March 18, 2010      Day166-Bwesumbu

The camp is flooded with muzungus now.  It's march and I am at the final stretch of my 6 months, so it’s very nice to have John Pattison, Emily, and Alex, the people who I started my 6 months with, all back to camp even only for a couple days.  Also with the second-coming engineer John Harvey, and a first-time-Africa couple Steve and Britney, along with the regulars, Bern, Nancy, Gary, and me.  First time in camp when I actually needed to line up to go to the toilet, along the pipe outside the shower haha.  My original flight was April 5^th, but I’ve decided to stay in camp for 2 more weeks so I can coordinate my flight to London with Em tao coming J  As my days here are winding down, I am beginning to miss everyone and everything here, so dearly too.

Random Notes and Thoughts:

-this is Bern and Nancy’s last week in Bwesumbu camp.  Their flight back to Canada is on the 31^st, changed from 28^th because of British Airway’s preannounced strike.  Bern, Nancy, Emily, Alex, Gary and I, hopefully John will all be going to Bushara Island for a debriefing hosted by ACTS.  March’s off coincides with Easter and with the Bushara three days trip, I will be off for two and a half weeks, from March 21^st-April 6^th!  Gary’s dad is coming next week so he will join us for our Nile rafting + chimpanzee sanctuary for the weekend of the off.  I’ll spend Easter holiday in Canada House I guess to save some money not traveling and to pack stuff up pretty much.  It’s an eventful March when everything seems to go so quickly.  This week really feels like the end as Gary, Bern, and I are all handing things over to the new engineers and we are all trying to wrap things up, but I am actually coming back after the off.  It’s a very mixed and weird feeling…Argh…

-went to the market again since November I believe.  It’s one of the thing that I really wanted to do but never had a chance to.  Finally with all the soon-to-be-gone muzungus John Pattison, Gary, and I, with newcomer John Harvey all hyped to go since it’s pretty much our last Thursday (market only on Thursdays) together, decided to skip work (not that there’s that much work for them to do anyway, but for me I want to go out with the construction crew) and hike 5km to the middle of nowhere.  Being the only three white skins and Asian in a market of near 1000 Africans, the attention we got was intense.  We all bought and put on the same UGANDA shirt, in different colors, which we all wanted since Week 1 since so many people own that shirt and you can’t live a day here without seeing one.  We had a great sit-down snack with warm sodas and banana cakes by the river and attracted 30 thousand kids.  I taught a kid to take a picture with my camera and for an African child who hasn’t touched any technology other than maybe a shovel and a hoe, he did managed some decent photos after taking 80 shots and ran my card full.  Caught a boda to go back to Bwesumbu just seconds before the storm arrived and rain started pouring.  Somehow this little visit to the market is one of my best memories in Uganda…

-I am missing my Ugandan friends already…These past couple weeks, the crew members I am close with have been talking a lot to me.  They chose to sit and talk with me in the back of the pickup truck driving along the rocky roads instead of the more comfortable backseats.  One moment I was really touched almost to the point of tears when Hannington and Asaph so subtly said they will miss me after I made a joke that made them laugh so hard.  Gordon asked me if I could stay until July, when the project is supposed to finish.  Edward and Laben always grab me to the side and chat with me about here and there.  And then there’re Dominic, Annet, Richard, Edward2…It’s really different from Kenny, Ricky, or Brian going to HK, or Charles going to San Fran, or even not seeing Em tao for 6 months, these people I lived with for half a year I will never see them again, and I cannot simply add them on facebook and get their updates once in a while…I am actually losing sleep almost every night now thinking about the fact that I’ll not be sleeping on this bed under mosquito net in this tent after a few weeks.  Pictures, and memories, are all I’ve got.

-I’ll treat the construction team at a pork joint when I get back from my off J  Asaph and Hannington have been talking about it so long with me haha.  Sorry for the ones who don’t eat pork, Israel, Edward…I will buy you guys chicken or something.  I forgot how we’ve decided on pork but this is the theme.  Instead of the usual of buying a goat and wasting them by making goat stews, I’ll try to convince Richard to let us drive an ACTS truck or two, down to near Fort Portal so we can have a nice meal of only pork and sodas.  Bern would not be here so I’ll call the shots in camp hahaha

-had probably our last engineers + construction meeting.  The old engineers, Bern, Gary, and I, the construction heads, Richard, Edward, and Laben, and the newly arrived engineers, John Harvey, and Steve.  We want to summarize our thoughts on the completed ferro-cement tanks and deliver Gary’s new “technical” design of the tanks to the construction managers as well as giving them construction methods/procedures and suggestions on quality control, especially with plastering.  We’ve been building these ferro-cement tanks, which ACTS haven’t built previously, at the Soso Health Center and the Kabatunda Catholic Church for the past month and we are all learning on the fly about these tanks.  The meeting started out really technical and serious, especially with the rough sound of strong rain and wind outside the office.  The meeting was a little depressing for me, because it represents an end to our engineering duty for the project, as we basically summarized what we’ve done and learned, and what we should do afterward, and everyone in the room knows that we are handing the responsibility over as we are telling them everything we know and after this week, we’ll no longer be here.  I’ll come back for two weeks, but my mindset has really changed after this meeting.  I really want to see the end of the project.  I’ve been here since Day1…

-I cut my hair today again.  I wanted to leave it long enough to make “ebitutu”, some kind of African cornrolls I think haha.  Rachel and Rose said my hair is still too nice and soft for it.  I can’t stand it any longer especially under the 40 degrees sun.  I think I did really well this time, overall, but my left side is screwed, showing baldness because I cut a big chunk out by accident.  I also cut it too short…

Pictures: 1^st: My girl at Soso health center :) 2^nd: Kabatunda Catholic Church, children helping us move bricks.  3^rd:  Busibi SDA church, students carrying firewood to make lunches.  4^th: Riding with my friends on the back of pickup.  5^th: Muzungus hiking to the market in the middle of nowhere.  6^th: Muzungus snacking by the river, one of the many, many pictures taken by kid.

