Entebbe

Great Blue Turacos....big birds

 Due to Al Shebab threats we decided to avoid the Independence day festivities this Sunday and went to Entebbe, the place we flew into.  Apparently one of the Westgate bombers is in Kampala, so Kenya says. How they know which bus he got on/off yet didn't manage to stop him confuses me. I suspect they wanted rid of him. In any case, the UN keeps sending us "legitimate threat" warnings and then we all debate whether to avoid the shopping areas, so to avoid it we left town.

Crocodile Root Trees

 Entebbe, the old capital of Uganda is a quiet, lush place on the shore of lake Victoria and was a nice break from K'la madness. Still, the "Wanted" Posters were everywhere. Nick, the new medstudent is an avid birder to say the least, so we started in the botanical gardens. We didn't want a guide, but Nick insisted and I'm so glad he did. We would absolutely have got lost.

A hornbill and it's baby...these are large birds

Our guide explained to us that the British brought trees from all over the world about 150 years ago "to see if they would grow here." Then we spent over 2 hours wandering, us girls were birded out by the end. Our guide pointed out things we would have missed, such as a Jungle Owl and a "Giant Spider," actually I wouldn't have missed that. I was just telling our guide how I was sad there were no monkeys (that I could see), when we came across the "Monkey tree" with a sign: Do NOT FEED THE MONKEYS! Soon some vans showed up and all of a sudden 50+ monkeys come jumping/running out of the tree. A group of Indians got out and started feeding the monkeys. Our guide dryly said "it is their culture."

Actually called "Giant Spider" This is just huge, eats birds.

  After the gardens we headed to lunch at the best Indian restaurant in Uganda, which actually is saying something. Entebbe is traditionally the Indian center of Uganda. We spent the afternoon on a "local" beach, where we got laughs and strange looks for being the only white people there and not swimming.

How many monkeys?

Sleepy jungly owl

Since I'm out of other updates, here are some of the more entertaining signs I have seen:

"You’re thirsty; reflesh with Nile" 

"Avoid morning sex Uganda"--I assumed it was an HIV thing, so I asked my Ugandan friend about this one. Apparently Ugandans believe that having sex in the morning makes you lazy.

"Try Jesus"-- On a Matatu 

"God Decides"--On a Matatu (rather macabre)

“Do not trample the toilet”

 " I hope you flashed the toilet!"

"Men at work"--rare...

Feeding the monkeys

"Jinja Study Center; We Struggle for Excellence"--this would be more funny if I didn't have to set up a lab there.

This is in my lab...