From Uganda: A Failed attempt at Walking up a Hill (all the while incubating a petrifilm of e.coli)

With the whole group together, our first Sunday has come and because most people go to church on Sunday and because we don’t impose ourselves on the community (the pastor would switch from Luganda to English if he saw us in the crowd, which he would) we have decided to go walk up to the radio towers and try to see what kind of view we can get. 

Unfortunately, on the way up this hill, we made the mistake of assuming that any old dirt road (all roads are dirt roads in Nkokonjeru) that headed towards the hill would get us to the top. 

Needless to say we didn’t get to the top, but we did see some awesome views, but then again compared to Davis, anything with a little variation in geography and foliage constitutes as a view. 

We also saw a number of small farms along the way, I have to say, agroforestry was in full swing.  I have already become accustomed to little children coming by and saying “Bye Mzungu!” but today we passed a kid who saw us and immediately ran down this hill to find his friends, yelling at us to “wait!” 

I must say, I haven’t felt this popular since, well, ever.  It was a particularly hot day and we walked a lot more than we intended.   Oh and did I mention that during this whole time I had some Petrifilm water samples strapped around my waist and groin area for incubation, talk about irritation.

Dagan Trnka, undergraduate student, engineering, UC Davis