Tomorrow: Start packing for my 2 and a half week off!  Bushara Island, then Chimps + Nile rafting, then back to Canada House for a week to chill…I have to buy a lot of stuff this off, souvenirs + anything I planned to bring back to Canada before I go.

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March 8-13, 2010   Day156-161-Bwesumbu Camp Mini Olympic Week

Mini Olympics!  Hosted by Nancy and Bern.  The Olympics consist of a mile marathon, a balloon stomping competition, a connect 4 tournament, a water balloon throwing contest, a jerry-can race, and the annually most anticipated Cards tournament.  It was a great way to spend a International Women’s Day, by not doing anything women related.  Haha

Mile Marathon:

-I didn’t know it would only be a mile, or else I would have participated.  Nancy said Bern drove uphill for a good 10-20 minutes to decide on the route so I was thinking I ain’t gonna spend my day-off morning running for an hour…

-Dominic ended up winning it with a time of just over 8 minutes, while William came in second with a time of a little bit under 9, and DJ was third with a time of a little bit over 9…Thanks Nancy for timing the race with a watch that doesn’t show seconds…

Balloon Stomp:

-the event I really wanted to win, balloon tied to one of your ankle, and 15 people trying to stomp on others’ balloons and last man standing wins.  I wanted the competition to be in the garage but Nancy for some reason had it on a small sloping grass section in camp.  Many balloons, African quality, popped on the dry grass before people took a step haha.

-I came third, basically the entire way standing and hopping on one foot dodging bumps and kicks.  Damn Dominic and Asaph ganged up on me at the end.  They are two of my closest Ugandan friends.

Jerry-can Race:

-epic event, produced the most keeper pics.  Race starts from the camp gate to the next door Bwesumbu Church of Uganda and back, probably 80m or so.

-two full 20L jerry-cans are heavy man…I came second in a tough heat with Richard, a past marathon runner.  Dropped one of my jerry-can when it bumped Richard’s at the very beginning.  Picked it up and still came second so I guess I did good.  I looked so exhausted running at the end hahah, crazy how women and children here carry them couple miles everyday up and down hills to fetch water.

Connect Four Tournament:

-the most winnable event, for muzungus at least hahah, well, I won it.  Beating out Katto, John Paul, Gary, and then Edward in the final.  Two muzungus knocked out by me, both engineers too…

-Gary still claims he LOST it, and I never WON it.  He is only lying to himself if he can’t accept this obvious fact that I am better…

CARDS Tournament:

-most anticipated tournament for the Ugandans.  And to me too especially I know how crazy they get when they play this game.  All the yelling, dancing, mocking, and laughing after every win in a match is unparalleled by anything they do.  The Ugandan/African way of slapping the card so hard on the pile adds so much character to the game.  This game should be an East African “gwok shui”, just like mahjong should be China’s.  Cards is the best 2-people card game I know, by far.

-won two matches and reached the quarter-finals, along with D.J., Asaph, Dominic, Richard, Eldad, Gordon, and Gary.  I lost to Dominic 12-9 while Gordon dominated Gary to a 12-5 win, which Gary again claimed to be unlucky or should-not-have-been…The Ugandans are so experienced and they play so differently than we do.  Too bad I ain’t gonna get a chance to play when I go back to Canada.

-tournament concluded after three nights of competition with Asaph winning in an epic battle against “The Master” Richard, last year’s champion.  The room was so heated during the 45 minute long match but Asaph had the better cards with all his aces and deuces on this one particular night.  The trophy last year was made with pipe fittings, while this year’s is the boring Canadian custom made ones.  I so want to take the pipe fitting trophy home…

Pictures + Popcorn + Prizes Night:

-made a slideshow of pictures I’ve taken for the past 5+ months of the crew, and then had a gathering after fellowship to show it to the 20+ crew on a laptop monitor.  They enjoyed it so dearly. 

-I was touched by my own pictures during the showing especially seeing the crew’s reactions, remembering all the moments, thinking about how I am leaving soon and I will probably never see these people I’ve lived with for the past 6 months again.

-played the game “First shall be last, last will be first” (I don’t really know the name) to have the crew choose prizes, which mostly were bought by Nancy and Bern in the dollar store.  Prizes include bracelets, combination locks, sewing kit, shoe polish, key hangers, socks, slippers, screwdrivers, calculators, water bottles, measuring tape, etc…They might sound crappy but for the Ugandans who have basically zero savings, they really mean a lot.

It was a fantastic week and a great second-last week for Nancy and Bern before they head back to Canada.  Everything is coming to an end.

