Allison's Tuesday call from Jinja

Overlooking the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda, Allison watched a spectacular sunset while bird watching after her first exam - an exam written outside under the trees, sweating in the afternoon heat! Allison is loving the warm temperatures and doesn't mind being hot - wonder why...........in February :)  She has found it a bit too hot for her morning run in the last couple days - her Mum and I are quite sympathetic!!  Despite the heat, Allison and the group are getting used to wearing their long pants and long sleeved shirts to protect themselves from the sun. "I've got a great farmers tan going".
Her day started at 5:40am Tuesday to the sound of a parade of men going down the streets pounding sticks and chanting about their candidate for the upcoming Ugandan election. I'm trying to picture that in Canada at 5:40 am!  After morning lectures, Allison was part of group that joined members of the National Fisheries Research Institute to go out on a boat onto Lake Victoria. Allison was pulling in fish and tagging them as part of research into efficiencies into different net designs to better improve fishing for the locals. After the 'fishing trip' they had an hour to review before writing the exam.  They then all spent a nice evening off, students, professors and grad students playing some fuzeball while having a few beers.  Allison has found this time invaluable to get to know everyone and to network about future research and internships.
Today, Wednesday, some of the profs and grad students were to leave the group to head back west to Kibale National Forest or Kampala to finish their research or work.  Allison and the remaining group were to leave the hotel in Jinja, cross the border back into Kenya and head for Kisumu where they were to visit the Millenium Cities Initiative (MCI). They were camping Wed. night and Thursday will be spent visiting the Millenium Villages Project (MVP).  http://mci.ei.columbia.edu/?id=locations_kisumu.  'The End of Poverty' author Jeffrey Sachs is a leader in this project and his book is a foundation for all Global Development students. She is quite excited about the prospect of seeing first hand what she's read so much about.

Friday they will travel a few miles around Lake Victoria to Mbita to spend a few days working on a group Health & Nutrition Module. Then, it's off to the Masai Mara National Park.