Kenya and Uganda that it was funny to think we were still in Africa. Everyone was very friendly, offering to sell us shirts and art and offering to guide us around Stonetown (for a small fee of course). Enjoyed a most beautiful sunset from the restaurant on the roof of our hotel before we were kicked out to make way for the paying customers. Spent the next morning wandering the streets and watching Liz abandon all caution trying out as many different types of street foods as she could find before her flight back to civilization. I think she gained 5lbs in two hours (darling, if you happen to be reading this, please ignore that last).
Had a sad farewell at noon as Liz went to catch her plane (heard later that she spent 2hrs in 30C heat waiting for the plane to leave) and then headed off in search of the cheapest hotel room on Zanzibar. Two hours and a lot of walking later settled on a $15 room near the port with an AC unit that sounded like a freight train and a neighborhood that made Hell’s kitchen look boring (never actually been to hell’s kitchen, so I have no right to compare).
Celebrated New Year’s with a bunch of kiwi’s I’d met the previous evening and partied ‘till the wee hours of the morning (well, 1:30am, yes I realize I’m getting old). Managed to get 4.5 hrs of sleep before catching the 7am ferry ride from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam. I’d heard Dar was boring so caught the first bus I could that was bound for Moshi. Pulled into Moshi around 9pm at night, but was happy to report that after the first four boring hours, the scenery changed to the beautiful Usambara mountains (in my heart, I still consider the Rwenzoris to be coolest mountains I’ve seen in Africa, but that could be because I’d spent over two months on their foothills).
I wasn’t sure what to do in Moshi other than gaze appreciatively at Mount Kilimanjaro, so I decided to climb it. As I didn’t have the time or the money, I went for one of the day hikes up one of it’s flanks. The 4hr hike took me up to 3,000 metres and through a few different ecosystems of jungle and giant heather (and cost me $90). Pretty cool ecology and it made me wish I’d just taken the plunge and went for the full five day hike. But I didn’t have time, I had a date with gorillas.
Only I didn’t. Tim, my boss in Acts, called me as I was heading up the mountain and told me there’d been a grenade attack in Kigali near the genocide memorial and a second grenade had been thrown into a nearby nightclub. Despite neither Canada nor the UK changing their travel advisory, Acts didn’t want me to go to Rwanda. This was depressing for two reasons. One, I wouldn’t be able to see the primates in the “best place to see Gorillas” and second, it seemed to be a sad state of affairs for Rwanda which had been a bastion of peace when I’d visited in September. But now I’m thankful I’d at least been able to spend some time in that country.
So in my depressed state I packed up and headed to Arusha for a change of scenery. A 1.5hr very cramped bus ride later and I arrived in the tourist fly trap of East Africa. My god, all the locals are trying to strike up a conversation to sell you something! Give me the tourist backwater of Uganda!
However, one of the bright sides of rampant tourism industry is the abundance of restaurants, so I was able to satisfy my noodle cravings at a Japanese restaurant for lunch and a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Headed to the airport the next morning on the chance I could fly back to Uganda. Couldn’t, but I did manage to get a seat on standby to Mwanza which is on the shores of Lake Victoria. From there, I managed to get on a little 21 seater to Bukoba, on the other side of Lake Victoria. On the plane, managed to befriend the headmaster of a school located halfway between Bukoba and the Ugandan border. So I weaseled my way into a free ride halfway to the border which was a delightful little town in the middle of nowhere where the infants flee at the sight of a Muzungu. So nice to be back in the stixs. Next morning managed to get into a minibus/matatu (re: minivan), to the town of Kaisho. These matatus are about the same size as a modern Westphalia VW van, but with four rows in the back each of which seat three people for a total 18 people in each vehicle. Matatus are the main form of public transport in East Africa and I am happy to report that I was in one that managed to get 30 people and 5 children into it, a new personal best! I traveled for 2 hours with a five year old on my lap, which started out as cute, but rapidly turned to painful as my legs slowly went numb. That record was continued with my next form of transport which managed to get 11 adults and 2 kids into a Honda civic for the 2hr trip to the border. It was one of the lesser traveled border posts and so I walked into Uganda unchallenged and had track down the border guards to get stamped in. Took another 11 person/car trip from the border to Mbarara, stopping once to let the driver bribe a traffic cop to let us continue with 11 people in the car. Bribe cost; $3.
Have now been back at work for the past two days and right back into the roving swing of things. Acts is now pushing us hard to get a third project around Mbarara, but considering we’ve spent the first 3.5 months in Kasese, this seems slim. Still, we’ll give it our best. In the meantime I’ve managed to get a line on a free gorilla spot in Bwindi. The downside is that I’ll have to give $550 USD to a guy in a parked car and hope the receipt he gives me is legally enforceable. So I’ll either see the gorillas in a week’s time or have made a very large charitable contribution to Mbarara’s underworld.
