Home at last???

Of course the first thing I had to do when I got back to Cleveland is visit my home away from home, Edgewater Yacht Club. I was incredibly nervous at first, I feel like I have been gone for years living on a different planet, but that was nothing some Crown Royal couldn't fix. The Sea Dog race is next Saturday, and the final gun is on Sunday. Then that is it for racing this year. :-/

I had really just wanted to share some photos of the sailors trying some of the African booze I brought back-- some Ugandan rum, South African gin, and South African cane spirit (whatever the hell that means). Call it whatever you want, it was all rubbing alcohol mixed with petrol. And I though sailors were tough:

Last night in Kampala

Thursday night I met back up with Alix, Ben, and Robert at the Rugby Club to celebrate our last night in Kampala. Several of Alix's friends make the club their local hangout. We had such a blast. On guy named Alex bribed the DJ so he played rock music for me half the night. I can't believe I have to go home now after making all these new friends! I guess it just gives me more reason to come back. Here is the damage we did last night:



Ben playing British pool and being coached by Emanuel.



Pretending to pick up Robert.


Me, Ben, and Jack. Jack is the guy responsible for building East Africa's first skate park, located in Kampala.



Kennedy, who is a broadcaster at the national radio station that Alix is interning at.



Alex, a cosmetics importer and huge flirt. He had a James Earl Jones style laugh. He liked me because he thought I looked like Eva Longoria, his favorite actress on Desperate Housewives. I think that all mzungus must look the same.



Alix posing with her brother's skater hat.



Alex, Alix, and Ben.



Ben, myself, and Robert



Alix and I.



Emanuel and I. Emanuel is a bigwig in President Museveni's government. His friends liked to compare him to Condoleeza Rice.

This was a perfect ending to a perfect trip. I am reminded of the lyrics from a Pogues' song I have been listening to while I was here:

"Sad to say I must be on my way
So buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away
I'd like to think of me returning when I can
To the greatest little boozer and to Sally MacLennane"

See you in America...Gabrielle

Friends at the Joint Clinical Resaerch Centre

Here are some photos from my last day in the lab:


This is Helen, an assistant in the immunology lab I worked in. She is a member of Uganda's women's rugby team. She played a championship match against Tunisia the weekend I was at Murchison. They won!



Here is Andrew and Arnold, two volunteers in the lab. Lab positions are difficult to get in Uganda, so they are volunteering their time in hopes of someday acquiring a permanent position.

This is Fred from the molecular biology lab next to mine. Everyone jokingly calls him Uncle Fred because, as a born again, you acquire that title when you marry.


Here is one of the nicest and most fascinating people I met here, Pierre, who is the immunology lab manager. He is from the Congo, but it an American citizen. He has a wife and son that live in San Francisco. He worked in Cleveland for over 20 years, and has worked in labs all over the world.


Again, a picture of my girls Sophie and Joy from the Immunology lab. Both are Master's students at night. School here is pay as you go (there's no such thing as student loans), so these two have to work during the day.


This is Leonard, also from molecular biology, posing in front of the lab's "new" ancient sequencing machine. If anyone has a sequencer made this century, I'm sure they'd appreciate it!

Girls are the same no matter where they are from

By Wednesday afternoon three other scientists had descended upon the house. One was a Case professor, one a professor in Oregon, and then the chief of Infectious Disease at University Hospitals arrived. We had a really nice dinner together, sharing our various experiences working in Kampala. The house is getting crowded, but fortunately, John put me in the one bedroom that has its own bathroom in it.

After dinner, Robert and I decided to meet up for a drink at Bubbles O’Learys. I arrived first and was hesitant to go down the stairs to the bar, so I was fiddling with my purse. Guys, if you ever see a woman fiddling with her purse, 50% of the time she is stalling; the other half the time we are digging around the purse for an object that will invariably be found at the very bottom. There was another girl fiddling with her purse, and she and I made eye contact and started speaking. We were both meeting people there, so we decided to go in together and sit with each other until our parties arrived. Her name was Gloria and we found her friend Ann at the bar waiting and hiding in corner. They were very pleasant company for the evening. There is live music every Wednesday, and it was a blast. The band started by playing Latin music (there was even an accordion player), and then switched to American music. It was kind of a bizarre experience sitting in an Irish bar watching an African cover band singing Radiohead.

