LEAVE ON SATURDAY, ARRIVE ON TUESDAY
By Bob Van Leer

  (KAMPALA, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA, Oct. 26, 1993) - Betty and I arrived here today about noon after the most complicated trip we've ever had to get anywhere overseas. Uganda is a small land-locked African country south and east of Kenya. It's about the size of Oregon with a population (1989) of 17 million. The country is struggling to get back on its feet after a couple of decades of government mismanagement and civil war. 

  The trip started on Saturday, Oct. 23, with a drive t o Medford to catch a plane. On the way over we were able to stop at Valley of the Rogue State Park to watch Gold Beach High School runners race in a track meet including grandsons Rob and Chris Johnson. We flew to San Francisco on United Airlines and caught a night flight to JFK Airport in New York. We rented a hotel room for the day to get some rest. Airport hotels manage to rent out some of their rooms twice a day. In the evening we met with the rest of our party to take a night flight to London on British Airways.

GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGING FOREIGN INVESTMENT
By Bob Van Leer

  (KAMPALA, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA, Oct. 27, 1993) - Today was spent in professional activities starting with a morning meeting with the Uganda Journalists' Association and a meeting with the director of the Uganda Investment Authority in the afternoon. We finished the day with a visit to the Kasubi Tombs, burial place for the kings of Baganda, now part of Uganda. Uganda has a lively press, too lively to suit some of the government officials, and an attempt is being made to pass a law that would regulate the press. Some of the papers are lively on the order of National Enquirer at home.

UGANDA BRIDES PAID FOR WITH CATTLE
By Bob Van Leer

  (QUEEN ELIZABETH II NATIONAL PARK, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA - Oct. 28, 1993) - We are spending the night at Mweya Safari Lodge on Lake Edward in the national park after a day's drive from Kampala. We arrived here in late afternoon at just the right time for animal viewing as we drove through the park to the lodge. The lodge is located on a high point jutting out into the lake. The border between Uganda and Zaire is just a couple of miles into the lake. Queen Elizabeth Park, also known as Ruwenzori Park, once reportedly had the distinction of carrying the largest wildlife biomass in the world due to incredible numbers of heavy-weight animals - elephants, hippos and buffalo.

LIONESS KILLS WART HOG, WE DISRUPT KILL
By Bob Van Leer

  (MBARARA, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA, Oct. 29,1993) - Today was spent observing what Africa is famous for - wildlife. There is an incredible diversity here. We started the morning at 6:30 a.m. from the Mweya Lodge for an early morning game drive through the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Just away from the lodge we saw our first hippopotamus. We had always associated these large animals with water. But here it was on top of a ridge several hundred feet high and a mile or two from Lake Edward. Our guide, James Bakeine from Nile Safaris, said hippos can travel 60 miles from water. The park was created in 1952 and covers an area of nearly 200 square miles.

TOUR OF RANCH OF VICE PRESIDENT
By Bob Van Leer

  (ENTEBBE, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA - OCT. 30,1993) - The highlight of today's activities was a meeting with Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, at the State House, the official residence. Museveni is intelligent, articulate and educated and has what the military refers to as "command presence". This partly explains why he was able to take a force of 27 men, built it to a guerrilla force of about 20,000 and finally take over the country from the corrupt regime of Tito Okello.

TANZANIA LARGER BY FOUR TIMES
By Bob Van Leer

  (ARUSHA, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Oct. 31, 1993) - Today we left Uganda for a short (1 hour, 15 minutes) flight from Entebbe to Arusha, Tanzania, crossing the equator again. Our flight had been scheduled to make a stop in Burundi, a small country to the west of Tanzania, but the country is in a state of anarchy and the stopover was canceled. Burundi is being torn apart by clashes between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. The Tutsi are a minority but have traditionally lorded it over the Hutus. In the country's first free election this year a Hutu was elected president. In a coup attempt last week, the president and a number of senior government officials were killed.

THOUSANDS OF ANIMALS BUT ONE ELEPHANT
By Bob Van Leer

  (LAKE MANYARA NATIONAL PARK, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Nov. 1, 1993) - From our room at the Lake Manyara Lodge we can look out the window and see baboons in the flower beds and way down below on the plain around the lake wild animals abound. The hotel is on the edge of the escarpment looking over the Rift Valley 1000 feet below. The valley marks where the African continent is in the process of tearing apart. The easternmost portion is separating from the bulk of the African land mass. The valley floor is so far below it is difficult to identify some of the animals even with binoculars, but I can identify a dozen giraffes.

WE HAVE NOW SEEN FOUR OF BIG FIVE
By Bob Van Leer

  (SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Nov. 2, 1993) - We arrived this afternoon at the Seronera Wildlife Lodge in the middle of the Serengeti National Park after a grueling 205 kilometer drive from Lake Manyara Park We came on the main road through the park, actually the only one. The quality of the road is that of a poorly-maintained logging road. Our drivers zip along the roads as if they were freeways even though the roads are washboarded most of the way. There are places where there is a dust layer of six inches or more on top of the road. This must be a lot of fun when it rains. Right now it is the end of the dry season and everything is parched.

