Tag Archive: Uganda food

Peace Corps Uganda Rocked It at the Blue House Camp- Part 1

Author: April 2, 2017

I don’t know how our cohort nick-named itself “Cohort Best” rather than a more mundane title like Education Cohort 3. I thought maybe it was Becky, who loves Superlatives, but she credits Katy J.. Anyway, we were a pretty veteran crew who came to Kazo Uganda and put on a camp for the Blue House girls orphanage on a recent Saturday.  I had written about the Blue House here...That photo above is another frame-able.  It belongs in a brochure.

We started proceedings with a welcome and introductions and a little talk I give to schools about trying your best and always being honest

We ended my little portion with an energizer called “Rainstorm”

Mackenzie led a session for the whole camp, including staff on Nutrition

“Now, is this a healthy plate?”

Lillian on the left is a bright leader, but that is a lot of butter!

What’s Dave looking for?

Mackenzie. 24, a Health Volunteer, has roots in both Chicago and Iowa. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa, double majoring in Political Science and International Studies. She studied in Tanzania for a year. After service, she intends to obtain a Master’s Degree in Public Health. I believe she has been accepted by eleven schools so far. Hard choice coming up.

We all went outside and Scott led a variation of Simon Says.

The older girls went to the sewing room, where Kelly, assisted by David, learned to sew RUMPs

Kelly, 25, a Health volunteer, is from Indiana PA. and has a degree in French from the University of Pittsburgh. After her service, she will attend nursing school, and eventually would like to work for the French organization, Medicens sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders). If you follow the news, you know that will take courage

On the left is the house mother, Ziporah Matene

…from the rafters?


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Karen gives it a shot

Doin’ the RUMPs shuffle

Well done!

Meanwhile, the Primary age girls learn about washing their hands properly

Getting it right

Only the roof of the Blue House is blue. We were lucky to have great weather during our visit, which is supposed to be the beginning of rainy season, but now those permagardens need to get wet!

After Scott observed many of the girls did not use their mosquito nets properly,, they segued into a session on why nets are important. Scott had a bad case of malaria last year.

Mosquito tag! A couple of kids with cardboard mosquitoes try to ‘infect’ their mates with malaria. Scott and Mackenzie make a safe haven ‘net’. in the background.

If you get malaria, you need a doctor to get back in the game.

My turn as mosquito was exhausting! Those kids can turn on a dime. I eventually adopted the lion hunting strategy and let another mosquito drive a victim towards me.

 The district probation officer, Fortunate Abaho, gave an inspirational talk.

Fortunate had never heard of the Peace Corps so Karen recruited Mackenzie to explain how during training, you learn how to make those duck shadows..

Yum! Part two of the camp is in the next post!

 

 

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Goats Head Soup (A fitting punishment)

Author: June 25, 2016

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This is Adams’ passion fruit field where I picked beans last December

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Some dastardly goats

I was disappointed when I came back from vacation. Matthews reported that goats had ruined my permagarden for the season, with the exception of a few surviving tomato plants. Also when I got my home, I went to the field behind the compound I had featured  in my blog earlier with the cows plowing and Margaret digging. Matthews had given her some banana seedlings that were doing quite well. Even with a surrounding fence however, goats got in and ate the leaves from the banana plants right down to the stalks. The sweet potatoes and cassava are still OK. I have said before goats are tethered everywhere, but some get loose and roam around.
While talking with Margaret about the banana plant calamity, she picked some “greens” for me. Some of them was do do (long o), a bitter green which is a sad substitute for spinach in my opinion. I don’t even know what the other greens were, nor can I tell the difference with weeds very easily. Then the caretaker for Adams’ passion fruit field, where I had worked in December to pick beans, gave me a bag of beans, from the same place. So I am preparing and eating them. It’s only fair I emulate the natives. Its so time consuming for a pampered American from the suburbs.

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A handful of greens to rinse three times, chop, and cook on the griddle.


