A trip to Murchison Falls (and a lot of pictures of animals and waterfalls...).

Last weekend, I went on a three day trip with Red Chilli to Murchison Falls. Flanking the Victoria Nile, Murchison is about 300km northwest of Kampala and the national park is the largest protected area in Uganda, covering around 5000km sq. There were 7 of us on the trip, from various countries (UK, US, France and Argentina) and all either working or volunteering here.




Kurt, Leah, Douglas, Dev, Danni and Simon

Much of the first day was spent travelling but this gave me chance to see a bit more of the Ugandan countryside and we arrived at Murchison Falls by early afternoon. Before arriving at the camp, we took part in a guided walk around the top of the falls -

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spot the rainbow...

We stayed at the Red Chilli Rest Camp in safari tents:

View from our tent at sunrise

We shared the camp with a family of warthogs (hippos were also frequent visitors apparently) -

We were given strict instructions to leave any food or anything with a sweet scent (including cosmetics) at the bar and not in our tents to stop the warthogs from barging in! Despite following these instructions, the family did take quite an interest in mine and Dev's tent and one point we were cornered by the door by two warthogs, which was slightly unnerving... (Unnerving for us. A mildly hilarious photo opportunity for everyone else!).

On day two, we took a "ferry" across the Nile to the north bank:

and spent the morning on a 4 hour game drive:




Buffalo!

The Ugandan Kob

A lonely elephant enjoying the early morning

Jackson's hartebeest

A Rothschild giraffe

A herd of buffalo heading to the nearest watering hole....

....and we drove in their path!

View from our truck, with the Nile in the background

We were lucky to see seven lions, including four lion cubs. The lion cubs were tucking into a recently killed buffalo. You can't really see it on the photos but they all had bright red lips from the blood!

The male lions lie around chilling, whilst the females hunt!

Looking out for fresh buffalo.

In the afternoon we went on a four hour boat cruise along the Victoria Nile to the base of the Falls. Along the way we saw lots of hipps, elephants, crocodiles, birds and other wildlife:

Hippos!

An elephant enjoying a drink.

The elephant and the hippos!

A crocodile grinning.

On Sunday, on our way back to Kampala, we stopped off at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. In 1970, there were around 300 black rhinos and 120 white (called "white" because of their wide mouths - the name got slightly lost in translation!) rhinos in Uganda. By the early 1980s both had been poached to local extinction. The last white rhino was shot in Murchison Falls in 1982 and no black rhino has been observed in Uganda since 1983.

Founded in 1997, the Rhino Fund Uganda is an NGO dedicated to reintroducing the rhino back to the national parks of Uganda. The Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is a 80km sq fenced enclosure and the only place in the country you can see rhinos. Initially countries such as Kenya and the US (Disneyland!) donated several white rhinos to the Uganda. There are now 15 white rhinos living in the sanctuary and once there are between 30 and 40 (it will take a while - the gestation period for rhinos is 16 months...) half of them will be reintroduced into the wild.

Before beginning our rhino tracking we received a safety talk. This went along the lines of; rhinos are quite blind but have excellent sight and sense of smell and they do occasionally charge tourists (they weigh up to three tonnes and can run up to 45km an hour....). We were told that, should a rhino charge us, we should climb the nearest tree (!) and, if there were no trees nearby (there really weren't many trees) we should hide behind the nearest bush (my preferred option...)

We walked for a short time and then saw one rhino dosing under a tree:

A bit further on, we were really lucky to see ten rhinos (including two babies):

After a bit of time, they started to stir and one of them stood up:

Shortly after this, the remaining nine all stood up at once. This is unusual as it was the middle of the day and generally at this time rhinos just sleep and graze. A few of us looked around for the closest bush! However, they were just a bit squashed, all trying to share the same shade and half of them walked over to another tree nearby. This was quite incredible to watch:

After lunch and a quick look at some of the other wildlife and animals in the sanctuary (my favourites are below) we headed back to Kampala.

An African starling.

An African Grace!

My Neighbourhood....

