Summit in Soroti

We spent the past week in Soroti, Uganda, for an all field staff Summit which included about 25 people that had come from our 1 office in Kenya and 2 offices in Uganda. We even had one of our volunteers fly in from the United States. It was incredibly productive with presentations and discussions throughout the day, and meetings and cooking in the evenings. It was a lot of fun meeting everyone, having the group together, and learning more about the organization. It was also truly impressive to learn about all of the staff's various expertise and experience, and I enjoyed participating in thought-provoking and engaging strategic discussions. I learned a lot from everyone about development, nonprofits and agriculture. 

Village Enterprise Field Staff

As always, I can't help but also bring up the food. On our first night, we went out to dinner at a place called Jose Martin (which is not Mexican food). I'm starting to get better at eating with my hands, especially on nights like those when there was no silverware. So I ate fried tilapia and french fries by hand. Unfortunately since it was also dark where we were eating outside, I don't have any pictures to share of that dinner, but you can imagine eating a fish by hand in the dark without prior experience can be a challenge!

Given there's way too much to cover from the whole week in one blog post, I'll just share a few highlights from each day. 

Summit Day 1 Highlights:
Started at 8 a.m. with light breakfast (tea, bread and butter). The organization's CEO dialed in from the US to kick off the session, then we had presentations from our Ugandan & Kenyan colleagues, broke for lunch at 1, had more discussions in the afternoon, then a meeting from 6 - 8 p.m. Then some of us went out for beers for my roommate, Heather's birthday. We then came back to the Soroti home/office and had Kenyan food night.  We had decided before the summit that people from each of the countries would take turns cooking one of the nights.  So after a long day of meetings, the Kenyan team then cooked a huge feast, and we had dinner around 10 p.m.  

Colleague presenting

Tasty lunch of beans, rice, potato & banana

One of our Kenyan staff dishing up the Kenyan dinner

Kenyan dinner of ugali with sauce, local greens, githeri & fish

Locally purchased b-day cake (was decent though not so fresh looking)

Summit Day 2 Highlights: 
The day started out with bread, butter, milk tea and samosas.  We had more engaging discussions on things like targeting, value chain development, conservation and poverty reduction. It was so inspiring to witness everyone's passion and commitment for poverty alleviation. We enjoyed yet another wonderful home cooked lunch, and then finished out the afternoon with more presentations. After work, one of my American roommates and I went for a jog around Soroti. It was my first time running here, or doing any kind of formal exercising--besides laundry and walking around town or the villages. It felt really good and was highly necessary given how much I've been enjoying the food here! I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable going for a jog alone, but we felt completely safe going together. As it started to get dark, I asked my roommate if she thought maybe we should have some sort of reflector vests on since we were jogging along the road side.  She pointed out to me that our skin, is pretty much reflective, and stands out enough here to take care of that.  After we got back, we had Ugandan Food night, and the meal was just spectacular!  

Colleague leading a discussion on Value Chains

Group discussion

Delicious lunch of cow peas, cooked cabbage, rice & pineapple

Sorting green grams for Ugandan dinner

Grinding green grams for  Ugandan dinner sauce

My Ugandan roommate roasting peanuts (or ground nuts) for g-nut sauce

Awesome Ugandan dinner of posho w/green gram sauce, local greens with g-nut sauce (which I LOVE) & "chocolate ugali" which is not actually chocolate (meats & sweet potatoes not pictured)

Summit Day 3 Highlights
We started out the day with rolexes, my FAVORITE breakfast, and also described in my earlier blog on food.  We then had more presentations and discussions on business strategies and micro-enterprise development until 2 p.m.  We broke for lunch and did some grocery shopping in the local market in preparation for American food night. We then all went and played soccer in a field across the street. I can't remember the last time I played, and it was pretty dicey given the field was full of holes and rocks (and even more so for my coworkers who weren't wearing shoes). But we all survived and the it was a fun match that ended with a tie.  

Making eggs for rolex

Chapati for Rolex

Rolling Eggs in Chapati

Breakfast of Champions: Rolex!

Heating & Pouring Hot Milk Tea

Milk Tea: Sweet & Delicious!! 

Group enjoying a morning icebreaker

Lunch: Pilau rice, local greens, avocado AND guac! Fantastic!!

Coworker leading group discussion 

"Football" match

American Food Night: We then cooked the American dinner, which consisted of grilled cheese, tomato soup, sloppy joes, cole slaw and chocolate pudding (the pudding packets were brought to us by the volunteer who came from the states). We did our best, but I'm thinking the Kenyans and Ugandans may have been a bit underwhelmed by our performance. 

The pudding was confusing for a lot of people--which is understandable, given it's appearance and consistency. Plus, we didn't have enough plates and bowls to separate the dessert, so it was served all at once. Since no one here had tried pudding before, it ended up getting mixed with the cole slaw, sloppy joes and other things.  Apparently it's also odd to serve bread with dinner here.  One of my coworkers remarked that he couldn't understand how we liked eating bread with dinner. Another asked if we had any of the grilled cheese sandwiches without the cheese? And finally, one of my Kenyan coworkers had my favorite quote of the night. He was asking about the sloppy joe's and said, "What did you say these were called?  Dirty Hamburgers?"

Fellow volunteer & American Chef!

Coworkers "enjoying" American food night

American grub: tomato soup, grilled cheese, sloppy joe, cole slaw & pudding

Summit Day 4 Highlights:
We wrapped up the summit with very engaging and lengthy discussions on how our business savings groups are working and the overall program structure and cycle, weaving in all of the inputs from the week.  It was a long week, and mentally exhausting and exciting at the same time.  We had another late lunch, got in some photo ops, finished out the day, and then went out to dinner again at Jose Martin (more fish and chips eaten by hand).  I then went out to local bar with some of my coworkers where we danced until 2 a.m.  It was a LOT of fun, but definitely too late for me. Though it was nice to be in a town where it's safe to be out at night, so that was a nice change from Kenya.

More group discussion

Last summit lunch

More group pictures

It was a wonderful week filled with great people, lots of good information, and of course, fantastic food!  I enjoyed Soroti, which is good, because I will be coming back and spending more time there during my fellowship. The heat takes some getting used to, as do the aggressive mosquitos in the area, and I never quite warmed up to the rooster that liked to stand right under my bedroom window and crow from 6-6:30 in the morning. But all in all, it was a wonderful experience.  

My morning wake up call