Today is my last day at work and I am not taking it well. I already had to say goodbye to Joy and Pierre, as they were heading to Entebbe for a HIV conference. George is coming for me in about a half hour and my stomach is feeling sick and nervous. Who knew I would love this place as much as I did. I’ll really miss they lab crew here—they are so good natured, always laughing.

This paragraph has been written hours after the previous one. I have since said goodbye to my friends and that lab. I have also been out with my French friends and some Ugandan friends and said goodbye to them too. I know I will see them again someday soon. I will post pictures from the lab and from my night out tomorrow. For now, just a couple of photos of Robert, Gloria, Ann, and I at O’Leary’s Pub.

xo...G.

I'm a day behind...

Tuesday afternoon, I went on a house visit with some of the counselors from the tuberculosis clinic. Many patients are uninformed about TB, and they are afraid to go to the clinic for treatment, so counselors are sent out to talk to and educate people. We took a man positive for TB back to his home, and the counselor Grace set about trying to convince his wife, who had started showing symptoms, to come to the clinic. She and one of her 3 children had acquired the cough common to TB, but she was fearful about getting on treatment because of the plentiful and gigantic pills her husband had to take. She was very ashamed to have a mzungu in her home because it was tiny, and they think that all whites have a lot of money and big homes.

The area we went to is part of the slums in Kampala, of which there are many. The houses are so small- they usually consist of only one room, maybe 10 x 10 feet in size, and often they house up to 10 people. There are not toilets, just some clay, outhouse-type structures that pipe into a ditch. You can imagine what a huge problem cholera is. The houses are all rented, so people can’t cultivate the land that surrounds them, which is a real shame, because people don’t have enough money for food and many eat only one meal a day. One of the neighborhoods we visited was built right next to a swamp, which meant two things: the houses often flood and the mosquitoes are terrible, which spreads malaria throughout the community. The children were fearless, walking up to the Land Rover and demanding money. The little ones were quite cute though, and shy. Word went through the neighborhood that a mzungu was around, so children came out of the woodworks to have a look. As we were leaving the older ones started chasing the vehicle, and the driver got really annoyed. He slammed on the breaks, threw the car in reverse, and started chasing the children. They didn’t expect that- it was pretty funny.

That evening I met Robert at an Indian restaurant named Khana Khazana that came highly recommended. The place was stunning- it was half indoor, half outdoor, and there was a waterfall that we sat next to. And the decorations were to die for. So was the food. There are a couple of pictures from the restaurant. The host got a bit artistic with the angles. I’ve also attached a photo of two antique statues that I purchased. They are from Congo, from the Mdekese and Songe tribes, and they are about 52-53 and 58-60 years old. Gorgeous!

xo...G.

Murchison Final

Sunday morning we arose at dawn, had some breakfast, and headed off to Murchison Falls for a one hour hike. On the way there we had to pass through some swampy land which is home to the nasty tse tse fly. These flies are notorious for being carriers of sleeping sickness, the disease that cleared the people out of Murchison a hundred years ago. Just as a side note, there haven’t been cases of sleeping sickness at the falls for many years. That notwithstanding, we were covered from head to toe in deet. Lovely chemical. My shirt got displaced and exposed about an inch of skin on my belly, so needless to say I got bit twice there. Those sobs hurt like hell!
The hike around the falls was incredibly beautiful. And a bit harrowing. The ground changes everyday during the rainy season, so big potholes open up and the slopes erode. The area is rich in the mineral mica, so the path sparkles like it has been strewn with glitter. Even the termite mounds shone. We had ranger as a guide and he took us to the prime places for photography, which you’ll see below. We went from the top to bottom of the falls then back up again. At the bottom it is so wet that you look like you’ve just stepped out of the shower. The ranger said that before white people came to the area, there were two kingdoms at Murchison—one on either side of the falls. Sometimes the women from one tribe would line up at the bank of the Nile, and the men from the other tribe had to try and jump the falls for their hand in marriage. Many died. The ranger said he’d never do that for a woman, then he looked at me and said, “Well, maybe for a mzungu girl,” and then asked for my email.
We stopped in Masindi for lunch again, and then headed on the long journey back to Kampala. I was so sad to the national park—it was so gorgeous and peaceful. And full of those giant animals I love so much. I can't wait for the opportunity to come back and spend more time out in the bush.

xoxo...G.

