Hoima Field Visit

Yesterday was a long, exhausting day, but it was a good day.  It was our first field visit in the Hoima area.

Since we didn’t have any running water in the morning (and hadn’t the night before either), I had the pleasure of taking a shower by bucket and cup with water from one of the reserve water containers.  Ah the joys of living in Africa!  Our water did come back on about an hour after my bucket shower, but is now off again. Our power was also off for the last 24 hours. But I digress…

Showering by bucket & cup

On to the field day!  We started out a good hour or so after our planned departure time (of course), and then drove about an hour and a half toward our business owners’ farms near the Budongo forest. I must say, it is SO nice to do field visits in a company vehicle, rather than by motorcycle and matatu (or taxis, as they call them in Uganda).  At one point along the way, we saw monkeys, which was really cool. But I think they were by the roadside  observing a fellow monkey that had become African road kill.  When I first saw it in the road, I thought it was a possum--which my coworkers found pretty funny--and then I realized, of course there are no possums here.  Monkey roadkill just seems so much more sad.  And I think the monkeys looked sad too. :(

Mourning monkeys

We also saw some Ankole cows, which are known for their massive horns. This is definitely not the best photo, as it was pretty difficult to capture while bumping along the dirt road, but you can get a feel for the awkward proportions. 

Ankole cows

The roads along the way were in pretty bad shape, and my roommate did a great job of the driving.  

Rough roads

Once we went off the main road onto the smaller village roads, I think the road was actually more narrow than our car, but at least the ride was a lot smoother.

Roads where you definitely don't want to have oncoming traffic

Our first stop was to meet one of our business mentors in a local village. While we were waiting for him, school let out, and our vehicle was suddenly surrounded by school children that were very curious about the mzungus hanging out in their village. Now, some of my fellow expats have started a game whereby when you are being followed around by curious kids, you suddenly turn around and start chasing them. Usually the kids (and we) find this very funny, though I did see a kid cry once, which was kind of sad.  Oops.  In this case, to entertain ourselves (and everyone around us), one of my coworkers decided to immediately jump out of the car to surprise the kids.  When he did, they all frantically scattered, and then started laughing and coming back for more, until a local shop owner (who’s stall we were parked near) chased all of the kids away.

Curious kids

Startled by the rush exit

Children scattering

We then visited some business owners who were harvesting their first crop of onions that they planted using one of our grants.  We interviewed them while they were tying the onions into bunches to sell at the market.  

Stream we had to cross to get to the business owners

Business owner harvesting onions

Business group tying onions into bunches for sale

Bunches of onions

While we were there, some of the owners' kids came to check out what was going on.  

More curious kids

Cute kid that was very excited to have his photo taken

At one point, I noticed one of the kids--who I think appears to be around 2 or 3--handling a machete.  He was playing with it, and then went to poke one of our peace corps volunteers with it.  Pretty crazy.

Assaulting a volunteer

And we worry about the quality of toys from China

On our way back to the car, a bunch of kids started calling out to us and yelling and laughing, so we started taking photos.

Excited kids with a solar panel in the foreground

We then went and visited some of our Irish potato businesses.  Note however, although they are called Irish potatoes here, they are just regular ol' potatoes.  The term Irish is used to distinguish them from sweet potatoes, which I think are more common here.  

Viewing a potato farm near the the forest's edge

Checking potato growth

In field with Business Owner and Business Mentor

Finally, we broke for lunch around 3:30 p.m., and stopped by the only restaurant in the village, and had a lunch of fish, rice and potatoes.  I think I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo of lunch.  But here are a few more sights we saw along the way that day:

Jackfruit tree

Villagers' set up for harvesting rain water

After lunch, I offered to do some driving. Those of you who know me know I don’t exactly love to drive, but I definitely wanted to help out and relieve my roommate from all of the driving burden. I think I lasted for less than 30 minutes. It had started raining during lunch, and the dirt roads became muddy and slick, and the tires were doing a little more sliding than I was comfortable with, and I had no idea how to operate the 4-wheel drive.   

We then stopped by one of the business mentor’s training sessions, and introduced ourselves and thanked them for participating in the program. I then relinquished the driving duties for the rest of the day.

On the way home, we were held up by a truck and taxi that had gotten stuck in the mud in the worst stretch of the road. It took a lot of time, shoveling and maneuvering for a space to open up wide enough that we could go through. (Fortunately, my roommate figured out the 4-wheel drive so we were able to get through.)  We did not stick around to see how much longer it took for the other vehicles to become dislodged.

Common sight given Uganda's roadways

When we got back into town, it was already dinner time, so we picked up some street food, which was really fun!  It was my first street food experience in Africa, and I LOVE street food. I got a rolex (described in earlier posts), which I scarfed down before jumping on a 7:45 p.m. skype conference call.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) the call was cut short when the power went out and abruptly ended the call at 8:30.

Quite a day!!