Had a sad farewell at noon as Liz went to catch her plane (heard later that she spent 2hrs in 30C heat waiting for the plane to leave) and then headed off in search of the cheapest hotel room on Zanzibar. Two hours and a lot of walking later settled on a $15 room near the port with an AC unit that sounded like a freight train and a neighborhood that made Hell’s kitchen look boring (never actually been to hell’s kitchen, so I have no right to compare).
Celebrated New Year’s with a bunch of kiwi’s I’d met the previous evening and partied ‘till the wee hours of the morning (well, 1:30am, yes I realize I’m getting old). Managed to get 4.5 hrs of sleep before catching the 7am ferry ride from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam. I’d heard Dar was boring so caught the first bus I could that was bound for Moshi. Pulled into Moshi around 9pm at night, but was happy to report that after the first four boring hours, the scenery changed to the beautiful Usambara mountains (in my heart, I still consider the Rwenzoris to be coolest mountains I’ve seen in Africa, but that could be because I’d spent over two months on their foothills).
I wasn’t sure what to do in Moshi other than gaze appreciatively at Mount Kilimanjaro, so I decided to climb it. As I didn’t have the time or the money, I went for one of the day hikes up one of it’s flanks. The 4hr hike took me up to 3,000 metres and through a few different ecosystems of jungle and giant heather (and cost me $90). Pretty cool ecology and it made me wish I’d just taken the plunge and went for the full five day hike. But I didn’t have time, I had a date with gorillas.
Only I didn’t. Tim, my boss in Acts, called me as I was heading up the mountain and told me there’d been a grenade attack in Kigali near the genocide memorial and a second grenade had been thrown into a nearby nightclub. Despite neither Canada nor the UK changing their travel advisory, Acts didn’t want me to go to Rwanda. This was depressing for two reasons. One, I wouldn’t be able to see the primates in the “best place to see Gorillas” and second, it seemed to be a sad state of affairs for Rwanda which had been a bastion of peace when I’d visited in September. But now I’m thankful I’d at least been able to spend some time in that country.
So in my depressed state I packed up and headed to Arusha for a change of scenery. A 1.5hr very cramped bus ride later and I arrived in the tourist fly trap of East Africa. My god, all the locals are trying to strike up a conversation to sell you something! Give me the tourist backwater of Uganda!
However, one of the bright sides of rampant tourism industry is the abundance of restaurants, so I was able to satisfy my noodle cravings at a Japanese restaurant for lunch and a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Headed to the airport the next morning on the chance I could fly back to Uganda. Couldn’t, but I did manage to get a seat on standby to Mwanza which is on the shores of Lake Victoria. From there, I managed to get on a little 21 seater to Bukoba, on the other side of Lake Victoria. On the plane, managed to befriend the headmaster of a school located halfway between Bukoba and the Ugandan border. So I weaseled my way into a free ride halfway to the border which was a delightful little town in the middle of nowhere where the infants flee at the sight of a Muzungu. So nice to be back in the stixs. Next morning managed to get into a minibus/matatu (re: minivan), to the town of Kaisho. These matatus are about the same size as a modern Westphalia VW van, but with four rows in the back each of which seat three people for a total 18 people in each vehicle. Matatus are the main form of public transport in East Africa and I am happy to report that I was in one that managed to get 30 people and 5 children into it, a new personal best! I traveled for 2 hours with a five year old on my lap, which started out as cute, but rapidly turned to painful as my legs slowly went numb. That record was continued with my next form of transport which managed to get 11 adults and 2 kids into a Honda civic for the 2hr trip to the border. It was one of the lesser traveled border posts and so I walked into Uganda unchallenged and had track down the border guards to get stamped in. Took another 11 person/car trip from the border to Mbarara, stopping once to let the driver bribe a traffic cop to let us continue with 11 people in the car. Bribe cost; $3.
Have now been back at work for the past two days and right back into the roving swing of things. Acts is now pushing us hard to get a third project around Mbarara, but considering we’ve spent the first 3.5 months in Kasese, this seems slim. Still, we’ll give it our best. In the meantime I’ve managed to get a line on a free gorilla spot in Bwindi. The downside is that I’ll have to give $550 USD to a guy in a parked car and hope the receipt he gives me is legally enforceable. So I’ll either see the gorillas in a week’s time or have made a very large charitable contribution to Mbarara’s underworld.
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