Some pics

Here are the chimps:




Me and the chimps:


View from my hotel room:


Lake Victoria:


Commuter monkeys at the hotel:

The monkeys

On my last day in Uganda I finally got to see what I have been longing to see...the chimpanzees. One of my colleagues from IFPRI and I took an hour boat ride to Ngamba island, which sits on the Ugandan part of Lake Victoria and is home to a chimpanzee sanctuary. This sanctuary houses 42 chimps who have been rescued from poachers and illegal pet traders. Since chimps are quite aggressive and territorial, all the chimps were brought to the sanctuary as babies so that they can be easier reintegrated into the sanctuary chimp community. We were there right in time for the afternoon feeding. Since the monkeys know what time they get fed, when we first got to the island, we heard this loud noise, which resembled both screaming children's voices and the noise that chickens make when they are being chased. We also heard some banging noise, which made it sound as if the chimps were banging on each other. When we got to the gated area of the island that separates the forest where the monkeys live and the small area with the camping tents and keepers' quarters, the chimps were already there eagerly waiting for their food. At lunch they get fruit and vegetables; we were told that they prefer fruit, but still eat eggplant and carrots after they get done with the good stuff.

It was truly amazing to see how the chimps behaved at the time of feeding. The keepers were throwing pieces of fruit and veggies across the fence, and the monkeys were running around, picking up the food, pushing and fighting with each other, and hoarding the food they collected before eating to gather up some more (exhibiting truly capitalist behavior). But at the end of the meal you could see some of the grown-up females picking up the younger ones and carrying them on their backs back to the forest (the guide explained that babies usually get adopted by an adult female).

Overall, this was definitely a very fun experience. Hanging out with the chimps, who btw share 98% of human genes, made me forget about the stress of the previous week. Besides the minor inconvenience of getting sunburnt (hello, it's the equator), the boat ride to the island and back allowed a nice chance to get a better view of the lake and bathe in the warm sun before returning to the icy cold DC (spring is being terribly late this year).

The flight back home was pretty tolerable, and Im beginning to endure these long flights and really liking the Airbus 330. It is good to be back home (despite the weather).

Part 2: Policy Conference

The last two days of the conference were very busy since the number of participants doubled due to the addition of policymakers from project countries. We even had several members of parliament from Ethiopia and Uganda. Several of the policymakers were women (2 from Indonesia and 2 from Uganda), who were very vocal and active in the discussions (girlpower:). The two days flew by really fast between sessions and running around, but the results were good since most everything ran smoothly, and the discussions and sessions were quite productive. On Friday night I was finally able to relax and enjoy dinner with the rest of CAPRi folks and our executive committee at a restaraunt overlooking the lake.

Field Trip, Wednesday, February 28th

On Wednesday morning I got up extremely early to do registration for the policymakers who arrived on Tuesday night. To my greatest surprise, the buses that we have booked for the field trip arrived on time since our local collaborator has been calling them every 3 hours to remind about the agreed time of departure. So, only 15 minutes past the appointed time (which is super excellent for Africa) 2 buses left for the Mabira forest site, and 1 bus left for the Mpigi burial society. I chose to lead the group going to the burial society. On the way there I realized that besides a local community representative who speaks both Luganda (local language) and understandable English and the representative from Kenya who speaks Swahili (which many people in Uganda understand), we are really without significant language support.Besides, upon getting to the site I realized that I was actually perceived as the leader of the group (which included a Canadian researcher who works in my office in DC, 3 Ethiopian policymakers, several Indonesians, 2 Germans, and a Filipino lady). While this may appear as a cool role, it turned out that it was my responsibility to give a welcome speech to the community...This is when I realized that I was not able to give a speech on the spot and turned to my Canadian colleague for help. This brilliant man was able to give a wonderful speech with 3 points underlying successful associations, which made all of us wonder how he pulled it off in 2 seconds. I gave the finishing comments and passed on the envelope with the expected contribution.

Burial societies, which are common across many parts of the world, is similar to life insurance in the West, where people contribute monthly or on occasion of death for the funeral procedures. This particular one is pretty successful, and their activities span beyond just funerals to catering weddings, graduations, and other parties. During the visit the community leaders told us about the procedures and organizational rules as well as reenacted a funeral procession. Then they fed us this enormous lunch consisting of traditional mashed bananas and an assortment of tubers as well as the best tasting sweet potatoes I have ever tried (orange-flesh sweet potato). I also had a chance to try jackfruit, which turned out to be quite delicious.

On the way back to the hotel, we were asked by the Ethiopian policymakers to make a quick tour to Makerere University, main university of Uganda and the first university in East Africa. When we drove into the campus, which was similar to a typical American college campus except with run-down infrastructure, there was a general upsurge of excited exclamations in Amharic (main local language in Ethiopia). Apparently, this university is quite famous across Africa.