The Mzungus

I had some extra time at work waiting for George to pick me up, so I thought I would take the time to introduce my traveling companions. And in case you are wondering, Mzungu is what they call white people here. That's all I hear all day long, "Mzungu, mzungu!!"

Sophie you’ve already seen several photographs of. She is a recent university graduate who came to Rwanda to volunteer at an aid organization for a month. When her stint was over, she and a friend traveled to Congo and Uganda, where I met her. This morning she left on a bus to Nairobi to go on safari. She was quite a clever girl. When I asked what she was going to do when she returns to England (she lives near Manchester—go United!!), she announced that she was going skiing in the Alps before she tries to get a real job. That is a great sentiment.

Next is Narae, a Korean girl who has gone to England to get her master’s degree in International Development. She came to Uganda for a month to study internally displaced peoples from the Ugandan civil war. (This is to be distinguished from refugees who are displaced outside their own country). She was staying in a city named Gulu. She is an incredibly brave and sweet girl. Also the most likely to have gotten us all killed. She would hang out of the bus and wave at the baboons, and she tried to approach a water buffalo. Yeah, they look cute, but they are dangerous. Sadly, we left her at Masindi because she was traveling to the north east, and we were heading to the south.

There was Robert, the Dutch computer programmer. He was working in Kampala for two weeks setting up a database system so physicians could track their patients. He did the same work two weeks before in Rwanda. We like the same movies and music so it was fun comparing notes. Robert is gigantic, so he didn’t fit anywhere. In proper proportion to the size of his body, he had an equally large camera. I can’t wait to get his pictures when we get home because they were really quite good.

Ben and Alix were siblings and the children of a French army officer, so they have lived all over the world. Their parents have liked in Uganda for a year now, and Alix is staying with them. She studied law in England and France before she decided she couldn’t tolerate it, and has now switched to journalism. She is currently doing an internship at Kampala’s first national radio station. She is very knowledgeable about African politics, and she carried a voice recorder everywhere she went to post the transcripts on her blog. She even did and interview with one of the park rangers. I just loved talking with her because she was so bright and analytical.

Her brother Ben lives in Paris and is a classic skate boarder. He works in a skate shop in the city, and spends the rest of his time on the streets boarding. He was really psyched to be visiting because they had built East Africa’s first skate park in Kampala. Here he is the best skater around. He loves reading classic literature and listening to old school reggae. He is also an impressive sleeper—he slept on me for most of the way to Murchison and he even managed to find a corner to nap in on the boat cruise. He was quite a trip to hang out with.

It was great fun meeting all of them. Sophie and went out last night, but she's left town already. Robert and I will meet up tonight, and tomorrow myself, Alix, Ben, Robert, and some of Alix's friends will go out. It will be sad to say goodbye to them all, it is great having friends all over the world like that to visit!

xo...G.

Murchison Falls Part 3

After lunch on Saturday we went back down the Nile and got on a boat for a cruise down to the base of the falls. There were three other small tour groups on board with us—Germans, Italians, and Indians. Almost as soon as we shoved off, one of the German girls asks, “Pardon me, is that that a crocodile?” “No, Madame, that is a log,” replied the ranger. The poor thing said nary a word for the next 3 hours.

We almost immediately began to see hippos dotting the riverbank. During the day, they primarily sleep at the bottom of the river, rising periodically for air. Sometimes canoeists have the misfortune of being hit from below by these semi-conscious hippos, and their boats overturned. This is just one of many ways hippos kill so many people and are known as the most dangerous animal in Africa. They are incredibly territorial, and will fight to the death over their land and their females. This is reason number two they are so dangerous. And surprisingly, despite their massive size, they are incredibly fast runners. Reason three. Anyway, their skin is very sensitive to sunburn, so they wait until dark to exit the river and graze on land.

