Kibale and Kyanyawara

Oliota! Ibaralyange ninye Alex. Ibaralyawe niwe oha? How are you all doing? It’s been a while since my last posting but I am going to continue from where I last left off as I am using this as my official travel journal. I have tried writing by hand but I find that the words do not flow nearly as easily as on the computer which has led me to believe that I have an irreversible dependence on technology, a fact that truly saddens me.

The phrase above is actually not Swahili but is actually a greeting in the Batoro language, the most commonly spoken in this region of Uganda. I found this out the hard way. In my ignorance, I started trying to speak to some of the locals in my limited Swahili only to get puzzled looks and uproarious laughs as to mean, who the hell is this white guy and why isn’t he speaking English?? Uganda has so far shown to be a very different place geographically than Kenya. While Nairobi and most of Kenya is stricken by drought, Uganda is actually a very lush and green place with no noticeable water shortages, despite the fact that this is the dry season. Despite this agricultural advantage, we have noticed many indicators of severe poverty in local communities. However, I will address that later. From our camp at the Makerere University Biological Field Station, we see the beautiful Rwenzori Mountain range (better known as the Virunga Mountains as it is called in the Congo, which lies on the other side of these snowcapped peaks) to the west of us. In the local language, the name of the mountains means mountains of the moon. Apparently it is in these mountains that the last patches of Mountain Gorillas can be found. Sadly, we will not be able to visit them on this stretch of the trip. To the east is the source of the Nile valley which originates at Lake Victoria.

While on the topic of primates, I think it would be appropriate to note that I have dropped the primatology class. Despite my eagerness to go tramping through the woods in the typical Alex fashion, crazily getting stuck in malaria- infested swamps and cutting my way through the elephant grass hoping to catch a glimpse of some chimps, I decided that the Environmental Management course was more appealing. Luckily, there are resident baboons and extremely rare Red Colobus populations which visit and raid our bunk rooms daily. Thus I am getting a great viewing of primates and unlike many students on this trip, I have gotten the unique opportunity to visit local villages and meet some absolutely amazing people. Plus I would like to add that the primatology class had the honor of being urinated and defecated upon by their objects of study, and have not gotten the chance to investigate Chimpanzees, which are sadly rare in this part of Kibale. According to Professor Chapman, who focuses on the Redtails, Colobus, and blue monkeys, the Kibale chimps are considered to be the “dumbest” wild chimps in Africa as they do not use tools as frequently or as efficiently as other chimps. Thus I feel no profound sense of loss at dropping the class, even though I occasionally regret not participating in the excursions and studies the other students keep telling me about.

Thus I chose to go with Professor Meredith’s environmental management course which looks at the impact the presence of the national park is having on local communities, a perspective often overlooked in our environmentalist zeal to protect endangered ecosystems. The park has brought mixed tidings for the region, providing these mostly agrarian- based communities with shrinking land availability with jobs for educated members of society. However, it has become increasingly difficult for local subsistence farmers to make livings as exploding animal populations uncontrolled by natural predators have begun to raid farms on the fringes of the park boundaries, often destroying entire farms and plantations. Elephants and baboons are the most common and most destructive of these invaders, but the people have no way to defend their fields as they are not allowed to harm the animals, lest they lose revenue-sharing benefits from the park. Park officials have not made any attempts to relocate or cull these excessive populations, nor are they compensating farmers for their losses, increasing the strain on these people to higher degrees. It is interesting to speak to the various members of this community and find out what their opinions and solutions may be for these issues. As a class and individually, we have made efforts to establish connections with a socioeconomic cross-section of the community, but we are limited by obvious language barriers, which also limit our ability to speak to poorer members of the community who have been unable to obtain solid educational opportunities, despite the government’s efforts to implement universal primary education.

