Saturday, March 28, 2009

Small world

My last few days have been spent coming and going from a conference that is in town regarding efficient stove design for the developing world and methods of reducing indoor air pollution (one of the world’s leading causes of deaths - WHO info). There were some people at the conference who were big into biochar and it was a good opportunity for networking (not to mention that it was also held at probably the nicest resort in the entire country).

Many of the people in the office where I’ve been working/studying also attended the conference. One of which (Dr. Da Silva – the coordinator for the renewable energy master’s program), was able to line up one of the conference attendees to come and speak to all of the renewable energy students about appropriate stove design (sounds like a pretty boring topic, but actually very interesting…at least for me).

The presentation was this morning, and before arriving all I knew was the presenter's topic and that she was from the States. We arrived on campus at the same time and struck up a conversation. She was originally from Minnesota, her name was Nordica (a Minnesotan name if I’ve ever heard one…), and she was now based in Oregon with her company. When I mentioned I was from Iowa, she included that she had gone to school there. As it turned out, not only was she an Iowa Stater, but she also had graduated in mechanical engineering! She just had about 8 years on me, but we were still able to share some stories about professors and classes back in Ames.


I have been hoping that one of these days I’ll see some random person wearing an Iowa State shirt (old shirts from the US are shipped over here in bulk and then sold cheaply in the markets here…you see all sorts of random shirts that one wouldn’t expect to find in the middle of Africa). Beyond the people working with CSRL, I never thought I’d run into an actual alum over here, let alone one from the same department. Guess it really is a small world!


Cheers!

Chris


Nordica (second from the right) being introduced by Dr. Da Silva (far right) before her presentation to the renewable energy students in our classroom

"Tell me about prom."

My experiment is moving along. I have moved on past the bioenergy production aspect of it and am now into the agricultural portion. For 60 days, I am conducting a greenhouse experiment (well, actually four experiments at the same time) using corn plants to compare the affects of different types of biochar that I have created for use as soil amendments. One experiment compares the relative effects of gasifier-produced biochar vs. the effects of kiln-produced biochar while the other just compares different types of kiln-produced biochar. Anyway, that’s the boring, nerdy update that also serves as the backdrop for this story:

I have to water my plants every other day and yesterday, as I was going to the greenhouse to start the process of weighing and watering all of my plants (something that usually takes 1-2 hours), I had a random Ugandan come up to me and start a conversation. This was by no means unique in itself; I obviously stick out a little over here, and that causes me to draw a little more attention then the regular person walking down the street. Still, the people who usually approach me for no apparent reason are also the ones who usually want to get something from me (that usually being money) so this usually puts me on the immediate defensive.



Approximately half of my total pots in the greenhouse. Picture taken on Wednesday, March 25. Seeds were planted on March 7...plants grow very fast over here!

I decided to entertain this guy, however, and we struck up a conversation. His name was Ronnie, and he was a third-year undergraduate student in the Faculty of Agriculture. He had seen me around quite a bit recently in the building and was curious about my work. We ended up speaking for the entire time I was doing my watering, and he seemed to be a legitimately good guy. Granted, he did ask me once how he could get a scholarship to study in the US, but it was definitely more of an inquisition into the process rather than a plea for money directly from me.

During the 90 minutes we talked, we covered several different topics, progressing from studies to research to comparisons of our native countries. The highlight however, came after we had been working in silence for about 5 minutes (as I was watering, Ronnie spontaneously started to help me by picking out a few of the weeds that had just sprouted out of the soil). Out of nowhere, Ronnie turned to me and said, “Tell me about prom.”

I stopped my watering and turned to see if he was serious, which he definitely was. The concept of “prom” is nonexistent in Uganda, and I knew that meant he had seen something about it on TV or on a movie. I asked him if he had seen American Pie, the stereotypical prom movie that came to mind right away. Luckily, he said he hadn’t, so his stereotype of prom at least wasn’t based on that. As it turned out, he had seen a couple different shows and movies, most of which I had never heard of (the only one that struck a bell was One Tree Hill, which I think it a television series, right?), that were based on prom in the U.S. He had taken what he had seen (most of which were the ridiculously ritzy proms where people spend thousands of dollars on dresses and entertainment for the night) and assumed that was the experience for all American teenagers. Ah, Hollywood, how you distort people’s perceptions of us!

Ronnie and I spent the next 20 minutes or so discussing how America is a very diverse country and how everything that is seen on TV is by no means indicative of the average life of an American. He knew that, but I don’t think he understood the extent of it. Yes, I explained, that there were some proms like he had seen on TV in places like Los Angeles and New York, but in Iowa and many other places around the country, most of them are quite a bit more conservative.


