A Break from Kampala

Let us rewind back to the first trip I made up country…

Nicole came up to Lira to meet me on Friday, and Saturday morning we left for Murchison Falls National Park.  We were able to take a vehicle from my organization because some participants left the 4-day workshop early and everyone else could ride in the other remaining vehicles which were heading back to Kampala.  That is how we were lucky enough to have James as our driver for the weekend and have a chance to learn a lot from him.  (In the interest of transparency and accountability, we did pay for the extra vehicle miles and James’s fees. Despite traveling in a company car.)

Nicole, would you like to take the helm on this one?

I sure would….So, off we went. The road started out great—paved tarmac most of the way.  During the trip we learned a bit about James.  Not only is a fantastic driver, careful, alert, and informative when it comes to pointing things out along our travels, but he is a real Ranger.  He retired from the Uganda Wildlife Association, or UWA, after working there for over 40 years.  He’s 69 years old, jovial, missing many teeth and speaks broken English.  He is literate but his education did not stray far from the first few years of school.  At UWA he was mainly stationed in Murchison National Park, so lucky for us he knew the area real well.  Upon retirement they gave him an award for being such a dedicated and faithful employee.  As a parting gift, he was given a lifetime membership to the national parks—something he is very proud of.  In the many hours of travel, James told us about his family and children. His salary over the years was meager but he prioritized education for his five children and now has two daughters pursuing degrees in Brisbane, Australia.  He and his family (he had multiple wives like many men here but eventually decided that having one “was better on [his] wallet”) grow on their farm most of what they need to live.  As a driver, James earns 20,000 shillings a day (8 USD) and gets 40,000 extra for food and accommodation when traveling up country.  Work is intermittent.  In a society where no real pension scheme exists and salaries are small, it’s no easy feat to put kids through secondary school, and nearly unheard of to send all 5 kids to higher education.  I can just imagine the sacrifices he and his wives (yes, plural) must have made to do so. 

We quickly fell in love with James.  And, it turns out, we weren’t the only ones.  When we got to the park, we easily saw how everyone’s faces lit up when they spotted him. Once into the park, we realized that James is also an expert on the wildlife.  Not only was he able to tell us the names of all the animals and birds, he was able to tell us about their lifespan, their hunting habits, and all sorts of other fun facts.

Driving through the park on Saturday, we reached a split in the road and started down the newer dirt road.  James very quickly realized this new road would not take us in the right direction.  He, rightly so, was annoyed there was no sign at this intersection.  The next day, as we were exiting through the park gate, James pulled over to let the guard in the booth know that a sign is needed at that juncture.  What a stand-up guy, still dedicated to his work even after his job was done.

James was able to arrange our riverboat ride on Saturday. We took the boat past crocodiles, hippos, monkeys and birds to the Murchison Falls, discovered by none other than some famed British exporter who named the falls after Lord Murchison, who, by the way, never saw the falls in his namesake.  Murchison Falls is the part of the River Nile (not to be confused with the Nile River) that squeezes through a 7 meter gap and comes rushing out.  It started to rain very hard just as we reached the falls and were ready to turn around and head back.

This is about as close as we got.  It was rushing pretty hard, trust me.

Sunday we woke up early in order to see some lions attempting to grab some breakfast.  They were unsuccessful, but we did get a little show.  Here are some pictures from our day.

 Sunrise over the River Nile

 It's a hungry, hungry one

These guys walk like they own the place

On a very sad, but real note, the jaded past of LRA’s destruction for 20 years in Northern Uganda is inescapable in this area.  The originator of the quaint lodging we stayed at was shot and killed by LRA rebels when he went out one afternoon in 2006 to save a distressed hiker.  This victim of the LRA left behind a wife, a kid, and another on the way.

Safari as an industry

What is the true cost of a safari?  Pretty darn close to what we paid, and it was still a lot.  It is easy to find a Safari like the one we took for $1,500 per person.  Substitute camping for a nice Safari lodge and the price can double.  Outside of the revenue the safari outfit earns, park fees are about $200 per vehicle and $80 per day per person.  Gas is expensive and each vehicle has a double tank that is completely used on a 3 day journey, after all a safari basically entails sitting in a LandCruiser all day with the engine turned on.  Most safari vehicles run on diesel, not a financial cost, but a ding to the environment.  Camping is the cheaper route and that costs $30 per night per person.  You’d be hard pressed to find a local enjoying themselves on safari despite the fact they pay a dollar for the park fees, merely because the other costs are so exorbitant. 

Many safari vehicles say Leopard Tours.  This outfit has about 500 vehicles and is ultimately owned by the president of Tanzania.  Did somebody say corruption?  The Leopard Tours drivers cannot work for any other outfit and survive mainly on tips, Frankie is not a fan of Leopard Tours.