Pictures: 1^st: Start of the marathon.  These guys’ running gears are great haha.  2^nd: Eventual connect 4 champion, something to be proud of?  Probably not.  3^rd: Balloon stomp, moments after Dominic and Asaph finished me off.  4^th: Jerry-can race…Exhausted running with those 20L cans.  5^th: Michael crawling through the pipes we set up for the obstacle course that were never used.  6^th: Heated Cards match between Gordon and Richard.

Tomorrow: More working out with the crew on the rainwater tanks!  Crazy how there’s zero rain for the past four straight days knowing it’s rainy season.  It has been clear sky and the last time I checked, it has been 40+ Celsius and I finally got a burn on my shoulder since November, from working couple mid-days with my shirt off.  I am peeling off skins right now, hopefully no skin cancer.  I am at the peak of my darkness…

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February 25-28, 2010             Day145-148-Mt.Sabinyo

Our plan is to go to the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park at the most southern part of Uganda and hike one of the three isolated freestanding inactive volcanoes, Mt. Sabinyo, meaning Old Man’s Tooth.  There are a total of eight volcanoes, two active, six inactive, straddling the borders of Uganda. Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  Mt.Sabinyo is the second tallest among the three within Uganda border and what separates Sabinyo (3,669m) from Mt.Muhavura (4,127m) and Mt.Gahinga (3,475m) is that Sabinyo stands on the junction of all three national borders, whereas the other two have boring old beautiful crater lakes and swamps.  Sabinyo also offers three different peaks, instead of a straight up cone, and its climb requires more technical skill with ladders leading up to the peaks.

Random Notes and Thoughts:

-at the park office at the nearest town Kisoro, Mt.Sabinyo: Distance 7km, Elevation Gain 1300m, and Time 5hrs (Up).

-had a super expensive dinner at 65000 USH, or $35 CDN.  The bill came at 130,000 USH, so many digits.  The most expensive meal I’ve had in Uganda.  I regret it a little bit since the food was not exceptional as the price indicates.

-got very lucky with the weather.  It’s rainy season in Uganda and it has been pouring for 2 straight days at the park.  We were preparing for the worst, misty, rainy, super wet 8 hour hike up and down Sabinyo.  The day cleared from 6am to 5pm.  Clear sky at the peaks J

-I haven’t done much hiking at all but this has to be the most epic hike ever for me.  I don’t think I will do anything more intense than this.  Numerous occasions I questioned myself rather I could finish it, especially after I’d reached the second peak and looking up to the tallest peak some 300m up and the wooden ladders leading up to it.  It’s one thing to hike the first 1000m (elevation gain) on steep bushy, muddy trails, it’s another to climb the remaining 300m on ladders built with tree branches and rustic African nails.  Going up was slow and hectic, going down was even slower and dangerous.  I didn’t think I could’ve made it coming down from the 2^nd peak to the 1^st, especially when it’s my turn to take the backpack, but I literally crawled there…

-very clear sky at the final peak, saw a rainbow going full circle around the sun.  I guess it’s a “raincle”, instead of a bow.  Now I look at the picture, it’s actually Goku’s spirit bomb.

-oversee Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC.  The mystic Republic of Congo, where ACTS won’t let us enter because of its corrupted government and ongoing civil war, is covered with mist.  Picture perfect shot of Congo.

-finished the 8 hours hike in 7 or so hours.  4 going up, and 2-3 coming down.  It was very rewarding and worth every little bits of soreness I have on my shoulders, my back, my arms, my knees…

-typical African hotel we stayed in, a shower head that gives out shocks and has a range of 2m diameter, a television that has no antenna, and a fridge that has no power.  Drinks at the bar were warm, other than some sodas.

-John Pattison, another previous volunteer who came back, visited an environment conference hosted in South Africa, and bought me a very very nice “vuvuzela”, the trumpet Africans blow during football matches in stadiums.  They are called the sound of Africa and it will be overwhelming the World Cup in June.  This is awesome, for $30 US.  I love it, but I have to learn how to blow it though haha.

-desperate and eager to watch the Canada vs United States men’s hockey final, the only winter games action we had, back in Canada House.  Gary and I, the only two people watching live Winter Olympics action in the entire Africa continent?  Considered going to Tim’s house at 11:30 at night and use his broadband internet, but the last time Tim streamed a football match, it cost him $150 US.  Grabbed the only two mobile modems available, streamed the game on two laptops, one for video, one for audio.  The video failed miserably, but the audio was enough to keep us biting our nails and standing on our toes when Crosby missed the breakaway and US equalized with 24 seconds left.  It was a good night.

Pictures: 1^st: At Mgahinga Gorilla N.P. office, showing all three volcanoes on the Ugandan border and their characteristics.  2^nd: Beginning of the hike, Gary, guide, and elephant footprints.  3^rd: At the Old Man’s Beard.  4^th: 2^nd Peak!  5^th: Goku’s spirit bomb.  6^th: 3^rd and final peak!  Looking back at Uganda.  7^th: Climbing down on ladders.

Tomorrow: Back to Bwesumbu for my final month.  Debriefing takes place in the middle of March, so I get about two weeks at camp…Wow…came a long way to be where I am now.          