After a brief shopping trip to a craft market, during which I behaved really well (ie spent very little money), we returned to the hotel where I had to do some more running around to prepare for the policy conference for Thursday and Friday.

P.S. I realized that for me, the amount of money spent at a local money is directly correlated with how "fun" the shopping experience is. While in Kenya I had a blast interacting and bargaining with vendors, which resulted in large overspending of funds, in Uganda the vendors were very sedate, which didn't motivate me to engage in much bargaining, ie spending.

Part 1: Research Workshop

So, part 1 of this conference is over. On Monday and Tuesday we hosted a group of researchers who were part of our global project (see first posting), during which they discussed their work in-depth and prepared key policy messages. Tomorrow, the policy conference starts, during which the researchers will be meeting with the policymakers from project countries whom they have invited to this conference. So, while the first part is over and was pretty successful with a few minor mishaps, Im dreading the second part a bit because of the amount of people that will be here.

I have been surviving on God's grace with minimal sleep and lots of running around. Today I actually overslept, but was still able to be on time at the meeting.Tomorrow we are going on a field trip, which could be quite stressful in terms of organizing, but also quite exciting since we will get a taste of a Ugandan countryside.

One thing that has been sooo refreshing and perhaps kept me smiling while being stressed is the MONKEYS!!! It has been amazing to find out that our hotel is located between a Wild Animal Park and Botanical Gardens. The monkeys, who live in the Gardens, daily migrate to the Zoo in the morning and then back to the Gardens in the afternoon. Monday night, while waiting for transportation to take us to the reception at a neighboring resort, we had a chance to observe tons of monkeys just walking around the hotel parking lot, playing with each other, jumping around, and staring at us. The cutest thing was to see the little baby monkeys who were very curious and not a bit shy (one got pretty close to me as I was trying to take a picture, but then decided against trying to approach me). It is amazing to see the mama monkeys running around with the little babies hanging on to their stomachs. While being sleepy and anxious this morning (since I had to literally jump out of bed once I realized that I had overslept), I was revived by seeing the monkeys on my way to the meeting hall...what a way to start your day!

Few days in Entebbe

The past few days have been a whirlwind of running around the hotel making sure the logistics for the conference are taken care of and meeting with my colleagues to make sure that the content portion of the conference is straightened out. So, the show starts tomorrow, and Im relying on God's grace to carry me through the next week.

Several tidbits from the few busy days:

-Nice walk in the Entebbe Botanical Garden with my boss talking about non-work matters

-Having dinner outside on a nice cool African night

-Finding out that our local collaborator is a Christian and learning the inspiring story of his conversion and his family

-Tons of starch-filled delicious foods: all sorts of plantains, arrow roots, cassava, sweet potatoes (plus avocados every day)

-Having the hotel put my boss in a huge suite so she is excited

-Hanging out with a parrot that was sitting near my window and feeding him bananas

-Gorgeous views outside my windows (the lake, lush greenery, colonial-style buildings)

-Hilarious security guard: short, in a grey business suite, and sunglasses

First day in Uganda

After a very long flight consisting of 3 parts (DC-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Nairobi, Nairobi-Entebbe, Uganda), we (me and my coworker Esther) are finally here. It is super warm and a bit humid, but the nice breeze from Lake Victoria makes it very bearable (besides, I would much rather be hot in Entebbe than freezing my tail off standing at the busstop in DC). Our hotel, for which we are paying a pretty penny, turned out to be a disappointment. While the original structure is good, it has not been maintained very well, and things just seem to be somewhat run down and old. The service leaves much to be desired as well.

Today was dedicated to the preliminary visit of the field trip sites, to which we will be taking the larger group next week. First, we went to a burial society about an hour away from the hotel into the Ugandan countryside. A burial (funerary) association is formed by people in the community who each contribute a small amount to the joint fund upon which they can draw when someone in the family dies. It is a form of life insurance and more and more becoming a form of health insurance, especially in the countries plagued by AIDS. We were very warmly by the leaders of the association, most of whom turned out to be women. They took us to a gravesite for one of the clans and explained a bit about how they operate. The gravesite was located on the communal land attached to one of the members' gardens, where I for the first time was able to see cassava and sweet potato plants. We also planned out the agenda for the visit.

Next we went to Kampala (the capital) and had a delicious lunch of matooke (mashed bananas or plantains) with peanut (groundnut) sauce and all kinds of tubers (cassava among them). After lunch we headed off to another site called Mabira Forest where we visited the forest association officials and planned out the group visit there. The forest has been made into an eco-camping ground and looked very serene and lush, resembling the rest of the Ugandan countryside.

Now we are back at the hotel, and, since my jetlag is kicking in, Im planning to put in a few hours of work before I drop dead onto the bed. Overall, even though so far Im not as crazy about Uganda as I was about Kenya, the people seem to be extremely friendly and jovial, the countryside very green, and the food very delicious. Besides, the view of the Lake from my windows doesn't hurt either:)