Introduction

All right. So I've never attempted to do a blog before and I originally thought that I couldn't rearrange the sequence of my input. I started this thing in the middle of my trip with our gorilla trek because I thought it was really neat and that people would find it interesting. My sister, forever the teacher, later instructed me on how to change the order of the blog enteries. So now I think the gorilla tour is back in the proper sequence. However I'd still like to mention that, at $1000.00 per couple, it has become a lucrative business for the Ugandan government. Tourists come in and stay in hotels and some pretty high-end tent camps. I checked one out: each “tent” was on a large wooden platform and was nested below a permanent thatched roof. Each tent had two beds and electricity. Behind the tent, but still on the same wooden floor and under the exterior roof, was a bamboo-enclosed bathroom: a sink and vanity, a commode, and a full bathtub with hot and cold running water. There was a dining pavilion with a full bar. All meals were included. There was also a lobby area/sitting room with a flat screen TV. This could be had for $300.00 a night. Not a place where we would be staying. There were also boat tours, hiking tours, safari tours, and other events at no small cost. People were coming to Africa from all over and they were bringing money into the Ugandan economy. The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest became a national park in 1991 and is now under the protection of the UWA, the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Poachers, encroaching farmers and other land developers are kept at bay. But there is one bittersweet consequence that I will address later if you care to follow me on my journey.



This is a picture of my wife, Mary, with her daughter Erin. Erin works at the Motion and Gait Analysis Laboratory, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. She is also finishing up her PhD in Bio Engineering at Stanford.

This is Erin's husband, Nate, who is an anthropology professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz. This month's issue of Popular Science magazine listed Nate among the top 10 “Brilliant” young scientists under the age of 40.

See: UCSC anthropologist Nate Dominy listed among 'Brilliant 10' under 40 in Popular Science - By MARISSA CEVALLOS
SANTA CRUZ -- A UC Santa Cruz anthropologist is one of the "Brilliant 10" scientists under 40 featured in Popular Science this month, a first for a UCSC scientist. View Full Story

Also in 2007, Nate was awarded the Packard Fellowship, a $625,000 grant, part of which he is using to study the Batwa pygmies in Uganda. Collaborating in this study are his wife Erin Butler, George (P.J.) Perry, Jr., PhD and Luis Barriero, PhD both from the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. This past summer, Nate and Erin invited me to tag along in the capacity of a “field assistant.” I considered this to be an opportunity of a life-time and I agreed to travel with Erin from San Francisco, through Dubai, and then on to Entebbe where Nate, who had gone in advance, would meet us at the airport.

At this time, I need to insert a disclaimer: I am a retired homicide sergeant and am, by no stretch of the imagination, in any way to be considered a scientist of any sort. What I put down in this blog are my own perceptions, observations and deductions. In no way do I, nor does this blog, represent the scientific community or this scientific project. I was merely a field assistant, step dad, and father-in-law. But I have to say, I did learn at lot and have been thoroughly impressed by what I have seen and by the work that has been done.

So let the journey begin.

Click on Newer Post at the bottom of this page.

Another article about Nate

http://scicom.ucsc.edu/SciNotes/0901/pages/tubers/tubers.html
Be sure to watch the podcast.