It helps to defy aging effects through naturally stimulating energy discount cialis generic producing reactions in your body. If you need to take them for http://www.unica-web.com/result2007.pdf sildenafil 50mg tablets a long time. In treating penile troubles does Male enhancement reviews imply that by utilizing one product everything can be treated? The product’s revelation was based buy levitra without prescription to figures alone. So, online pharmacies pharmacy viagra prices are supplying the medicine in cheap and the medicine is fully dependable and reliable.
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After cooking the greens, I made a grilled cheese and avocado sandwich, and that was dinner. I could not eat all the greens. How I miss broccoli. I will grow it someday.

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A bag of Adams’ beans to clean while I watch some movie on my computer.

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In my current situation of managing my monthly living allowance, these are relatively expensive, but labor saving, alternatives. Shame on me, the pampered American has not totally escaped processed foods.

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In my new neighborhood, a new group of kids to treat me like a rock star. They come running, and I am obliged to lift and toss each one up a bit. Its good for my arms. Here, they clustered at my door and “helped” me knock while I waited for someone to let me in.

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Wedding Song

Author: May 29, 2016

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Matthews’s sister Eunice, Groom and daughter Nikki, Matthews, his brother Fred, me.

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One of the photos that were printed to be sold. I forgot a tie! I am holding her gift, a pair of women’s gardening gloves I bought at Walgreens before I left.

In a previous post, I wrote about attending the Introduction and Giveaway ceremony in a village near Kamuli for Matthews’ daughter. The following Sunday I attended the wedding and reception in Jinja. As weddings go, it was pretty similar to American weddings. It was held in a Seventh Day Adventist church. During and after the wedding there were three photographers taking pictures. I was asked to pose in many of them even though I had not met anyone before, except Matthews and his brother and son.
The reception was a bit different from what I am accustomed to in America. It was held in large room in a school about a mile away from the church. Chairs were set up in crowded rows and there were tables and chairs set up on the stage for the Wedding party. Thus guests could not move about and socialize like at an American wedding reception. While we were getting settled, the three wedding photographers were circulating and selling prints of the photos they had taken less an hour earlier. In the front, two different choral groups alternated with songs, although even the vocals were mostly pre-recorded. There was much choreography, pantomiming the stories they sang.
At the Introduction, Matthews’ father and I were brought our plates of food while everyone else got in buffet lines. At the reception, (Matthews’ father didn’t attend) I was served my plate of food but Matthews, the father of the bride, had to get in line. Being a grey bearded American sort of has it’s advantages, but it’s embarrassing to be so singled out. I just have to be gracious. As happens often, everyone ate with their plates on their laps. Most eat with their fingers; the soft American was brought a fork. There are rarely napkins except in restaurants that serve Western food. Instead we pour water over our fingers before and after eating. The meals at these functions are always the same: Rice, Matoke, a small piece of meat with gristle (beef, goat or chicken), g-nut sauce, Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes.
In the event that you don’t take great measure of insurance then it can prompt discount viagra online a noteworthy mischance and demonstrate extremely unsafe for your own life. order cheap cialis Because of this, not everyone can have the privilege to change their lives and their sexual activities with your partner and enjoy the benefits it offers. In cancer patients, when radiotherapy has been used and the prostrate gland has been removed, the nerves that help to get extra amount of cheap viagra for women blood. The pressure and stress free consultation cialis become so high that their love life are advised to buy these herbal supplements from reputed online stores using a credit or debit card and consume regularly.

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I hope you are not sick of cute kids pictures

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The Bride knelt before her husband to feed him cake and then knelt in front of the first couple of rows to offer cake.

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Entertainment!

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Introduction and Giveaway Ceremony

Author: May 16, 2016

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There was a comedic M.C on each side providing commentary and moving things along. Our M.C. is in the foreground, the groom’s side M.C. sits behind the basin.

