ugandan work ethic - transporting furniture on the bicycle

the people here have an amazing ability to manage large and odd shaped objects stacked on their bicycles. huge containers of water, large welded items the size of a bed frame, oversized pottery-barn-like chairs, stacks of matoke (plain green bananas - hundreds on a stalk), and of course people.

they also can drive a mean boda boda (motorcycle), matatu (skinny van serving as a bus/taxi jammed full of 15 people), or crazy coach - really huge greyhound type buses with the axles often off kilter. they fly down the middle of the roads at about 100 miles an hour while appearing to be fishtailing. alas, that would probably be safer. actually the rear end is anywhere from 1-3 feet off the axis, yet the bus is going straight. we can laugh, since we haven't been hit by one yet.

so, we saw quite a few amazing things in murchison falls (northwest uganda - a beautiful 7 hour drive from entebbe through lush rolling hills of country side). lots of crocodiles (one spot had about 20 cooling off under the tree), lions and their cubs (we saw 3 lioneses and 6 cubs playing and drinking water just across a little pool of water), and quite a few hippos, one cute hippo in particular who walked out of the water to graze on the grass next to a bunch of us waiting to cross on the little ferry. so cute in fact that a few stupid tourists decided to get within about 10 feet to take photos. wow. smart europeans (no offense europeans). so clever. and luckily for them, quick too! they needed to run when the hippo lived up to its reputation and got p*%$$ed off and promptly chased them! we thought everybody knew that they kill more people every year than lions. guess not. anyhow they got away and we all had a nice shot of endorphins to carry us through the rest of the day. i would have laughed except there were a bunch of little kids around, so instead i was a little irritated.



we celebrated every night bobbing in the pool with a beer and overlooking the victoria nile. it was quite amazing falling asleep to the sound of hippos chortling/snorting outside our window just down the hill.

yesterday nate and i went on a long lunch with margaret, the director of the entebbe women's association who came to vancouver with mariam last year. we had a beautiful lunch and then headed out for a tour to their big tree planting, reforestation project. on the way we stopped for gas and bought some fried crunchy grasshoppers through the window. yummy. good thing i had some water to chase them down.

the site we were heading to was by the airport, and the queen was coming in shortly for CHOGM (epic commonwealth event in kampala with 52 presidents and primeministers). we underestimated the security. we were stopped all over the place, and at one point along a bumpy back road there was a security stop where we had to get out of the van and walk through a metal detector that had an extension cord spliced to it running to a nearby house. ha ha ha. again, another adventure that is funnier after the fact. everyone is so friendly, but you never know at the time what is actually going to play out.

it is nates birthday today. we went to the pool that is right on lake victoria and read our books and got sunburns. we are headed to dinner tonight and will celebrate more tomorrow by going to the animal centre (soon to be zoo). we met the main vet today, a local ugandan, and he is going to take us on a tour. he has a sick python and a baby chimp that they rescued from his life in a box in a tree. so we will likely not be able to even be in the room with him cause he is understandibly so scared of people.