I am officially in love with Karamoja.  It's the only part of Uganda that I actually enjoy being in.  I will come back here someday.

Yesterday I helped to plait one of the housegirls' hair, impressed everyone with my apparently speedy braiding skills (who knew?), had some nakarimojong language lessons, and discovered the 3-day-old puppies at the guesthouse.  I spent about 3 hours last night hanging out with a couple that just arrived in Moroto to work with SP, the two housegirls, two children, the guard, the lady who runs the guesthouse, and her sister-in-law (who is just back from living for several years with her family in Holland, and is now working with Mama Janet in agriculture & development).  The two children had never been to school before, and guy working with SP was teaching them how to use a computer.  The guard doesn't know any English.  He's also never been to school.  We were teaching him how to say the letters that spell his name.  He thought that saying the letter "P" was the greatest sound ever.

I'm Becoming a Nomad...

I'm back in Karamoja.  Tonight will be my third of eight consecutive nights in Moroto.  It will also be the third different room and second hotel that I've stayed at.  I've already been told that I'll be moving to another room tomorrow, too.  This is a little bit ridiculous, though quite comical nonetheless since I've had to carry my unpacked clothes from room to room both yesterday and today (though today's trip entailed a short car ride to get to a different hotel).  I'm not quite sure I understand how we arrived at this confusion, though, because reception at the first hotel told me I was staying for 8 nights, and all the rest of the IRC staff are still staying there.  Oh well, it's not like I socialized with any of them the past two days anyways (they're all health staff, doctors and high up people).

51 Days Left in Uganda

My leave time is officially over.  I'm sitting in the Kampala office right now.  For some reason I didn't have internet access all morning, and now I do, so I'm updating this before getting back to work.

Kevin and I had an absolutely wonderful time together here.  The trip started with him coming to Kitgum for 5 days, during which I had to work, he came to the office and hung out with some coworkers, we went to Kidepo Valley NP (and crossed the unmarked and unguarded border into Southern Sudan), and we went to a memorial day cookout several Peace Corps people, a Spanish MSF employee, David from Oxfam (who thankfully returned my Its Always Sunny dvds that his colleague had borrowed in Feb and failed to give back when he left Uganda in April) and a few other random people who happened to be/live in Kitgum.  From there, we braved taking the bus from Kitgum to Kampala - Homeland: The Northern Express - and arrived, very much to my surprise and probably thanks to Kevin for staying awake the entire ride, without being victims of theft.  After a night in Kampala, we were picked up by Nile River Explorers and headed to Jinja to go whitewater rafting on the Victoria Nile.  Neither of us had been rafting before, and I think we were both a bit disappointed with the lack of adventure and the high amount of "downtime" during which we had to paddle for about two hours to get to more rapids.  Either way, it was still a fun experience, and hopefully we have a DVD of the day heading to Boston as I write this.  Unfortunately there are no photos, both because we didn't think to bring a camera for before/afterwards, and because they don't have photographers taking action shots (but you all know that if they did, I'd probably have purchased some of the ultra-touristy action shots).  After that all-day adventure, we crashed in Jinja for a night, and headed back to Kampala to stay at the Golf Course Hotel for one night before embarking on our safari tour.  The GCH was awesome - perhaps the nicest traditional hotel I've ever stayed at; it's right downtown, super-fancy, catered towards business travelers, I believe (the ICC conference seemed to be providing most of the clientele while we were there).  It also has the 6th revolving restaurant in Africa, and the only one in Uganda, which we were able to eat at.  The safari was lovely - we began on Friday morning and drove just under halfway, stopping at Mihingo Lodge  at Lake Mburo National Park for the night.  It is by far the most gorgeous lodge I've ever been to; it's built into the mountains with fantastic views.  Unfortunately we were there for less than 24 hours, but we were still able to see zebras & elands drinking from a watering hole from the balcony of our luxurious tent and vervet monkeys playing on the rocks right next to the deck!  We also had a boat trip on the lake, during which I had a minor panic attack and discovered what is quite possibly my biggest fear in life: hippos. No joke.  Our boat was very small, and hippos are quite large and cause many deaths to people in boats.  We went with an AK-47-wielding UWA guide, but that's not very comforting when he's in the back steering the boat directly towards herds of hippos and you're in the front.  The next morning we left Lake Mburo bright & early for the drive to an equally amazing stay at Bwindi Lodge in Buhoma.  To my surprise, we drove a slightly indirect route that took us through the outskirts of Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we saw some herds of elephants and the destruction that elephants can cause when they knock down many trees.  We arrived too late in the afternoon to go on our scheduled nature walk, so we instead tried to do a self-guided walk within the park, but were told it was closed because the mountain gorillas were in the area.  So we instead went for a walk along the river on the property, walked around the community, visited a couple craft shops, and went to the local orphanage and saw children sing & dance in what was quite possibly the most non-touristy tourist attraction ever. We had a relaxing night, hanging out in the main building, and talking with the manager.  The following morning, we woke up super early to go mountain gorilla tracking!  Hooray!  We both expected it to be much more difficult than it actually was; they say that it can take the entire day to reach where they are, but it only took us about 10 or 15 minutes to reach where our group of gorillas was.  We spent about an hour seeing them/photographing them, and one of the juveniles even came up and tugged on my pants leg (and didn't bite me)!  They say that you're supposed to stay a certain distance away from them, but lot of the gorillas came close to us, and the UWA guides were great about positioning us in the best places for great shots/views.  Since we were done with our tracking in about two hours, we headed back to our lodge to change and have a snack; we got there, the staff told us that the gorillas had reached  the property before us; unfortunately we missed most of them, but we were able to see a straggler next to the main building!  Later that day we went on the self-guided walk in the park as well as a nice 3-hour hike  up to 3 waterfalls in the rain before returning to the lodge for  drinks, dinner, and good conversation with our guide and  the two other guests staying at the lodge.  The following morning we embarked on the day-long journey back to Entebbe, where our hotel was decent, but definitely outdated and sub-par compared to the GCH and lodges we'd recently stayed at.    Our trip ended with a day in Kampala, picking up my packed suitcase to send home with Kevin, eating some good, American pizza at the muzungu shopping mall, and braving the taxi park to buy some underpriced bootleg DVDs.