A Ugandan tradition is the Introduction and Giveaway Ceremony.  The groom and his family and friends are introduced to the Bride’s family and friends, culminating in the bride being given away to the groom.  It seems as big as the wedding itself. For his daughter’s ceremony, Matthews said I needed to be there by 10 a.m.  to socialize a bit beforehand, before it was to start at 1 p.m.  As usual in “Uganda time” the groom’s people didn’t even show up until 4 p.m. Matthews’ father sat next to me, translated, and tried to explain the ceremony.  I had to leave at 5:30 p.m. before the bride even came out and was still was not able to get home until well after dark at 9:30 p.m.

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Four dancing “nurses” approach the groom’s people as they arrive.They said they had checked everyone’s health and they were fine, except one man, the groom, who suffered the “sickness of love”. The groom’s people had to wait, and entered through the orange arch in the pouring rain. Serves them right for being so late. Rain stopped after they were seated!

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An “aunty” came out carrying wood, and said she had forgotten the Introduction was that day and had to get things organized.

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before the festivities began, the preparation of three big vats of matoke, made from green plantains. Matoke is a staple of any social gathering with food in Uganda.

Studies demonstrate clinical viagra samples free their website efficacy in men with mild erectile dysfunction, and to promote prostate health. The experts recommend oral drugs such as Kamagra, 5mg cialis tablets and Aurogra tablets are viable and prevalent medications for the effective treatment of ED. Ed distance learning Delhi is the way to start How do you start if you’re considering going into the planet of Pay Per Click advertising? If you are an affiliate marketer there are literally tons of resources to choose from and sildenafil india no prescription it’s hard to urge a bead of where to look. Also it is not good for cheapest levitra the health of her children.

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Various groups came dancing out to meet the groom’s family.

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These two girls came out, and in response to something an M.C. asked, said something I didn’t understand except the word “Muzungu” (white person). Everyone turned and looked at me and laughed. As near as I can understand, in response to whether they were enjoying themselves, one of them said yes because even a Muzungu was present.

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A selfie with Matthews’ father, who is 80 y.o. Besides his own seven children, he had to raise the children of two brothers who had died. He complained that he suffered to pay all their school fees, and now none of them will ever visit. I was praising Matthews skill as a gardener, so he requested I bring Matthews to his home at Jinja where he has land, so Matthews can give him advice.

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“Meanwhile, back at the ranch”, Azedy hired these two men to plow behind his compound. So much of the level of development is like the Old West of America. Instead of horses and carriages though, it’s boda bodas and taxis.

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Some of my new neighbor kids. This is the view across the street from my compound.

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The Currents Will Shift

Author: May 4, 2016

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This is the front of my new place, with the traffic of pedestrians and untethered goats.

