Boat Safari

On Tuesday, I worked in the morning, this time using a little known security loophole to hack into windows and change administrator passwords, which nobody here knew. Without those passwords, we could not install antivirus software, or do much else.

After that finished, I hurried back to my room to get my things ready for a boat safari! I had made plans the day before to go with the two Canadians and two Germans to Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) for lunch at one of the resorts, a boat safari, and then swimming in their pool if there was time! We had said to meet at 10:45, to leave at 11, but I have still not gotten accustomed to Africa time...everyone gathered at 11:30ish, and we left closer to 12. Unfortunately, we got stopped along the way by immigration officers, and since we did not all have our passport/visas, we had to turn and go back. We were actually threatened; if we did not come back to that roadblock shortly, they were going to come to Kagando and find us. ! I thought that was a bit unnecessary...but anyway when we came back with all our papers, the officer was much friendlier (it seemed at that point he had his hands full with some other people trying to pass through...it looked like he was giving them a hard time).

We finished the 30-60 minute drive to the park, passing over the equator! Got to the park, with just enough time, Africa time, to have lunch before going on the boat trip. The trip was originally scheduled for 2 and we had wanted to get there at 12, but we arrived closer to 1:30 and the boat didn't leave until 3. The resort, by the way, was very high class, airconditioning, big glass windows, fancy everything,...$80/night! And all of the other guests there seemed to be senior citizens (or almost) from the US, in their khaki safari costumes, ready to witness the wild.

The boat trip was awesome, it was a beautiful day (as every day is here), and our guide told us much about the animals we saw. The boat went along the channel that connected Lake Edward to Lake George, two huge freshwater lakes that eventually flowed into the Blue Nile. I think their source was at the top of the Rwenzori mountains, where there is snow that is melting year round.

On the 'safari' we saw tons of hippos (more than 2 thousand live in the channel), lots of buffalo, small and huge birds (kingfishers, eagles, pelicans, cranes/storks, etc), a couple of alligators, and on our way out of the park, two baboons! The baboons were really awesome to see..their faces were so intense. I got a few good pictures. We also saw a few elephants by the water, drinking. It was an excellent trip, but we all wanted to go back another time, early in the morning, for the game drive, where you have a much better chance of seeing the lions and other land animals. You have to go early in the morning, when it is still cool out. That is when the lions hunt.

Lunch by the way was very good, they had a very decent menu filled with things we were all familiar with, no rice, no beans, and no banana things. Also it was pretty cheap, I had a steak sandwich and a drink for ~$7. We did have to pay a fee to enter the park also, $18.

Lets see, after that we came home, stopping for some pictures along the equator (I'm not sure this was actually the location of the equator, but it was fun anyway).

Yesterday, Wednesday, was good, apparently it was a national holiday, Hero's Day. I got a tour of the rest of the hospital, some parts of which made me feel rather uncomfortable, I must say (and thats all I'll say..). Mercy took me around to where all the computers were. All of them need work, as they are either not functioning now or are barely functioning because of viruses. I think the best solution is to install Linux on most if not all of the computers. I mentioned some reasons in a previous entry for why this is a good idea, another reason is that, although these people have limited Windows skills as it is, they have an even lesser understanding of Linux, which should make it a lot harder for things to get messed up. 6 computers are allowed access to the internet, and they are mostly in administration.

Today, more work on ridding computers of viruses will be done, although it seems many of them are so infected that antivirus software some times cannot even be run, and reformatting and reinstalling the OS will work the best.

Ohh yeah also last night as Mercy and I was walking along the path to her home for dinner, I noticed a small flow of ants, Safari ants! across the path. They were moving with intense purpose it seemed, to what or from where I know not, but I took some pictures, and even a video. On our way back, in the dark, we forgot about them, and only remembered once we started feeling little stings around our feet. We did a little dance, franticly at first but then laughing, to get them off. It was pretty funny, but might not have been if their bites had hurt just a little more.

Here is a picture of lunch yesterday (wait for it..), it was the blandest lunch yet, but the first meal I took a picture of. It was just mashed potatoes and some tomato-bean sauce. Usually there is more to it, I'll get pictures of the better meals soon. The second picture was todays lunch, spinach, spaghetti, and underneath the spaghetti was some kind of omelet, it was very good, some much needed protein.