The surprised looks we got when I rode Justin to the Busingiro settlement were nothing compared to when he rode behind Connie past Nyabyeya. A black passenger and a white driver are unheard of and when the driver is a chick . . . ! Justin knows how to work the system – he borrowed Connie’s bike to take his daughter (worms and/or malaria) to the Biso hospital.
He took us birding on Thursday, first to an Indian sugar cane grower’s stream and then to the Royal Mile between Nyabyeya and Sonso. We saw a couple new (for us) species and also got a good look at the pigmy kingfisher and the spectacular Narina’s trogon.
We were finally honored by the oft delayed visit from Ben yesterday. He and Tessa, another of his university chums, arrived as I was making another, and I hope final, repair to the leaky roof, so they didn’t catch us at our most charming. He was here to announce both the Prime West funding and that JGI now runs both Caniyo Pebidi and Busingiro. In his wonderful dictatorial way he laid down the law to Passy, Vincent and Amnon. He will brook no tardiness, sloth or spitting but when I asked what he wanted them to do when they weren’t teaching or guiding, he said there will be plenty when Chris arrives, (i.e. when we leave.) We are starting to get a message here. He also introduced new rates and a new accounting system, got the work agreements signed and vamoosed, leaving a somewhat stunned and utterly confused staff for us to deal with.
Connie got annoyed that V&A were sitting around later on and asked me to make them do something – anything! I am not comfortable in the role of boss with them. Rather than order them around I try to get them to think about what needs to be done. Empowerment is a concept whose time has not yet arrived here. So while Connie and I were having our little spat (our first of the trip) Stephany called complaining of our request for more money for paint, our involvement in Roots & Shoots and other perceived transgressions. Her call plus Ben’s attitude galvanized us against a common foe and our disagreement vanished like smoke.
Ben’s volunteers are working on their own scientific/development projects so they keep themselves busy but still manage to spend a lot of time in Kampala. Stephany’s volunteers – us – really are superfluous. Once the program is running the Ugandans should take charge, so no volunteers are needed. Roots & Shoots, the JGI program takes a back seat to the Disney education program and Steph can’t merge the two in her mind and gets bitchy with us when we combine them. Which budget should the money come from? And now we have to deal with Ben’s budget for improvements to the site beyond the education center. And the leaky roof. And the Ugandan mindset.
So we muddle along, painting, cleaning and using our own initiative to move things forward – definitely a no-no at JGI Uganda. I even gave an overview of the education program to six teachers form Asaaba P.S. in Masindi who came to visit, and invited them to bring their students if they could arrange for transportation. I’m glad we won’t be here when Stephany hears about that!
It is cloudy and cool. Sorry for whinging.
We also had several groups of visitors; birders, just-lookers, the French kids who were turned off by the new rates, and a group that included Vernon Reynolds of Sonso, author or “The Chimpanzees of Budongo” and his friend, a professor at CU-Denver.