 

 

Last week I moved into the flat, which is going to be my home for the foreseeable future. I was sad to say goodbye to Felista, who works at the guest house and her 3 year old daughter, Jocelyn, but definitely pleased to have moved somewhere with hot water, no bunk beds and far fewer mosquitos...

 

So, for those that are interested, I thought I would do a quick post of some photos of my flat (with apologies to anyone who has already seen these - it was probably dull enough the first time round!) and of my neighbourhood..

 

I'm still living in Namuwongo, a short walk from the office, in a block of  flats. I've already met most of the neighbours and have, I think, offered to cook dinner for the two Kenyan women that live next door to me... We have a night guard keeping watch every night. He has a bow and arrow. 





 

 

 

The kitchen!

 

 

Bedroom!

Very nice spare room - for any visitors...!

The lounge

 

The lounge again.

 

I live a  short distance from two local bars. The Bali Bali bar (busy when I took this photo as I think Liverpool were playing Chelsea...) -

 



 

 

and the Neighbour's pub. I'm yet to try this one out (you'll see it's strapline is "the glamour of polished folk". I'm not entirely sure what that means but will go at some point and find out...) - 

 

 

 

I live just off Namuwongo Road -

There is a fantastic fruit and veg market every day. I am really enjoying eating all the fresh pineapple, mangoes, avocadoes, bananas etc.

 

 

Some other pics from the area -

One of the local supermarkets

Early every morning people gather to read the newspaper headlines:

 

One of the local butchers (this is actually nearer to where I was living before, but I like the name so thought I would include it!)

I'm not sure the pictures, though, quite capture the atmosphere of the area; the friendliness, the noise, the smells, the dust and the general 24-hour a day non-stop activity. There always seems to be  people around and something going on (I'm fairly sure some of my neighbours were moving a fridge into a van at 4am this morning, but I may have been dreaming...). There's always sounds - dogs barking, birds squawking, goats, traffic horns, people shouting, talking, praying (I hear a call to prayer every morning at around 5am) and every bar and house seems to continually play either premiership football or, if there's not a game on, dodgy British pop music (current favourites are any slow tracks by the Spice Girls, Will Young and Phil Collins! Just what I like...).

I am really enjoy living here so far and love all the busyness.

 

There's a nice track going up a short hill from us (away from the hustle and bustle of Namuwongo Road) -

This leads to Muyenga, a slightly better off area, where quite a few NGOs (e.g. Oxfam, VSO) are based. There's a good coffee shop (Coffee Kawa - see here), a craft shop (run by Joe, the director of Hands for Hope and his partner, Daphne), an Italian supermarket, a wine shop and some cheap and cheerful restaurants (I tried out the Coconut Shack last night, the local Indian). In some ways it's a contrast to Namuwongo, and it's good to have both on my doorstep!

Paintings and parties!

Since I last wrote a post, the new term has started at Hands for Hope.  So the children are in the room next my office every morning, learning english, singing, chanting and (occasionally it seems!) writing quietly in their exercise books! Here’s a picture of them enjoying a dancing lesson:
 

 

 

 

Our afternoon programme has also started. This is for young people who haven’t been to school and they are mainly taught basic numeracy and literacy:

 

The afternoon programme.

I’ve been spending my time learning the ropes, meeting people and doing a handover with Tammy. I've enjoyed having several introductory meetings with people including those who run other community organisations, head teachers and the police commander for the area. One thing I've noticed is that most people seem to look at me perplexed when I say my name is Jenny. It seems that Jennifer is quite a common name here, but nobody has heard of the name Jenny!

I've also visited a number of schools and vocational colleges that we support children to attend, including taking some back to boarding schools for the start of term (some children board due to particular needs they have or because their situations at home are so difficult). This has also involved some "interesting" journeys across town in matatu's (essentially shared taxis/ overcrowded mini-buses!). I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the chaos of the traffic here....

