Saturday, August 10, 2013

A few photos of Kigoma, Lake Tanganyika, and chimp tracking


Notice how close we are to the baboons. 








The female named Golden.















Hello from Uganda!
These pictures are from our Study Abroad Trip in Kigoma. We were able to take a side trip for two days to Gombe National Park. Gombe National Park is the first reserve started by Dr. Jane Goodall and it is where she began to habituate the chimps.  Luckily, we were able to track in the afternoon upon arrival and early morning the following day. We were fortunate to have an exceptional track on both days. On the first day we followed Golden's family. Golden, who has a baby, met up with her two sisters' that also have young chimps. They sat with us for hours as they groomed, played, and ate. It was remarkable.
We were able to stay at Dr. Jane's homestead while we were there. The accomodations are rustic; it is an open air concrete structure with an out house. You can see her collection of chimp skeletons pictured above.
Lake Tanganyika also proved to be impressive. The second deepest lake in the world looked like an ocean.  It is clean, and not over fished, like Lake Victoria.
I also included my favorite picture of the Berry College students with the kids from Sanganigwa Orphanage. This photo was taken on our last night when we gave the children gifts and a donation for the school.
Enjoy and sorry for the delay! More field pictures to follow!
Tamie

Friday, August 9, 2013

Getting settled and getting started with research in Uganda!

The first round of water quality data collection began in July. Above, my field assistant, Emily, and I are using some field equipment at Mabira Forest. Emily is currently a senior undergraduate student at Makerere University. 

A meeting with project coordinators, professors, and students at Makerere University.  I'm learning that lengthy formal meetings, welcoming events, and remarks are an integral part of the Ugandan culture. 


Hello from Uganda!
I shifted from Tanzania to Uganda during the third week of July. Julie and I found an apartment next to Julie's sister, who is concluding her Fulbright Research in East Africa.  The apartment was too far out of town, so we recently went on an apartment hunt and found a much cheaper, and better location that is more near the City Center and public transport. 

Every day life is challenging, dangerous, and rewarding.  Life here is hard. It takes an incredible amount of time to do anything.  The most simple of tasks can take days. For example, I had to print, sign, scan, and email a document back to the US.   This task that may have taken 10 minutes at home, took a week and several trips to town due to the many technological challenges that had to be overcome. Life here is slower, for sure, and I can say that after three months I still haven't adapted to the pace. 

I have met with the professors at Makerere University, and they have been most accomodating with lab/office space.  So far, I have taken on one graduating senior, Emily, who is pictured above in the field with me. She is vibrant, confident, intelligent, witty, eager, and well spoken.  I will be including an additional graduate student in my water quality research come September.  

I was able to get into the field twice already to capture the July and August signatures at each of the forest reserves.  Since my last visit in 2010,  I had forgotten about their independent beauty and uniqueness.  From the initial data sets, the water quality at each of the forest reserves is considerably lower than what I would have estimated.   All of the forests face pressures from human encroachment like deforestration, soil erosion, pesticide application,  and cattle use.  I'm hoping that the baseline data set that I'm collecting can be used to promote conservation and better land use. 

In addition to the water quality research, I will  begin in September to collect pioneering data on air quality in Kampala and Entebbe.  The air quality is so apparently poor, especially in the City Center, that I anticipate the results to be shocking.  In addition to the old cars that fill the streets, the commonplace burning of plastic and trash add a film of particulate matter over the horizon daily.  If you are in a taxi during traffic, for example, you are sure to leave weezing, lethargic, and with a wicked headache.  There are currently no air pollution regulations, standards, or policies in place for Uganda. I imagine the air is similar, or worse, to that before the Clean Air Act was implemented in the US. 

Lastly, the research for Mt Elgon is still pending. We are hoping to meet our colleagues in the field sometime in the Fall. The research permitting for Kenya will prove to be tricky, but hopefully it's nothing that a little bribe money can't take care of.

I'm having some trouble loading pictures onto my computer because of space.  Once this is resolved I will post more of the field work and the individual forest reserves.

All the best,
Dr. Jo

Thursday, August 1, 2013

A few photographs from Tanzania...

A Serengeti sunset.

A replacement for Rocky dog...

                                                                A few from Zanzibar.

                                                   Teaching geology in a primary school.

                                              A lesson on volcanoes at a secondary school.

                                                  The largest volcano in Africa- Kilimanjaro!
                                                                   Maasai Women.

                                                                              Simba.
Tembo!

                                                Learning to cook traditional Tanzanian food.