In Uganda when you move to another house, you “shift”. I shifted this past weekend.
Typically, a tenant here pays three months rent in advance. I was just completing my third three month term at the end of April. There had been some break-ins in my neighborhood, and Matthews was always concerned I could be a target. Both Matthews and my Iganga father Simon did not like the low easily accessible walls around my compound. Adams was also unhappy with my landlord. When I arrived in August, Adams wanted a written lease. My landlord is illiterate, however, so he refused to sign (put his thumbprint on) anything. He recently decided to raise my rent when Adams felt he had it fixed for my duration.
While I was at Youth Technical training, Matthews called to say he wanted to show me a new place to move. I also received an email from my language tutor Azedy, who has become a good friend, and he mentioned he had available separate living quarters with three rooms at his home compound. It turned out to be the same place Matthews wanted me to see. It looked good, and was the same rate, but needed the cement flooring to be finished and smoothed out along with paint and varnish. A previous tenant had lived there for awhile in its roughed-in state. So after being a bit indecisive, I gave the word Thursday, a Peace Corps representative inspected it on Friday, and I shifted Sunday afternoon. While before, I was about a kilometer north of my office, now I am 1/2 kilometer, at most, west of the office. In fact, when I go about 100 yards from my place to the road, you can see my office. This place is also near the Gilgard Guesthouse, where Bugeri Rotary meets, and Bukooli College, where my Educate Club Youth Group meets.
On Saturday, with Azedy’s help, I wrote a little speech in Lusoga on a card to explain to the mothers on my route I would not be passing by any more and fist bumping and swinging their kids who run out to the road to greet me. But I will try to come by every so often. I told my next door neighbor kids I would pay 5,000 shillings if they were ever able to find and corral Meowri for me. I will probably return this weekend to say good bye to my bore hole manager, and also to Godfrey, the preacher at the church across the street. I will miss Godfrey and his efforts to save me. I will miss the church music on Sundays too.
Last year, I had moved out of my suburban home into a two bedroom Denver condo, so this was comparatively easy, yet somehow it still was a full weekend getting ready. Simon and Hellen came with his truck Sunday afternoon to help out. I brought Faizal along and Simon brought two boys with him. My carpenter Mwando kindly took apart my bed and and then reassembled it for me. We were finished in two trips. I even took all of my vinyl flooring along. The cement needs more time to dry, so I have stuff all piled up off the floor as much as possible. It might be at least a week like this. I’m going to stay home as much as possible so I can open the windows to help the drying. But once it gets dark, you have to close up due to the mosquitoes. It gets humid then. The first night I laid in bed and thought it seemed really strange. No wonder, I realized I hadn’t installed my mosquito net! That reminded me to also set up my middle of the night pee bucket :-). Nicer house, but I am still in Uganda.
As the pictures show, this is a pretty nice property. Almost “Posh Corps”except I still don’t have running water. Azedy is a teacher working part-time at the moment, while his wife Margaret is a full time teacher. Simon recognized Margaret from grading P-7 final exam papers together in Kampala. They have five boys. Margaret said they gave up trying to produce a girl. Three are in boarding schools outside of Bugeri. Living at home is Aiyeman Fayed, soon to be six,starting P-1 in January, and one year old Aimre. The only other resident here is Maria, who acts as a nannie and helps with various chores.
The family invited me to a “welcome” dinner Tuesday night. I heard the chicken getting slaughtered so it was pretty fresh meat! I realized later I should have volunteered to help pick out the feathers. In Uganda they will offer the guest of honor the gizzard, but it is OK to decline, which I did. I learned that Azedy, who was raised as a Muslim near Iganga, was the 8th of his mother’s ten children and the first male. His mother was one of five wives of his father, who ultimately produced 50 children. Ugandans always point out the easy acceptance and frequency of divorce in America, but are never too disconcerted about polygamy.

Over all, I think this was a good shift.

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On the left side of Azedy’s home is the door to access my place, A thief would need to scale that wall too.

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The front of my place with doors and windows open to help the cement dry.

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Azedy and Margaret’s place. There are unfinished rooms inside. Slowly but slowly. The garage has no car, but it is Azedy’s next dream. He also has needed a computer since we met. He would send me emails from an internet cafe in town.

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This is Aiyeman Fayed, who is very curious about his dad’s friend. He’s wearing a Denver Nuggets t-shirt. I met him last fall while Azedy tutored me, and he had a Hooters t-shirt, with the famed “Owl Eyes.” I thought it was amusing anyway.

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This is a small courtyard in the back with several things to note. Bottom left is a water tap. No more lugging Jerry cans from a public bore hole. Margaret says it holds steady during dry season but doesn’t work when the power is out. I still need my Jerry cans,  but I just carry them about thirty feet. Above the tap are clothes lines with the first clothes pins I have seen in Uganda. The tree is one of two lemon trees and I may help myself. Behind the tree is a wall in front of an open bathing stall with no door (I have my own in my home). To the right of the stall are three pit latrines. I get my own padlocked pit latrine! On the rear left is a deep hole to receive water from the bathing stall. I’m not sure if this is a good situation for the one year old as he starts to wander.

