Firstly though; some fun parts of the month. Last week was the beginning of grasshopper season. That was really fun, although it seems to be mostly over now. The way which the locals catch the grasshoppers is interesting; there are lots of very bright lights scattered around Masaka town, and below the lights are big barrels with metal sheets coming out of them. The grasshoppers seem to be blinded or something by either smoke that is produced or the light, and they fall onto the sheet and then into the barrel. Then they are sold the next morning. One night in particular there seemed to be so many that i couldn’t see the night sky behind the swarm of grasshoppers. As well as this they seem to make good toys for the children who enjoy catching them, and pulling off their hind legs so that they cannot push themselves into the air and begin to fly. But most importantly they are rather tasty. They are cooked slowly with some onions and whatever you like, and make a lovely snack.
We also went to on a day safari this month. We set off at 6am in the morning in a 4x4 and set off for Lake Mburo. The roads were a mix of good and bad, but we didn’t much care as we were all excited to see what animals we would find there (plus we had chapattis to occupy us). We had not even reached the official gates of the park when we saw a few dozen zebras. They were truly amazing, so striking with their different stripes. As well as seeing the zebras we also wart-hogs, cranes, buffalo, monkeys, and spring-box (or something similar). They were all seen from the lake but we also took a boat ride around parts of Lake Mburo. On the lake we saw plenty of hippos, which I really enjoyed as they are one of my favourite animals. The size of just their heads fills you with awe. We also saw some baby crocodiles, as lake Mburo is connected to the river Nile, I think they were Nile crocodiles. Finally we also witnessed a 20 minute long fight between some African Fin-Foot birds...it was pretty interesting, but what was more interesting was watching the other boat of obviously dedicated bird watchers, be filled with both amazement but also dread as they feared that a rarely sighted bird might be killed by the other....thankfully we managed to break the birds up, told them to keep their beaks closed, shake wings, and paddle off in opposite directs. It was a truly amazing day, which I didn’t expect to happen when I arrived in Uganda so I feel very privileged to have been able to do that.
Also this month was my birthday; I had a good day at work and got to share some sodas and chocolate with the White Eagles. Then a few of us went for a meal in a local restaurant, in all it was very special to celebrate my birthday here in Masaka.
Geoff is volunteering with River of Life for 4 months - to read all his blog posts, just click here
No comments:
Post a Comment