A Walking Bird's Nest

Black and White Ruffed Lemur

Everyone around me seems carefree and so light on their feet. Men and women greet each other on the street with a wave and a “inona vaovao?” We motor on to a newer forest that the community is reestablishing after the clear cut of yesterday. The forest already hosts an array of beautiful botanicals and wildlife though the canopy is very different than an old growth forest it offers hope for the future.

Birds fly high above us. Once in a while a curious one will land on a branch ahead just to peer down at us for a minute.

Up at 4:14

Hiking at 5:15

This is my ideal start to a day while on holiday

A lone brown lemur is busily munching on her breakfast of leaves noticing me but not really concerned. Usually, brown lemurs form social groups but this one must be unusually hungry and stayed back to finish sakafo marina.

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fuchsia orchid petals are scattered across our paths in the woods this morning speaking to last night’s elfin soiree, maybe a brides maid’s party? I know the forest fairies attended. Dressed in their iridescent robes made of the Golden Spider’s silk because one straggler flitted around my head for two minutes this morning, ever curious. The sun sparkled against her robe as she flew away into the surrounding canopy.

We heard the Indri call throughout our morning hike. The various families are located deep in the forest and cry out to each other in the mornings. Then, on our fifth hour, there was a series of songs sung just a riverine away. I steadily followed Luc’s steps to the tree beneath the indri, who were now silent.

Young Indri Indri

Impossible to count how many there were. The indri jump from tree to tree silently and quickly. Some share a cozy branch; others are perched in their own tree. The largest lemur from the family of primates that the world lost save for a few protected forests. One little fellow was quite perplexed when his father suddenly moved on, peering down at me as if I would help answer the question of why. Time passed quickly from the forest floor. I am fairly certain we walked under them at least once this morning. They must have looked down on my frizz of a hair style wondering how a bird’s nest could move like that.

Sifika

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Shifting priorities

• Priorities shift

• Attitudes may even change grudgingly

• But our fears are the hardest to lose.

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I must look lost

Several people have asked me, what do you do all day?

 I wave my hand with a flick of my wrist and answer in some sort of bebop rhythmic manner. Why would you want to know what I do?

I survive like my neighbor, though she doesn’t understand a word that leaves my lips.

I thrive like the hibiscus shrubs in my yards.

I teach the market vendor on my street bits of English in exchange for a better price on my pineapple and lentils.

I encourage the bread baker to keep trying to speak English so he can interview for a job in North America.

I discuss conservation issues with David who is studying to be a National Park guide.

In short, I talk, and I learn. My sponsor is the English Center of Antsirabe (ECA), the oldest English language school in Antsirabe. Students pile into crowded classrooms for 2 hours at night three times a week to learn American English. Their schedules come to a halt when they enter the center located behind the Christian radio station just off the main road, Avenue des Thermes. I am training to be a TEFL teacher which includes leading conversational sessions with ECA students.

Long held insecurities are ever present; lack of self-confidence, distorted self-image, anxiety. Unable to outrun them, they just came along for the ride. But I continue with my own language studies so I will one day be able to describe to the shop owner how delightful their store front is. I am learning how to teach a foreign language to a captive audience.

White Woman finding her step

Early Saturday Morning, Antsirabe

It is acceptable to call a Latina woman “white” here.

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I learned that white women can’t walk alone after 5:30 PM. I found myself shopping for a few eggs after 5 one afternoon, popping into little shop after little shop without success. As I trudged home with my empty bag an angry gaunt man kept a half a step behind me, muttering all the way from city center. He yelled in anger after I unexpectedly slipped into my gated garden. I assumed he wanted money. He called to me for 20 minutes through the gate. Perhaps he was telling me “Go home ugly white woman.” I watch the time before I leave home now.

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 I don’t know if my language skills are improving, but my courage is. One day, being tired of my own company, I took a walk towards the supermarche for a chocolate bar, a splendid luxury on my stipend. After the encounter with the angry man last week, I walked a new route and found an old, cobbled lane that runs behind the French cathedral. It’s lined with individually owned stands, each one specializing in different products. There is less hustle and bustle on this stretch, the shop people patiently wait for me as I stretch my Malagasy skills.

