Things Not To Do On A Safari

Laura and I, along with some other interns in our group, went on a safari last weekend to beautiful Murchison Falls, in the west of the country. The trip was amazing, and we saw

giraffes, hippos, elephants, lions, water buffalo, warthogs, baboons...just to name a few. We traveled with a very patient guide, Faruk. Oddly enough, our trip was most memorable because it was peppered with hilarious accidents and oddities. Which is why I assembled a checklist of things not to do on a safari.

(Rothschild Giraffes)

1. Do not go out on a safari without a rope. On our second day, we set out across the savanna on a game drive. Some considerate person had parked in the middle of the road, so Faruk tried to maneuver around it. We wound up sinking in a muddy ditch, and couldn't get out. We waited around until another truck came by, and had to make a rope out of seatbelts because no one seemed to have the real thing. We then were pulled out of the ditch by our trusty seatbelt rope, and wound up bending the grill on our safari van in the process.

2. Do not take a picture of an upset momma baboon. We were walking back to the safari lodge and encountered a couple of momma baboons getting into a fight on the road. One of them came over to our side of the road with her baby. We thought it would be a really good idea to take a picture of her. She then looked at us, set her baby down, and charged at us. We screamed and ran down the hill like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Almost having our faces ripped off by baboons = memorable, to say the least.

3. Do not spend the greater part of an hour chasing down a handicapped lion. Because you will feel incredibly guilty. On our first game drive, Faruk got wind that a lion was spotted somewhere off in the delta, near the Nile River. He asked if we wanted to speed to catch up to it, and we all excitedly said yes. After close to an hour of dashing across the savanna, we found our lion. Except that our lion has three legs. He had gotten one of them caught in a snare trap, and the rangers had to amputate it. Three convoys of tourists were circled around this poor guy, snapping pictures, and all he was doing was sitting there with his three legs looking at us as if to say, "Well, I'm obviously not going anywhere." Handicapped lion charities, anyone?

(His name is Stumpy)

Along with some other incidents - which included the cab roof almost killing us, backing into a tree, and having to kill a 3-inch sized monster cockroach with my suitcase - the safari was definitely a memorable experience! But poor Faruk: he said that in all his 15 years of doing safaris, this was the worst luck he's ever had. Hopefully he won't have another trip of muzungus with bad karma for another 15 years!

Mallory - The Hungry Intern

Mallory and I have incredibly enjoyed blogging about our adventures! In the middle of yet another crazy situation we will look at each other and say - this is one for the blog. As we have gotten to know each other better and blogged like crazy we decided to blog about each other.

So here it is: Mallory is, in a word, awesome. In several words she is a hardworking intern who genuinely cares for her community, she really likes it when work gets done, and she is always hungry. Always.

(The IU Kelley interns at Sipi Falls Midterm Retreat!)

Our conversations usually start about work, then stories about our families, misadventures, planning more adventures, and then we decide to get some food as we cycle through again. We are in the same year at IU, but had not met prior to receiving our internship. Mallory contacted me and I was so excited to know I would have a travel buddy and blog buddy!

She is down for all things adventure and microfinance. In addition to her fly by the seat of her pants trip to Kampala, she trusted me for some reason (which probably won’t happen again) to find our way to the source of the Nile. Although that didn't work, we had a great time and made some friends. Mallory definitely has her head on straight and minor bumps in the road don't faze her. Unless of course that bump is a lack of or delay in food. "We should go find some Chipatti." Yes always hungry and anything will do - you did read she ate crickets didn't you?

Some of her favorite Ugandan foods are Matoke and and all the sauces, especially fish but not at all beans. Street food of Chipatti, samosas, rolex, gnuts, fruits and all things organic, like mangoes bananas, avacadoes are often mentioned. But she must have her Stoney, a ginger soda (which I agree is awesome!). Actually most of these foods made her top 20-some best things about Uganda list!

We are still cracking down on our bucket list – Safari next weekend! – but her time is in high demand with her increasingly successful savings trainings! We enjoy getting together after work and meeting up with other interns. FSD has put together and incredible, diverse, and snarky team of interns ("We need the visa to get there because we are American citizens" "Oh, we ARE American citizens then?"... ) and I look forward to meeting her again this weekend at an Indian restaurant for dinner of course!

It's Go Time

It seems unreal that in less than three days I will have arrived in Jinja, Uganda. More than half of that time (roughly 30 hours) will be spent in transit!

We just received our orientation schedules, and I was very excited to see that we will be taking a trip to Bujagali Falls on the Nile River! Ever since I received my internship offer in February I began researching Uganda, and pictures of these falls have mesmerized me and quickly became my desktop image. This side trip will definitely get my Summer To Do list well underway!

Other priorities on that list are:

• Surviving
• Visiting the textile market
• Go to Kampala
• Experience a church service
• Safari!!!!
• White water rafting on the Nile!!

...and so much more!. But, I'm not going to just give it all away, you will just have to come back and read more.

While you wait for more posts, feel free to enjoy this picture of Bujagali Falls and try to picture Mallory and I right there off to the side!