Beginnings

I have finally arrived at the Bwindi Community Health Center (BCHC) guest house in Southwestern Uganda after hours of flying and navigating my way through the chaos of Uganda’s capitol, Kampala. I arrived last Tuesday night at 8 pm after 18 hours of flying, with layovers in St Paul and Amsterdam. My first impression as I walked off the plane, onto the runway, was a blast of humid 70 degree air that washed over me. Kampala is just a 45 minute drive north of Lake Victoria which is the second largest freshwater lake in the world (can you name the first, think Siberia) as well as the source of the Nile River! The lake is so large it creates its own climate of dense humid warm air. I spent three days in Kampala gathering the last minute supplies necessary to carry out a water quality assessment of drinking water sources as well as personal items that I could not carry with me.

The chaotic streets of Kampala

Kampala is a sprawling city of nearly one and a half million people with 40 story skyscrapers intermixed with the poorest of the poor shanty towns. It is the fastest growing economy of any city in Africa were you have women and men walking around in fine business attire walking by beggars sitting on the street with deformed limbs. Gridlocked traffic at all hours of the day and a maze of unmarked roads make traveling by Boda Boda (motorcycle) the only feasible way to navigate the city and forces one to reorganize their imprinted rules of “1^st world” personal safety. I found navigating the markets and government offices of the capitol city to be an even greater challenge. Fortunately I was assisted by Paul Mahezi, a Ugandan, who was sent on the ten hour bus ride up from the BCHC. Dr. Scott Kellermann (see www.pygmies.net to learn more about this doctor) hired Paul to assist in the Batwa Community Projects (BCP) which is an off-shoot organization of the BCHC to improve the lives of the oft struggling Batwa Pygmies.

Paul will play the critical role of translator, procurement officer, and accountant for the water projects (not to mention keeping the Mzungu ‘aka white person’ out of trouble). I realized immediately how invaluable our partnership was going to be for the rest of the projects after the first couple of hours traveling around Kampala with him. Mzungu prices are always at least 5 times the cost that it would be for Ugandans and even by accompanying Paul to buy certain items he could not get the prices he would normally have found on his own. We spent Thursday day alone trying to figure out all of the necessary documents needed to obtain a year long work permit for myself. This entailed bus or boda boda rides as well as several miles of walking on foot to visit the internal affairs office for the application, Interpol to get a criminal report, the police academy to get the fingerprints for the criminal report, the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau to get a cover letter…and so on. By 5 pm I was absolutely spent due to traveling in the heat and humidity, jet lag, and just the outright tedium of obtaining all of the necessary information to avoid costly return trips to Kampala.

Finally by Friday I was resigned to the fact that I would need a return trip to Kampala to complete the work permit and buy the rest of my supplies, so Paul and I decided to leave for Bwindi early Saturday morning. At 5 am we loaded all of my supplies onto the bus which was a large traveling pack, a large duffel bag, a bacterial water test kit, two large cardboard boxes, and my daypack. Among the items purchased in Kampala I had a two burner gas stove, gravity fed water filter, teapot, cooking pot, pressure cooker (for sterilizing the testing kit equiptment), a baby scale for the hospital, a heavy marble plaque for the hospital with the Bishops name on it, batteries, coffee not to mention all of the gear I brought from the states. It reminds me of the second chapter in the Barbara Kingsolver book the Poisonwood Bible, “The Things We Carried.” I felt like the family in that book bringing all of my stuff to a place where it may or may not have use. Over time I will most assuredly find out! The bus ride is an exhausting ten hour trip from smooth tarmac, to bone jarring potholed pavement, to a less punishing but incredibly dusty dirt road. Road weary and crusted in dust Paul and I reached the BCHC guest house under a tropical afternoon downpour. The guest house was just as I remembered when I first visited in April of 2006 (see the below photo). I received a warm welcome by Dr. Kellermann, Stephen “Blackie” Gonsolvez who works on the BCP, two med student from Denmark Karen and Nadia, Dir the hospital IT manager, as well as hospital administrators Richard and Levi. We had a traditional Batwa pygmie dinner of pasta with Bolognese sauce and soon after I was ready for bed.

I woke this morning to 15 different bird calls (I lost count at that point) and red-tailed monkeys racing along the roof of the guest house. Today is Sunday which is the slowest day of the week because everyone is at church. This is generally the day off for the staff of the hospital as well as everyone working at the guesthouse. This will most likely be my blog day. It feels great to be here and great to finally be on the ground working out the beginnings of the water projects. Next post I’m sure I will have more news on the assessment and preliminary phases of the project. I would just like to thank everyone who has supported me in this venture I hopefully I can interact with you through the blog. Special thanks to the Nevada City Rotary for writing the grant and to Rotact of Nevada County for the amazing support and fundraising for the projects. I look forward to hearing from you all. Until next time…Cheers!