UGANDA!

We had the opportunity to take an Amazing trip to Uganda with our Fabulous NY friends Avri and Jeremy.  We were originally going to visit eastern DRC but unfortunately (in so many ways) the militia/guerilla problems have gotten bad there again so it's not safe to travel there (not to mention to live there, whether you're a villager or a mountain gorilla).

Given the short lead time, busy schedules, limited vacation time, and our current rough circumstances, we decided to opt for a guided tour (for the first time in our lives).  We went with Gorilla Tours and if you ever go to Uganda (and you should!), contact them. Our trip was amazing.  Uganda has the most friendly people we've ever had the pleasure of knowing (everyone greets you with "You are Welcome!" as soon as they see you). And they are still fairly unused to tourists and recently getting over pretty horrible unrest (still ongoing in some areas of the north) so they seemed very excited to have us there. Plus there was that whole Ebola outbreak, so they may also have been happy to have us there at all. They also have a great range of ecosystems, including savannah (lions, warthogs, and elephants, oh my), rainforest (with 2 of the 5 great ape species and many monkey species), wetlands (crocodiles, hippos, water buffalo), literally thousands of birds, and Lake Victoria (the world's 2nd largest lake after Lake Superior).  We got to visit and experience all of it, culminating in a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see half dozen of the world's 700 remaining mountain gorillas. But instead of going on and on with a trip story, we'd like to just share a few photos and a video we took.

Biting more than he can chew...

We're prepping for a vacation to Uganda to see the gorillas (and not catch Ebola!), so for this week's entry, we thought we'd show you our new favorite pasttime - watching our puppy try to play with 2 toys at once.

Last Chance for Live Crocodiles

Matt signed a short term contract to do some consulting with an organization looking to build 20 or so schools out near Lac Mai Ndombe (Black Water Lake). This is his story.

They (who shall remain nameless for the sake of confidentiality) said they were nearly finished building two schools and wanted someone to survey the plans, budgets, sites, management, and construction to find ways to improve their processes. The plan to build 20 schools over the next 5 years. Ambitious. So they booked me a flight to Inongo on Kin Avia (local airline) and told me someone would meet me at the airport when I arrived. When I arrived in Inongo (landing on a dirt runway like you see in the movies) I met with the project manager who, the night before, told me that she would be leaving on the flight I would be arriving on to return to Canada due to a death in the family. Death never comes at a good time.

We talked a bit and sorted out the new plan then loaded up the truck and headed to the house (an old concrete house with no running water (all bathing and flushing done with buckets) and power for only 3 or 4 hours after sundown via generator). I dropped my bags and jumped on the back of a dirt bike (motorcycle) to head to the company headquarters to catch a boat to the first village. All the travel between the 5 villages was done by boat.

This is our boat. Complete with plastic lawn chairs.

Its pretty much a boating and fishing community around the lake. This is a fishing boat under construction. They build 'em big on the largest lake in the DRC. They also catch a lot of fish. At one point on the way between two villages, we ran into the middle of a net that was well over a kilometer long. We could not see the end in either direction. So we just guessed left and had to go around it. The communities operates on the "You break it, you bought it" philosophy and nets are expensive. Apparently they are also very bad for the fish populations.

Later that evening at camp we had fish of course.

basecamp

I asked the cook if the fish was a whale. She didn't laugh. Maybe my french is that bad. Maybe she doesn't know what a whale is. I thought it was funny. Either way, its a big fish.

The next 2 nights we had goat. Its surprisingly good.

And yes, that is a Tony Gonzalez, Kansas City Chiefs jersey.

On the way to a village a couple of days later, we stopped at a rest stop. Hilariously, everyone checked their phones for cell service. We had been on the boat for 3 hours at this point and still weren't there yet. Its hard to get much more remote than this.

Anyone got a signal?

Finally we spotted our final destination. The village of Lobeke (Lowbeky).

Turns out they have a palm-oil factory here. Yes, that is a man-made hill composed of spent palm nuts.  Its a booming industry.

Just dip your old water bottle in and pay the price . . .

After an impromptu village meeting where we became the center of attention of about 200+ villagers wondering when "We" are going to follow through on our promises, promises, promises, then being asked to give them a truck and some motorcycles cause the work they agreed to do is too hard (B.S.), and then one of my guides (one of the managers of the company I'm with) handing money to the chief (an old guy with a giant swollen infected foot who refuses to get treatment) while a kid is screaming in the background 30 yards away because someone is setting his broken arm, and then on the way out of town the same manager I'm with throwing money to people from our departing boat (which fell into the water and people were scooping up), we sat down on the boat for a wild Avacodo and roasted peanut sandwich (freaking delicious). This story kind of sums up the more technical aspects my survey also. My report was 28 pages long (lots of pictures).

