Halloween Havoc in Kampala!

Halloween really isn’t a thing in Uganda, but there was no way that we weren’t going to celebrate it and luckily we have a ton of friends that wanted to celebrate too!  We decided to host a Wine and Cheese event for Halloween, which is an Embassy-sponsored event that all of the American Embassy staff are invited to.  We started to decorate the house and I am really not sure what the guards were thinking as I set up a skeleton BBQ’ing human body parts, walked bloody footprints to our front door, and set a carved pumpkin on fire at the gate.

Your cook for the evening.

Spooooooky!

I think my favorite decoration was a wooden coffin that I turned into an ice cooler for drinks.  I got the coffin from the husband of the person that runs Kids Club Kampala (a group that Katie has volunteered with).  He was talking about how he is teaching carpentry at the villages, and I jokingly asked if they could make a coffin.  Surprisingly he didn’t push off my request but was all for it as the people he is teaching really want to make coffins.  I guess that they just understand that death is a part of life, so they are more than eager to join in the Kampala coffin business.  A little while later I had a really heavy black painted coffin filled with beer sitting in the yard.

Stone cold refreshments.

Katie and I went as Kevin and Russel from Up, while for a few brief moments we had Rascal dressed as Snow White and Munch as a dinosaur roaming the yard.  Our guard's favorite costume was our two friends that came dressed as Ugandan traffic constables.  They would stand in our driveway with the guards and direct cars coming in while looking down at their phones.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone’s guards laugh as hard as ours did that night.  There were lots of other costumes as well and I think everyone was happy to have a little taste of home in Kampala.

Russel, Kevin, and Snow White.

Munchosaurus Rex.

Some of the girls.

Duffmen, ooooohhhhhh yeaaaa!

Hello Neighbor Rwanda!

Columbus Day weekend actually marked a four day weekend for us as we also had a Ugandan holiday.  Greg and I decided to take advantage of the extra day off and drove to Rwanda.  Looking at a map, neither Uganda nor Rwanda is that large, however, the roads and traffic aren’t always the best.  On the way down we decided to stop for lunch, which at this point we should know better because it took us almost an hour and a half even though it was the two of us and we only ordered sandwiches.  The next major delay was actually crossing the border.  First, you wait in line on the Uganda side.  Once you fill out the customs paperwork you get back in your car and drive across the border.  They made us get out to check out temperatures (Ebola was still a concern I guess) and then we thought we were finally on our way.  Since no one really spoke English (they’re a French-speaking country), we thought we were all set.  We somehow missed the customs section on the Rwanda side because a large bus was blocking the tiny little room.  We knew something was up as a man ran alongside our car saying we didn’t go through customs or get insurance.  Long story short, there was a lot of confusion mixed in with no one speaking good English and 11 hours after we left our house, we finally made it to the place we were staying for the weekend.  Also to note, the Rwandans drive on the right side of the road and Ugandans drive on the left.  Driving around with your steering wheel on the wrong side of the car was quite an experience.

Our main reasons for visiting Rwanda were, it’s right next door, it’s supposed to be beautiful, and we figured we would get a good history lesson.  Almost immediately after arriving, it was obvious we weren’t in Uganda anymore, however, it felt like we weren’t even in Africa.  The countryside was breathtaking, the roads were paved, there was space for pedestrians to walk, there wasn’t trash everywhere, and the cattle aren’t allowed to walk in the roads.

The countryside of Rwanda.

It was the end of the day and you could see all the people running through the tea plantations.

Since it is a full day of driving between Kampala and Kigali, we had to make the most of our time.  The first day we headed to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which is a free museum that depicts the history of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.  I thought the memorial was very well done and very informative.  There was a section giving the background history that led up to the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people over the course of 100 days.  The memorial is also the final resting ground for over 250,000 people, which while in a beautiful garden, is also really upsetting.  They also had a section dedicated to other genocides around the world, including some that are not recognized as genocides by different countries, including genocides in Namibia, Armenia, Cambodia, the Balkans, and a large section on the Holocaust.  The final section was an area dedicated to the memory of all the innocent children who were killed during the genocide.  Up until this point, I did pretty well, but I just couldn’t make it through the kid section.  It was a really sobering experience and it’s amazing how far Rwanda has come since then.  (We didn't take any pictures at the museum out of respect for all of those who lost their lives.)

A view of the city from the gardens.

This little guy was quite talkative.

