Tricia’s Blog

I want to be a hippo…

Wow, what a weekend! I know this will all be detailed in Mandy’s blog, but I want to write about it too, so I will. My sister Betsy, Mandy, and I went on safari this past weekend and it was amazing. There are great things to do in Uganda if you are not working all of the time! We left early Saturday morning to drive north to Murchison Falls national park to see animals. We drove in a safari van, which involved a pop-up top so that we could stand up inside and see out. We drove about 4 hours until we made it to the entrance of the park. Part of that 4 hours was driving probably 5 miles along a stretch of road that had a speed bump every 10 meters! There were about 500 speed bumps in this stretch, so we had to go very slow the entire time. We asked our driver what the purpose of these “speed humps” as they say here was, and he answered that the road is under construction and that is their way to ensure that drivers go slow. It definitely worked, but seemed like overkill to then have to remove or build over all of these speed bumps once the road is completed! Interesting. Once we left Kampala and were driving through countryside, we saw what I think of as stereotypical Africa…small mud huts with grass roofs, cows, goats, and chickens in the roads, only dirt roads, etc. It is SO much nicer not to be in the fume- and smog-filled city. Maybe it is nicer because we are not working. Well, for sure it is, but leaving the city helps too.

Anyway, once we made it to Murchison Falls, we had a 72 km drive to our campsite during which we saw several families of baboons. We reached our campsite and found our safari tents. They were amazing tents which were large enough for two beds. However they had very little ventilation, so were extremely hot! We put down our things and then went on a game drive. This involved taking our safari van to a ferry to cross the Nile river to the game park. We drove around for 3 hours, and saw lots of antelope, giraffes, elephants, hippos, and water buffalo. Amazing! That evening we slept in our sauna-like tent, which was hot and steamy but a much needed rest anyway. The camp was full of very large warthogs which reminded us of The Lion King. We were told not to leave any food in our tent because the warthogs have such an amazing sense of smell that they can smell the smallest morsel of food in the bottom of a suitcase and will tear down the tent to get to it. Unfortunately, we had some cookies and we couldn’t find our van driver to open the van and put them inside, so we had no choice but to leave them in the tent overnight (or throw them away, which obviously was not an option). So we wrapped the container in the thick blankets (that we obviously did not need for warmth) to mask the smell as best we could, and spent a nervous night wondering if we’d be attacked by warthogs. In the morning both we and the cookies were safe. The following morning we set out on game drive #2 in which we saw more of everything we’d seen the day before, but added to the list lions and a leopard. The lion seems to be the most coveted creature to see, as that is the one we’ve been asked about over and over since getting back to Kampala. That afternoon we went on a boat to the bottom of Murchison Falls. We saw many of the same creatures along the shoreline, but also saw lots of hippos up very close, and crocodiles. We saw the bottom of the beautiful falls as well. That night we slept in our warm tent again. The following morning we started off for Kampala, but stopped to see the top of the same falls. They are much more impressive from the top, with an incredible roar of water and white spray everywhere. We took lots of pictures. In fact, between the 3 of us we have over 1000 photos and 25 videos of our safari. I have decided the perfect life for me would be that of a hippo. They lounge in the water all day, and then eat all night. I can’t imagine anything better! They also seem to be friends with the crocodiles, as the two were very close several times and did not seem bothered by each other.

We arrived back in Kampala on Monday night and stayed at Betsy’s house so that we could take another short trip Tuesday. Tuesday was Uganda’s Liberation Day, so a national holiday here. Betsy did not have to teach, and we had asked for that day off, so we went to visit Mukono, a smaller town about 1 hr from Kampala to visit the Ugandan family that Betsy stayed with during her first semester here in 2008. Once in Mukono, we set off to find her host family’s house. We were told about a shortcut, so we tried it. We did something wrong, because we were walking through banana growing forests, people’s fields, dodging cows, and not finding anything that looked like a road, just tromping through the brush. But we kept walking and asking people where the road was, and eventually we found it, and Betsy recognized that her house was right there where we came out onto the road, so that was lucky. Her host family was not expecting us, (Betsy had tried to contact them but had been unable to) so was surprised, but they were extremely welcoming and very excited to meet “Betty’s” family and friend. It is customary here for the hosts to feed the guests, even if it means leaving the guests alone to prepare food. So that is what happened. The family rushed around in their outdoor kitchen preparing rice and matoke (plantains made like potatoes) and g-nut sauce (a sauce made of ground nuts) and juice for us. They left us in the sitting room alone for an hour or so. Finally the meal was ready and they ate with us. It was very fun to talk with them. I got to see the tiny bedroom that Betsy shared with 3 other family members when she was there, and I got to use the “bathroom” that she used, which was actually a brick-sized hole in the ground that you were supposed to squat over. I discovered my aim is not that great! Overall it was a lot of fun to finally interact with some Ugandans. We made it back to Kampala safely after another hour or so on various matatus (15 passenger vans that are packed with more than 15 people and serve as taxis) to arrive at our destination. A very fun vacation weekend indeed. Wednesday we start back to work, and we have no more days off on the schedule that has been made so far. We’ll see if we have any once the next schedule comes out. I do not anticipate that we will, but there is so much more that I would love to see, I am hoping that we might. So back to the real world. Oh, to be a hippo!

PS: I mentioned before the lack of hypertension in Uganda. I have now found one of my only hypertensive patients: Mandy Schmidt. Luckily she has been taking her HCTZ, but I think she may need a second agent!