Uganda Midwifery 2011: Fire ants, drums and dusty roads

This weekend we had an adventure and went to Mpenga eco-forest, two hours from Masaka. This forest is the home of quite the variety of animals, birds and insects. There are the red and black tailed monkeys which we got a glimpse of, the hornbill birds which are black and white and hard to find. We believe they must know this as their call sounds like they are cackling at us. There are also beautiful butterflies of all sorts, including an elusive green one that we were unable to take a picture of, and thousands of spiders. Our least favorites were the safari ants that come in the thousands. Unfortunately for Carolyn, she got to feel first hand what it feels like to get bit by one of them. This made us both somewhat skittish the rest of the time, jumping every time something got into our sandals. Perhaps runners would have been a good idea!

In the afternoon, we tried to follow the butterfly trails, but missed the landmark and ended up in a little village. This was an interesting experience as we hadn't had the chance to see what a litle village was like. The local children were fascinated and called out to us frequently. A few followed us for a while and we took a picture of them. We finally found the main road and walked a way to Mpingi where many people make and sell drums. Carolyn bought a drum for Seth and is hoping that he won't be too horrifed by the fact that the next day she sat on it while waiting for a ride :)

So the next day found us back on the main road waiting for a taxi bus called a matatu. It was horribly hot and dusty. We waited over two hours before we finally found a ride back to Masaka. We think we were very fortunate as we really could have waited for hours!