From how I understood it, this would be a pretty tame version of the prom that Ronnie had pictured

We somehow then veered off into talking about general life in the US, and Ronnie asked me where I came from. I explained how I was from the central part of the country (the only landmark many Ugandans know that is off the coasts is Chicago) and grew up on a farm. Ronnie was surprised by that; he thought that all of the US was filled with cities or developments. It really hit him when I explained that the United States was over 100 times larger than Uganda in terms of land mass (just a guess, after checking I found out we’re actually only 40 times bigger), yet only have ten times as many people. He had never picture a United States with corn as far as the eye could see, so I explained Iowa to him (romanticizing it a little bit probably, but I’m allowed to be biased).

Although most Ugandans don’t assume everything they see in the movies is real life in the US, there definitely is a lack of understanding of how diverse our country is. People picture it as full of big cities and fancy cars and seem to forget about the rest. I try to explain that there is much more than that, but – beyond the 10 or so Rotary presentations I have given so far – there isn’t too much I will be able to do about it. Oh well, such is the price we pay for being the entertainment hub of the world!

Cheers!
Chris

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Where to start...?

As expected, Tracy’s visit flew by far too quickly. However, I’m happy to report that her trip over here lived up to the high expectations and then some.

We have plenty of stories to share, so I’m not very sure where to start. And, additionally, classes seemed to have finally started to pick up: I’ve got my first test of the semester on Tuesday so I’ve some quality hours of good old-fashioned cramming ahead of me these next couple days.

I’ll give the brief overview – with pictures, of course - and then hopefully pick out a few stories to share in a later post.

I’m also trying to pester Tracy into putting together a post for this blog where she shares her reactions to 10 days in Africa. If you will see her any time in the near future, feel free to provide a little additional peer pressure!

Sunday, March 8:
Picked up Tracy at the airport in Entebbe at 9:00 pm; enjoyed hearing her initial reactions to traffic in Uganda during the hour drive back to Kizito’s. Came home to a late supper that had been prepared by Nora (the new maid/nanny at Kizito’s house), and Tracy got to experience the blandness that is traditional Ugandan fare. She was a trooper and put most of it down. Mother Nature welcomed Tracy to Uganda with a continuation of the abnormally hot weather (so much for the early start of the rainy season that I mentioned in a previous post) which prevented a good night's sleep (I really need to break down and get a fan) even though Tracy’s 36 hours of travel and my mad rush the previous weeks to get experiments to a stopping point had us both plenty tired.

Day 1 – Visiting the pen pals in Kamuli (Monday, March 9)
Got up fairly early the next day – thanks in part to the random rooster that has been at Kizito’s house for the last couple months. This rooster has decided that its favorite place to crow is just outside of my window…every day I get more excited for when it finally is made into a meal! We then jumped in my car and made the drive to Kamuli where Tracy was able to meet all of the Ugandan pen pals. Both school visits were great – we got to deliver another round of letters and a few other items from Tracy’s kids (the highlight: soccer balls), and we were greeted with a song & performance by each set of students. Enjoyed the quiet in Kamuli that night…but had the serenity interrupted by a battle between my stomach and African food. Unanimous winner: African food.

Presenting one of the soccer balls to the Namasagali students


The students following us as we left after our visit to Namasagali

Day 2 – Return to Kampala/Tracy show-and-tell day (Tuesday, March 10)
Left Kamuli in the morning and stopped by the Source of the Nile and Bujagali Falls on the way back to Kampala. Went into the office where I introduced Tracy to my co-workers and we were able to do a quick email check. Attended a meeting of my host Rotary Club where I introduced Tracy, and then went to an Ethiopian restaurant for Tracy’s final introduction of the day: my close crew of friends. Thought my stomach was doing better by that time, but Ethiopian food must have set it over the top…another battle that night, and another loss for Chris’s stomach :)

Day 3 – Murchison Falls (Wednesday, March 11)
Got up early to leave for a trip to Murchison Falls in north-central Uganda. 6 hour drive (welcome to Kampala traffic, Tracy) and then arrived at the falls. Murchison Falls is where the entire Nile is squeezed through a 6 meter gap between a couple rock faces…incredible.

Can you see us standing on the right side of the picture?

Day 4 – Ugandan safari & boat ride on the Nile (Thursday, March 12)
Got up at sunrise for a game drive (the area just north of the falls is a savannah and one of the best spots in Uganda for wildlife). In the late afternoon jumped on a boat for a two hour ride that took us up the Nile to the base of the falls. Had an incredible time with some amazing views. Ended the day having seen numerous animals including the following: baboons, monkeys, giraffes, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, antelope, gazelles, water buffalo, and – the highlight – a lion.