I had seen most of this wildlife already when I was on safari in Zimbabwe (not that I wasn’t terribly excited to see them again), but the one animal I came to see was the Nile crocodile. I was not disappointed. We saw them again and again either swimming or basking. You get a tingling down your spine when a crocodile disappears under the water’s surface without a trace—you never know how many are lurking down there. One animal must have been around 15 feet long. Stunning!!

Birds flew all along the side of the river. Particularly gorgeous were these tiny bee eaters, one of which I got a particularly good snapshot of. (Lorrie, these might make a great tattoo!) We also saw the most majestic eagles, one called the African fish eagle, which resembles a slightly more irritable version of a bald eagle.

The falls themselves were breathtaking. At the top of the falls the Nile is about 160 feet wide then it has to squeeze through a small 23 foot cleft where it drops for about 141 feet. You can imagine the power of the rush of water through the gap. We were only able to get so close because the rapids at the bottom can be quite dangerous. We hiked to the bottom of Murchison Falls on Sunday, but I’ll talk about that later.

The night back at the Red Chilli Rest Camp was similar to the night before—good food and better beer. They have a brand of beer brewed here called Bell that is particularly tasting. Word of the wise, though, if ever offered Nile beer, turn in down. You’ll thank me later. During dinner a baby bat fell from the rafted on top of Robert and bounced on the dinner table about 2 inches from Ben’s plate. It was so adorable, but I have little hope of its survival. I met a fantastically nice Dutch couple evening that I will be flying back on Friday. I’ll also be flying back with Robert. There are only so many flights from Kampala to Europe—you’re bound to run into someone you know.

Today I had a hilarious ride to Mulago. As I’ve mentioned before, traffic here is dreadful, and in some parts you have many lanes of traffic funneling into one tiny lane. We were coming onto a round about and a matatu (a large, aggresive minibus taxi) was trying to squeeze out a car that had the right of way. The driver of the car was not having it, and he rolled down the window and started beating the matatu with this large stick. George burst out laughing so hard I thought he was going to crash the car. He took me to Mulago where I went on a house visit in the 'slums'. It was quite heart wrenching, but I will save this story for later.

xoxo...G.

Murchison Part Deux

Friday evening was so gorgeous-- we sat and had beers, relaxing from the lorg and arduous journey from Kampala. The sky was so clear that you could see the Milky Way galaxy. The only other time I was able to see this was when I was in Zimbabwe. Saturday morning we arose at 6am to get ready for the game drive. The park system turns off the power generators at midnight and on again at 7am, so we had to get ready in pitch darkness. Except of course for the absolutely useless gas lanterns, which had gone out in the middle of the night. We had a packed breakfast that consisted of a boiled egg, cheese and tomato sandwich, and banana (the bananas here are outrageously good), and headed down to the Nile to take a ferry across to the north side of the river where the game are.

As we arrived, a black cloud descended over the park, and we knew we were in for quite a rain. It was one of the fabled 'storms of Africa', and it was stunning. There is nothing as breathtaking as lightening over the Nile and the savanna. It was quite a trek. The dirt (or rather, red clay) roads were rough to start off with-- add cascades of water, and it becomes slippery and eroded. We began to see herds of antelope-- waterbucks, hartebeast, kob, reedbuck, eland. These poor animals just stand perfectly still in the rain, as if they had become so stunned by the water that they turned to statues.

After short time the rain cleared up and we were able to pull the roof back from the minibus and stick our heads outside. What a great experience-- tearing through the savanna with the wind whipping through your hair, animals all around. We began running into these really large families of giraffes, some of my favorites. Also saw a heard of elephants not so gracefully trying to climb up an embankment. Oh, and a nice sized herd of water buffalo, also one of my favorites. The birds were also fantastic-- we saw giant condor and the national bird of Uganda, the crowned crane. On the way back to the river, the baboons came back out. They just sat indignantly in the middle of the road challenging us to pass. They are always so surprised when we do.

We went back to the camp for lunch and rest, then headed of on a boat cruise down the Nile to the bottom of Murchison Falls. More on that later. xoxo...G.