Mango Season
The pictures enclosed are of the mango
trees which are the large shade trees of Uganda. They are also the
food of the season.(Dec and May) Everywhere here in the N are trees
and they are all giving forth their fruit. They are sweet and
delicious. The trees are also very tall and high and the young
children are often up in the tree picking fruit. So, in the hospital
we are seeing many double femur (long bones of the legs) and
humerus
( upper arm) fractures. Average time in traction for the
femur is 3 month in the hospital bed with a pin in the knee and
traction hooked to it.
The mango you get in America is like a
apple you get here that comes from S Africa, kinda dried out and
picked to green to ripen properly. Here there are 3 kinds. A large
dodo with firm fruit that mundo's eat because we can get out teeth
through the skin and the fibers are finer, a grafted kind with a
smaller seed and more flesh that is firm, and the local that is
small, large pit, very thick fibers and the best. You have juice
dripping down your hand and your picking fibers out of your teeth all
day. But the Mundo's cannot get out teeth through the skin to bite
them. We need a knife. The Ugandans have beautiful teeth and open
bottles with them so they laugh at me in the lunch room when I am
struggling. We have no silverware in the lunch room as everyone eats
with their right hand. It is easier to do dishes this way. I still
use a spoon to eat my beans and if we are lucky we have greens in a
peanut paste that is really good. But that is only on Wed or
Thursday lunch.
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| The ripe ones are always at the top. |
I would send some mangoes if I knew you could get
them now when they are in season but unfortunately they would not get
to the states before they were mush so I will eat them for you. Tom
and I can finish a dozen at one meal and still not be full, so we are
seeing how many we can eat at a sitting. I feel like little black
Sambo and the pancakes only it is mango's...
Murchison Falls
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Welcoming Committee
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| The Falls |
Tuesday was a Ugandan Holiday known as
Labor Day so no school or work. Tom and I decided to the Uganda
Wildlife Association (UAW) who has a car who do tours and pick you up
etc. These are some of the “dominoes” I call them, that have to
line up to do any thing here. It is not like America where you make
a plan and go for it. It is more like you make a plan and 3 days
later you know if it may work if everything lines up and nothing
breaks or there isn't a funeral.
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| Sleeping Crocodiles with their mouth open to cool themselves |
So, our friend Betty had the day off
too, and we headed to the park, the car and driver we hired were
actually at the bus stop shortly after we arrived,(usually they head
from home at the time they say they will meet you, and home is 1 hour
away) but Okite was there as planned and brought a friend who is a
UWA wildlife tour guide of the park. He rode along and gave us a
game drive and identified the animals for us.
We got to the Nile early so we went to
a lodge on the N side to see what $ can buy. Lodge is 200/night US
to start and really looks like a Hilton or Grand Marriott. Nice but
you are only sleeping there. Sorry kids we aren't staying here on New Years. It had a lovely pool and for 20US you
could swim for the day. We choose not to swim in the Nile as the
high rate and of shistosomiasis and the long lasting effect of the
liver parasite. We had no time to swim so we went on the fairy across
the river and had lunch at an open air restaurant and bar. Nice food
done by the British with chocolate cake with icing for $2/ slice, the
burger cost the same. So we had 2 American treats in one day and it
was to be our only meal.
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| Red Chilis: Baboons wander by to steal your food if you leave |
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But with temps in the 90s you really aren't
very hungry anyway. From the side of the Nile we were on we got on a
launch pontoon and went on the Nile cruise to view more wildlife and
see the falls. Rainy season has started and the river is rising but
wildlife was abundant.
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| Couple types of the antelopes cousins |
The tour is 3 hours and when we got
back at 5 the driver and now 2 friends drove us back to the bus and
back home we came. We were in our house by 9. When things work so
well here we are amazed. We thank God and ask for it to happen more
often. So, if you come visit it's about a $70/ person day without
the food which I hear is close to a ticket to Disney world but this
time the animal kingdom is up close and real with no animation
needed.
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| Mom and babe strolling. |
As we are here longer we are appreciating more things like
having a seat on the bus where you control a window opening and
staying open. Ugandans like them closed so they don't get a draft...
When anyone decides to come we should be experts at cheap travel and
accommodations. I hope some one is thinking of making the adventure.
You will need a YELLOW FEVER VACCINE 1 MONTH BEFORE COMING to get
back into the US. And be on a antimalarial med when here. That is
usually doxycycline and you take it 2 weeks after leaving.
Health
wise that is the extent of it. Hope you enjoy the pics. We tried to
see the super moon but the rain is here and the clouds blocked the
moon. More to come on my first parade...TIA Love Marc
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| The rains of Africa moving across the Nile |
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| See you again, The skinny guy! | | | |
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