Fox Trotting

At the Gaddafi Mosque in Kampala Welcome to the Mara Slightly vulgar, I know- but also really cool! Sleepyhead A one week old baby elephant! The safari crew: Lauren, myself, Naveen, Nav, and Sylvia (and yes we got out of the car...) The second time I have seen a leopard and not been able to take my own picture.  Guess I'll just have to come back again.... (photo cred goes to Lauren) Sunrise on the Mara - one of my favourite things

I mentioned back in one of my first blog posts Naveen and I's trip to Luzira prison to interview treason suspects, and I thought an update on their case was necessary as Naveen and I have become extremely attached to the men (and 2 women!). As a refresher, these 53 men were rounded up in late February of this year by CMI (the intellegence agency in UG), tortured, and then taken to the police station a month later.  All were charged in court on March 23 and they have been on remand at Luzira since then.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem that this type of case is all too unusual.  Naveen and I went back to interview a large portion of the men a second time to find out more details about their 'kidnapping' as quite a few were all arrested at the same bus park in Kampala. While we were at Luzira, we found another 8 who had been there since last summer! with basically the same story! Today Naveen and I visited court for the third time with the treason suspects.  The court s

Disclaimer: This was written last week, but the internet at work wasn't working very well for most of last week and then I forgot about it until now. So Naveen and I have done a couple of things since then, like visit the Gaddafi Mosque. Pictures will come, but probably not until after we get back from safari this weekend. So I thought I should do a blog post about my work, seeing as one of the reasons why I decided to do a blog was to help me with the course I will be taking in the fall about my internship. Plus Naveen and I haven’t travelled for the last couple of weekends. So I think I’ve mentioned before that Naveen and I have been working on research for a report on multiparty democracy and political pluralism in Uganda.  For me it has honestly been fascinating.  Although I did my undergrad in global political science, I mostly concentrated on Asia and I did very little on Africa because a lot of people took those courses. Before coming to Uganda I had so littl

So last weekend Naveen and I took some time off work to travel to the island of Zanzibar which is off the coast of Tanzania. On a previous trip to Tanzania Naveen had wanted to go, but didn't and really regretted it - so this time around she did not want to miss out again! I'll admit I was a little reluctant to travel so far when there are so many things to see and do around Uganda - but it was totally worth it! We spent our first day in Stonetown - the historic capital of Zanzibar.  It's made up of these tiny alleyways that somehow constitute 'roads' so we spent the day walking around looking at the cool architecture and getting lost. In the evening we went down to the water to watch the sunset in Forodhani Gardens where we were entertained by local boys leaping into the water while we waited for the night food market to begin.  The night food market is not to be missed - the local fishermen bring in their catches from that day and you get to pick what you want t

So this last weekend, Naveen, Devin, Lauren and I worked up the courage (although it didn't take much) and went white water rafting down the Nile! It was honestly one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life!  Unfortunately Devin was split from the group and so our pics are missing him.  There were four boys from the US who joined us 3 girls in the boat - I think it made Lauren feel slightly at home to be surrounded by Americans and not Canadians for once.  Our guide Nathan was a riot and we had actually ran into him the weekend before at Hairy Lemon where he uttered one of Naveen and I's favourite Ugandan lines thus far: "trucks and boats are never full in Africa". This was a perfect description of our weekend of rafting and cramming into buses to get to and from Jinja. We went down 8 rapids in total and I think 5 of them were Class 5 rapids.  Naveen and I are totally addicted and can't wait to go again when Mom comes to visit

The boat coming to pick us to up to take us over to the island. So upon arriving on the island, we discovered that Devin's friends from Speke the weekend before were also visiting for the weekend. The Nile Don't they make a cute family?? So Naveen made me laugh when I had just taken a sip of my beer and I had beer spewing from my nose.  Naveen was nice enough to get me some tissue to get the beer out of my sinuses, but then she took pictures... basically I just killed myself laughing We woke up early Sunday morning to a whole troop of monkeys!!!  We spent several hours after breakfast sitting by the water and watching them leap around

So last Friday (as in June 8) Naveen, Devin and I went out to MishMash for dinner and ended up staying until midnight.  MishMash is a mzungu place (aka white foreigner) and Naveen and I don’t actually really like the vibe - kind of snobby (as in they have a farmer’s market on Sundays  - but who in the world needs a farmer’s market when fresh fruit and veggies are sold on the side of the street!).  But they have salad and ice that you can eat without getting sick - so that’s pretty nice.  They also have a giant screen where they were playing the games from Euro Cup - so Devin enjoyed that. Our new friend Oliver and his friend Roger met up with us there.  Oliver is from Brazil and making a documentary on micro-revolutions around the world.  He’s hilarious and always good for a fun night! Saturday morning we (as in Naveen, Devin, Sarah, Lauren and I) left early to head to Hairy Lemon Island for the night - a place that came highly recommended by last year’s intern Jon.  After a

Naveen and Peter on our way to work.  Naveen was super excited to get to wear her new helmet.  Naveen and her helmet at work - she's really attached to it. Naveen and her helmet at dinner.  She also has strong attachment to her Mock Trial t-shirt. Then Naveen got an even cooler helmet.  I think she looks like the red Power Ranger and we get even more stares while driving around the city...