Today I slept a lot and then got a tour of some of Kampala. We went to the Garden City Mall and got coffee and a cell phone that is in the end much cheaper for calls within Uganda. I was surprised how many people were in western style dress and how many white people I saw. Simosas are great – meat, spices, and onion wrapped in a filo type dough and deep fried. MMMMMMM…. MEAT!!! Haha.
I was able to talk a lot with my advisor who I am travelling with about graduate schools and possible dissertation topics. It turns out that Semliki will be a fabulous opportunity for me to try and fine tune my interviewing skills. My real interest is in human interactions with the environment and Semliki has a long hidden past with governmental disputes with local peoples and other parties with conflicting interests. Who should ultimately have control of a wilderness area and how it should be patrolled? Or even if it should be patrolled at all. Issues like these are so intricate, between conservation organizations, the government, the inhabitants who are simply trying to make a living for themselves and their relatives, and private or non-private research institutions. They become hush-hush because if you speak of anything in the wrong way you are liable to be fired. Also turns out I may have the opportunity to travel back here to Kampala for a conference in August on the affect of tourism on animal health. YEA!!!!
I have my first few initiation blisters – bad choice of foot wear on the first day. By the way I found out those fruits are passion fruits. Rachael, you would love the avocados here. They are about twice the size and a quarter the price.
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