Another view of the city.

Continuing with the memorials, we visited the Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial which is where 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers were murdered by the Hutu extremists.  The memorial has a column for each of the murdered peacekeepers, and there are lines in each one that represent the ages of each person (if I remember correctly, most were only in their 20's with no one over 35).  Right next to the columns are the two buildings that the peacekeepers tried to take cover in while under attack.  The buildings still have the bullet holes and marks from the attack.  Another sad memorial, but it is important to learn the history of what happened only 21 years ago.

The Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial.

The building the Belgian Peacekeepers took shelter in.

The next day we went for something a bit more upbeat and did a tour of a local town through the Nyamirambo Women's Center.  Our guide took us around a section of Kigali and showed us what daily life was like for most people in the city.  It was a nice tour and we got to try our hand at mashing up some leaves into a sauce that the Rwandans like.  Mashing the leaves was actually a lot tougher than it looked and the old lady that was doing it must have been pretty strong because I got tired after only a few hits.  While doing the walk we passed a lot of places that said milk bar or milk zone.  Since most bars don’t usually sell milk, we were really curious as to why a bar that serves milk would even be a thing.  It turns out that Rwandans really like their milk and since they can’t have their cows in the city, they instead have these milk bars so that they can get a glass of really fresh milk.  Greg said the milk was really good, though I don’t think I’ll try to order a glass of milk from a bar anytime soon.

Katie mashing leaves.

Greg at his first Milk Bar.

We ended our day by walking around the city some more and picking up some coffee to take home, which turned out to be some of the best coffee we’ve had!  We also had dinner at the Hotel Des Mille Collines which is the actual hotel in the event from the genocide in the movie Hotel Rwanda.  To see all our pictures from our weekend getaway, check out our SmugMug.

While this was one of our more educational and sadder (at times) trips, it was really great to get out of Uganda and see another country in Africa.  It’s crazy to see how two countries right next to each other that most would consider being the same, can be so different.

The Botanical Gardens

The best part about this job is that Greg gets a ton of days off because we get all of the Ugandan holidays.  Muslim holy days are included in the Ugandan holidays, so since I’ve been wanting to go to the Botanical Gardens for a while now (I heard there’s some good birding), we took advantage of our day off and headed down to Entebbe.  We had a beautiful day and a tour guide who was more than happy to point out all of the different plants and birds we came across.  We lucked out and actually had 3 tour guides as 2 local pups joined and followed us everywhere.

This guy kept us company all day.

One of the first parts of the tour was an area filled with these ginormous spiders.  Spiders aren’t my favorite thing, and these things were huge and everywhere.  It was more than a little creepy.

They were everywhere along the path.

It's eating Greg's face!

As we walked around more, the guide pointed out the area where some of the original Tarzan movies were filmed.  Unfortunately, it’s not much of a jungle in that area nowadays, but still cool to see.

Black-headed Heron.

The jungle where Tarzan was filmed.

While we saw a decent amount of birds, after all our other trips around the country I didn’t feel like we saw anything new or out of the ordinary at the gardens.  Either way, I did get to see the birds and got a few good shots.  For more photos, check out our SmugMug.

Great Blue Turaco.

Black-and-white casqued Hornbill.

Black Kite.

Red-chested Sunbird.

On our way out, our guide gave us two mangosteen’s, an Indonesian fruit that is sweet and tangy.  They were pretty cool looking and they actually tasted really good.  All in all, it was a nice day and it’s always nice to get out of Kampala for a bit.

Some mangosteens.

A Romantic Safari

As a surprise for our anniversary, I booked us a stay at the Mihingo Lodge in Lake Mburo National Park.  Lake Mburo is one of only two parks in Uganda that has zebras, the other being at least a 10-hour drive away on the border with Kenya.  The lodge is super fancy and the room has an amazing view of the park and also a portion of the lake.  You don’t even need to leave your room to see some animals!  Since there aren’t many predators in the park, maybe a few leopards and one lone lion, you are able to walk around the grounds of the lodge to a blind that is next to a salt lick for the antelopes.  While we have already seen all the animals that were at the salt lick (like waterbucks, warthogs, impala), it was cool to see them on foot and outside of a car.  The zebras were plentiful and we even saw some rolling around in the dirt and playing.  We also saw our first snake on safari and I think the first snake in Uganda.  While it wasn’t a large lion eating python, it was still cool to finally see a snake.

