Victor Mazzone's Blog
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- An account of my first day in Uganda (4/2/2008)
- Excursion to Murchison Falls (5/14/2008)
An account of my first day in Uganda - April 2, 2008
Well I have arrived in Uganda, and I was greeted by balmy, hot, sunny weather. How utterly delightful.
It's been an interesting first day so far. The drive from Entebbe to Kampala was quite entertaining. The landscape is beautiful - lush with all kinds of greenery and 
speckled with patches of red earth. There are little street-side stalls everywhere. Chickens and goats are for sale, as well as handmade clay crafts. Women are sprawled out with little odds and ends on a blanket selling them for around 300 shillings (that's about the equivalent of 17 cents).
From the airport we went to exchange money and buy cell phones. Everything is negotiable here. Everything. There were about ten exchange stalls with men competing for the best rate. We finally settled on 1692 shillings for a dollar, which is apparently a pretty good deal. We mzungus (what they call white people) just have to be careful not to get swindled. There is obviously an immediate assumption that our pockets are deeper and much more plentiful. And it doesn't help that we saw probably two white people on the way from the airport to the campus. They are few and far between here. And as a group of 14, we definitely stand out. We have to learn some Luganda so we can actually bargain and be taken seriously!
The campus is really quite beautiful. Our lunch was so delicious, especially after an unacceptable egg-mayonnaise bagel for breakfast on the plane. We had matooke (mashed plantains), sweet potatoes, beans, beef, rice, and greens. In our first orientation, the Makerere University professor that Professor Stewart (our NU professor) has been working with to develop the program (his name is Patrick) told us that the campus is actually bigger than the Vatican. And this campus is pretty sprawling, as you can imagine by that comparison. It is about 112 acres and is built on a hill. We took what seemed like a 5-hour walking tour of the campus today. We were all sleep-deprived, dripping with sweat, and frankly by the end of it I was literally delirious. It also didn't help that we were dodging these five-foot tall scavenging storks the entire time. Well, not really, but they are pretty massive, very unattractive, and utterly ubiquitous. It was rough. I think it is safe to say that we are all going to sleep very well under our little mosquito nets tonight.
Second installment...
So I just got back from our first night out in Kampala, and Professor Stewart (the coordinating professor from Northwestern) treated us all to some very fine Indian 
cuisine. The restaurant actually resembled the scene from Bangkok Palace in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. You know what I'm talking about, right? The meal with the maharaja where they have bugs, snake babies, and chilled monkey brains? Mmm…well our fare was a little different. They had a train of candles lining the table warming the immense spread of silver dishes full of spicy delights. It was half indoor, half outdoor, with a big, extravagant fountain in the background.
What else did I leave out of day one? Well, I think I may have failed to mention how incredibly kind everyone is, and how much they want to make us feel welcome. Did I tell you they want us to feel welcome? Each faculty member involved must have said, "you are most welcome" at least twelve times apiece. Needless to say, we all agreed that we felt extremely welcome immediately upon arrival.
The tour of the campus was amusingly awkward today. Aside from the fact that it was hot and long, it at times seemed more like a parade than a tour. We were led through several administrative and academic buildings on campus, and we were met by an array of reactions ranging from timid smiles, to nudges under the table, to subtle laughter, to utter looks of confusion. The students seem very friendly and warm, so I look forward to actually interacting with them and not being a part of a pack of glazed over, jet-lagged, mzungu zombies lurking around the campus.
We met several of the department heads today and they all seem to be very educated, well-respected scholars in their respective fields. Most have studied and taught at major universities in the U.S., U.K., and Canada and are now back at Makerere where they did their undergraduate work. The director of Drama and Music Studies actually attended the Graduate School of Music at Northwestern in the late 80s/early 90s. I met him today and he was ecstatic to learn that there was a music major in the program. He was a doctoral composition student at Northwestern, and after I told him that I was a voice major, he immediately asked me if I would perform a recital on campus and sing some of his original works. This is also coming from a man who has written pieces for a world-renowned classical performance group that also performs traditional African music called the Kronos Quartet. Anybody heard of them? Maybe not, but they are very popular in the classical and world music arena. So that was an exciting offer and hopefully I will get to collaborate with him while I'm here.
Well, I guess that just about wraps up day one. It has been quite an epic first day, and I know it will only get more interesting, challenging, and exciting from here.