The stand at the end of the road features 4-5 baskets of different greens caught my eye. We were having a terrible time communicating with one another. Due to my hunger for her greens and the shopowner’s determination to make a sale we found a neighbor man to help with the transaction. Problem solved!

All of my stipend is spent on food. Baskets of fresh produce are sold everywhere, at the markets, along every lane, on the corners, and there are even sellers that walk up and down the streets selling their specialty from a basket balanced on their head. Yet I am down to my college weight, skinny and tanned.

Kazinga Channel Uganda

Our private boat ride on the Kazinga Channel began well after sunrise. Our expectations were high after reading reviews from other photographers describing the abundance of wildlife along the banks and in the channel. Photographers recommended hiring our private boat so we could take our time at sitings to compose photographs at our pace.

Expectations Adjusted

It was a very bright and sunny day to start with, well after the glow of early morning hours had burned away.  We waited for our skipper to ready the vessel then off we went into the sun. Peter and I gamely kept our spirits optimistic during the boat ride but the little wildlife we saw sat stoically still, watching us closely as we floated past. We did not encounter the herds of wildlife that so many other photographers have posted from the very same boat ride.

Our private Kazinga Channel experience was simply a birding exhibition. Birds’ common to swamps across Africa such as herons, skimmers, and stilts. We were disappointed at the time but did realize no one can choreograph herds of zebra, antelope, or elephant.

Palm Nut Vulture

Wahlberg's Eagle

By definition, wildlife are wild creatures. They move and migrate throughout Queen Elizabeth National Park. We were lucky for the opportunity to boat on the Kazinga Channel together surrounded by birds and with the knowledge that this is a special place in Uganda. We never know what will happen in nature.

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Grey-headed Kingfisher

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Blue-Cheeked Bee-eater

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Pied Kingfisher

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Whattled Lapwing

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Great (white-breasted) Cormorant

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African Skimmers

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Lake Albert

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Lugogo Swamp

African Green Pigeon

I’ve been chasing African Green Pigeons for years and finally got a shot!

Hadaba Ibis

Speckled Mousebird

These were long shots for my 400 lens, but chasing birds is still loads of fun.

Black Lored Barber

An early morning boat ride through the Lugogo Swamp is what I was sold. Instead we walked on a brand new tarred road that has efficiently dissected the Lugogo Swamp into two. All signs of shoebill storks have evaporated.

I did see new bird species on the walk but was greatly disappointed since I was expecting an in-tact swamp ecosystem, so very rare.

Black Crakes walking on water as they do

White Crested Turaco, a notable species that is known to frequent Lugogo Swamp

Purple Breasted Sunbirds

Spectacled Weavers

Cinnamon Breasted Bee-eater

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Birds and Wildlife - Semuliki National Park

Some of the smallholder farmers of the Semuliki Valley supplement their income with cacao.

Their cacao trees are intercropped with banana and other fruit trees, producing quality cacao beans.

Cacao Pods

cacao beans drying

sun drying cacao beans

In a far Western corner of Uganda there is a special region and national park known as Seumuliki. It’s rather remote, not on the way to anywhere in particular. Here are a few photographs I took on our brief visit there

a forest squirrel, regretfully we did not observe the flying squirrel

Black Casqued Hornbill a great distance away

What we learned in Semuliki National Park

• Do not rush like we did. We tried to fit too many destinations that day and in the end felt as if we did an injustice to this unusual park

• Be prepared for all weather. It was very hot and sticky under the thick canopy of the rainforest. Later that afternoon the weather turned wet and almost chilly.

Brown Breasted Kingfisher

Scarlet Chested Sunbird

Grey Headed Kingfisher

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Please spend a morning in Semuliki. In the early hours more birds will be singing and the light will enhance your photography.

Drizzly Afternoon Surprise

Black Soldier Fly farming in Northern Uganda

Black Soldier Flies (BSF) are prevalent in tropical regions, including Uganda. They are not pests. They do not bite, sting, nor transmit diseases. What the BSF is known for is their voracious appetite. They consume all types of organic waste. As the BSF consumes organic waste, the adult flies lay hundreds of eggs. These eggs produce a protein-rich pupae that is a highly nutritious livestock feed.  

All the life stages of the BSF produce useful products for the agricultural community. The larvae can be converted into a nutrient-rich fertilizer, the pupae can be used as a protein-rich feed for fish, poultry or livestock. Scientists and agricultural specialists have taken note and have been advocating for BSF farming to create affordable, high-quality livestock feed and soil amendment.  

