Africa Pictures

I split up my Africa and Spain pictures into two posts. If you want to see Spain pictures, go to the next post! Here's a tiny taste of Africa. It was fantastic!


I went to Africa to do research in the high schools. We interviewed teachers and principals about issues relating to school trust and school culture and climate. It was fascinating. Ugandans place a lot of emphasis on education and they really work hard with their limited resources to provide the best education possible. This pictures is typical of the classrooms we saw, with generally 50 - 80 students in each class. We have nothing to complain about when it comes to class size here.

We went on a short weekend safari. On the first day we went up the Nile River and looked at wildlife and then hiked up to Murchison Falls. There were hundreds of hippos, along with elephants, crocodiles, antelope (many varieties), cape buffalo, monkeys, and a million kinds of birds. Murchison Falls is amazing because the entire Nile River goes through a gorge that is as narrow as 7 meters wide in one spot. The next day we woke up early and drove through the savanna. We saw giraffes, elephants, antelope (all kinds), birds, wart hogs, baboons, and even lions. Apparently lions are not as common to see, but we found some almost right next to the road. They had just made a kill and would go to the carcass and have a snack and then go back to a tree near the road to rest in the shade. We watched them for several minutes. It was really amazing!






At the end of our safari, we had to wait at a ferry crossing. While waiting, several baboons came over for a visit. This one saw Rachel (a girl in our group) put some peanuts in her pocket. He ran up, pulled her pocket open and grabbed the bag of peanuts with the other hand. None of us had any problems with pick-pockets in Africa, except for Rachel with this baboon. He had mastered his craft.


Here I am with some of the kids that I lived with, and some of their friends. We lived with a very nice African family. I really enjoyed spending time with them in the evenings.


The chaos and energy in a Ugandan street market! Lots of great deals and bargaining!


We visited the source of the Nile River, which was fairly close to where we were staying. Behind us is Lake Victoria and that little cement island is the supposed source of the Nile. It was neat to be there. That is where Ghandi had his ashes spread after he was cremated.

Many Ugandans eat matoke almost every day. Matoke is made of a mashed up banana - type fruit, which is then wrapped in leaves and cooked. It is really filling and really heavy, but quite tasty. I thought it tasted a bit like mashed potatoes.