Back to Kampala

NOTE: I HAVE POSTED TWO UPDATES ONE FOR SATURDAY AND TODAY.

A bit off topic but one of the biggest surprises I have had in Uganda, is the lack of smoking. No one smokes in the country. In fact the only ones I have seen smoke are foreigners, you know those ugly ones I spoke of in my previous post. It isn't an issue of money, a pack only costs a bit over a dollar. I suppose the extra leaded diesel fumes even this out a bit but it remains a pleasant shock.

Waking up in the Chimp Nest, near Kimbale (pronounced CHimbale) National park, I could really appreciate how noisy a jungle could be. A continual, multilayered blast of musical static from birds, primates, forest elephants (I know I didnt know there was such a thing either..oh you did know, well good for you, now shut up, I'm trying to type here), frogs and insects exploded the second light hit the valley. I grabbed a quick shower, the hot water mercifully still being available, and made my way to breakfast, a simple affair of whole made bread, omelet, fruit and that phenomenal passion fruit juice. It had rained most of the night, so much so that one of our group, the ones that "won" the coin toss for the only "fancy" tree top cottage available, got a bonus shower most of the night and very little sleep thanks to a leaky roof. Tragic.

The view from my deck. No sign of forest elephants unfortunately, which can sometimes be been seen gazing in the area.

An update from the hospital informed us that our lip recon woman from Friday was showing signs of malaria and treatment was started. The wound itself was fine though and no other acute issues for our patients were reported.

We returned to the park by 8am.  The rain left a moist fog on the ground which soaked you on contact. I'll admit I wasn't completely in the mood for going back in. I had seen a chimp, I wasn't convinced seeing another would be all that different. Everyone else was pretty excited though so I kept quiet and followed our new guide, a older Ugandan chap named Silver. Silver didn't waste much time, homing in on the calls, within 30 minutes we were standing at the base of a large tree with several other groups. He pointed up to a chimpanzee laying out on a branch. It only took a few seconds to realize there were actually about 15 up there. Grooming, sleeping, playing. It was pretty spectacular. Every few minutes one would rain down a stream of piss go or let loose a stool and a German traveler would yell and desperately cover his equipment. It was pretty awesome. Baby chimps swung around until reprimanded by one of the adults he was harassing only to do it again a minute later. New members would arrive and announce themselves with a howl, setting of a chorus from the rest that settled quickly. A battery of cameras fired off clicks and whirrs like a FBI stakeout from our group below. One poor chimp in the group had an injured hand and close inspection revealed a tight rope bound around it. It was a poacher's snare. The rangers explained this wasn't uncommon and that they had tried to tranquilizer the animal in the past to remove the item but had been successful.

Laziness and grooming or both predominated this groups morning. Every additional chimp sagged the large branch even more making everyone in our group hold their breath when ever a new member joined the group.

The back light made getting shots hard but this picture of a mother and her baby was one of the better ones.

A poachers snare causes a strangle point on this chimp's right hand. Options to remove this contraption are more complicated than just shooting the Chimp with a dart as there is a limited amount of times that can be done to the same animal. Any poorly planned attempt can cause serious harm beyond his present injury.

Our curiosity satisfied and memory cards full, we headed off and out of the jungle for the last time. I was disappointed I didn't see any large insects during the trip. In fact the only impressive spider I have seen in Uganda was in a bathroom stall, chasing the occupant out with his pants around his ankles. Not exactly national geographic material

I realize its hard to appreciate scale here, but this was big and I wasn't going to put my thumb next to it for anything.

The ride back was largely the same as the trip there, minus the mob beating a guy to death. We even stopped in at the same road side vendor, but quickly turned traitor to another stand, call "the Chapat Master" to get a fresh made chapatti instead. A small group of long horned cows grazed at a large garbage pile at the side of the road. I used the foulest bathroom ever documented in the history of the universe. We bought some beers (Club, if no Club, Nile, if no Nile...improvise) from a collapsing store front and drank them with some locals in a drugstore/hair salon operating out of an old Korean cargo container. I handed out some taffys to the children until I realized I had woefully miscalculated how many kids this would gather and had to retreat back to the van in quick order. I'm pretty sure this time they meant Muzungo in a bad way as we sped away towards Kampala.

Transporting sheet metal for roofing, the bravery of this biker is amazing considering how easy it would be for a truck to hit one end and send the cargo spinning like a propeller, launching the biker into orbit. Good news for Uganda's space program and almost on budget.

Baboons traveling along the road side investigating our vehicle. At least 20 littered the highway aimless walking along the asphalt and being a menace to traffic. All I could think of was the movie Congo.

The Ugandan taxi is popular with roller bladers. This gentleman will be assessed next week at the hospital for his inevitable head injury.

A wall of rain greeted us as we entered the capital. The red dust that covers everything turned the ground to blood. A 'go slow' delayed us as we sat choking on exhaust but we eventually made it home where I am typing this now. I went to bed wondering how that patient with Malaria is doing. Tomorrow we have our clinic to reassess discharged post ops from last week and add who we can to this week's OR lists. It is going to be an even busier week than last if I have anything to say about it.

I'll be in touch.