So, I wasn't planning on fitting a trip to Africa into my already packed-full summer, but two things changed my mind. First, I've been working on a research project with Guy Grossman, a Political Science PhD student from Columbia. The plan was for me to do the theory and him to do the field work, but the project started looking really good and I thought it would be great to visit Uganda while the project was underway. Second, Elizabeth, another friend of mine from Columbia was also doing a project in Uganda this summer, so I would have not one but two experienced guides to show me around the country. It was too much to resist, so I snuck in a quick week and a half trip after Spain and before Mexico City. Good decision!

Uganda turned out to be amazing. Great scenery, friendly people, lots of interesting things to do, and great guides to show me it all. The trip started out a little slow. I arrived just as Guy was getting ready to roll out our project, which takes an enormous amount of work, so I spent my first couple of days in Kampala doing what I could to help. I did manage to get out a bit at night, which usually involved riding a boda boda (what they call a motorcycle taxi) downtown for food and drinks. I took this picture over the shoulder of my boda boda driver. Most of these guys are completely nuts and weave back and forth between the already insane traffic, but they sure are fast. Sorry mom.

Thanks to Guy, we also got invited to a fun muzungu party (muzungu is what they call white people) one night where we did a little marshmallow roasting and had some fun.

After a couple of days of work, my tour guides, Liz and Julia showed up and we headed out of Kampala. Liz is a first year PhD student in Political Science at Columbia, while Julia is a social work student there. They've spent the past month doing research down in a little town in the south of the country called Kalisizo, so they knew their way around pretty well.

Our first destination was Fort Portal, a town new the western border of Uganda known for its view of the Rwenzori mountains. This was a lush, hilly area of the country. We stayed in a great guesthouse run by a Dutch guy.

Our first full day in Fort Portal, we went to catch a matatu (mini-bus) at the local taxi park to a nearby national park called Sumiliki. The matatu's have 14 real seats and usually around 18 passengers. They don't leave until they fill up, and the drivers are absolutely insane, but they are almost the cheapest way to get around. At the taxi park, we first ran into a big guy with a truck who was going are way and wanted us to ride in the back (with about 20 other people, standing room only here!). Wisely, we declined and found a matatu going where we wanted, but it was empty and we would probably have to wait an hour for it to leave. While we were deciding what to do, the big truck owner got pissed at the matatu owner over him stealing us away. They started shouting and before we knew it they were throwing punches and there was a huge crowd. We took that as our cue to disappear. We headed for a different area where we could get a regular cab, but on the way we ran into another matatu going our way, which was (over)full and piled in. Then, just to show off that they got the muzungu to go in their matatu, the driver drove by the other two, who were still fighting. Hilarious.

Anyway, now with a ride, we headed down this amazing deep valley lined with terraced fields. It cut deep into the high east African plane and after descending for a straight hour, we finally reached the low lying rainforest that stretches out over the enormity of the Congo. Sumiliki National Park encompasses the bit of this enormous rain forest that stretches into Uganda, the only low lying rain forest in East Africa. There we went on a short hike were we saw tons of monkeys of many different kinds, plus two natural hot springs.

This is a picture out the door of our matatu on the way back up to Fort Portal. You can see the terraced valley walls in the background.

The next day we headed south from Fort Portal towards the southwest of Uganda. Liz was feeling a bit under the weather but remained in good spirits, so we headed out. The southwest is much dryer than any area we had seen so far. One of the things that really amazed me about Uganda is that in a day's driving one can be in a low lying rain forest, a mountain glacier, a dry savannah, or rolling green hills. The ecological diversity is stunning.

We had planned to spend the night at Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of the best game parks in the country, but unfortunately Liz started feeling worse, so bad that we almost took her to a local medical clinic, a risky proposition in these parts. Instead, we booked it to the nearest significant town, Mbarara, where we knew there was a reliable private clinic and spent the night there.

After getting some antibiotics and having a relaxing night, Liz was feeling better the next day. Running a bit short on time, but still wanting to see some wildlife, we decided to hire a car and make a day trip to a nearby park called Lake Mburo. After a dusty drive, we arrived in the park to find that wildlife was literally everywhere. Just between the park gate and the HQ we ran into...

Kob...

Buffalo...

Zebra...

Wild boars...

And more.

Next, we took a boat ride on the lake for which the park is named. There we saw lots of hippos,

eagles...

and muzungu.

That night we spent in Kalisizo, a small town in the southern Rakai district of Uganda. We ended up there because both of my travel partners, Julia and Liz, had been working there. Also, my research project with Guy was testing our survey nearby the next day.

One of the coolest parts of staying in Kalisizo was that I stayed at a Catholic Parish where I slept like a baby and had breakfast and dinner with the fathers, who were absolutely hilarious, especially after a few glasses of V&A, the local banana wine firewater.

Sunrise from the parish.

The next day, Thursday, I joined Guy's research team to test out our surveys on some coffee farmers. We traveled way up a dirt road to a little village composed of one mud-walled church and a mud-walled school that was near collapse. The farmers seemed to materialize out of the hillside, grizzled old guys and women dressed up in their finest cloths. It was amazing to spend an entire day with them. Most of my time was spent sitting in on two interviews, where our Ugandan enumerators went through our 25 page survey in the local lingo with the farmers while I watched the answers to see if the questions we wrote got us the information we wanted. Sitting under the trees with these farmers, I was impressed by their honesty, patience, and genuine friendliness. I struggled to stay focused sitting on the ground in the heat for hours, but they seemed to have no problem. Definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

The next day, Friday, I joined Liz to see here research in action. Her project involves visiting local schools, where the caretakers of school children have been invited to come so that here research assistants can interview them about the challenges they face as caretakers. She has six assistants working for her and each interview takes about 45 minutes. My job was to greet the parents when they arrived with a little muffin and a soda. This was another great experience which left me with a great respect for the Ugandans I encountered.

The school we visited was fairly typical though of Ugandan schools, from what I'm told, though in a particularly poor state of repair. One of the other muzungu in Kalisizo went with us to help the school write a grant application to get some renovations. They wanted floors for the school rooms and bars for the windows, and doors, so that they could leave stuff in the classrooms over night. These seem like fairly modest requests. Another interesting feature of these schools is that they love putting up signs everywhere, such as this one imploring people to speak English, which was universally ignored as far as I could tell.

After Kalisizo my trip drew to a close. We headed up to Kampala and spent a couple days there, mostly being lazy, before I caught my flight back towards home. At least I know that someday I'll return, and hopefully with a lot more time to get to know this wonderful place!