Back to Basics in Busingiro

Habari! Muzuri!

Careening down a dusty dirt road to Busingiro, I notice several dark faces emerge through the red clouds, and though I cannot hear their shouts over the rattle of the truck, I see their lips form a word I have come to know all too well: muzungu. Deriving from a swahili verb "to go in circles," muzungu refers to white people and their frantic pace of life. Everywhere I turn, children run and wave with both hands, teenage girls blush and feign disinterest (until I have passed, then they, too, run to tell friends), and men engrossed in matatu, a card game like UNO played at lightning speed, look and stare in disbelief. So this is what it's like to be a celebrity. Or a circus freak.

The people here in Busingiro, a village 40 km from the nearest town with electricity and running water, are very friendly, often engaging me and my roommate Shannon in curious conversation.
"Where do you come from?"
California always results in blank stares, so I always say "America."
"Ah yes, America. You are welcome. How do you find Uganda?"
After the standard explanation of my provenance, many are curious to know what crops I grow in America, what season they are planted, and how long before harvest. These questions being difficult to answer, are easily evaded by returning the same questions. Millett, cassava, beans, matoke (small green bananas), pawpaw, and jackfruit are the staples gracing everyone's fields here. Then comes the question of my reason for staying in Busingiro.

"I am doing chimpanzee research in the forest."
Most people use resources from the forest- such as illegally logged wooden poles- to build their mud and thatch houses, so needless to say, they are wary and suspicious of my involvement with the corrupt NFA, the National Forestry Authority. When I assure them my interest is solely in the chimps, they still demand to know who pays me for my work, or at least who will compensate me for my expenses upon return to America. The concept of volunteering is perhaps more bewildering to some than the fact that they have just encountered a muzungu in Busingiro!!

Despite the fishbowl effect, I truly am enjoying my volunteer work in Uganda. The chimpanzees at Busingiro are not well habituated, so many days are spent following the sound of pant hoots without a sighting. Many days are silent. Though the days we have seen the chimps were exceptional!! I have been very fortunate to witness a rare colobus monkey hunt. 2 adult male chimps, presumably the alpha male and his wingman, trapped a black and white colobus monkey in a bare tree (much easier to see without foliage), and flung the monkey out of the tree with vigor. Since we did not hear any chimps "cheering" below, we assumed the hunt was a failure. We continued following the chimps' path and quickly realized the hunting success- we came upon a clearing littered with blood, tufts of fur, a piece of cranium, and several bones. How exciting!

After our usual 15 km hike through the forest, we head home for a "shower" (aka bucket of rainwater), discussions over what to cook for dinner, considering what will go moldy the soonest and what will be good for 8 more days before our trip to the market, and then we are finally lulled to sleep by the sweet serenade of tree hyraxes (imagine a young girl screaming bloody murder every three seconds all night long).

Other recent highlights in Uganda include a trip to Murchison Falls national park, where we camped at the top of the forceful falls- the narrowest point along the nile before it empties into lake Albert. We saw hundreds of hippos, several elephants and giraffes, abundant bird species (sorry im not much of an ornithologist), Uganda kob, bushbuck, oribis, and even a lion and two cubs stalking warthog prey. Of course I cant leave out the more exciting moment of a hot shower with running water at Kinyara on my day off!! It was the first time I felt clean...I should go back every two weeks :)

Today I am sadly moving away from this farmtown village of Busingiro to an actual house in Kasokwa, about 35 minutes away. Though I am excited to see chimps more reliably, so I will have more stories soon!

-Katie Hall