Blogs from Queen Elizabeth NP, Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 3

Hello! Coming up on four weeks since I have left and I have learnt very recently a great phrase-TIA or rather, This is Africa. This little phrase is used to explain everything from the beauty in this country, to why the power randomly goes out, the HUGE bugs we see here, and anything else that the locals see fit. It has been a great point for some of us Canadians to learn to let go of what may be bothering us in that moment or to make light of a situation. I caught myself using it quite a bit this week while doing my rotation in the maternity ward here at the Rugazi Health Center IV. Which has been quite an adventure! The week started out great and use muzungu pushed our way into the hearts ... read more

Woke up at 5:20 to get ready for our morning game drive, and could hear the hippos grunting and groaning all night. Andrea and Rhonda next door were actually woken up to a hippo eating grass right outside their tent, they were scared and excited and awe struck all at the same time. My animal experience that morning was a beetle big enough to be considered a low flying aircraft by the bathroom; welcome to the African jungle! Morning game drive was absolutely spectuacular, well worth the 5:30 wake up. Watching the sunrise (I got an awesome photo of it), and seeing the warthogs, 2 different kinds of antelope, water buffalo, a variety of birds, prey and non, and lions and elephants – well what can I say. I’ve been lucky to have done a safari ... read more

Als nächstes gehr es in die Nähe von Fort Portal, einer sehr hügeligen Gegend mit einem Wechsel von Regenwald und Teeplantagen. Wir haben eine sehr hübsche Unterkunft mit einem tollen Blick auf diese Plantagen und einem super Service: als es zur Abendessenszeit ordentlich regnet, kommt ein Angestellter extra vorbei, um uns 2 Regenschirme zu bringen, damit wir trocken zum Essen kommen! Am nächsten Morgen geht es in den Kibale Nationalpark, der für seine vielen Schimpansen bekannt ist. Dort nehmen wir an einem Schimpansentrekking teil, um die Tiere mal in ihrem natürlichen Lebensraum zu sehen. Das klappt auch, aber leider ist das Wetter nicht ideal. Weil es feucht und kühl ist, bleiben die Tiere recht weit oben in den Bäumen, um noch möglichst Wärme von der Sonne zu erhalten. Dadurch sind sie recht weit weg, und man ... read more

Our project goal this week is to finish meetings, testing and vaccinating for clostridium in all 17 communities, make sure people who want to receive goats know that it’s their last chance to get ready, put together solutions to all the problems communities have been facing, and set up a plan for things paravets need to learn again for the paravet refresher training according to their needs. This way when we come back from the safari we can jump right in looking for healthy goats to buy, preparing for and doing the paravet refresher training and doing the goat pass-out! Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned in Africa (they most often don't actually). It rained for a good 2 days, and not “kindof” rain, but nonstop thunderstorm rain. And we can’t go out when this ... read more

What a great weekend! On Friday we headed up to Queen Elizabeth National Park to visit the wildlife vet, Dr. Siefert. He wants to get the goat project started in the park, to decrease the number of lion poisonings and poaching. Due to dwindling numbers of their main prey animal food source, the Cobb, lions and leopards have been going into communities within the park and killing livestock. Since their livestock are their livelihood, the farmers then poison or shoot the lions, which further decreases their drastically low numbers. Dr. Siefert would like to introduce a completely zero grazing goat project within these communities, so that the livestock will be protected from the hungry lions and there will inadvertently be less lion poisonings. Zero grazing goats involves building a solid pen, which is raised off of ... read more