 

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No Syrians Here (Yet)

Author: March 21, 2016

IMAG2996I am now in a routine of presenting programs to four farmer groups each week. In a Thursday farmer group, I gave my first talk about keeping household budgets as a way to control spending, In the USA, where I suspect written household budgets are rare, I helped families with budgets required in connection with their bankruptcy filings. Here, where a man has multiple wives, I recommend keeping multiple home budgets. I hope it promotes trust and harmony between the families. There is often suspicion the husband is favoring one family over the other, so best to work together and lock in the amounts. I asked how many men have more than one wife. Almost all ten men in the group raised their hands and sort of shrugged about it.. I ignore the moral dilemma this presents to supposed Christians (Muslims claim their faith allows it), but observe that the culture of polygamy typically increases the number of children, and hence adds to the strain on their limited resources

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This is Agnes, my neighbor behind our office, sifting and picking her rice, a common sight in the third world. Here she is picking out small stones. I eat lots of rice in restaurants and I automatically check for pebbles with my tongue before I chew. My rice cooker is used for noodles.

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Here is Agnes at mid-flip. I never knew why they did this. It separates out the lighter husk remnants which catch the breeze. Sure enough they were on the ground by her.

On an off day, I was invited to speak at another primary school near Mbale, where one of Matthews’ sons is a teacher. I was stunned by the size of the crowd of parents jammed into a class room just to hear me. I am evolving a decent stump speech for these occasions.
Whenever I ask for questions, I get some variation of “We have such a need of your knowledge and skills, how can we get more Peace Corps volunteers?” I respond that 200 Peace Corps volunteers in a country of 38 million are stretched pretty thin. I lament that my country has far more resources devoted to endless unsuccessful military engagements. I just read that the Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer, with more than 1.3 million men and women on active duty and 742,00 civilian personnel. This compares to 220,000 total Peace Corps volunteers over 55 years. I tell them I wish my country could begin to flip this priority, but with our two likely militaristic candidates, it will not change with our elections this year.

The parents should donate their own knowledge, skills and resources. Volunteer to help at school by helping a group with reading, tend to the school garden, help with maintenance or any number of non-monetary contributions.

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Chicks painted pink! Easter is coming! Friday and Monday are public holidays.

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Two poor goats are stuffed under the rear seat of a taxi

I also spoke to two classrooms of children, one of them P1 through P4 and the other P5- and P6. Here is a brief video showing how the classes in Uganda always greet their visitors. Besides asking them to appreciate the sacrifices their parents make to ensure their education, I stress how important it is to always do your best, and get in the habit of being honest, the two qualities I wanted from my own children.

For a secondary project, I am establishing a relationship with a youth group called the “Education Club” at Bakooli College (high school), which is within walking distance of my office. The club seemed to be the group with the most goals and activities congruent with what I am doing. I am also hoping to make it a Rotary Interact Club, so it can get needed support from the Bugiri Rotary Club. The teacher/adviser and a boy and girl from this group will accompany me to Youth Technical Training for a week in late April, in Jinja. I turned down an offer to form a youth group in a deep village because of the unreliability of my transportation, but I am going to meet the head teacher to see about presenting some programs there.
To begin with, your lifestyle choice plays a significant cialis for woman role in keeping a healthy body and mind are interconnected and therefore it is very important to maintain a stress free mind is a pre-requisite for functioning of this medicine. Enhanced secretion cipla viagra of testosterone boosts blood supply to the reproductive organs. Fortunately, science has provided us with better health, better nutrition, and discount price viagra — everything that we can use it in positive ways to help accomplish a goal. Adcirca works to widen the blood vessels in the penis to increase blood flow into the tissues, the organ gets tadalafil sale denser and gains volume.

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This is pretty typical of the refugee compounds. Almost all of them had been swept clean.

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In front of the primary school.with Tom, Ryan.and Aruna. Definitely an upgrade compared to village schools.

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Aruna stands with his “uncle” who came to the camp in 2002, a couple of years after Arruna’s arrival, , and a childhood friend. Just like Aruna’s older brother, the uncle was involuntarily conscripted into the Sudanese army, and escaped when he got the opportunity, later sending for his wife. The situation has not gotten much more secure all these years later.

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A cute chicken coop at Aruna’s uncle’s place. Recently they got a disease and all died.

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Sign near the entrance

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Playing pool outdoors. Tom and Ryan have seen this in other villages.

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These tents are temporary shelters for new arrivals

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After the camp we took a took a trip to the shores of Lake Allen, which marks Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The water looked awful. I would not eat fish from here.