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February 23, 2010  Day143

The past few weeks I’ve been noticing some of the things different about me.  So, I present you with “I know I have been in Africa for too long when…”

-the mountain dew commercial on the radio that shouts “WHEN I SAY MOUNTAIN YOU SAY DEW, MOUNTAIN DEW, MOUNTAIN DEW!” for 30 seconds straight doesn’t bother me anymore.

-the mixing of mortar remains me of a delicious lava cake.

-flies pausing on my arms and legs don’t annoy me anymore and I’ll just let them sit there and observe them.

-my taste buds actually enjoyed a meal of matoke (banana pastes) and posho (millet or cassava paste) with G-nut sauce and cabbage.  I am becoming, vegetarian?!

-someone call my name, I answer “yes please?”

-I am used to waking up middle of the night, chasing rats out of the tent.

-I am used to waking up middle of the night, unzipping the tent, stumbling down the hill half asleep for two minutes, just to take a piss and stumble my way back to my bed under mosquito net.  Oh wait, that was two months ago, now I just take a piss off my porch into the dark.

-I start to complain about a 3000 USH, or $1.50 CDN 500mL beer being too expensive because I can get it for 2000 somewhere else, even though it’s warm.

-I start saying “uh ah” too much when I try to say “no”.

-I have not watched the movie that beat “Titanic” as the all time best box office movie.  For the matter of fact, I remembered viewing the preview before I left but barely remembered anything else.

-I see pictures of white people on facebook and I stare at them the way African kids here stare at me.

-I was 3 days late on the news that my franchise player Dwayne Wade on my fantasy basketball team was injured.

-a picture of Granville Street in Vancouver raised the thought “Oh, people walk on sidewalks” in my mind.

-I’ve bought most of my souvenirs for my friends already :)

-I’ve seen zero Olympic game actions, other than Em’s pics…

Pictures: 1^st: African way to the market.  2^nd: Outside of Soso health center.  3^rd: Crew hanging out at the gate looking out the valleys of Bwesumbu on a foggy evening.  4^th: My lava cake.  5^th: Kids at the health center.

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February 8, 2010    Day128

Random Notes and Thoughts:

-received an invitation, a handwritten note transferred through many hands to get to us, to have the ACTS team play a friendly football match against Kamwani Express, a football club from our nearby trading center.  The note has weird handwriting and bad grammar.  When I first read it, “a friendly match” was “africenly match”, so it’s like Africanly match and I was puzzled for a while.

-the match was a big deal to the locals, and to me to some extent hahah.  I haven’t played a match that mattered for a long time.  The team consisted of Emily, Gary, me (3 muzungus), Dominic, Edmon, (actual ACTS team), and a couple ACTS volunteers.  We don’t have 11 players so we made up the rest of the team with locals we played with before.  We had a practice match, and then a meeting, and the only point came across was to have ACTS buy food and snacks for them before and after the game.

-WE WON 3-1!  Thanks largely to our defense.  Man, it’s easy to handle an unorganized offence.  Nice to know that when I care I can still play.

-Gary had a driving accident.  He hit Johnson’s truck on my side of the door driving up the rough road to the Busibi reservoir site after rain.  He said he thought he can make it, from my angle, which is a way better angle, he was not even close.  His driving skill, or attitude I should say, is not that much better than the Ugandan drivers…

-we’ve flagged the Soso Line up to the Busibi reservoirs, 4km of walking and tying bright red surveying tape along trees.  I don’t know why we chose three rainy days to do it on because we were slipping and sliding off slopes when we were doing it.  They better start digging the trenches immediately.  Actually they have to because we cannot build the reservoirs at Busibi without water coming from the source.

-the sediment tank for the Soso Line is finished, except for the roof.  We need to complete the construction of the catchment to get water to the tank.

-construction of ferrocement rainwater harvesting tank has began.  For your information, all our tanks were built with bricks and concrete before this one.  This one will be mainly welded wire mesh, chicken wire, and mortar.  It’s supposed to be much cheaper and faster to construct.  Nice to test or practice our techniques with a tank that will never fill. 

-Emily is leaving to Rubingo, where she will have no power and no internet while she tries to finish an impact survey for ACTS.  I am actually pretty sad about her leaving because she plays soccer with me most of the days after work and now I doubt I will go down too often to play with the locals by myself.  It’s weird and uncomfortable to have Africans following you and talking a language you don’t understand about you all the way.

Pictures: No football match pictures, still have to get them from Emily’s and Gary’s cameras.  1^st: Sediment tank construction for Soso-Line, me without the luxury of looking at a mirror in the morning, laying bricks with my fantastic hairstyle.  2^nd: Crew lifting the WWM cage for ferro-cement tank.  3^rd: Report to camp for lunch after morning, you can see Gary’s damages to the truck.  4^th: The kid who saw me and ran the way outta there at the Soso Health Center.  5^th: Michael, dressing all nice on Sunday.  I thought he was going to church, but he was actually going to his Grandma’s funeral.  I love this kid.

Tomorrow: Going through slow days of a short month…

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January 28-February 1, 2010                 Day116-120-Bushara Island

The first off where Gary and I had no planning for.  Ended up Emily and her friend Zilla are heading to Bushara Island for the weekend to celebrate their birthdays and we just hopped on the ride.  Bushara Island is actually an eco-friendly area developed by ACTS located in Lake Bunyonyi, and as an ACTS engineer, we almost got near free accommodation and discounted meals.  It was a relaxing off where I laid back and enjoyed the more than decent food and beautiful surroundings of the lake.