Yet everyone comes to Africa to do a Safari.  Tanzania charges $100 to American citizens to enter the country, Europeans are charged $50.  The Serengeti has a landing strip for those with the cash to fly straight in and skip the red, dusty ride.  There is a lot of money to be had and it seems the government takes the majority between the visa and park fees.  The roads are pretty terrible and most of the country lives on less than $1 a day.  But we got to see lots and lots of lions!

A 3 Day Safari

The trip out to the Serengeti National Park is 5 hours.  We saw plenty of corn fields, it’s just about harvest time now and the maize will be shucked, husked, and put in storage for the year.  The road is paved but every time we go through a village there is some combination of very fat speed bump proceeded and followed by a more textured rumble strip of three bumps than we are used to seeing before a toll on the Turnpike.

The dirt is more clay then anything giving the grounds in front and beyond the street side stores a red hue.  With each strip of storefronts there is a deep expanse of small cement and mud hut housing.  We continue to drive on this road up some hills, passing some commuters and shippers on bike—shippers because they are carrying a bundle of branches or a larger bundle of empty 5-gallon jugs, we guess, used for porting water.  The bicyclists are sometimes pulled walking their bike up a hill or fixing their gear, perhaps it’s a manual gear shift for hills….

In order to go to the Serengeti we must first pass through Ngorogoro Conservation.  The difference between a conservation and national park is that Maaasai people can live on a conservation, but only animals and safari vehicles allowed in the national parks.  Ngorongoro is our day 3 safari so we are just passing through.  The road is incredibly bumpy, rocky, and dusty.  We will not drive on any surface better than this until we leave to go home after the third day’s morning game drive.

The Maasai People

The Maasai people are incredibly strong people and have been known to live up to 125 years old!  We see them scattered all over Ngorongoro, dressed in their traditional red/black or purple/black checkered blankets you can find at shops leading up to the conservation.  Some sitting on the side of the road, getting sprayed by the dirt in our wake, others walking with their large sticks along the side or off in the distance, and the young boys (age 12-13) heard cattle.  Almost always, when we pass them they wave at us and we wave back.  But are all these safari vehicles really welcome here?  It is certain their lifestyle has changed as a result of the safari industry.

Their villages are nothing more than a cluster of mud huts with thatched roofs made of a straw/hay-like material.  Before the government stepped in and restricted their hunting they survived on animal meat, cow’s milk and cow’s blood.  Now they receive government aid for water and maize.  They can still kill their animals, but not the zebras or other safari wildlife.  We saw some safari vehicles parked next to their village so that safari’ers can take pictures with the Maasai and of their village.  A tourist trap, says our chubby, friendly driver.

Oops, our Safari Team

My heavens we haven’t introduced you to our Safari leaders.

Frankie, as I just said is sort of chubby, not many Africans with such a body type.  He laughs at our jokes and is very knowledgeable in all things Safari.  He wears corduroy pants, a black T-shirt with zebras on it that says Tanzania, and big old black knit hat with Jamaica colored stripes around the bottom that scream rasta!

Saidie (pronounced Sah-eed-ie), is our cook.  Actually his name is just Said, but everything here seems to end in ‘ie’—baggie, Marchie (the month), eightie (8).  He is skinny, very closely shaved head, with hush-puppy-like shoes and jeans with a Calvin Klein wash fade to them.  He doesn’t speak much English but is very polite and a darn good chef, too bad his meals take an hour to prepare all the time.  We asked him if he cooks at home.  His response: “I have a wife.”  As in America, circa 1980, men usually do the grilling, while women do the rest of the cooking.

Maasai Circumcision

We pass by a spot where there are boys wearing black robes and have white paint on their face.  What was that!?  “Those,” Frankie says, “are the Maasai that have just been circumcised.”  Maasai go to school to about 7^th grade, then after their goat and cattle herding responsibility is over they reach their manhood landmark at age 14-15 of circumcision.  As you can probably imagine, the Maasai do not have sterile utensils to perform this coming of age activity and as a result many get infections and die.  After the circumcision is done, the group of boys stay together for a month, away from their village to recover.  Someone from one of their villages will bring an animal for them to kill and eat.  This was strange, and the black clothing made these boys look scary to me.

Last depressing Maasai factoid: they are polygamous and share wives, as a result HIV is a bad problem among this population.

Day 2 in Moshi

Woke up, got out of bed, bought a phone to hold near my head.

Crossed the street to buy a sim card

Learned Swahili words from my new friend Mr. Chaai.

(feel free to sing the above in the tune of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”

We also booked the safari with Ria, Maria’s roommate.

Found lunch for $4 total for the two of us.  It was beans and rice, one of which had chicken, and a Fanta.  Boy, Fanta is good.

Now just resting up and catching up on sleep before we hit the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater.  3 days and 2 nights out in the African wilderness!

See you at the end of the week, but first....

Swahili Word of the Day

Whoawa = booty

Whoawhoawhoa = big booty

Seriously.