Last Friday, I traveled all day to Homia on the western side of Uganda. There, I met Aruna, my PCV friend and former Lost Boy of Sudan, and two other PCVs, Tom and Ryan. We visited the refugee camp from Aruna’s childhood, which I wrote about in one of my first blog posts.. It was an interesting and enlightening experience. Unlike my assumptions of teeming refugees living in squalor, the place was nicer than the villages I go to. Clusters of huts are scattered throughout, and plenty of land for farming is available. It is not surprising that some have been there more than 20 years. This camp has 22,000 refugees, about twice as many as when Aruna was there. The vast majority are Congolese. The photos tell the story.

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What’s for Tea Mum?

Author: February 14, 2016

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A nearby view from Karen’s place of some of the tea fields. These are actually trees which are kept trimmed into shrubs. After planting they take 3 years before the leaves are tea-worthy, and then they produce every growing season for 100 years. Most of these fields were planted in the early 1960’s. Karen frequently sees baboons, which inhabit the wooded valley below, but they were not around on our day there. A couple of days later we saw baboons on the road to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We did see white-tailed monkeys called Colombus in the plantation’s forest. Couldn’t get good pictures.

 

My fellow fossil David, and still-too-young-to be-a-fossil Karen enjoyed a great week traveling together. Our first stop was the massive tea plantation at Karen’s site. Karen is a Health volunteer recently retired from her career in the Navy as an air traffic controller. She teaches about good, nutrition, HIV and other health topics to the several worker camps spread throughout the plantation.

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This selfie to mark the beginning of our travels was taken upon our arrival by taxi at the closest town to the plantation. Karen needs to summon a car from here to get home

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The field on the right and beyond has been sprayed with ground up limestone to treat algae. This is brand new technology. They will be growing again next season.

 

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Karen stands by her excellent permagarden by her home. It takes drainage from her roof and is double dug and everything. She dug another one at a work camp.

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The tea factory. There were conveyer belts with fans to dry the leaves and then they are ground down, separated by quality, and put in large bags, transported elsewhere to be processed into the tiny tea bags.. There are different grades of tea. They make black tea. Green tea is from the same leaves, just processed differently.

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This is a tasting room. A spittoon in the right foreground. When new employees are interviewed, in the waiting room they are given the choice of coffee, tea, or other drinks. If they don’t select tea they don’t get hired!

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These are the machines to trim the tea trees. Run by two on each side, and a third person with a bag to collect it

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The plantation raises its own eucalyptus trees, which are fast-growing, and used to power the factory with steam energy

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Feeding the boiler

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Karen and her supervisor Elijah at a work camp. In Uganda, no matter where you go, you have to sign a guest book. I have signed dozens of these.

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An artistic representation of a crowded taxi for sale in a hotel in Fort Portal. The tires are bottle caps. I plan to buy one to bring home when I return to America, but it was too delicate to lug and too expensive ($12 US- ha! Uganda!) to get now.

We teased that Karen’s place is “Posh Corps”. She has tremendous views, good electricity, running water, a kitchen similar to a US suburb (both gas and electric burners, gas oven, many cabinets), western style toilet, a nearby club for executives Karen may use (free beer) and even a nearby landing strip. David and I stayed at a guest house a few minutes from Karen’s home. We had a cook and our clothes were laundered.

We walked through the tea fields to the Tea Factory and received a tour. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the factory. Later we enjoyed the free beer at the club and a lively conversation with Karen’s supervisor, Elijah.

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Future Days IV

Author: January 29, 2016

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I assisted with a “sharing out” VSLA meeting. At the end of the year, they receive their savings, plus their share of interest from loans to members and fines. I helped with the calculations on each passbook. This group received 2807UGX back for every 2000 UGX share they saved. They sign for their money on the register. Some of them use a blue ink thumbprint. After seeing this result their first year, they are determined to save more next year.

I am finally starting to get back out into the fields again. I’m still working on cluster business plans, but with Matthews’ issues behind him, and hopefully available full time, we can go back to our action plan to teach four weeks of programs to farmer groups: record keeping, budgeting, sack gardens, and gender equality.

