7am Monday 11/26

2 days with intermittent power and sketchy Wi-Fi. Even as a write this, I am unable to connect to my blog sit, so I will cut, paste and send when I get the chance. Saturday, as you may remember, we were to be on the road by 10am. Right on schedule, we got on the road… at 11:30am. Everyone else was going somewhere also, so it took a little over an hour just to get out of Kampala. As we drove west, toward Bwindi, the landscape became greener, more tropical, and less flat with beautiful rolling hills covered with tea. About 4 hours into our drive, the following conversation occurred:

Picho: Did you see the Zebra?

Me: WHAT?!? WHERE?!?

Picho: Grazing with the goats…do you want a picture?

Me: WHAT…OF COURSE I WANT A PICTURE!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? You KNOW I want a picture!

Picho: (Laughing…a lot.) Oh, Okay.

He then pulled over and backed up to where I could photograph a small herd of Zebra, trying to blend in with a herd of cattle and goats. Picho loves to yank my chain. Cattle are allowed to graze on protected Park land, so the zebra just hang out with herd, obtain a little more safety in numbers from predators, and do their zebra thing! Due to our late start and a good amount of road construction along the way, we entered the Queen Elizabeth National Park a bit later than planned. We were able to see an elephant off in the distance, baboons and antelope, before it was too dark to see. Once we arrived in the tiny town of Kiheii, we found our hotel/guest house had not saved rooms for us but we were luckily able to find another place nearby that would do for the evening.

Sunday morning, we got up for breakfast, packed up the van and went back to the other Hotel to inquire about our rooms. We were told that 2 rooms should be open for us, but not until later, so we drove back into the Park. You can sign up with a Safari Tour, and be driven around by tour guides, or you can pay the Park fees and an additional fee for a Game Park Warden to drive around with you, which is what we chose to do. Scholar was our guide and she was fantastic. She was been working for the Park for 8 years and is a living encyclopedia of African wildlife knowledge. We spent the next 4+ hours driving all over one end of the park, finding large herds of antelope and other hoof stock, a myriad of birds, and she took us down to a river that separated the Park from Virunga National Park, in Congo. There we saw two family groups of Hippos! By 1pm it was hot and quiet in the Park. We decided to pay an additional fee ($20) to return around 3pm for an evening tour with Scholar, we drove back into town, checked into our hotel, had some lunch and had a rest, before returning to the park. We picked up Scholar and headed out into the park again. Our goal, of course, was to find some lions. I’m sorry to say we did not find them, nor did anyone else in our end of the Park, but we found a small group of elephants blocking our road! I had been spending the entire drive standing up through the sunroof of the van, while Scholar sat in the front with Picho. If I saw something interesting, I would tell Picho to stop and I would look through my 600mm lens, like a look out. Scholar had taught us to look up into the expansive acacia and fig trees, for leopards, lions and monkeys, and to spot irregularities on the horizon or in the deep grass. I had seen a shadowing “mass” under a group of trees and was able to identify a group of Savannah elephants. As we drove closer, we could see that they were standing slightly off the road of where we needed to pass. Scholar had Picho turn the van around and back up the road, for a quick escape, if needed. We slowly backed up the road, came around a large group of bushes, and the matriarch turned towards us and started flapping her immense ears and she stared right at us. “WHOA!” we all said in unison. ” Time to go, Picho!” and we drove up the road, leaving her in peace, giddy with the experience. I told Scholar “ I’m sure that’s not the first woman that Picho has made angry.” Laughter filled the car and we continued our tour. We continued through the park until a little after 7pm, enjoying the sound of the birds and the migration of the hoof stock to higher, safer ground for the evening. Throughout the day, I was continually saying to myself “I’m in Uganda. On a safari. Unbelievable!” The whole experience was surreal. My sister and I had read “The Flame trees of Thika” as young girls and we had talked about going to Africa our whole lives. And here I was. A dream come true.

Picho and I returned to town, had a late dinner, and I settled in my room and began sorting through the hundreds of photos I had taken. I’m still sorting, but I will post a few here. 😊

7am Tuesday 11/27

Yesterday, we drove a little more than an hour up the hill into a small village, to Nyakatare Clinic. I spent the day training and assessing Moses, a Nurse Sonographer that had received some of his training from the Bwindi Nursing School, continued training from ITWA and daily assistance from Caroline, another Sonographer at the Clinic. Moses was intelligent, enthusiastic, and full of humor. The Clinic staff were incredibly warm and welcoming, bringing us tea, a snack of fresh pineapple and making us a delicious lunch. Moses and I saw 13 Obstetric patients and an additional 5 patients for Gynecology or Abdomen. It was after 7pm by the time Picho and I headed down the hill. Too tired for dinner, I had a protein bar, sorted through more Park photos, and finally drifted off to sleep. This morning, we will drive a short distance to another clinic, for assessment and training, then we will leave for Bwindi, where I will stay for the remainder of my trip. It’s hard to believe my adventure is coming to an end!

Oxox MB