This man seemed bemused my my excitement of seeing a cyclist that day.
Read Morelone cyclist Thursday afternoon
Mabamba Swamp Entebbe Kampala
Mabamba Swamp, a wetland of extreme importance and a designated RAMSAR site by the IUCN. Located close to the capital city, Mabamba Swamp is a testament to Ugandan’s commitment to conserve this biodiverse ecosystem.
Read MoreUganda 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
night watchman
friends in a mountain village
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.
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.
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.
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
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
Central Uganda
catching the rooster
At 17:16 the weavers flew in. There were well over 100 nests with male birds flitting about above my head.
We figure it out, often with support of family or friends, a community of love. Settling into routines, we fix our surroundings, we argue, and some of us flutter about more than others.
Technical Immersion
So, I find myself in a modest hotel somewhere in central Uganda. I was fed plates of matooke, rice, and beef two times today. I suddenly remember that rural communities world-wide graciously feed their guests out of pride and gratitude. Mennonites might feed you roasted chicken with green beans and potatoes. Malagasy will certainly offer an abundant plate of rice with a bit of tasty sauce. Here, west of Kampala we enjoyed hearty plates of steamed plantain, rice, and stewed meat with broth, always enough to keep us fortified for the day.
… back alone in my room, the weaver nests are quiet as guests are enjoying late night beverages at the bar. Sleep will arrive easily tonight.
Ugandan Post
“Dear Michelle,
Congratulations! You are conditionally invited to serve as a/an Agribusiness Specialist in Uganda…. and will join the legacy of more than 240,000 Volunteers who have served with the Peace Corps, working alongside community members in 144 countries to support locally identified development priorities.”
Country: Uganda
Title: Agribusiness Specialist
Sector: Agriculture
Departure Date: August 1, 2024
I am almost there! After months of completing applications and exams, and after a healthy amount of discussions with those around me I am finally packed and ready to live in Uganda.
Schedule thus far:
August 1 – 2 Meet cohort in D.C.
August 3-4 fly to Uganda
6 weeks general training at Peace Corps Training Center (not in Kampala)
6 weeks language training w host family in the field
2 years live and work with Ugandan community
TFN (ta for now)
PS.
Internet connectivity will probably be in and out for the next 27 months. WhatsApp is the best way to reach me with jokes, stories, and updates.
Saturday Morning in Antsirabe
Diners line up at local hotely for breakfast
The stringy little boy nestles next to his granny under the tarp. Last night they set up behind a non-descript hotely on the side street around the corner from the Alliance Francaise complex. They were begging on the corner last night, well into the dark morning hours, as hundreds of bar-hopping revelers streamed past them without a glance. Popular neighborhood karaoke bars competed with the thumping speakers of the all-city block party held on the central boulevard, just past the Carrefour supermarket. The promise of an almighty hangover only seemed to extend the party until, finally, the generators run out of electricity.
A hotely on the way to the market
When Joslyn arrives to open her hotely for breakfast, the revelers had just left a few hours ago. She recognizes the tiny, huddled frames under the tarp in the back. Her hotely is supported by a few odd boards with pieces of tin nailed together as a roof. As customers stream in and out of Joslyn’s place, she will set a bowl of white rice and weak coffee on the ground for the woman and child.
I walked by this scene every day, unprepared for their consistent schedule. Impossible to guess their ages, the boy underdeveloped due to his diet of rice and coffee, and the woman is prematurely aged for the same reason. I feel the intensity of their stares when I walk by.
There is little to be said.
Living with Wildlife requires community
With foresight and resources, we can address the ever-increasing incidents of human-wildlife interactions. Fortunately, there are inspirational stories of communities who choose co-habitation with wildlife instead of the destruction of it.
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Father with young Indri Indri in the rainforest canopy
Association Mitsinjo a community-run protected area
During my brief visit I was moved by the beauty of Andasibe, the variety of wildlife and unusual botanicals was astounding.
Read More
Song of the Indri Indri
Sometimes I make plans well in advance. I consider every contingency and discuss options before finalizing the itinerary.
But I’ve changed and am able to accept surprise opportunities as they arise, because I’m comfortable with my judgement now. When a trip to central eastern Madagascar came together in a matter of a few weeks, I couldn’t believe my good fortune.
The Andasibe region of Madagascar has different types of protected areas creating a patchwork of wild spaces to be explored. The rock stars of the region are the Indri Indri lemurs. They are the largest lemurs of Madagascar and are found in certain rainforests of eastern Madagascar. Their vocalization is quite unique. Researchers have been recording and watching these lemurs for decades trying to piece together the evolution of song and communication.