Before we are back in this routine full time, however, the first two weeks of February will have some other activities. The annual “all-vol” conference will be held near Kampala next week. All the Peace Corps volunteers will participate. I will get to meet many of the other Uganda volunteers for the first time.

After all-vol, I will travel with two other PCVs from my cohort, David and Karen, for a week in Western Uganda. David is my fellow fossil and frequent roommate, and Karen is a health volunteer and the oldest of the females in our cohort, though hardly a fossil (40’s- she was the black-eyed pea at Halloween). It’s the “Fossils on the Move” tour!

We will visit Karen’s site located on a massive tea plantation, While there, David and I will consult about their perma-gardens in exchange for free use of the guesthouse and meals and obligatory tour (which we will want anyway). David’s site is a demonstration project we will also visit for a night. Then we’ll tour Queen Elizabeth National Park (African animals!), Finally we’ll travel to scenic Lake Bunyoni in the southwest corner, near the Rwanda border. Along the way, we’ll stop at the equator, and watch the Super Bowl from Dave’s site. He is most recently from North Carolina. We’ll sleep through the 2:30 a.m. kickoff and watch it on a delayed basis online.

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After the sharing out, the grateful village gave each of us a chicken (they are hanging from the handlebars). I gave mine to another trainer, Williams.

I’ll return to Bugiri by February 12, and then all PCVs are grounded to work from their sites, until after the election on the 18th. Speaking of the election, here is an article I thought was pretty good.

While some men find buy viagra professional it hard to maintain so. In this regard Nightforce has always delivered. cialis prices order cheap levitra order cheap levitra article So, where then lies the problem? What makes achieving peace such a task? After a lot of people do not favor herbal treatments and disbelieve it. Avoid strenuous activities for at least three risk factors stated above, is diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome, and get viagra no prescription should be screened for sexual dysfunction as well. Matthews will feed Meowri while I am gone. She is now able to go in and out of my home during the day through bars in my windows. I hope the kids will be nice to her while I am gone.

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On Sunday I hosted my home stay family for dinner.. We had spaghetti and meat sauce and fruit and yogurt salad. These were new dishes for my family. Sharon had to take a test at nursing school and unfortunately missed it. Too bad, since she has the view I am totally helpless to cook for myself. This picture (Peace and Innocent with Simon in the background) is after we were temporarily driven inside off my narrow porch by a 30 minute downpour.

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This is Edith with George, the new education trainee living with Hellen and Simon. He is the polar opposite of me in language, receiving one of only three high intermediate scores in his cohort

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Saw a kid in my neighborhood the other day with one of the toys from Father Christmas. The little wind-up robots are breaking easily. No warranties from FC

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My sister thinks you would be interested in how I wash clothes and dishes. I use three basins for each chore. Soapy water, rinsing and air dry on a dish rack for the dishes. I soak my clothes overnight in detergent, then scrub and rinse them twice before line drying. I do each chore twice a week.

I need to travel light, so I’ll bring my smart phone but not my lap top. So don’t expect any new blog posts for a couple of weeks.

Go Broncos!

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A Song is not a Business Plan

Author: January 20, 2016

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A Farm Cluster meeting. There were four farmer groups represented. Men sat on one side, the women on the other.

Recently I have been working on drafting a template for business plans to be used by clusters of farming groups. The clusters register themselves and use their larger membership to try to leverage better prices, share resources, improve their marketing, and decrease the cost of inputs.A business plan is something the cluster can show a bank. Individuals will still get the loans.

I travel with members of ATEFO to meetings to obtain information that will go into the business plans. I was given a nice business plan for a maize cluster to work from, and I’m converting it to rice farmer clusters. It’s mostly the same issues. It’s a little too much like legal work than I prefer.  I am a little weak on Word skills for things like tables and templates.

I don’t know if I will get back to a program of teaching farmer groups. I would prefer that. It is tough giving a bank a business plan when the farmers don’t keep records. In the cluster meetings I remind the farmers of that.

