Last Thoughts Before We Go?

We’re on our way back to the Northwest. Amber is finished with the data collection for her project and we are out of money. We fly back at the end of June and will be living with my Dad and Stepmom near Poulsbo until we figure out where we are going to live. I will be doing some construction projects on their house and Amber will be focusing on writing her dissertation and jumping through the necessary hoops to graduate. Although it feels a little weird to be moving in with my father and stepmother at age 36, I am thankful for a place to go that’s familiar, for work to jump into immediately, and for cheap rent. We look forward to seeing you all, it’s been a long time and we’ve missed you very much. We’re also going to miss Uganda and all of our friends we’ve made here. This has been an awesome adventure. This may be my last post from Uganda as I will be wrapping up projects, packing, trying to finish a couple of songs and paintings, soaking up a few more equatorial rays, and starting a daily regiment of pushups and situps to get my muscles back. Hope to see you all very soon but until then, here’s a few more thoughts on Uganda…

It hasn’t been difficult at all to communicate with Ugandans here as English is spoken quite fluently by many. But there are many phrases and sayings, colloquialisms if you will, that are endemic to Uganda as with anywhere you go. I know the way I speak sounds funny to them too so I’ve made some adjustments and I’ve been doing it for so long now that it’s natural and I don’t really notice I’m doing it. I’ve always been a bit of a parrot. What will happen when I get back to the States. Will I quickly revert to my old ways or will I keep talking the way I have been here for a while before slowly settling into my old vernacular? Many of these “Ugandanisms” I’ll call them, have become very dear to me and I’d like to keep a hold of them. The beauty of getting to know a new place is learning a new way of looking at things and the slang will often contain that unique angle on life. “How is the going?” and, “How is your good life?” are my top two favorite greetings. “Nice time!” is a common way of saying, “see you later” often with a “well done” thrown in for good measure. “Eehhh” with a descending tone, like you would say while you’re thinking, is a standard way of saying yes here. Perhaps the biggest change I’ve made in my speech, something I learned from Amber, is emphasizing my “t’s” when talking. This seems to go a long way in helping a Ugandan to understand what you are saying but it sounds pretty wierd.

I often hear people using a mixture of Runyankole (the local language) and English. In Runyankole, as in English, there are some rules and exceptions to them. One of these rules is used when a word sometimes will have an “L” sound and sometimes will have an “R” sound (just like “I before E except after C” doesn’t always work). This has created some fun effects when applied to English. There’s a shop in town that advertises selling photos “with flames”. There’s a truck driving around with a great big “Rastafalian” painted across the front in the red, green and gold rasta colors. I often see a boda boda go by with an advertisement on the back for “Papalazzi Photography”. “God bress you”, and “I’ll play for you”, are common phrases used at church. The best one is when our friends Drew and Erin saw a something run across the road in front of their car and when asking their Ugandan driver what it was he called it a squealer. After some thought, they realized what he meant. It was a squirrel.

One thing I’ll probably never be able to explain fully or understand is “The What”. When a Ugandan is talking they will frequently interject the monologue with this question and then answer the question. There is a pause but it’s too fast to answer. The question is rhetorical. For example, “After going shopping for the trip we are going to do what? We are going to pack for the trip.” Another example, “I want to show you my what? My house, so we are going to do what? We are going to walk there now.” It seems pointless, doesn’t it? But it happens a lot. Some of our muzungu friends equate it to our “umm” that is to say they are thinking about what they are saying as they are saying it, but that explanation is somewhat unsatisfactory to me. I think it is a device used to distinguish the speaker from the listener. It creates an “I am the teacher and you are my student” relationship. I think that might be a lot of the reason for it. Ugandans have a reputation of being very proud and this may be another manifestation of their pride. It’s just my humble opinion, though, I have no idea what the real reason for “The What” is.

A lot of the clothes people wear here have come from far away. It took me a long time to realize why I was seeing a lot of AIG shirts and Fly Emirates shirts. They’re the chief sponsors of Manchester United and Arsenal football teams. But when I ran into a guy wearing a jersey from my 4th grade soccer team at the gas station the other day I was a little surprised. The guy wearing it did not speak English but was willing to have his picture taken.


