Greetings and farewells

This has been a week of arrivals and departures. Denise, a VSOer in Masindi, completed her two year placement last week and departed for the UK on Monday. I (Maggie) accompanied her down to Kampala to say farewell. Denise was half way through her time here when we arrived and I can remember feeling very much the newcomer and she the wise one who had lived here for a whole year and consequently she suffered our constant questions and insecurities. Now we are in the same boat as she was then and it really brings home how quickly the time passes here and how little time there is to achieve anything. On the same day as Denise leaving we welcomed Laura, a medical student from the UK, who is spending her elective period here and staying with us for a week. I packed Laura off to Masindi in a taxi and waited another day in Kampala for the much anticipated arrival of Becky .. The taxi delivering us to Masindi then returned to Entebbe airport with Jarrad, a student from Hull, who has been with us for about 10 days. As Jarrad is considering a career in medicine he wanted to come out and spend some time with Chris – hopefully being thrown into the deep end of the Ugandan health service hasn’t put him off! Our next arrival is Gordon coming to join Becky in a week’s time. In the meantime, it’s been great showing Becky the delights of Masindi district, including chimps and rhinos. Unfortunately we came across an unexpected piece of wildlife yesterday. Becky has a real phobia of snakes and I haven’t seen one the whole time I’ve been here but, right on cue, one squirmed its way across our path! Now Becky’s inspecting under every bit of furniture with a torch! Gordon’s arrival will mark the beginning of our holiday. The four of us are taking off for two weeks to explore other parts of Uganda – can’t wait.

The Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is only a 40 minute drive from Masindi. It is here on this 7,000 ha piece of savanah that both black and white rhinos have been re-introduced to Uganda. There are only six at present but it is hoped that one day the sanctuary will be home to many more. When we last visited in March the first calf has just been stillborn after a 15 month gestation period. Rhinos only produce every 2 or 3 years so it's going to be a slow process. We picked up our ranger guide at the gate and with the use of walkie-talkies to communicate to the other rangers he led us through the bush to find the rhinos. Fortunately we found the group all grazing altogether and they seemed more interested in that than us. We managed to see them at very close range, but I did stay very close to the ranger with the rifle and always had one eye on the nearest tree in case I had to make a run for it! Becky didn't think I could still climb a tree but I had not doubt of my ability if a rhino was charging me!
On our return to the gate we had an interesting conversation with the ranger. He told us that he only has five children so far and his ambition is to have 20! To reach his goal he is looking for a third wife! He talked of how a man is under pressure from his clan elders to produce many children in order to earn respect. If he fails to do so he is excommunicated from the clan. Our hints at expensive health care and education fell on deaf ears. He agreed that it would take a strong person to challenge his own culture.
Whilst at the sanctuary we paid a visit to Heidi who has been managing the place for the last few years. Sadly she had a very bad accident a week ago when travelling at night. A lorry forced her off the road and left her there in the bush. She couldn't move because of her injuries and whilst lying there a man came and robbed her of all her belongings. It was two hours before she was found by a more considerate person and taken to the hospital on a boda (a motorbike) with someone else on the back to hold her on. Fortunately she is going to be okay and will recover from her injuries but is obviously very badly shaken. She had already taken the decision to leave Uganda in a couple of week's time so it's a pity she will be leaving after such a bad experience. This is just another example of why we don't travel at night!