In case you are wondering, a Umuzungo is the local slang term for a white person. When you travel around, kids will see you and yell out "Umuzungo." Also, the kids know just a few phrases in English and they all know "what is your name?" When they ask me, I just say "Johnny Umuzungo." It has been a nice ice breaker even with the adults. And thus begins my alter ego, Johnny Umuzungo.
The term "Umuzungo" dates back to when the first white people came to Africa to explore. The locals had never known people to travel so much for no particular reason. Umuzungo means to travel in circles for no purpose. That's pretty much how the first three weeks have gone. It has been allot of fun so far, not very productive, but fun. And, fun should never be underestimated. Muzungo also works into local folk lore. Mothers will tell their children that if they don't behave, the Muzungo will come and eat them. It makes for allot of laughs.
The first week, I helped the Italian veterinary student who was here on an internship with MGVP. She was doing a disease surveillance study on cattle, goats and sheep for Brucellosis, Tuberculosis and Q-Fever. I helped with some of the study design, then with the sample collection in Kinigi sector of Musanze district (think of it as a county).
It was really challenging because they don't have working facilities here like they do in the states, so we first catch the cow by hand. This is actually easier if she has really big horns. Then, while 5 or 6 people hold her, I slip in and get a blood sample. You just need to trust your guys and hang in there because the cow will jump when you stick her. The next time your veterinarian complains about your facilities, show this picture.
Doing this project was very fun, not only for the "Rodeo" aspect of bleeding 60 cows that were free standing, but walking through all of the villages and getting to see the communities. One day we saw a chameleon, that was cool.
Another day, once we were done, we were heading home and there was a group of people carrying a woman in a large basket. Turns out, they were headed to a local health clinic that was about a 15 minute drive away. It seemed urgent so we loaded them up into the truck and gave them a lift. Turns out, the woman was in labor. We got to the clinic and the baby was born about 5 minutes later. They named the little girl Steffi after the Italian veterinary student who was leading the project.
The second week, a group of MGVP supporters were in town to create a promotional video for fund raising. We spent allot of time doing interviews and explaining what it is that we do. Then, I got to go up on the mountain in the Virunga Massif to see a group of mountain gorillas, group 13.Hiking in the forest is amazing. This particular group was low on the mountain so we spent most of the hike in bamboo forest. One unique thing about this group is that the original silver back died a few years ago. A silver back that had been living in isolation came in and took over. He
keeps sneaking over the mountains to the Congo side and coming back with a few more females. It is the fastest growing group with the most babies. It was fun to see all of those little gorillas running around and playing. One particular female had a broken finger. At first I just thought that she wasn't very fond of us being there, then I realized, it was nothing personal.The third week began with a meeting in Uganda with the MGVP veterinarians. One topic was the first attempt at a buffer zone around one of the national parks. The thought is to create a space where you can minimize the interactions between livestock and wildlife. Typically, a park will have an abrupt edge, like the edge in this picture.
Unfortunately, animals don't recognize the boundary. Wildlife come out of the park and livestock wander in. This mingling can facilitate disease transmission (the livestock to serve as a potential vector for diseases of human and non-human primates). The idea of a buffer zone to minimize this mingling is an effort for bio-security.
This aspect of bio-security is critical because the mountain gorillas are very few in number and very susceptible to the diseases of humans. The human population around the park lives in extreme poverty, which means that they are a more likely group to have disease and illness. The government can't just go in and move the people who live around the park because there is no place to go. For Example, Rwanda is one of the more densely populated countries in Africa. Creating a buffer here would displace around 80,000 people. Currently, there are around 60,000 Rwandan citizens living in Tanzania that fled the genocide 14 years ago and are not allowed to return because the country is so over-populated. It helps to put things into perspective.
On Tuesday, we hiked in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a park in Uganda with the first ever attempt at such a buffer zone. In doing this, we were able to visit another gorilla group, Nkuringo.This forest is very different than the forest in the Virungas. The variety of trees were different and I actually saw two silver backs (not what you are thinking Josh) up in a tall tree eating figs. The one in this picture weighs over400 pounds and was about 40 feet off the ground. It was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, the buffer zone has not been
managed for about 4 years. The result is an unofficial extension of the park boundary. This seems nice from an ecology and re-forestation standpoint, but in actuality, this group of gorillas now live entirely outside of the park, on a hillside with unlimited human activity, creating an opportunity for disease transmission. If some negative disease event were to happen to these gorillas, they would likely retreat to the safety of the park and have a high likelihood of spreading the particular disease rather rapidly in a naive population.In the mean time, I have been getting re-acquainted with those that I have met in the past, plus meeting many new people. There are allot of people like me from countries around the world who are here to work on various projects. It has been allot of fun, but there's no place like home and I look forward to seeing you all again some time soon.
There are things about living here that you just can't get any place else. For example, some body found an injured pelican and naturally, they brought it to us. Turns out, it had part of a fishing net stuck in its throat. We removed the net, but it was too weak and dehydrated to be released, so it hung out in the tub for a while. The neat thing about rehabilitating a pelican in the bath tub is that it can learn to eat on its own again (yes, we had fish swimming around in the tub with it). There's never a dull moment.
The motorcycle deal fell through because as it turns out, I need a permit. I will be able to get one the next time that they are offered, which will be in June or July. In the mean time, Heather is trying to sell my car so that I can buy one over here. Until then, I take the bus to work. Most of the university employees live here in Ruhengeri so there is a special route. Keep in mind, the buses her are Toyota mini-vans. Not just any mini-vans, but the interior has been gutted and replaced with bench seats. Now imagine, 4 bench seats plus the front seat. We sit 4 to a row, 3 in the front row, that's 19 people in a Toyota mini-van. It's quite intimate.
Things should begin to settle down now that I have started work at the university. Soon, life will become boring and dull. I do have a few things planned for the upcoming weeks that might end up interesting. Plus, there are a few hikes that I have planned between now and Christmas. I have been taking allot of pictures of birds and flowers that will end up on here at some point. Everything is just so interesting because it is so different, like watching the clouds form as the weather moves over a mountain The particular mountain here is Murabura, standing 13,540 feet tall. Anyway, it has been a ride and a half thus far, we'll see what tomorrow brings.Thanks for stopping by,
Johnny Umuzungo