Here's a summary of our trip in photos (I'm excluding things from Kidepo because I got really excited about it after we went and already posted some photos).  There are many, many more photos; some I uploaded to facebook when we had internet access in Kampala/Entebbe, but the rest will have to wait until I'm home or somewhere else where facebook isn't blocked.

1. The day after Kevin arrived, at our monthly staff feedback session (free dinner & drinks)
2. Before going to dinner at the revolving restaurant in Kampala
3. The mass of long-horned cattle that blocked the road to Lake Mburo
4. Sunset view from our deck at Mihingo Lodge in Lake Mburo
5. View of our banda at Mihingo
6. Walking along the river at Bwindi Lodge
7. Mountain Gorilla
8. Juvenile gorilla playing 
9. Silverback
10. Third waterfall that we hiked to
11. At our hotel in Entebbe
12. At the "beach" at Lake Victoria

Kidepo Valley National Park

On Friday evening, Kevin & I along with my coworker/friend Judith & two IRC expats visiting Kitgum headed up to Kidepo Valley NP in the far northeast of Uganda, bordering Sudan & Kenya.  We went in an IRC vehicle with a very good driver (Jacob), who has driven up there three times before, so he knew the roads and what to expect.  Though it rained at some point and there were definitely parts of the road that were terribly muddy, the drive there was uneventful, took about 3 hours, and we didn't get stuck anywhere.  We arrived just in time for dinner and to watch the moon rise.  As we were driving into the park on our way to our hostel, we saw buffalo & giraffes in the distance.  We enjoyed an evening by a large campfire, a nice dinner, and good (though controversial) conversation with our UWA guide and some other rangers/visitors.  We also ran into another IRC employee, who was up for the night with a group of her friends, which was kind of ironic, considering we were about 3 hours away from Kitgum, and national staff don't usually tend to go to the park.  Saturday morning we left at 6:30 for a game drive, which was awesome.  The UWA truck was broken, so we did our game drive sitting on top of the IRC LandCruiser, the 5 of us and our guide.  Jacob once again did a great job as our driver, being especially careful with us on top, which was definitely much appreciated.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of all of us piled up there, but it's okay, because we saw many wonderful things, including lions, lionesses, baboons, giraffes, antelope, many many many buffalo, waterbuck, jackals, elephants, zebras, an old abandoned hotel that Idi Amin built, and so much beautiful scenery as Kidepo is surrounded by mountains.  We returned from our morning game drive around 10am, enjoyed some tea and Rolexes (chapattis with eggs inside rolled not unlike a burrito), and went out again to see some more animals, visit some natural hotsprings, and see the Sudanese border.  While out the second time, we also passed through the area where the rhinos will be eventually; years ago there were rhinos native to Kidepo, but during the 60s & 70s they were all killed during some chaotic times.  Overall, the park was wonderful, I'm very glad we got to go at least for one night (planning was quite difficult), and I definitely hope that I can visit again before I leave Uganda.