My host family’s eldest daughter, Winnie Konga, attended a National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO)* training session about BSF and has been raising them successfully for the last 12 months. Her BSF operation has thrived because of her willingness to try something new. She repurposes items available at our farm, she engages cousins and neighbors to give a hand when retail orders come in for pupae, and she taps into her community network to garner interest in her BSF products. 

Mixing substrate to feed Black Soldier Flies

Today Winnie’s BSF operation is a community effort. Large orders for various BSF products are difficult for her to fill consistently because she doesn’t have room to expand operations further. School groups and community organizations are calling to receive training, but again there isn’t enough room for large groups of learners. This is why we have completed a grant application to fund the expansion of the BSF operation by refurbishing an existing farm building and purchasing professional equipment that will be sturdy enough to support this growing BSF farm. 

 Peace Corps has posted our request for funding on their website.

It’s an easy platform to use where anyone can donate with a click of the button.

Our total goal is $3700. Thank you!

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*NARO supports the Ugandan agricultural community with different types of trainings including new sustainable agricultural techniques.

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Uganda Region like no other Karamoja

I took off during that time when my supervisor was out of town, there were no pressing projects. 

Grainary

With my guide, I went straight north. By late afternoon we were in a landscape reminiscent of Kenya, that scrubby, wide-open landscape I am so fond of … a dry relief after months of humid mist mixed with heavy rains. Funny how a day’s drive changed my entire outlook. 

Early Morning

There are many misconceptions, myths, and stories about the Karamojong people. As a visitor, it isn’t my place to judge or even try to interpret what is believable or not. I am simply curious about how people live together and how they care for the land that has always been home. The Karamoja is absolutely stunning, and the Karamojong, born from their environment, also stunning. 

Practice Session after herding all day

Boy and the goat herd coming into the compound

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night watchman

Small Holder Farms in the mountainous region of Bugisu Uganda

Community Mapping

I leave on foot up the mountain behind my house at 6:45. The slippery trail of a road is deeply rutted from the heavy rains we’ve been experiencing this month. Children, groups of women, and men pass me, as I negotiate the mountain with shoes caked in thick gooey red mud.

I have an appointment with Christoper, the chairman of the cooperative that I am working at, for a coffee farm tour. I have a vague idea of where his house is, so I continue walking for 45 minutes. Local farmers assure me that I am heading the right way then suddenly the trail stops at a tidy looking farmhouse. A Ugandan farm wife waves and calls to her husband to come out, the young children stare at me from a distance. I might be the first American to climb this trail!

Their names are Joseph and Lona, and they graciously spend an hour with me answering my questions about their lifestyle. After a tour of their garden plot, and their livestock shelters, Joseph and I walk 20 minutes along a narrow trail through small coffee tree farms. I’m keen to see where his family gets their drinking water. The public well is adjacent to their church and a new primary school that the church is trying to establish. The school is of simple mud and wattle construction. Each small room is neatly swept with hand hewn benches lined up in front of a chalkboard. They educate over 100 children ranging from nursery school through primary school.

My Nokia buzzes. It’s my supervisor calling, interupting my conversation with Joseph about the school’s potential. John is surprised that I walked so far on my own. I hang up and tell Joseph that John is expecting me to backtrack to Christopher’s farm. Joseph and I climb the path back to his house and we sit with his wife under their coffee trees. I pull a flask of hot rooibos tea from my bag. We sip the hot beverage together, smiling and appreciating the morning. Christopher and John can wait.

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Details:

·      Joseph is one of the few farmers who tends to a kitchen garden. He grows beans, tomatoes, squash, and greens for his family’s consumption. The garden is fenced with barbed wire to keep the free range poultry and animals out.

·      Joseph has multiple plots of land scattered across the parish on which he maintains coffee farms.

·      Joseph and Lona send their older children to boarding school in Mbale. Their commitment to their children’s education is commendable and rather unique. Many children in the Buweswa parish have not been attending school this year because the coffee harvest was devastatingly low so parents are unable to allocate money to pay school fees.