This man is hauling a bunch of matoke, an important staple, to the market. A bunch will sell for maybe 5000 Ush or 2.50 US, and last about a week in a household of 4. Some people I’ve seen live so far from the market, and in such hilly countryside, that they can push only 1 bunch of matoke at a time walking as far as 19km to the market, taking most of a day. Others I’ve seen can push 6 bunches at a time and make more than 1 trip to the market in a day, thus greatly increasing their hourly wage. Day to day living can be very different from village to village due to these differing conditions. It’s such an easy climate to live in but living is still a struggle. Our friend Danny, who recently went back to the states, has some great insight on this topic. See the link to his blog at the upper right hand corner of this page (Lynn And Danny’s Excellent Adventure) Miss you guys!

This may sound strange coming from me but I like to golf. I can count the number of times I’ve been golfing on my fingers and all but once they have been right here in my own backyard in Mbarara. It’s a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The cost is low (5000 Ush per person = $2.50 US and 2000 Ush per person tip for the caddy is standard) and the dress code is not enforced. It’s a 9 hole course but made 18 by using different places for teeing off. You have to watch for traffic as there are as many as 6 places where you are hitting over a road, and the neighborhood has no scruples about crossing the course for a shortcut. For clubs we borrow a friends, an Irish father named Charlie who has lived in Mbarara for some 20+ years. The set is incomplete and ancient, but I can’t complain. There’s me hitting one out of the park just before the gallery goes wild. The kids in the background are watching the game to learn how to be caddy’s and if we lose a ball they will find it for us, for a small fee of course. I’m going to miss playing golf because in the US it’s way too expensive and just not going to be the same.

Birds, Birds, Birds, Birds

I’ve always had a fascination with birds but never considered myself a “birdwatcher” or “twitcher” as they say. But Africa being the amazing place that it is there’s no surprise that there are some amazing birds. Lots of amazing birds. One of the most common books I see in people’s hands, apart from the “The Bradt Guide of Uganda” is “The Birds of East Africa”. We got our guide hand delivered to us by a friend coming back from San Francisco after buying it online from Amazon for less than half the price you would get it for here, yeah!, and it has been put to great use on all of our trips, walks and drives through the Ugandan countryside. Of the mzungus I know I’d say about 90% of them are at least self admitted, if not what I would call avid, bird watchers. We love it. The only point we seem to differ on is whether or not to mark the book when you spot one. For those of you readers interested in birds (Kris) then this blog’s for you. The following is a list of birds I’ve seen with accompanying commentary where necessary explaining a particularly interesting sighting. If I were keeping an actual log I think I’d need to note the time and place of the sighting. I’m not quite that bird crazy yet.

Maribou Stork – One of the first things you’ll see in Uganda that’s rather shocking are these 4 foot tall inhabitors of the trash heap. They’re in every dumpster in every town and rarely spotted outside of the cities. This has prompted the use of their name to describe a person who never leaves the city even to visit relatives during the holidays. These birds, although cautious about humans, are quite accustomed to the presence of humans. They’re not afraid to fly close to your head or to grab your trash as soon as you let go of it. They’re hideous.

Crows – House, Pied. Pied means black and white.

Pied Wagtail - Black and white and wags its tail, hence the name.

Black Kite – Probably third in line for highest population. It’s still really cool every time to see a raptor flying nearby. They have a way of using their tail during flight that makes them easy to spot.

Hadada Ibis – I like to call them kazoo birds because they have a very loud kazoo like call. They like to gather in groups outside our house and honk together as if they’re ringing in the new year.

Shrikes – Common Fiscal, Grey Backed, Lesser Grey.

Brown Parrot – I see these about once a day eating guavas off the tree near our place. They’re only brown on the head and back. The rest of the body is bright green and yellow. Wild parrots, neat!

Plantain Eater – Kinda parrot shaped. Their flying style is aggressive and gangly as they lob themselves from tree to tree.

Long Crested Eagle – My friend Pasco has a great series of photos he took of one of these swallowing a rat whole.

Crested Crane – The national bird. Really stunning. I wonder if they would be good eating?

Bare Faced Go Away Bird – These really grab your attention. They’re really nosy and kind of clumsy fliers. They’re called this because their call supposedly sounds like they’re saying “Go away!” They must like me because I’ve never heard their call.

African Thrush – Everywhere. Boring

Brown Babbler – Everwhere. Also boring

Starlings – Ruppell’s,Purple. Also everywhere but, contrary to the starlings in the NW, really beautiful. The most common type I’ve seen is an iridescent indigo/purple/green with a bright yellow eye.