Random Notes and Thoughts:

-relaxed on the deck facing the island of Bwama for a good half day tanning my already Vietnamese-tanned body.  Tried to swim 20 feet to the floating deck without any assistance.  Swimming is not my forte, so I failed miserably.

-got on the rope swing twice and swung myself some 15 feet in the air and then dropped into the lake.  Thanks for Zila and her floating mat, I survived.  It was probably not as scary as my 10m jump into the river in our 2007 Whistler rafting trip, but for a person who doesn’t know how to swim, it’s something to be remembered of.

-wood dugout canoed around the island near sunset.  Also canoed to the tiny but locally-famous Akampene Island, Island of Punishment.  The island is traditionally the place where unmarried pregnant girls get exiled and face one of two fates, fetched by any men who didn’t own sufficient cows as their bride price and were willing to have the disgraced girl as his wife, or starve to death.

-also played volleyball and badminton on a wrecked net that Gary and I fixed.  Overall, Bushara Island is a fantastic and cheap way to spend a weekend on.  It cost only 70,000 UGH, or 35 bucks for a weekend.  We will very likely come back during the end of our time for our debriefing.

-the first part of souvenirs I got for you guys has arrived…

Pictures: 1^st: Lake Bunyonyi.  2^nd: Floating deck I failed to swim to... 3^rd: ROPE SWING!  4^th: Michael playing with my Valentine’s Day postcard for Em tao.  I think he actually sneezed on it hahah.

Tomorrow: Shop at Mbarara and stock up on supplies before the world is over.

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January 18-24, 2010               Day106-112

January has mostly been quiet and uneventful, until these past few days where too much is happening and I am a bit startled by all the sudden changes.

-Bern, our head engineer, and Richard, camp and construction head, are away from camp to serve David, ACTS director who visits every year, and a representative from CIDA, Canadian International Development Agency.

-Gary, who has been sick all week, is diagnosed with malaria.  Now he is gone to Mbarara to get treated.  For the entire week and a half, it has been only me supervising construction and making minor engineering decisions.  Everything is going smoothly until…

-Bern and Richard got back, along with John Paul, a volunteered engineer experienced in water, drainage, and sewage systems.  He has been giving very logical and feasible suggestions to our pipeline that would make the design more economical and beneficial to the locals.

-his arrival coincided with our realization that our reservoirs have been oversized.  We needed only one tank at our current site instead of two.  One less tank meant less material, less money, and suddenly the project is ahead of schedule by a whole month.  It all sounds good other than the fact that the locals have done a month of excavation for nothing, and even though we saved money, it’s a major mistake in engineering in our part.  Bern is blaming himself for realizing it so late, while I felt that it is mainly my fault for trusting the computer too much and not trying to explore the logic behind it.  Maybe it’s just me, but I felt the pressure all on me, especially with Gary in town.

-with expert advices from John Paul, we are now making changes to our pipeline design and trying to make improvement to our future projects as well.  Personally I am trying to learn as much as possible from John as well as trying to make up for the miscalculation, and make myself useful.  Nothing’s better than learning and growing through mistakes.

Random Notes and Thoughts:

-football has been my best friend in the new year.  I have been playing almost 4 times a week after work with the locals for the past three weeks.  Life is good again beside all the stupid offside calls and stumbles through the unlevel ground and knee-long grass.

-time flies, my fourth monthly off is this week.  2 more months to go :)  Still to decide where to go this month.

Pictures: 1^st: No truck at 5, walk back to camp with the crew with all our “advance” construction equipments.  2^nd: Something Charles caught for me and the muzungus to play with.  3^rd: Moving materials African style.  4^th: Oversized reservoir under construction.  5^th: Kids playing with their new toys, pipe fittings.

Tomorrow: More design work to do on the pipeline.  Better start the day right with a good breakfast.  David coming to camp as well, got to shave and look good for the director hahah

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December 23-26, 2009           Day80-83

Tanzania Safari to Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro Crater:

-consisted of Gary and I, two individual Germans, Sandra and Daniel, a Japanese, Hirosuki, our guide Jonas, and our cook Victor, all cramped in a beaten to the ground welfare safari Toyota defender.  I am sure that they arranged us 5 young adults, aged 23-33, together in this vehicle on purpose because the oldies would definitely be upset and complain about this piece of crap, but all we youngsters simply laughed through and “experienced” the rough ride.

-numerous times we saw fancy safari vehicles ran pass us on the highways, while our antique spun on the dirt roads,  stalled and rowed down steep hills, windows and roof dripped when it rained, door flew open on a sharp turn, cracked windshield fogged up with the fan not working, the brakes squeaked and scared away road-side wildlife when we tried to stop, and literally ran off the road when it failed to pass a bus and almost, ALMOST, tipped over with one side of the wheels rolled over a large rock with the roof open and me standing on my seat.  Nonetheless, it was our truck, and nothing happened at the end other than the safari being a little bit more adventurous than what was expected.