A recent paper has confirmed that the Indri Indri have different vocalizations towards non-family members dependent if the other Indri Indri are local neighbors or strangers to their territory. These types of sophisticated social communication styles help Indri Indri warn of other lemurs, avoiding physical fighting. I think we can all agree that verbal discussion is the first step to solving disagreements.
mantadia national park
The owners of Wild Madagascar arranged for my driver and lodge stays throughout my holiday in the Central-Eastern rainforest area of Madagascar.
Here is a link to a recording https://wildlife.org/watch-lemurs-have-rhythm/I
Featured
Tana, capital city
One Evening in Madagascar
Sweet flute music is playing, Sitraka is in the kitchen with her mother cooking, I am swimming in language books, notes, and very overwhelmed.
Some windows only have screens, the outward doors are unlatched. Yes, it’s cold. These are the Highlands of Madagascar. Rice patties interspersed with canals and a mélange of farm animals, mostly cows and poultry, are included in the patchwork. Homesteads hug the roadways, much like rural France where families live in accordance with their livelihoods.
The flute floats across the valley, lovely to the ear yet the reason for the performance may shock some not accustomed to such proximity to death. My family is not involved with this ancient Malagasy tradition, turning of the bones They don’t entertain these live performances to help pass the long damp winter. My wish will be to fall asleep to that sweet music tonight.
Everything has Changed
Sossusvlei, Namibia
1975, my ninth year, was one of those critical life-assessment years. I was faced with the reality that my classmates and I would soon be experiencing puberty together. The indignities of adulthood would absolutely bear down on the sweet weightlessness of our childhood, everything would change.
Ms. Kurtz’s science class also had a big impact. She was a woman of the 70’s. Her square-toed wedges and poly blouses with geometric patterns reflected her upbeat and quirky attitude. That year she explained environmental degradation to us. Industrial outputs and individual consumption were changing the planet so quickly that our class would witness ecosystems collapsing, certainties emphasized by colorful forecasting charts. Many of my life decisions have been based on Ms. Kurtz’s 1975 lesson plans.
We see that the environmentalists and scientists of the 1970s were right to be alarmed. Open wild spaces are mortally threatened today, yet those are the areas that are critical to our psyche and our physical well-being. Conservationists work to protect planet Earth and her biodiversity; we make personal and professional choices with the future of the natural world in mind. Conservationists are generally optimistic but truthful too.
Spending the day outdoors, riding my bicycle, these activities allowed my passage through adolescence. As a 21rst century adult, the joy I experience in nature is still my steadying force. I am always thrilled to share my enthusiasm for wild spaces with friends or am happy to go it alone. Taking the opportunity to be outdoors for a day or maybe a fortnight, allowing yourself to be lost in nature, these experiences provide the balance our bodies crave. Try it you’ll like it. *
*Copy of 1970’s Alka Seltzer TV advertisement.
Namib Desert, Nambia
Himba Village in Northern Namibia
Soil is an organic matter
From an early age my father taught my brothers and I to appreciate good soil. I can hear his instruction now as we cupped soil samples from our organic gardens and orchard in our hands, “feel the texture of it, can you smell the living organisms in the soil?” Good soil takes effort, and the rewards are far greater than production and turnover rate, good soil is the heart of our environment.
soil, climate change, and farmer's field experience
I visited a Himba village in Northern Namibia in 2018, and as a soil aware person I was struck with how degraded the landscape was from overgrazing. I asked our local guide about the state of the landscape. He explained that the land was typically like this at the end of their dry period except that the normal rain systems were not arriving as they had in the past. I pressed him about possible solutions, he shrugged his shoulders.
I thought about this experience as I read my ecological systems assigned readings this week. One author briefly mentioned the possibility of making topsoil. The first step to reclaiming soil is testing and evaluation. I discovered that there is a group of European scientists who are working with Namibian farmers on soil degradation problems similar to I had seen (Prudat, et al., 2018). They recognize that previous reclamation efforts had not included local farmer’s field experience. The renewed approach includes creating a soil testing system that is relevant to the regional farmers by incorporating their local soil classification system and by recognizing all of the actors involved in the farming activities. Finally, a bottom-up approach to developing a soil testing system that could lead to a long-term soil management policy in which all stakeholders are invested in.
Prudat, B., Bloemertz, L., & Kuhn, N. J. (2018). Local soil quality assessment of north-central Namibia: integrating farmers' and technical knowledge. Soil, 4(1), 47–62. https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-4-47-2018, 2018.
Silliness has no Bounds
Ostrich on pan in Estosha, Namibia
Are you a clever one
with just the right response?
You probably didn’t blurt out
“It’s just like ostrich sauce,”
Or tell your neighbor
“Have a gooey gooey day”
not one for sharp retorts
my native silliness
abounds.
During my brief visit I was moved by the beauty of Andasibe, the variety of wildlife and unusual botanicals was astounding.