Africa time: 11:00 pm
I've just tucked my mosquito net around my bed, and I'm nestled into a bed which will probably only be mine for 2 more days before I have to move, and then another 2 days til I move again.
I finished charging my camera about an hour ago, so tomorrow I'll skitter around the house taking pictures to upload.
Alas, the internet is still down so I'm stuck to making entries that I can't post. It seems like it's a non-regular occurrence, which is comforting, but at the same time it's rather isolating to be here and unable to communicate to let people know that I'm here. Originally I'd felt silly for posting and communicating so much from Ethiopia, but in retrospect, I'm glad I did.
The sounds here are much different, and far less serene than they were in Kenya, and really, I'm far more isolated from the everyday African person as I'm in a compound in Entebbe complete with fence, armed guard, and guard dog. I can see people walking down the path outside the gate... and I do have to say that it's strange being segregated per sé.
Debby (the Executive Director of JGI Uganda and the person who I knew before this whole process) woke me up around 4 pm after I'd fallen asleep at about 9 am. She was right in assuming that I would be unable to sleep tonight if I slept much more during the day, so although I was totally quiet and wiped, I came downstairs and met a million people who were over to our BBQ.
Lots of yummy food, but I wasn't really hungry. The people who run Safaris onto the island were there with their kids, and some other people with their kids, so lots of kids, laughing, music and food and drink. Every once in a while I'd have the re-realization "Wow, I'm in Africa!"
And it made me smile.
I spent most of the afternoon and the evening getting to know the people at the BBQ, since I'll be working with a bunch of them. I was far quieter than my usual self, and spent a bunch of time snuggling with the tiniest sleeping puppy, nearly falling asleep myself!
It was a little overcast today, and threatened to rain during the whole festivity, and I have to say that I'm glad I brought warm clothes too (from experience in Kenya) because yea, it's not warm right now! at all!
People didn't leave the BBQ until late, so we went in and washed up the dishes, and really, my accommodations here are exquisite. We locked down the compound after people left (all the verdandas have huge metal gates that need to be locked, etc) and they talked about watching Princess Diaries 2, which apparently they'd tried to watch on multiple people's laptops with limited success, mostly because of sound, visual and playing problems.
Allure, of course, played it perfectly. PLUS, it was a huge screen, they had speakers to plug in, and I was so pleased. The disc was pretty scratched, so we only made it 2/3rds of the way through the movie, but it almost felt like I'd been here a while. Everyone is nice and friendly.
Debby and [can't remember her name] are leaving tomorrow thru Rwanda to go to Congo (not the DRC Congo) and look in on the Tchiimpounga Sanctuary and Liz and I will be here, while she trains me to do her job.
I also discovered that I'll get to go to the island and that going there usually entails several days stay and that I'll get to "become familiar with all the chimps"...
This thought it terribly exciting... several days on the island! I'm also gearing up to work with Liz, who is only semi-friendly but still quite nice. I'm trying not to come in with any sort of opinion about her, because Sylvie had commented on not liking her. It won't really matter because she's leaving next week.
But there are only 3 people who live in the house. I'll probably need to branch out, I'd imagine :) Or spend lots of time online!
Anyway, I'm actually tired now, so I'm gonna head off to sleep.
I've just tucked my mosquito net around my bed, and I'm nestled into a bed which will probably only be mine for 2 more days before I have to move, and then another 2 days til I move again.
I finished charging my camera about an hour ago, so tomorrow I'll skitter around the house taking pictures to upload.
Alas, the internet is still down so I'm stuck to making entries that I can't post. It seems like it's a non-regular occurrence, which is comforting, but at the same time it's rather isolating to be here and unable to communicate to let people know that I'm here. Originally I'd felt silly for posting and communicating so much from Ethiopia, but in retrospect, I'm glad I did.
The sounds here are much different, and far less serene than they were in Kenya, and really, I'm far more isolated from the everyday African person as I'm in a compound in Entebbe complete with fence, armed guard, and guard dog. I can see people walking down the path outside the gate... and I do have to say that it's strange being segregated per sé.
Debby (the Executive Director of JGI Uganda and the person who I knew before this whole process) woke me up around 4 pm after I'd fallen asleep at about 9 am. She was right in assuming that I would be unable to sleep tonight if I slept much more during the day, so although I was totally quiet and wiped, I came downstairs and met a million people who were over to our BBQ.
Lots of yummy food, but I wasn't really hungry. The people who run Safaris onto the island were there with their kids, and some other people with their kids, so lots of kids, laughing, music and food and drink. Every once in a while I'd have the re-realization "Wow, I'm in Africa!"
And it made me smile.
I spent most of the afternoon and the evening getting to know the people at the BBQ, since I'll be working with a bunch of them. I was far quieter than my usual self, and spent a bunch of time snuggling with the tiniest sleeping puppy, nearly falling asleep myself!
It was a little overcast today, and threatened to rain during the whole festivity, and I have to say that I'm glad I brought warm clothes too (from experience in Kenya) because yea, it's not warm right now! at all!
People didn't leave the BBQ until late, so we went in and washed up the dishes, and really, my accommodations here are exquisite. We locked down the compound after people left (all the verdandas have huge metal gates that need to be locked, etc) and they talked about watching Princess Diaries 2, which apparently they'd tried to watch on multiple people's laptops with limited success, mostly because of sound, visual and playing problems.
Allure, of course, played it perfectly. PLUS, it was a huge screen, they had speakers to plug in, and I was so pleased. The disc was pretty scratched, so we only made it 2/3rds of the way through the movie, but it almost felt like I'd been here a while. Everyone is nice and friendly.
Debby and [can't remember her name] are leaving tomorrow thru Rwanda to go to Congo (not the DRC Congo) and look in on the Tchiimpounga Sanctuary and Liz and I will be here, while she trains me to do her job.
I also discovered that I'll get to go to the island and that going there usually entails several days stay and that I'll get to "become familiar with all the chimps"...
This thought it terribly exciting... several days on the island! I'm also gearing up to work with Liz, who is only semi-friendly but still quite nice. I'm trying not to come in with any sort of opinion about her, because Sylvie had commented on not liking her. It won't really matter because she's leaving next week.
But there are only 3 people who live in the house. I'll probably need to branch out, I'd imagine :) Or spend lots of time online!
Anyway, I'm actually tired now, so I'm gonna head off to sleep.
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