Zebra's, Hippos, and Lost Ballots

I'm still here...

Once again a big gap between my last post so I'll try to catch you up on the happenings since I last updated, as well as stuff this entry with pictures. After my first ballot was lost in the mail (along with all other peace corps uganda ballots) and some legwork from my mom (thank you) I have finally printed a valid ballot and just waiting to find a fax machine that can fax trans-atlantic. I'm told they will be open tomorrow, so we'll see. Nothing like bringing it down to the wire...but this is Africa, where nothing is accomplished in a timely manner.

In other news, my football team is coming together slowly. Considering the first practice I had to teach them how to stretch before training and why it was important, i'd say its quite an accomplishment. We are currently playing an inter-class tournament, the St. Adolf Champions Cup, and are midway through the 4-week tournament. Next friday we are playing a friendly match with the neighboring school, so we'll see if the training has paid off.

The school term is once again coming to a close, and this is the last term of the year...so I am approaching a nice long 2 month break which will give me lots of time to catch up on lesson, football, and newspaper planning. I attempted to put together a science fair with my S2 physics class but in the interest of time we scrapped it for this year and will plan on doing one next school year. (Pictured below is a hand full of them...btw: the second from the right is my goalkeeper Arthur - our ticket to the national competition next year ;). Instead we are conducting an aerofoil competition. After some laborious explanations on the process I think they are finally understanding what we're doing. The competition is scheduled for next week (monday or tuesday depending on the wind and rain). I split the classes (2 classes of 60) into groups of three students. Each team was given various materials I had a surplus of (4 q-tips, 2 paper clips, length of string, scotch tape, 2 sheets of paper) and also allowed to use sticks and anything taken from a banana tree (leaves, banana fibers, etc). Their objective was to construct some type of airplane with these materials that we will launch from the top of a large boulder (20-30 feet high) and measure the length it travels. I'm giving each member of the winning team a textbook, pen, and small notebook, and some small prizes for 2nd and 3rd. I have refused to give an example to hopefully open up their (small) creative abilities. I'll take some pictures and let you know how it turns out....keep your fingers crossed.

On the personal side I recently took a trip to Lake Mburo national park with Kelly and some other volunteers. This park is one of two in Uganda with a large zebra population, which was incredible to see so many in the wild. In addition, we took a boat trip around the lake and were chased by a dominant male hippo when our boat approached a little too close to his family. His attacking strategy was to dive down under water and swim towards our boat and then pop up several meters closer and blow water out of his snout at us. Here he is on once such surprise attack: We also saw lots of small crocodiles on the lake and one that was quite large and luckily viewed from a considerable distance. I was however able to get a good picture of him just before he slipped into the water: In addition I also learned that the vervet monkeys (most common type here have a somewhat strange color combination, especially in the uh, lower regions. This little fella here proceeded to sit up on the railing to scope out our plates during dinner, then slowly crept up behind me and snatched a boiled potato from my plate while I was turned the other way. This is just before the strike...

In village news I recently acquired a new appreciation for ants...a valuable source of protein where matooke rules all meals. A P7 student Ahebwa (Ah-hay-bwa) who lives just near the parish to the liberty of introducing me to the wonders of fresh ants. I've mentioned these in a previous entry when I watched two young boys catch them coming out of the anthill. This time we just found a spot on the ground where they were flying up around dusk and caught them with our hands and chowed down. They've got a juicy back section with some flavor, but you have to spit the wings out as you're chewing (apologies to queezy stomachs). Even the dog joined in. We also had a new addition to the cattle herd, and this one Kelly and I were able to watch the birth throughout the day. So again, a cow for rosie...this is just a few hours after the birth, mom was still cleaning the new one off.

That's it for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home...don't worry, just a couple days and Palin's political career will fizzle out with a whimper as children everywhere sleep soundly once again (oops), and you wont have to hear the word "election" for a while (hopefully).

Love and miss you all,
Eric.

***oh and i've put a new PO Box address in the sidebar, yet again. Don't worry if something is already in transit. I can still access mail received at the Kampala and Kyenjojo addresses. I've had issues with getting a new key to replace the one the fathers lost for the Kyenjojo box, so my new neighbor and I are sharing a box in Fort Portal now instead.