Crouching Hippos, Sleeping Lions

When I crossed into Uganda, the border guard asked me how long I would be saying and when I replied one month he said, "I'd better give you two months then. You'll need lots of time because there's lots to see. You won't want to leave."

So far Uganda has really rolled out the red carpet. My first week here they had three public holidays -- two for voting and one for international women's day. Now, I want to assimilate with the culture, so I resignedly took the time off too. On Women's Day, I joined a bus full of muzungus to check out some Bugandan kingdom sites. Tourism in Africa is obviously a little different than at home and instead of little plaques or videos or people in period costume, there is mostly just someone who comes running out of their kitchen when visitors arrive to point out the sights, like the lump of ground where the Bugandan king is crowned. The slab of concrete where he is coronated Western-style. The rusty shed where he spends his last night as prince and holds "council" meetings. The prison "ditch" where the king once held his marauding brothers and sisters (before setting them on fire.) A missed lunch means I was more grumpy than touristy, but once we got some matoke in our stomachs (steamed under ripe banana, mashed into dense balls and eaten with your hands) I was much more in the mood for singing and dancing.

I spent the last three days in a car, sometimes getting out periodically to pee or take a photo or feed myself. We went to Ichacha falls, over by the Congolese border, to see the tree-climbing lions. It was a long ride, but totally worth it. We slept in the park, in tents down by the hippo pools. They snorted and snuffled and groaned all night, sometimes sounding like they were searching for grass under our tents. The water buffalos were also pretty vocal and the baboons screamed every now and again. We managed to see seven lions -- a pretty good record considering many people go there and see none.

I'm thinking about working again this week. Thinking about it.