Then more yachting around with the wind in my hair and sun on the face on the way home.

 

That night I asked when I would be picked up for my flight the following morning. From three different people I received answers of 8:00, 9:00, and 9:30AM. Just in case, I was ready at 7:30 AM. 2 hours later, two motorcycles showed up at the house and said we had to hurry because the plane was at the airport and was getting ready to leave. Of course it is. I gave my pack to one guy and jumped on the back of the other dirt bike and we flew to the airport. It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Kind of fun in a scary way.

When we got to the airport I was handed my ticket and given two very heavy packages to take back to Kinshasa by the guys on the dirt bikes (free postage). Then a guy walked up to me and asked if I wanted to buy a live crocodile before I left. What? Yes. Wait. No. Definitely No. This guy was walking around with two live 4 foot long crocodiles with a piece of twine around their mouths and their arms tied behind their backs. I later found out that on a flight last November, someone bought a crocodile and boarded the plane with it. It got loose, everyone on the plane freaked out, the pilot couldn't control the plane with all the shifting weight and the plane crashed and killed everyone on board. Its hard to believe, but that's the story floating around.

Last Chance for Crocodiles!

 As I approach the plane, I see the pilot throwing luggage off the plane saying "no more" and several people throwing luggage on the plane as he is throwing it off. The Russian pilot who was calling everyone "Amigo" told me I couldn't get on the plane with my 14 kilogram pack. I had to ditch 10 kilograms or be left behind. WTF. I grabbed my cameras, notes, meds, phone, and water bottle and gave the rest to one of the motorcycle guys. Then jumped on the plane as the pilot kicked people back so he could close the door.

 

 Looking out the window past the disappointed people and the luggage that didn't make the plane, I noticed something unusual . . . Do you see it?

That's a live goose wrapped in plastic and taped from the base of its neck to its tail feathers waiting to be shipped to Kinshasa. Poor guy. Its really hot out there.

Anyway, I made it back after mowing the lawn with the plane half the way home (nothing like a close up, high speed view of the upper canopy of a rain forest). The flight attendant sat on the floor. Kids sat in their parents laps. There are 18 seats on the plane. There were more than 18 passengers. A week later my bag showed up at our apartment unannounced. All in all, not a bad trip. I hope I get to go back.

Toni Lyn's 33rd Birthday

My favorite Birthday Present!

Birthday Picnic on the Congo River

Birthday Dinner at Local Italian Restaurant

Matt made a cake!

The flat tire at 1 am on the way out dancing...

Just another day in Kinshasa!

We are headed North…

(Here's a story from the trip that Toni Lyn took for work in June.)

Day 1:

4 am pick up, 8 am flight to Mbandaka, a rural city in northern central DRC, in-between time (after the sun rises) I catch up on The Week magazines (thanks Amie!). Last time I was in Mbandaka I got horrible food poisoning. I pass on the airline food.

Load on to a boat with 3 government ministers (Mr. Their Excellences) to speed down the Congo River back south and then up north again on the Ubangi River, a large tributary of the great Congo River, to the Nonprofit-Conservation-Group-That-Shall-Remain-Nameless research station just outside the newly established national park there.  Exhilarating.   

The trip on the river is over 4 hours and we arrive after dark.  Navigating an unfamiliar river in the new-moon dark…glad I’m not driving.   

Spent the night in one of the few rooms in the research station building (rest of the group out on the lawn in tents, except the Mr. Their Excellences who also get rooms).

Day 2:
Had the first of many many outdoor meetings where community members tell Conservation-Group-That-Shall-Remain-Nameless how they haven’t gotten as much as they think they deserve, and Conservation-Group-That-Shall-Remain-Nameless (CGTSHN) asks them whether they’ve actually used what they’ve been given already (e.g., community asks for a school, CGTSHN buys a brick press, community members don’t get around to making bricks to build their school).   

Community Meeting - Note the women sit outside of the main circle (except for me - that's my empty chair)

I make people laugh appreciatively by speaking two words of the local language (Lingala).  I laugh too because it’s two fewer words of French for me to have to speak.  A pet monkey attends the meeting as well.

Head back to Mbandaka but stop in villages along the river for similar meetings. One village has mosquito nets sewn together and hanging to dry and I am introduced to the great irony of the One Family One Net policy – mosquito nets make better fishing nets than they do health care tools apparently.  Unfortunately, they make for totally unsustainable fishing – more on that later.

Mosquito nets sewn together to make fishing nets

Stay in Mbandaka at a huge newly-renovated, old early 20^th century hotel that has been (somewhat) refurbished.  My room has running water, which is a pleasant surprise.  The water runs out of the back of the toilet onto the floor, which isn’t.