-the group we travelled with was fantastic.  They all travelled by themselves and Hiro has been travelling for 6 months all the way from Japan.  His 36 paged passport is full and he is on his last page with the rest filled with visa stickers and stamps,  Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, India, numerous Middle East countries name I can’t spell, U.A.E, Kenya, and now he is at his last stop at Tanzania because he has no more space on his passport and his bank account is running low.  He is 23…

 Lake Manyara:

-I now call it the park of elephants.  We saw loads of elephants, and they came in all different ways too.  We saw them by themselves breaking down trees, eating branches and leaves.  We saw them in sparing herds by the roadside.  We saw them in a family, two adults on each end protecting the two babies in the middle.  We saw them in big herds crossing the road right in front of our safari vehicle.  They are very gorgeous animals.

-Lake Manyara was really a B-level park compared to all the other great parks in Tanzania but it actually has a lot to offer.  The park is small, comparatively but has a diverse landscape including plains, forests, small rivers, swamps, and the lake.  We saw plenty of birds, monkeys, baboons, elephants, giraffes, hippos, antelopes, zebras, and a lot more.  We were hoping to see tree-climbing lions as they were mentioned in the East Africa Lonely Planet we got but we failed.  It was a great park, and because it’s small, you can actually get really close to the wild animals.

The Serengeti:

-the main attraction of the entire trip to Tanzania was that we want to see the Serengeti, one of the very top parks on the planet.  Serengeti, means “plain of endless space”, and the name cannot be more fitting.  It is known for its animal migration every year when the wild animals migrate from Kenya/Northern Tanzania to Southern Tanzania through the Serengeti between the dry and wet seasons.  The animals come in unbelievable numbers.  December, is one of the better months to visit, as it’s the period of the large-scale migration (also medium and small obviously, at different times).

-we saw tens of thousands of zebras and wildebeests.  I am sure I now have seen more zebras and wildebeests than I have seen cats and dogs my entire life.  The images of them on this endless field of grass were eye-opening.  They jumped and sprinted cross the road in front of our safari vehicle almost one by one.  They ate and played around in bundles and travelled in herds. 

-this is what Serengeti has to offer, all you can see animals on a great plain going through their natural cycle of life.  We saw lions regularly laying couple hundred meters away from herds.  We did not see any hunts though, that’s disappointing.  Our guide Jonas was quite experienced and we did stop our drive and witnessed a few near-hunts.  It was really exciting to see the lions conceal themselves in the long grass and wait upon the herd to come within striking distance.  We were pretty close on several occasions, with a huge zebra herd and a small giraffe herd.

-completed the Big Five with our sighting of the largest cat on Earth, the leopards.  They are supposedly to be the most difficult to spot of the five as they regularly hunt at night and spend more time on trees than on land, and they were.  We barely saw two, an adult and a cub, on a sausage tree about 20 meters away with binoculars.  They were super tough to see as it took us a whole 10 minutes to spot them with our guide pointing and describing the exact position.  I still have to find them on the pictures I took.

-we’d driven through most of the grasslands and the bushier region in the north of Serengeti with the two days we stayed, spending Christmas Eve in one of the camp sites with beers and guitar.  The weather was disappointingly cloudy so I couldn’t get my chance to shoot a nice sunrise or sunset picture on the Serengeti and we had to sleep in wet tents.  On our way leaving, we spotted a lion on a tree TWO meters away from the road.  It was the closest we’ve ever been to a lion and probably the closet we ever will be, she was almost within arms’ length.  The funny thing was that she looked to be stuck on the tree.  I didn’t need Gary’s zoom this time.

-Serengeti is a memorable place, where our group stood in the safari vehicle with the roof opened the entire way back to enjoy every last grasp of nature and the closest thing to harmony as we could possibly get with the wild animals.  I will come back here one day.

Ngorongoro Crater:

-a large grassland southeast of the Serengeti at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area surrounded completely by hills and mountains and the animals inside are seemingly trapped inside.  This resulted in a relatively dense and diverse population of wild animals living closely together.

-beautiful early morning, finally got glimpses of sunlight, driving down to this crater on boxing day.  Our present for Christmas, two cheetahs under a tree!  We did see the fastest mammal on earth in the Serengeti but they were way too far away, these two were really close and it definitely jump-started the morning.

-the morning drive was fantastic and refreshing and the crater had a completely different feel to the Serengeti.  All the animals at the crater were calm compared to ever-moving on the Serengeti.

-spotted the greatly endangered black rhinoceros, and even though they were so far away, we were really glad we saw them because there are only a total of 22 in the park.  It completed the Big 5 just in this trip.  We were lucky.

December 27-29, 2009           Day84-86

Zanzibar:

-a large island on the east coast of Tanzania well known for its fantastic beaches and spices, its rich Persian culture with Stone Town’s copulating web of narrow streets and alleys, and unfortunately its dark history as a transit-stop for transporting slaves from East Africa to Europe.

-and unfortunately for me, such beautiful and famous island for tourism, had been out of power for a good 3 weeks when I got there because of some disconnection in its submarine power line from Dar es Salaam.  Stone Town, where we stayed for all three nights at three different hostels, ran generators at night, actually just from 9pm to 2am when they assumed everyone’s asleep so they can turn off the fans.  I don’t know about others, but I woke up in the middle of all three nights to the immense humidity and heat.

-ordered pinacolada three times but never had one because: “Sorry we have no ice”, “Our blender has no power”, and my favorite in a bar at night, “We have no ice so we only serve beer”, “Okay, I will have a Serengeti”, “You want warm or cold?”, “…cold please”, “Only Tuskers are cold”, “Then I’ll have a Tusker, thanks.”  Comes a warm Tusker in a wet bottle charged at a cold price.