CAN'T WALK FOR HELP - MIGHT GET EATEN
By Bob Van Leer

  (NGORONGORO WILDLIFE LODGE, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, Nov. 3, 1993) - Stranded in the Serengeti Sun may be the title of a book about this trip. The two-day trip to the Seringeti brought our caravan of three vehicles four flat tires and three mechanical breakdowns. Sylvester, our head guide, claimed this was unusual. But the drivers were quite adept at changing tires. During a game drive this morning two of our three vans broke down. Ours towed another back to the Seronera Lodge and the rest of the party doubled up in our van. We were scheduled anyway to return to the lodge for lunch.

WHAT CRATER LAKE WOULD BE WITHOUT WATER
By Bob Van Leer

  (ARUSHA, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Nov. 4, 1993) - A tour of the Ngorongoro crater this morning was the highlight of the day. This bowl-shaped crater is about 10 miles wide and the floor is about 5600 feet above sea level with the rim height averaging 2000 feet above this. The crater is the relic of a gargantuan volcano that collapsed into itself. This is what Crater Lake might look like without water. The crater floor is a miniature Serengeti. Most of the floor is open grassland and shallow lake and covered with a wide variety of wild animals easy to see and photograph. Generally, they don't seem at all bothered by vehicles. To them the vehicles are a zero sum - they don't bother the wildlife and they aren't good to eat. Our lodge is right on the edge of the crater rim which g ives an incredible view of the crater. I could see an elephant in the small patch of forest below the lodge, the only trees in the crater. Access to the crater floor is by four-wheel-drive. For width, the roads are actually better than some of the logging roads in Curry county. But the grades are steep and there is no pavement.

WE DON'T GET TO SEE MT KILIMANJARO
By Bob Van Leer

  (DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, NOV. 5, 1993) - This is one of the fabled ports of the world. The name translates to "Haven of Peace". It was founded by the Sultan of Zanzibar in the 19th century when Arabs held sway in East Africa. The city has now grown to a population of 1.5 million and is one of the world's major ports. The harbor is full of ocean-going and smaller vessels. We arrived here this afternoon after a 50 minute flight from Kilamanjaro Airport at Arusha.

WEDDING AROUND POOL DRAWS HUNDREDS
By Bob Van Leer

  (DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, Nov. 6, 1993) - Our fifth floor room overlooks the hotel pool area which has been taken over this afternoon for an elaborate wedding. The bride has a gown with a train that must be 10 feet long. Several hundred people are at the ceremony and, out of sight under a canopy, a band is playing. The bride and groom and attendants are under a specially set up tent. The ceremony has been underway now for a couple of hours. It appears to be a Christian service with African overlays. There are dancers and ululating calls that are not what we are used to seeing and hearing at weddings. An affair of this size we should be able to read about in the local daily newspaper tomorrow.

By Bob Van Leer

  (ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, Nov. 7, 1993) - We are staying tonight in a hotel in the old Arab city of Zanzibar located on the fabled island of the same name. The history of this island reads like a chapter from The Thousand and One Nights. It has firm credentials as an exotic destination. Zanzibar was the last bastion of the African slave trade. The public slave market came to an end on June 6, 1873, but continued unofficially for some time after that. An Anglican church, the United Mission to Central Africa Cathedral, was built on the site of the slave market right after selling was stopped. Our guide said the actual sale area is the space now right in front of the altar.

THIEF TRIES TO STEAL MY CAMERA
By Bob Van Leer

  (DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, Nov. 8, 1993) - Tourism has the biggest potential for Tanzania according to Fulgence M. Kazaura, permanent secretary and secretary of the Planning Commission in the President's office. We met with Kazaura after a return trip from Zanzibar on the "fast boat". Our stay on Zanzibar was just overnight. I had my first experience with crime in Tanzania. We had been warned about "snatch and run" bandits but it is different when it actually happens to you. I had a camera in one pocket and moved it to another pocket to get out something. In the process, the camera strap was left hanging out of my pocket.

By Bob Van Leer

  (DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, Nov. 9, 1993) - The main health problems in Tanzania are infectious diseases, problems solved generations ago in the United States. There is one noticeable exception to this, AIDS. We met today with Ministry of Health officials and the Minister for Communications and Transport. Dr. Fatma Mrisho, assistant chief medical officer in the Ministry of Health, said infectious diseases, especially childhood diseases, are the principal health problems in Tanzania. She listed: malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, AIDS and cholera and said AIDS is moving up on the list. The degenerative diseases, heart and cancer, that are at the top in the U. S., didn't even make her list. These are diseases of old age and not many people here get to old age.

  Dr. Mrisho said two-thirds to three-quarters of health facilities are now being devoted to pregnancy related treatment and children's health. She said they now have a good system of health service facilities but quality of care is a problem. Three fourths of the people are within walking distance of a health facility. But they define "walking distance" as three - four miles. Emphasis is placed on education, not compulsion.