One of the most common questions that has been asked of us by the local is “after all these inquiries and questions, what are you going to do with this information? How are you going to help us after many members of our community patiently answered all of your strange questions?” This has created serious ethical discussions within our class and many students, myself included, have found a great difficulty in wrestling with these internal conflicts. Evidently, we would like to rush out and help everyone we can, but we feel like the information we are gathering is merely for our own academic advancement. We have no significant influence amongst policy makers, nor can we financially help this community more than buying a couple sodas and snacks during our excursions through these villages. I try to convince myself that I will use this knowledge to make informed and educated decisions in whichever profession I choose in the future, but I fear that these people are being perpetually disillusioned by the lack of progress in helping their communities despite the countless investigations and studies performed by the government, NGOs and University students. It is as if we are treating them like specimens who can be studied in isolated environments and we try not to change anything so that we can preserve these specimens. On the completely different end of the spectrum, I feel like we have this messiah complex where we think it is our job to fix all of the world’s problems, which I feel is in part a holdover from colonialism. However, now instead of seeing African development as the “white man’s burden” we see it as our duty to fix the problems created by the West in the past as a result of a burden of guilt for the transgressions of our ancestors. I wonder at what point we will realize that perhaps it would be better to allow Africans to make their own decisions about how to fix their problems and to stop imposing our worldviews on them and allow them to formulate their own plans, solutions, and ideologies. When we do provide them with resources to combat their problems, our gifts should not be linked to conditionalities which would favor us economically or support our worldviews. However, I realize that it would be difficult to convince people to give money without knowing where it was going or without some specific cause attached to it…oh there are so many questions that are running through my mind…

But despite all of these ethical and moral issues that I am beginning to deal with on a daily basis, I am constantly heartened by the kindness and ingenuity of the people I meet. One man called Benjamin, is a community elder who used his knowledge from his training in the British forestry service to create a new micro-industry of pine-lumber harvesting. His vision for the future likely exceeds the time he will be on this earth but his investments will provide his large family with financial security for decades. Sadly, his efforts to share his vision with the rest of his community have been largely ignored.

Our guides Tacimi and Ogabo have been instrumental in creating links for us in the surrounding community and contain a wealth of knowledge about the natural history of this area, their community and its relations to the broader world. Today, one of my research groups and I sat down with Tacimi at a local café/bar/wooden bench on the side of the road and bought him a couple sodas so that we could ask him development-related questions. While we got all these questions answered in an extremely thorough manner, by the end of this I felt like I was no longer conducting an interview, but rather talking and chilling with a friend. This is a feeling that I am finding more and more as I take the time to sit and talk with people in these villages. Their curiosity and knowledge about the world never ceases to amaze me. And of course I can’t forget to mention the kids…despite their often visible impoverishment (distended bellies as a result of worms or nutrient deficiencies, tattered clothing, rusty metal as toys, open sores on their legs) they perpetually bring a smile to my face by their genuine happiness.

The other day, while I was waiting for the other people in my class to finish their investigations in one of the villages, I saw three kids (no older than 9 y.o.) playing soccer with a ball made of scrunched up plastic bags tied with some rope. I gestured that they pass the ball to me and pretty soon I had a small game going with them! All the other kids in the area came and sat next to us laughing will glee every time their compatriots would get the ball past me or every time I would fall on my ass in the dirt. The adults also stopped what they were doing to watch as well. Although I didn’t get the chance to converse with these kids or most of the adults due to the language barrier, I really feel that due to the spontaneity and innocence of this fun little game, I established a brief yet meaningful connection with this community. I doubt they will remember my face or even this event in a few weeks as they have much more important things to care or think about, but it will certainly remain with me for my life.

The best quote I have heard in the past few weeks came from Professor Chapman: “You really don’t have to worry about schistosomiasis, but keep an eye open for the water cobras” as a warning issued right before bringing us to an alluring crater lake that has been preserved for locally-based ecotourism. Let me tell you…it was an amazing swim! The water was cold enough to kill off schisto snails due to its high altitude and depth, but extremely warm by our standards. Oh summer….so how’s the snow treating you all? Well it’s off to bed for tonight. Ikale Kurungi! (good bye)

Amani my friends.

Oh by the way, I think that there are steroids in the water here. Seriously EVERYTHING is HUGE, especially the bugs. Now I will deftly maneuver my way back to my bed trying to avoid crunching the carcasses of the gigantic flying insects that I have killed in a crazy rampage using my roomies’ (Julian and Brian) hat and shoes. Sleep well.