Just a few photos of what we saw.  There are many, many more, but these are some of my faves.

this is the view from the top floor of the old Katurum Lodge, built by Amin.  

Lazy Weekend

Last weekend I meant to be really productive.  I had big plans.  Unfortunately, I wasn't so productive.  I spent all day Saturday hanging out with a friend from the Peace Corps and another expat who runs/works at a nice local restaurant/hotel in town (that basically only expats or NGO workers hang out at).  We didn't do much, just hung out, chatted, drank some beer.  In the evening a Kenyan NGO worker stopped by.  I'd never met him before, but I found the conversation with him to be very interesting, especially hearing his views about maternal health & nutrition.  He didn't share too much, but talked about how his parents are/were pastoralists.  Sunday I spent laying in the sun at my house and reading a book, because I was too lazy to go anywhere, and because my bank card no longer works, so I don't have any money to spend on anything in town.  That's okay, though, because I very much enjoyed having some sun for a change.  While I was outside reading, I happened to look up and see a circular rainbow around the sun (hence the photo).  

Upcoming Events

things I'm looking forward to in the next month:

1. Kevin arrives on Wednesday!
2. Trip to Kidepo Valley National Park!
3. White water rafting on the Victoria Nile!
4. Seeing Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park!
5. Sending my suitcase of useless things (and gifts for people) home with Kevin.  
6. Traveling to Karamoja for 3 weeks, including a trip back to Nakapiripirit (which I have decided is my favorite place in Uganda), staying in Moroto, and a trip to Kotido.  This will hopefully include the purchase of some beaded jewelry (hopefully a collar neckalce, beaded earrings, and beaded waistbands that they wear), a Karamojong plaid skirt, a piece of plaid fabric to wear as a cape/shawl, and a fun hat that the Karamojong men wear.  I also aim to take many photos of the Karamojong wearing all of the above-stated things in the sad event that I am not able to purchase any/all of them for myself.  

things I'm not looking forward to in the next month:

1. All the work I have to do, especially things like creating charts and graphs in excel.  
2. Attempting to find a real job.  I should really start this tedious process, but I have very little motivation.

LRA Disarmament & Northern Uganda Recovery Act

From an email that I received today....

"Wednesday evening the US Congress passed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act following an affirmative vote in the House of Representatives. The vote was accompanied by several strong statements of support from influential Representatives calling for US leadership to support viable efforts to apprehend top LRA commanders and permanently end LRA atrocities in central Africa, as well as to hold the Ugandan government accountable for ensuring a transparent and comprehensive reconstruction process in northern Uganda. The legislation is now on President Obama's desk, and he has 10 days to either sign it into law or veto it.

The bill's passage reflects unprecedented consensus in Congress that President Obama should take stronger steps to help stop LRA violence and support efforts to secure lasting peace in northern Uganda. The legislation was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 65 Senators and 201 Representatives, making it the most widely supported Africa-specific bill in US history. Tens of thousands of US citizens mobilized in support of the legislation, including nearly 2,000 who participated in a Washington, DC lobby day last year and thousands more who participated in hundreds of meetings with Congressional offices across the country."

For more information on the bill, check out the ResolveUganda website here.