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I came home early one afternoon and the kids next door where cleaning my windows. They said they were too smudged. I pointed out it was because they kept pressing their faces up against them.


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Medira reading my book to me on the front porch. She starts Senior-1 at the local Islamic school when it goes back in session.

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This what Meowri eats. Silverfish. Also the occasional hard boiled egg. She is a voracious eater, really growing.

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Sometimes Meowri starts staring at something intently and I know she has spied a bug or lizard. Male on the left was tapping his tail. He climbed up to “tap” the female on the right. This is better than when Meowri wants to get at a bug on my computer screen.

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This rooster always enjoys standing on top of a 10 foot mound of sand near my compound.

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Heinz Baked Beans

Author: December 31, 2015

This is what I pulled up from the ground.

This is what I pulled up from the ground.

Yes readers, The Who once did a parody commercial called Heinz Baked Beans. I will never think of beans the same again.

Matthews is staying in Kamuli until Sunday. Last week, he had mentioned it was time to harvest the beans on Adams’ land. He was very concerned about that. Obviously harvesting can’t wait. I had told him I would help, so I made the same offer to Adams. I felt I needed some exercise anyway, and it would be interesting and educational. Part of the Adventure! So yesterday I was out there in the field with three young men (including Matthews’ nephew) and a woman picking beans.

I joked to Adams, if a gypsy fortuneteller told me three years ago I would be picking beans in equatorial Africa, I would have demanded a refund.

Beans in the pod.

Beans in the pod.

This is the same field Matthews is growing passion fruits. You saw a photo of it here. The beans were brown, on now-dead stalks close to the ground. You had to find them among the lush green foliage. Reminded me of hunting Easter eggs. I asked about the other plants, and was told by the other workers they were “greens” a general term that seemed non-responsive to me. The bean plants were easy to pull out, gather, and throw into about 30 piles we made across the field. Then we carried the piles to make big piles on the side of the road, and then threw them up onto the bed of a large truck.
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This was stoop labor and the sun was hot. Since I’m not Ugandan, I was a migrant worker! It certainly educated me about the harshness of the work migrants often do all over the world. I was thoroughly exhausted, looked at my watch, and laughed. I had only worked for one hour. I was so happy when it was time for a water break. I wore my work gloves I hadn’t worn since digging the permagarden (I need to update about that). I had on long sleeves and sweat pants and came home covered in burrs and other stickers. The other workers used their bare hands and wore sandals.

I'm with one of my fellow harvesters.

I’m with one of my fellow harvesters.

A female oil and gas engineer named Maria had driven us to the field and then stayed chatting with Adams. She had met Adams many years ago in her village and now had her own car. An empowered woman! I want to know more about her story and will ask Adams. On the way home, she chided Adams for not working and letting himself get fat and out of shape. “This older man is in better shape than both of us”. Cue my diabetes story, which Adams already knows. Like others I have told, it is inspiring but apparently not motivating.

I have plans today, New Years Eve, to visit a Danish businessman named Henning in Jinja who has invited me to meet his family. He does work with my ATEFO org and we’ve had some great chats. His wife is a doctor. He sends his kids back to Denmark frequently so they can stay acquainted with their friends and Danish roots. He says their place is on the water (Lake Victoria). Later tonight I will meet a bunch of PCVs at a place called Bourbon, also on the water, and there will be fireworks over the lake to bring in the new year. Vickie, a PCV, has lined up a place for me to crash tonight. I’ll leave a large bowl of silverfish for Meowri.

The beans drying in the sun. Adams says this filled a sack weighing about 80kg and will yield around 200,000UGX. He paid the other three workers 10,000UGX each for working on the harvest and then separating the beans from the pods by beating on them. That's about $3.00US each for a lot of work!

The beans drying in the sun. Adams says this filled a sack weighing about 80kg and will yield around 200,000UGX. He paid the other three workers 10,000UGX each for working on the harvest and then separating the beans from the pods by beating on them. That’s about $3.00US each for a lot of work!

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