Lake Mburo

Lake Mburo was lovely.  The VSO volunteers I went with were even lovelier.  They are all living in either mbarara or bushenyi towns and the majority of them are involved in teaching, with a good half of them working with disabled children.  The work they a

re doing is really amazing, especially a new workshop that the Bushenyi crew are involved with called Guidance not Violence which teaches parents and teachers alternati

ve ways to discipline children.  They let me sit in on their meeting, but all that sun made me a little drowsy, so I hope I got the description of the program right.

As for the vacation it was much n

eeded

.  My brain has gone into countdown mode but unfortunately I don’t have time to be thinking about home just yet.  So a couple days of not answering my phone was enough to reg

roup and get me back on track for the coming two weeks.  It helped that there was a little booze, some campfire action and whole lotta laughter involved.

We all stayed in safari tents.  So it was like camping but with real beds.

You aren’t allowed to walk around the park without a guide and as there are quite far distances between were you sleep, where you eat, and where you go on walking safari’s you really need a car.

Peter and I decided we were going to defy all the rules and walk for a bit anyways.  Danny was about to drop us when we noticed a huuuge family of baboons just off the road.  That is one family I do not want to mess with.  We watched them for quite some time and then had Danny drop us further up the road.  We figured it would be a good half hour walk and we needed to be ready for anything, like charging Pumba’s – so we each got a good handful of rocks.  That would show em!

Yup.  It was about an 8 minute walk back to the water and restaurant. 

Standing by the waters edge chatting about the challenges and futures of special education and education in general in Uganda Peter and I were witnesses to a full on National Geographic meets Discovery Channel moment.  And without a camera between us.

About three meters out from the shore two giant hippos suddenly sprang from the water and started attacking each other.  Their teeth are gigantic when you are that close to them.  It was both amazing and nerve-wracking.  I got laughed at for inching slowly back as these giant beasts became more and more vicous.

We went on a boat trip after that and saw tons more hippos (in our tiny boat I might add – I’m sure I saw hippos plotting our watery death), that same family of around 30 baboons but this time hanging out  in a tree, a water buffalo’s bum, and so many birds.  For a non bird watcher I was tres impressed and very excited by the kingfishers.  There were so many other birds also.  The fish eagle was a personal favorite.

We saw tons of impala, topi, bush bucks, etc etc.  this isn’t as exciting as if I could upload pics.  I’ll try, but if not I will add them when I get home.  So soon!

And of course, I saw a zebra crossing.  A real zebra.  Crossing the road.  What’s the punch line to that one?