Our Saturday morning wake-up call found Allison with some time to spare between an afternoon excursion and a gathering with the local villagers. Allison's group were to be entertained by a women's group from a village they've come to know and then watch as Allison's group put on a Canadian song and dance routine they'd worked on. Glad to see those dance lessons will finally pay off.
Allison's routine this week has been a morning run with friends. With the park about 1590m above sea level (approx. 5200ft ASL) she is happy to have others who want to maintain her field hockey fitness level. While they stretch outside after the run they enjoy the flocks of birds feeding, mainly African Wildtails that dive around feeding on insects along with 3 African Hornbills (http://www.africa-uganda-business-travel-guide.com/Uganda-Birding-Safari---.html) that make their daily visit. A group of Baboons also make the rounds then followed by different varieties of monkeys throughout the day. Allison rattles off the different types of monkeys as if she's tour guide now.
The students have a daily course lecture outside where her biggest concern is keeping sunblock on and trying to stay under the shade of the trees. Obviously still warm there - she didn't ask about our January weather! After lectures they head out on an excursion - she's mentioned neighbouring villages and health clinics that have been an eye-opening experience for her. As part of her Health and Environment course she is working on a research assignment focusing on Human and Wildlife Conflict while looking at the local govenments role as it pertains to this conflict. The local villagers have described serious destructive problems with elephants in the Kibale area. Other reported conflicts have involved monkeys, gorillas and even wild pigs. One local village reported three lions wondering into the village (we've stressed the importance to Allison that during her morning runs that she has to be at least faster than the slowest in the group).
Allison has done a bit of shopping for jewellry and woven baskets all made in the local villages.
On Tuesday Feb.1st the group will head about 200km east towards the western side of Lake Victoria to stay at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda (Google it!). After a few days Allison will head up to Kampala which is the capital city of Uganda (pop. 770,000) for a couple days before proceeding to the next main Ugandan city along Lake Victoria, Jinja.
She's still enjoying the food and based on how fast she talks on the phone, is still loving every minute of it.
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