-hard to imagine that I was in Africa when I stood on the very fine white sands and bathed in the natural blue (really blue) water watching sailboats glazed across the horizon of the Indian Ocean.  Stone Town was interesting, especially when you walk with no particular purpose and just wander and get lost in the Persian town of maze.

-Zanzibar was the first time in this off when we actually relaxed since we have been moving around a lot and were exhausted both mentally and physically.  We flew 25 minutes on a 4 people plane to Zanzibar from Dar es Salaam and flew back on a 6 people plane.  It was chaotic and hectic at the Zanzibar airport, where we had only a receipt and no flight tickets and nobody knew nothing about where we should be and we barely made our flight being 20 minutes late, but I guess everything makes a memorable Africa experience.

December 30, 2009                                Day87

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

-decided not to reschedule our flight from Addis Ababa back to Entebbe because we’d travelled too much already.  We didn’t want to go through any more troubles.  Original plan was stay in Addis Ababa for two days through New Years and back to Uganda on the 2^nd.  Now, stay in Addis for one night and get on our next flight in the morning without changes.

-we could’ve slept in the airport the way we did before but we want a visa stamp on our passport so we decided to enter the country and sleep in a nice hotel instead.  Got a $20US transit visa for free because the lady at the visa office couldn’t sell us the $50US 30 days visa haha.

-Got into trouble at the custom when the guard wanted us to have a destination/place to stay to let us through but we were just planning on wandering around and maybe stumble into a hotel.  At the end, we asked one of the tourists in the lineup and he gave us his hotel address and we got through, even though the entire world, and the guard knew that we are not staying there at the time.  Funny thing is, we ended up staying there hahah.

-had a fantastic night at a local restaurant with traditional Ethiopian dancing (I think it’s traditional haha), music, and local beer and food.  Unlike other African countries, Ethiopia has never been colonized by European countries and they are probably the only oldest undisturbed African civilization along with Egypt.  Even though it was only one night, I can feel the strong pride and spirit people have in their own unique culture.  Ethiopia now falls on the map of places I want to visit.

-tried Ethiopian cuisine with honey wine, decent but not great.  Injera, a soft bread (looks like pieces of pig intestines in Chinese food) looks gross, but not bad with their spicy meat and vegetable stew.  Their spicy food is not made for my shamefully weak taste buds though. 

December 31, 2009 – January 1, 2010  Day88-89

New Years in Kampala:

-fireworks at Sheraton Hotel with a stage setup outside at the park.  Many of the Ugandan celebrities came out for the event and I actually watched live performances of a lot of the local pop songs I heard on radio.  Well worth the 5 bucks entry fee I paid.  It was not New York, or anything close to it, we didn’t even have a TV or a clock to countdown from, but the atmosphere was great along with the local food and drinks.

Pictures: 1^st: Our welfare safari vehicle.  2^nd: Elephant family in Lake Manyara, two babies protected by their parents.  3^rd: My companions, entering Serengeti.  4^th: Wildebeests, zebras, wildebeests, zebras… 5^th: I’ll be impressed if you can see the leopard.  6^th: Lion stuck on a tree a few meters away.  7^th: Masai village.  I am not paying 10000TSH to enter.  8^th: Cheetahs at the crater.  9^th: Hyena right beside us.  I don’t like them as they eat the leftovers of the lions.  10^th: Arrived at Zanzibar International Airport on this small plane.  11^th: One of the many alleys in Stone Town.  12^th: Dusk on the shore of Stone Town.  13^th: Sailboat hits the Zanzibar shore.  14^th: Two guys on a small boat with sticks.  15^th: Ethiopia and Injera.  What’s with my hair?!

Tomorrow: Two weeks of travel, missing my bed in my tent.

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December 19, 2009                Day76-Kampala

Alone in Kampala today.  Went to Garden City Mall and I could get a 55-200mm for $300US, about 50% more that I need to pay back home, and this is not the lens I want to get too.  I am very unwilling to pay an excessive amount more for something I don’t really need now.  Also, the store is not open tomorrow so I will have to call that guy tomorrow to see if he can meet me up somewhere to sell me the lens.  I caught another boda to Wilson Street, where apparently all the camera and photo shops are.  All I could find, ten+ shops that print photos.  Some of them sell film cameras, rarely digital, so finding DSLR lenses is not optimistic.  One last hope tomorrow, the Ayuta Photo place where all the other stores point to when I ask where I could find DSLR lenses.  Please, 2^nd hand would do.  Now, eating my fantastic last minute ordered curry chicken fried rice before the Red Chilli kitchen closes.  It is the only thing that went well today.

December 21, 2009                Day78-Dar Es Salaam

Addis Ababa Airport

-2 hour flight from Entebbe to Addis Ababa of Ethiopia.  Ethiopia coffee, 4^th largest producer of the world, at the airport.  First time sleeping in the airport, with shirt and shorts, luggage in transit.  Crazily cold while Gary has his sleeping bag and personal pillow and I am alone on the bench shivering.

-pray room, washroom with feet washer, thought to be a urinal and almost peed into it.