The highlight of our safari


Posing with our friend, the baboon


Stopping for a picture during our boat ride up the Nile

Day 5 – Rhino park & back to Kampala (Friday, March 13)

Left the base camp at Murchison in the morning and stopped for a few hours at the Ziwa Rhino reserve where we saw 3 pregnant white rhinos being reintroduced to Uganda (all of Uganda’s rhino population was wiped out during Idi Amin’s era in the 1970s when societal regulations basically ceased to exist). Returned to Kampala and took Tracy to a traditional Ugandan “pork joint”…a tasty way that Ugandans do roast pork.

Posing with the rhinos in the background

Day 6 – Kampala…souvenirs, pool, & friends (Saturday, March 14)
Slept in for the first time since Tracy had gotten to Uganda and then took a walk to Lake Victoria (only about 1 km from Kizito’s house). Went into town and walked around the city center to show Tracy some of the chaos that is Kampala (highlighted by a brief visit to the taxi park) while doing a little souvenir shopping. Met up with a few friends for lunch & some more souvenir shopping before heading to Glen’s apartment (a doctor from Canada & good friend of mine over here) to enjoy his pool. Met up with friends for an early dinner at a favorite Chinese restaurant and then went home to pack for our trip the next day.

Day 7 – GIZA!!! (Sunday, March 15)
Woke up at 1:00 am for a drive to Entebbe in order to arrive in plenty of time for our 4:30 am flight…to Cairo, Egypt! Arrived in Cairo at 8:00 am, had a driver from our hostel waiting for us (first time I’ve ever had anyone holding a sign for me at an airport). Went to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and headed straight to the pyramids! Had a personal tour guide for the day (more affordable than you would think!) who was incredible. Saw the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (first pyramid every built…4700 years ago) then went to an authentic carpet manufacturing site (not as affordable as you would think…) before heading to the main attraction: the Pyramids at Giza. Opted to do a tour-by-camel of the pyramids (again, not as affordable as you would think…but so worth it!) for two hours and got some incredible pictures. Can’t really describe it in words. After finishing at Giza went to a perfume/fragrance/oil manufacturing site (good thing Tracy was with me, or I probably would have gotten suckered into buying stuff I really didn’t need) and a store where paintings were done on paper made from papyrus. Went back to the hostel for a quick change of clothes before heading to the riverside for a dinner cruise on the Nile. Got home around 10:00 pm about ready to fall asleep while standing…what a day!!!


A camel ride...what a way to see the pyramids! (notice our 9 year old guide trying to get out of the photo)


Trying to put it into perspective


So cool...


Cliche, we know...

Day 8 – Cairo (Monday, March 16)
City tour of Cairo. Started with a morning at the Egyptian Museum. Incredible. Got to see the artifacts from King Tut’s tomb and then see dozens of ancient mummies face-to-face. Tracy and I can now say we have met Ramses the Great! Afternoon was filled with visits to the Coptic Christian area of Cairo (highlighted by a stop at a location where the holy family supposedly stayed during their flight from the holy land during King Herod’s rule…fascinating!), the Citadel, and the Khan al-Khalili (famous Cairo bazaar). Wandered around the shop area for awhile and enjoyed some Egyptian tea & coffee before heading back to the hostel. Went out searching for a falafel restaurant for dinner, and found a very nice one…in fact, nice enough enough that Jimmy Carter had eaten there before. Still, reasonable prices and very delicious.

Visiting the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo

Day 9 – Cairo (Tuesday, March 17)
Another day in Cairo. Walked around the city for awhile in the morning and then went back to the bazaar area. However, the hectic schedule was starting to wear on both Tracy and I at this point. We got tired of the vendors pretty quick this time (they are much more aggressive than what I was used to in Uganda) and didn’t do much shopping. Visited a few other areas, with my favorite being climbing one of the tallest minarets (the tall towers on mosques that are used for announcing the call-to-prayer 5 times daily). Back to the airport for our 10:00 flight to Entebbe.