This week has been Tammy's last week at Hands for Hope and I take over fully on Monday. The staff, children and families are very sad to see her leave. As well as a really fantastic leaving do with the staff , the nursery children enjoyed making Tammy a hand print card. See some pictures of both below:
 

Gilbert enjoying the painting!

The staff party at the guest house:

Preparing chicken and chips for everyone... (due to the frequent power cuts a lot of the cooking here is done stoves outside)

A few people have asked what we eat at lunch at work. Every day we have rice, beans, cabbage and matoke (plantain), occasionally g-nut sauce (a pink sauce made of peanuts, which I wasn't a fan of start with, but now I'm kind of addicted to) and meat on a Friday! Tammy, Hildah (the staff member I share an office with) and I often have a mid-morning treat of a samosa from the shop next door. They cost 300 shillings each (17p) and are brilliantly tasty and greasy! I also quite like a "rolex" from time to time - a local street food that's a bit like a pancake with various fillings - great for a hangover....

Out of work, I've started going to yoga classes every week, have tried out the local swimming pool and even been out running a couple of times - though the heat combined with constantly needing to dodge bodas, man-holes and goats makes running here slightly less relaxing than running around Greenwich Park! I tried out the cinema last weekend and saw 12 Years a Slave (great but bleak, if you've not seen it) and have also been to a quiz night at Bubbles (Kampala's main Irish bar...). The winning team has to write the following week's quiz so I was quite glad we totally lost (the round on infectious diseases was particularly fun...).

We also went out for sushi, drinks and brunch last weekend for Tammy's birthday:


 

At Yujo, the sushi restaurant

 

All day Sunday brunch
 

Tonight I'm looking forward to dinner and drinks with Sam, (who some of you will know), who used to work at Newham and is over in Uganda with his (new) work and on Monday I move out of the guest house and into the flat, where I will be for the rest of my time here.

More Hands for Hope things and a trip to Jinja.

I thought I would write a bit about my time at work since my earlier update a week or so ago. I’ve done two full weeks at Hands for Hope (HfH) now. The first week was the final week of our holiday programme for the children before the school term starts next week.

The nursery children playing during the holiday programme.

On the final Friday, the children took part in a talent competition “Namuwongo’s got talent”. The contest latest about five hours and I was one of the judges. Here are a few pics:

 

 

 

After the competition, a number of children were given prizes in recognition of the performance across the whole 6 weeks of the holiday programme. They were given pens, maths sets and exercise books, which they were really pleased to receive.

As well as running the nursery and supporting children through primary school, HfH supports vulnerable families in a range of ways, particularly in the area of health. I have visited, Little Light, a health clinic that HfH partners with – providing accessible health care to those living in the Namuwongo slum. HfH also works with partner organisations to train members of the community to be peer educators. Last Saturday morning I attended a session the peer educators were delivering to young people from the slum on sexual health.

I’ve also spent more time with the social work team in the Namuwongo slum (and have also been to the Nsambya slum, whose families HfH also supports) and visited a number of families. I’ve been learning about some very complex and challenging cases and the team do a really fantastic job at supporting the families who are in incredibly difficult circumstances.

HfH currently runs its nursery and offices across two building, based a 15min walk apart. We are currently trying to raise enough money to buy a new building, which will not only save money, but will also be more fit for purpose and enable us have more space to increase our community work. We have £25,000 left to raise (that’s 100,000,000 Ugandan shillings…. – trying to work with budgets in such high numbers is quite interesting….). I’ve been to visit a couple of potential sites and am quite excited that I will be involved in the (fingers crossed!) completion of this project over the next year.

Finally, I briefly visited the Ugandan national library as they donated some books to us. At HfH, we run a community library, containing about 3000 books and used by the families we work with as well as local schools:

 

On the non-work front, I’ve just spent a lovely weekend camping in Jinja. Jinja lies about 80km from Kampala and is famous for being the source of the Nile. Here are some pics:

 

 

 

Today at work - at HfH we work with three children with disabilities. I'm going with them today back to their school in Entebbe. In the evening I'm off to a yoga class nearby - my first attempt at any exercise since I got here...