Dar Es Salaam

- forgot vaccination booklet for the trip, almost had to bribe to get through the custom into Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  A China man saved me by needing translation.  He was so scared, all sweaty and paid 200 yun mun bai to take his vaccination in Africa.  I know I will be scared too…I sneaked through after translating without paying the stupid medic person who wanted 20US from me.

-joined a tour to Serengeti at the airport!  Crazily expensive at first at 830US, later did some maneuvers and got a deal at 625US for 6 days of travel!  Believed to be decent with approximately 100 per night, 85 per night budget based on East Africa lonely planet.  Got to see a lot more, Lake, Craters.  Gonna camp in the Serengeti on Christmas Eve.

-given up on camera lens, after searching in a taxi for 2 hours or so.  Did found 18-200mm at 800US, but if I ain’t buying the 55-200 for cheaper price, I am not buying this one.  Gary, I need you again.  I might regret this for the rest of my life because I don’t know when I will have the opportunity to come back to the safaris and take pictures, maybe when I am near retirement at 60 or something.  Sigh…

-first time using debit card in foreign country.  Thanks HSBC, you didn’t disappoint.  When I was working in HSBC, I answered so many questions about using Canadian debit cards in foreign countries with confidence but I actually got scared rather my card would work in the Barclays Bank in Tanzania. Especially because I forgot my PIN for my Mastercard…had street food, fries + grilled chicken at 2500 Tanzania shillings, or 2 bucks Canadian!  Great!

-tour starts tomorrow!  Apparently 3 Swedish women?  Gonna head to Arusha on first day.

December 22, 2009                Day79-Dar Es Salaam, Arusha

-bus ride all day freaking 12 hours on the bus.  We are closer to Nairobi of Kenya than Dar es Salaam.

-Dar Express, best charter bus ever, 25000 TSH!  With soda and candy on the bus haha, also a calendar as a gift.

-at Arusha, apparently a popular tourist city, but have yet to see a white person yet.  Kennedy said I can find a lens here for sure?!?  I have no time at all at this city, especially we arrived at almost 9pm here and leaving at 9am tomorrow morning, please don’t give me hope since I just accepted the truth that I won’t be able to find one in Africa.

-so far my Christmas off has all been spending time on transit, have not done anything thing holiday like yet.  Also spent a lot of money on tour fees and food.  I hope I won’t spend all my savings on this trip, it’s only Day2.

Pictures: 1^st: Breakfast at Red Chilli Kampala.  My first real breakfast in a month, it was amazing.  It’s crazy how easily satisfied I can be with food now.  2^nd: Flight Info board at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I forgot the name of their language, but it has to be really unique…They are one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and it’s great that their culture is one of a kind too.  3^rd: Prayer room for males at the airport.  4^th: Heading to Tanzania!  5^th: Our cheap motel room at Dar es Salaam.  The fan was still working at that time, not when it’s 35 degrees Celsius at night.  6^th: Market at Dar, passed by during our brutal 12 hour bus ride.

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December 18, 2009                Day75

Last day of camp in 2009.  Apparently today is not a work day as we have invited different parties from the Bwesumbu project for a lunch feast.  My hopes were up since we bought another goat (2 in total) and I could smell the roasted goat meat from the office but we ended up having the old regular boiled goat stew.  The lunch was just a regular lunch with sodas.  The roasted goat was served to the special guests, mainly the leaders of the churches and cells of the project who we have troubled mobilizing to dig.  They arrived in number and early for lunch though.

Random Notes and Thoughts about Tanzania + Ethiopia Trip:

-preparing for the long Christmas break and so many things unsettled.  Called Ethiopian Airway and the extra cost to alter the date of the last of 4 flights was a freaking $708 US, when the total for the 4 flights was only $369.  We will try to change it at the airport when we arrived at Addis Ababa.  I like that name, Addis Ababa, so exotic haha.

-no tours, no hotels, no nothing have been booked other than our flights.  All we know is that we wanted to go to Serengeti, and catch a ferry to Zanzibar for a couple days.  This spontaneous thing will either go really well, or go really bad haha.

-desperately searching for a lens for my camera.  There’s one that would work really well and won’t stab my wallet bloody red, but I am uncertain about what I can find in Kampala.  There’re also the reasonable 55-200mm ones that would be a great 2^nd lens, but they are probably not enough for safari.  And there are the super expensive ones that would cost my 6 months wage…

-packing is not fun, especially considering the chaotic transit systems in Africa.  Not looking forward to it at all.  One gigantic bag or two small bags?  Should I bring my sleeping bag for safaris?

-highly excited Ugandan crew beating the hell out of the drums in fellowship tonight.  It was a relaxing and enjoyable two days leading up to Christmas for them and finally I can sense a little bit of the holiday season arriving.  I hope I can feel it when I stand under the blazing sun on the beautiful sands of Zanzibar on Christmas day.

Hope I get my packages from Lee, em, and my bro when I get back to camp in 2010.

Pictures: 1^st+2^nd: Fun times before break, cards and grilled corns in the driveway. The ONLY African card game is great.  Gotta teach you guys, it’s basically Uno + crazy 8 + special rules.  3^rd: Me digging with the crew on a burning sunny day.  Bad picture taken by Bern.  4^th: Willis + Michael watching “At the Threshold of an Era” on my laps, way passed their bed time.  5^th: ROASTED GOAT I never get to have.

Tomorrow: All ready to go for first Christmas on the beaches and the great plains of Africa.

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