Excursion to Murchison Falls - May 14, 2008
Friday started at about 5:20am, as our departure time was set for 6am. Hideous. But such an early wake-up call was necessary for the six-hour bus ride we had 
ahead of us. We took a little trip to a national park called Murchison Falls. It is northwest of Kampala, just outside of a town called Masindi, and hugs the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Now usually on long car rides that initiate at such an absurd hour, we hop in with the expectation that we can just fall back asleep for a few more hours. Absolutely not. Unless you are keen on the idea of possibly getting whiplash or suffering from a major concussion, it is best to stay awake. The roads in Uganda are very poor, pretty much across the board. They are mostly dirt roads full of ruts, bumps, potholes, and stranded, roaming cows. Seriously. There are cows in the streets, in front of market stalls, in the middle of roundabouts, everywhere. When I asked our driver what they are all doing, he said they might have owners that know where they are and will pick them up later, but that many are just lost or abandoned. Apparently there is a law that police can take them to the station and try to find the owner, and then issue a fine or make an arrest. But let's be realistic. That takes a lot of time, money, and energy, which are all things this city doesn't have. So the burdensome bovines are pretty much free to do as they please.
Enough about the cows. Getting around in this country is not, by any means easy, as I am trying to illustrate. The roads are deplorable, there are people and boda bodas (motorbikes) weaving through the traffic in every inch of free space, the dust and exhaust make it difficult to breathe, and there are people approaching your window every 3 seconds trying to sell you anything from newspapers, to fresh pineapple, to dish towels, to cell phone minutes. I thought that was strange until I saw a man appear in my window with a miniature badminton set.
So back to our adventure to Murchison Falls. Let's just say that we were almost certain that we weren't going to make it. Apparently someone forgot to tell us that the lodge where we were staying was really only accessible by a four-wheel drive vehicle. Well, we came in a bus. Yes, a bus. And since the roads were completely dirt, had partially been washed away by a major rain the previous night, and were full of ruts and trenches, it was nearly impossible. They also failed to mention that there really aren't any signs to the lodge. This meant that we had to stop and trek into several little villages to ask for directions. They were all very helpful and pointed us down the right path. Each departure was quite an event. Each time as we pulled away in our unwieldy bus, we were chased by a little horde of half-naked, barefoot Ugandan children screaming with delight. After one particular stop though, a little girl in a white gown started to run from a tobacco field after our bus and tripped and did a complete face-plant into the dirt. It was absolutely heartbreaking. But it was OK because we drove back by the same village later that day and she appeared to be fine. She was still waving and screaming, but she just decided to stand still this time. Probably for the best. But despite all of our seemingly insurmountable impediments, we finally managed to arrive at the Nile Safari Lodge, only to be greeted by a breathtaking view of the Nile, a cool, damp washcloth, and the promise of a refreshing swimming pool with poolside service. We are definitely seeing the extreme highs and lows of Uganda. I mean, it was our first weekend here, and our professor wanted us to have a nice, relaxing couple of days before the program got really intense. We weren't actually supposed to have such luxurious accommodations, but her reservations at the Red Chili Backpacker's Camp fell through. How unfortunate.
The activities of this excursion were incredible. We took a game drive through the savanna the following morning and saw everything from warthogs, baboons, antelope and kob to lions, elephants, giraffes, guinea fowls, and water buffalo. It was great to see these amazing animals in their natural habitat since most of us had only seen them on a 10-minute safari at Disney World. Later that day we took a boat ride up the Nile to Murchison Falls, the namesake of the national park. On our way, we passed numerous families of elephants cooling off by the shore, and plenty of hippos and alligators lurking in the waters. My favorite moment was when one hippo actually climbed up onto this little island in order to have a bowel movement. Let's just say it was awfully messy and that another hippo was definitely in the line of fire. Perfect.
On our way back to the lodge, we decided to stop in a small village just off the road. There are several villages on the national park grounds. Some of them are composed of the families of the park employees and others are very small communities that I assume have been allowed to stay on the land. We stopped at this particular village because we noticed that there was a women's small craft shop. We all filed off the bus and were warmly welcomed into the village. The craft shop featured animal figurines, bottle openers, musical instruments, and a host of other things. But what was more interesting was the way all of the children formed a little huddle and just stared at us with timid smiles and gentle waves. None of the children spoke English, so there was a lot of us talking to them, and them just smiling and looking at us. There were some really priceless moments when we took out a few digital cameras and showed them to the kids. They were utterly fascinated and completely filled with joy. It seemed that seeing themselves on the screen was a truly surreal experience. While we were playing with the kids, Professor Stewart was talking with some of the elders and discovered that the village had a musical group that played traditional Luo music (an ethnic group primarily concentrated in northern Uganda). She invited them to our lodge to perform for us later that night and they humbly accepted her invitation.
The performance was incredible. They played traditional African instruments, which they had handcrafted themselves, while singing songs in their native tongue. It all culminated in them asking us to join them in a celebratory circular dance around the fire. The leader of the group explained that the final dance was a tribute to us and that they were honored by our presence. As the sun went down over the Nile, we danced into the night as the flames of the fire fused dark and light and erased the reality of our two completely different worlds.