Sunbirds – Bronze, Green headed, Olive bellied, Scarlet Chested, Variable, This one is a Marico.

Palm Nut Vulture – One early morning drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park we saw about 30 of these so called “solitary raptors” just off the highway. We came back through the same place about 2 hours later and not a single vulture in sight. ?!?!

African Fish Eagle – Very similar to our bald eagle but with more white and a lighter brown body. I’ve seen them fishing up close on Lake Mburo.

Bateluer – Bad ass bird with a bad ass name.

Spoonbill Stork – Often seen filtering the water for algae on the lakeshore next to a crocodile. Maybe they don’t taste very good.

This picture contains all of these birds;

Great Cormorant –

Great White Pelican-

Pink Backed Pelican – Amber’s fave.

Black Headed Heron – Reminds me of home.

Sacred Ibis –

Yellow Billed Stork -

Long Tailed Cormorant –

Pied Kingfisher – A very smart looking black and white cliff dweller.

Malachite & African Pygmy Kingfisher – Despite being very small, they’re very bright orange and blue so they’re easy to spot.

Woodland Kingfisher – An early favorite of mine. This was one of the first brightly colored birds I saw here. They’re turquoise, black, and white with a bright orange bill.

Lilac Breasted Roller – A multi-colored bird with a similar shape as a kingfisher. One of my favorites.

Broad Billed Roller – Rusty red with a yellow beak. They like to sit on the cactus trees.

African Jacana –

African Finfoot – Extremely rare apparently. Our guide at Lake Mburo told us that serious birders come there specifically to see the finfoot.

Black Crake – Black body, bright red feet, a blue eye, and a yellow beak. The way this bird bops around looking for food looks like it’s got headphones on and is listening to techno music. I always think it’s about to do a moonwalk.

Guineafowl – Crested and Helmeted

Double Toothed Barbet –

Pelican –

Paradise Fly-Catcher –

Weavers – Black Headed, Lesser Masked, Northern Brown Throated, The males build a hanging nest by weaving grass hoping for approval by the females. If the potential mate does not approve of the nest she will destroy it by cutting it off the tree and letting it fall to the ground.

Black Headed Oriole –

African Green Pigeon-

Little Grebe-

Hamerkop – With a hammer shaped head this little bird is quite the builder. The nest it makes would be big enough for an ostrich but the hamerkop is about the size of a common seagull.

Saddle Billed Stork –

Egyptian Goose –

Spur Winged Goose –

Yellow billed Duck –

African White Backed Vulture –

Pallid Harrier –

Gabar Goshawk –

African Goshawk –

Great Sparrowhawk –

African Harrier Hawk –

Augur Buzzard –

Common Buzzard –

Tawny Eagle –

Wahlberg’s Eagle –

Lesser Spotted Eagle –

Scaly Francolin –

Red Necked Spurfowl –

Purple Swamphen –

Lesser Moorhen –

Black Bellied Bustard –

Black Winged Stilt –

Water Thick knee –

Lapwings – Spur winged, Long toed, African wattled, Crowned, Senegal

Green Sandpiper –

Lesser Black Backed Gull –

Speckeled Pigeon –

Doves – Blue Spotted Wood, Ring Necked, Laughing

Great Blue Turaco –

Coucals – Blue Headed, White Browed

Mousebirds – Speckled, Blue Naped

Cinnamon Chested Bee Eater –

This is truly fascinating, isn’t it?

Hornbills – African Grey, Black and White Casqued, this is a Crowned Hornbill sitting on my friend Tony’s car just outside our front door.

Double Toothed Barbet -

Swallows – Red Rumped, Mosque, Lesser Striped, Barn,

Red Shouldered Cuckoo Shrike –

Common Bulbul –

Robin Chats – White Browed, Red Capped, Grey Winged

Common Stonechat –

Northern Wheatear –

Flycathers – African Paradise, Red Bellied Paradise, African Blue,

Black Headed Gonolek –

Black Crowned Tchagra –

Fork Tailed Drongo -

Yellow Billed Oxpecker – Often seen picking lice off of Cape Buffalo.

Fan Tailed Widowbird –

Black Bishop –

Black Winged Red Bishop –

Red Billed Firefinch –

Black Crowned Waxbill –

Wydahs – Broad Tailed Paradise, Pin Tailed.

Whew!