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Consulting with Coffee Farmers in Eastern Uganda

In the Field

“We’re going to climb today to visit another savings group, remember?” Yes I remember, visiting farmers in the field is the best part of the week for me. The clouds look thick this morning, I am anxious and ready to move. He notices my eyes glancing towards the door, “We can’t get there before 11 AM, because the farmers are in the fields all morning,” says John. Yes, I remember this too, but all the same once the daily rains start the mountain roads are slick trenches of mud. “Good, you wore your good boots today, you will move very well,” John says appreciatively.

John is the Manager of the Buweswa Growers Cooperative Society (BGCS), located in Mufufu village. We have been working closely together since I arrived at site a fortnight ago. The BGCS property is the center point of the village, and my little colonial-era cinder block house is right on top of its hill. I can see mountainous coffee farms covered in mist from my front porch.

This will be the ninth savings group that I have visited. Our window of opportunity is narrow because the rains begin at 1 PM, or earlier. We begin trudging up the muddy road, still sticky from last night’s showers. Boda Bodas come from both directions hauling supplies going up, and people coming down. Villagers are heading to the main road several kilometers down the mountain. We reach the tiny village at the top of the mountain behind my house, about a 45 minute hike, and we keep climbing. I haven’t had a chance to really explore these high altitude villages because of the rainy season but this morning the clouds parted, and we feel the full force of the equatorial sun on our faces. Small holder farmer families have built their homesteads close to the mountain road; they tend to their various plots spaced throughout the district. We stop to greet everyone; they are all curious to hear a foreigner greet them in Lumasaaba.

After another 45 minutes of hiking, we reach the savings group who have gathered in a church building on top of an adjoining mountain. The church is missing a wall, a welcome open-air shelter. Our group of farmers are all very much at home, calmly looking over the coffee farms and mountain vistas, comfortable in the cool mist. “Let the meeting commence.” 

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Site Placement ... becoming more real

Site Visit: 8 AM September 2024

·      Find the public bus park

·      Board bus

·      Wait seated two hours until bus is full full

·      Leave Mbale City towards Bududa

My stop is at Weswa junction, just before the town of Bududa. Arriving at 11 AM, half a dozen boda boda drivers cry out to me, “1000 shillings!” just to moto me that the last kilometer to the coffee cooperative. I walk.

Mist hung over the Manafwa River, swollen from recent rains. The surrounding mountains dodge in and out of the clouds. Dreams of primary forest filled with colorful birds, and endemic monkeys have long been forgotten. The region has been efficiently terraced, with banana trees, coffee farms, and rows of maize. The Ugandan side of Mt. Elgon National Park blends into the surrounding farming communities, or rather the other way around.. 

My sponsor, Buweswa Growers Cooperative, is organized from a series of colonial-era buildings solidly planted in the late 1940s. The board members were waiting for me on the hill. A bag of lightly roasted Arabica was opened, we stirred grounds into mugs of hot water and sat on bright blue chairs in the main office. After our introductions, was it an hour?, they eagerly escorted me to the white-washed building which will be my house. The cement floors were scrubbed clean, new mosquito screens were installed in every window frame, even my outhouse was freshly swept.

 As I open my front shutters, cloud-filtered light fills the room. There is the path that leads down to the community well, I will be drinking and bathing with their spring water now. This is Eastern Uganda, like no other place I have been. 

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site assignment

rolling out chapati dough

Last week a group of us new ag. trainees shadowed another ag. specialist who has been working on various projects in central Uganda for the past 10 months. He introduced us to different Village Savings and Loans (VSLAs) groups, we walked down dusty country roads greeting community members, and learned to cook local cuisine.

This brief taste of rural life reinvigorated my desire to partner with Ugandan farmers, but first I am finishing a few more weeks of onboarding sessions and then a month of intensive language training.

preparing lunch from scratch

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The best news of the week has been site placements.

I learned that I am going to live in the Mbale region of Eastern Uganda, an hour south of Mbale city. First there is a month of language immersion to complete, starting next week, where I may be living in Mbale city with a local family, but am still waiting for details.

After I pass the language proficiency test (please!) I will move into a modest bungalow located in the rural parish of Buweswa, a lush coffee growing region in the foothills abutting Mt. Elgon National Park. There I will be working with a coffee growers cooperative for two years.  

I will accept all good vibes as I attempt to learn and grow in this beautiful East African country.

morning walk in central Uganda