Day 10 – Kampala & departure (Wednesday, March 18)
Arrived in Entebbe at 3:45 am. Went back to Kizito’s and crashed there for a couple hours. Woke up and did some preliminary packing before heading into Kampala. Tracy decided to try having a dress & skirt tailor-made in a day (a few of my friends have gotten dresses or skirts made that they’ve really enjoyed…and they thought it should be able to get done in a day). Picked out fabric & design (more of her picking out things and me smiling & nodding) and then went back to the office for a quick check on internet to see what had happened in the world over the past week. Then off to the craft market where Tracy had a list of souvenirs she was planning on checking off (okay…I had a few things I wanted to get too). Wrapped up the shopping and went back to check on skirt & dress. They were later than promised (as expected). Tracy did get to test-fit her skirt, which they adjusted and she was very happy with. The dress, on the other hand, was not as close to being done. We ended up pushing time a little more than either of us wanted, so we just took the dress without Tracy doing a test-fit in order to finish packing and head to the airport. She quickly put it on before packing it away…swing and a miss. However, she has some ideas for how she might salvage it. If nothing else, it was a lot of fabric for a good price. Took off for the airport around 8:00 pm, and I dropped her off and said my final goodbyes (after some hassle from the airport police…but I’ll save that story for another time).

Overall, an incredible trip. Definitely no regrets on either of our parts!

Now my vacation from work/classes is over and it’s back to work. I spent the first few days after Tracy left catching up on emails and research. I’ve got my head above water again and now I’m ready for the sprint to the finish. Only about 10 weeks until I fly back to the States…let’s see what I can get done in that time!

Cheers!
Chris

Sunday, March 8, 2009

t-minus 6 hours...

As I mentioned in my previous post, the last few weeks have been very hectic in trying to wrap up everything before Tracy gets here…which is now only about 6 hours away!!!

I, naturally, am very excited for her visit, and we’ve got a pretty packed schedule for the 10 days that she’ll be here.

Here’s the quick overview:

Sunday, March 8: Arrive in Entebbe
Monday – Tuesday: Visit the pen pals in Kamuli
Wednesday – Friday: Trip to Murchison Falls to see the Nile & do a Ugandan safari
Saturday: Day in Kampala
Sunday – Tuesday: Cairo, Egypt! We’ll see the pyramids, Alexandria, Egytian Museum, and plenty of other Egyptian attractions!
Wednesday: Kampala/Entebbe & flight home

We're trying to fit in quite a bit, but we figure we should make the most of our time while we're over here...…hopefully it will all work out!

Wish us luck with the travels, and plan on hearing back from me in a week or so with a fun re-cap!

Cheers!
Chris

Playing with fire

I’ve been back for nearly seven weeks now, and I’m getting into something of a routine again. However, it’s a little different than I had expected. This semester was supposed to be my crazy-busy academics semester, with two loads of classes, thesis research, and thesis writing. Thus far, that hasn’t really been the case.

The Master’s of Renewable Energy program actually starts in February, so when I came in August I was jumping into a program during the second semester. These next few months I will be doing the first semester classes with the new incoming group of students while also doing the third semester of specialization courses (bioenergy for me) with the students from last semester.

I have one load of classes that has started…to some degree. The first semester courses began on February 2, but I am only taking 4 out of 5 of them since I knocked out one last semester. The third semester courses (a total of three courses) were originally going to be taught by visiting Norwegian professors in blocks of two weeks. However, it now looks like that won’t work for their schedules, so we are scrambling to find African professors (one might come up from Dar Es Salaam) to teach those courses. In other words, classes are not yet taking much time.

That leaves me with research, which, actually, has been taking up the majority of my time since coming back. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, my research revolves around the use of biochar as a soil amendment. Biochar is basically charcoal that is mixed with soil for agricultural purposes. The last few weeks have been spent making several different types of char which will then be compared in a greenhouse experiment.

The last two weeks have been especially hectic, which accounts for the lack of recent blog posts. The reason – Tracy arrives today and I needed to get all of my experiments to a point where I can leave them for 10 days…because the last thing I’m going to make her do is come here and watch me do research! The good news: I managed to get everything done that I needed to do! I'm now free to take a few days away from experiments and the university.

I’ve included a few pictures from the last couple weeks to try and show what I've been up to.


As I look toward the next three months, I will need to complete all seven classes, obtain my experimental data, and write my thesis in order to finish the program. Will it happen? Hopefully! The biggest challenge will be battling the bureaucracy at Makerere to make this process go faster than it’s supposed to…something that rarely (if ever) happens over here. Wish me luck!!!

Cheers!
Chris




Taking a picture as I use my charcoal kiln to make char out of groundnut (peanut) shells


Peaking into my kiln during the char-making process


The Makerere Faculty of Technology technicians...I would have been lost without these guys! The gasifier that we used for experiments is in the background.


The gasifier takes biomass and turns into a gas that can be burned. Since our unit is just an experimental one, we burn off the gas immediately at exit. This is the sign of a successful run...always something I enjoyed seeing!


The charcoal had to be ground to pass a sieve for my use. Naturally, the grinding has to be done by hand over here...these are the results