Ankole on our drive in, they had some of the biggest horns I think we've seen!

Our first snake!

Bushbucks coming to the salt lick, they're normally very shy.

Waterbucks.

A perk of the Mihingo Lodge is that at night, some thick-tailed Gallagos or bush babies (kind of like nocturnal monkeys) come to a deck on the main building for a treat.  The lodge only feeds them a little fruit so that visitors can see a bush baby (very shy usually), and so that the bush babies will not get too reliant on people and still have to go out and get the rest of the food on their own.  We were expecting small furry guys with big eyes, but instead, the bush babies were decently big and had a weird looking hand with six fingers.  As we walked down to the deck, two of the bush babies were already sitting on the deck waiting for their treats.  They have the routine down because the moment the guide pulled a banana piece out of a bag, the bush babies outstretched their hands and eagerly grabbed at the treat.  After devouring their bananas, they waited for more and walked around the deck hoping to find some pieces that might have fallen or hoping that their cuteness would get them some more.  They did find a few bugs to munch on while looking for more bananas but ultimately left us a little while later.

Thick-tailed Gallagos, aka Bush Baby.

I had one more surprise up my sleeve for Katie, and let her know that our breakfast the next morning would be out in the middle of the park and that we would get to it by doing an early morning horseback ride!  It had been a while since either of us had ridden a horse, but we were excited for the experience of riding through the park and hopefully getting even closer to the animals.  The guides said that the animals sometimes get a bit closer to the horses to check them out, since horses are something new to them, even to the zebras.  I forgot how rough a horse ride can be, especially when your horse seems to want to get off the trail or keeps throwing his head to get rid of the many flies buzzing around him.  I think Katie actually handled her horse better than me as she was all smiles on the ride, while I felt like I was constantly shifting in my saddle, and tapping the horse with my heels to have him move a bit faster and catch up with the group.  We arrived at a small mountaintop where a table was set up overlooking the park.  It was a really romantic breakfast and a nice way to pamper ourselves a bit since we usually go more low key and cheap with our trips.  After breakfast, we hopped onto our horses and rode back to the main lodge.  A breakfast break didn’t make my horse any easier to handle and I think it is safe to say that I am no cowboy.

Sunrise from our bedroom.

They brought us coffee and cookies before our horseback riding.

Breakfast was all set up when we arrived, what a view.

Fresh juice & coffee, fresh fruits, eggs, pancakes, & bacon all out in the bush, what a treat!

While Lake Mburo doesn’t have the wow factor of some of the other parks, it was a nice way to celebrate our anniversary alone and treat ourselves to a fancy trip.

Zebra!  As always, for all our pictures visit our SmugMug.

U-gan-da Come Back Now, You Hear!

With the end of Dad's trip drawing near, we figured the best way to end an African adventure is to experience some culture.  We went to the Ndere Cultural Centre to see some cultural dancing and music and eat some local food.

Ndere Troupe performs a repertoire of more than 40 authentic Ugandan dances and songs accompanied by various indigenous percussive, string, and wind instruments.  The performers do not only do Ugandan music and dancing, but other African countries like Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.  It was a fun show and the performers were awesome.  African dancing has a lot of jumping and swinging of hips, though I have no idea how they move like they do sometimes.  The coolest part of the music portion was the Burundian drums which range from tiny to almost person size.  The large ones must have been really heavy but the drummers carried them on their heads with ease while they walked around and continued to play, also sometimes reached up with their legs to kick them.

The Ndere Troupe performing some Ugandan music before the dancing started.

Shaking their hips!

The drums, later they put them on their heads and played.

Rwandan dance.

We left a bit early because unbeknownst to us we went to the children’s show.  We didn’t realize this until they asked all the kids to come down onto the stage floor to sit around an elder as he sang a song.  Really nice, but it went on and on for a long time.  After that, they wanted to sing happy birthday to one kid.  But you can’t just sing it to one kid, you need to sing it to all of them with birthdays around that day.  It started out okay, but 20 minutes later we were done with happy birthday and heading on out.  We could still hear happy birthday being sung as we got to our car, and were happy we left early.

That was the last big activity for Dad on his big Uganda trip.  Over the three weeks that he was here we checked just about everything there is to do in Uganda off of the list.  It was an action-packed trip and we were really happy to have him with us.  Unfortunately, he had to head back home, but he’ll just have to start planning to visit us again at our next post!