Eat dinner at The Pirogue, one of the two restaurants in town, with CGTSHN colleagues, who are taking me around on this trip. Watch the EURO soccer tournament, drink too much whiskey and end up chasing the cats around.

Incredibly noisy rainstorm throughout the night. So much for the dry season.

Day 3: Lac Tumba

Rainstorm prevented my US government colleagues from joining the trip so it’s just little old me and the entourage. I wasn’t even supposed to be on this trip, I was originally just a tag along; now I represent the donors that are supposed to listen (and talk to) all of the villagers and government officials.  Makes for an awkward trip, lots of added pressure, no friendly Americans to keep me company, etc.

Pack back into the speed boat with the now familiar crew of CGTSHNrs and Mr. Their Excellences.  Back down the Congo River and this time continue south to Lac Tumba. Stop at villages along the way to ask about what they need and tell them to stop using mosquito nets to fish, which is catching fish that are too small for anyone but the protein-starved people of Kinshasa and is decimating the resource base of a people who essentially only eat, and have only ever eaten, fish.  Apparently there is not even any malaria in the area because the lake is too acidic.

In my introductory speeches to the villages, I show off the new words of Lingala I’ve picked up in the last few days.  It’s not even clear that people can tell I’m speaking Lingala but I try to say very inspiring things.  Sounds pretty inane to me.  Probably my translator can’t understand me anyway so for all I know he’s just making it up. 

Stop at a Nature Reserve that by some miracle, or more likely incredible dedication, has preserved trees, monkeys, and a scientific laboratory throughout all the political chaos of the last decades.  It feels a bit like we’re the first people to check in in forty years.  I make myself a promise to somehow somewhere find them support to renovate and continue.

 

Stay over at a research station on Lac Tumba.  Go for a swim despite warnings of crocodiles and it’s one of the best swimming experiences I’ve had in a long time (i.e., warm!).  Play a Congolese card game whose rules seem to change every 5 minutes, though I seem to be the only one that doesn’t understand them.  Drink too much whiskey and go to sleep a sore loser. This research station has only 3 bedrooms, so the Mr. Their Excellences sleep inside and I sleep in a one-person tent on the lawn like everyone else. The next morning I discover I slept with not one but two thumb-sized spiders in my suddenly coffin-sized tent.

Day 4: Mosquito Nets

Meet with the community that lives near the research station.  Give them the speech about the mosquito nets. They agree whole-heartedly.

 

As we’re wrapping up, a pirogue (dug-out tree canoe that the locals use as fishing boat) pulls up to the beach absolutely loaded with mosquito-net-turned-fishing-nets.  Mr. Their Excellences decide it’s time to set an example and order their guards to pull the nets from the pirogue. Then they set them on fire. Feels like a scene from a movie when the officials come in throw the poachers on their faces and confiscate their catch. 

 

In this case, their catch isn’t gorilla hands or shark fins or elephant tusks but hundreds and hundreds of very small fish. It brings ambivalent feelings – the government officials are actually enforching the law, but they’re doing it at the expense of poor villagers. Who in turn are ruining their resource base and the resource base for all of the villages in the area. I’m told that only a few people can afford all those mosquito nets and they sell their catch to Kinshasa so very few benefit (and many suffer) through these practices. And yet when another pirogue appears on the horizon, presumably also full of mosquito-net-turned-fishing-nets, villagers frantically wave them away (out of sight of the government officials) until they turn back and disappear around a bend.

Stay at the old-new hotel in Mbandaka again. Ask for a different room where the toilet doesn’t flush onto the floor.  Gave me a room without running water.  Should have been more specific…

Have dinner at the only other restaurant in town, have too little to drink this time and go home bored.

Day 5: Dinner, eventually

Dinner with the usual NCGTSRNrs. Wait from 7:45 til 10:30 to get my pizza that I didn’t want in the first place. Power goes out for 45 minutes in the middle.  I originally asked for vegetables and potatoes but they told me they didn’t have any.  When the food comes, they bring my lackluster pizza and they bring my colleague a plate of beef, potatoes, and assorted very-tasting looking vegetables.  I am sad, though my colleague’s offer of bites of potato makes it a bit better.  Later try to give a slice of the uneaten pizza to the two hungry-looking guards at the hotel.  Except shoot, there are three.  The first guard solves the dilemma by telling me that pizza is fine for people like me but he wants me to give him some of the local cassava dish. I take the slice back and give it to the third guard.  When I look at the second one, he quickly holds the pizza slice away from me.

Day 6:

Fly to Mabelo, a research station south of the lake, where you can visit bonobos, the great ape species that is only found in the DRC.

Day 7:

Wake at 2:30 (yes, 2:30 am) to have coffee (well, the others do) and go see the bonobos.  It’s my first experience seeing great apes in the wild.  Incredible.  

Day 8:

Home Sweet Home