Getting to know Bwera

One correction from the previous blog: We are not in the area of the mountain gorilla. Aside from that disappointment, everything else has been really wonderful. Our days are really busy from morning until night and I have been trying to reflect on all that I have been experiencing and learning.

The human is an extremely adaptable animal. However, we can also become so accustomed to our environment that we no longer fully realize our surroundings. Certain things that used to shock us no longer do. Problems that seemed insurmountable get integrated into the everyday way of life as something to deal with rather than something to solve.  While these statements can be applied to any country of varying levels of development, I am reflecting on what I have experienced of Africa. In the past week, we have visited a pastoralist community, an independent farmer who has worked hard and built up an impressive operation, a commercial mango farm, a market at the Congo/Uganda border, a district hospital, a water treatment facility, a public school and a private school. Not to mention countless meetings with local Community Development Officers, Micro-Finance Lender, security forces and meeting amongst our own team. We have been busy!!! I will not summarize every activity due to time, but I will share some. Here is a picture of our team.

Most of these things I got to experience on my first trip to Tanzania…so the initial shock has already been dealt with. However, I am still left with this overwhelming sensation of hopelessness. Even when I think I have a good idea of how to implement a possible solution, how? There is a lack of infrastructure, resources and money…always a lack of money. However, people here are hard working and good spirited. They appear to be so much more grateful for the little that they do have than many people that I have met that have more than they need. Myself included at times. So...I have to quit complaining, get off my butt and do something!

So, on that note, let me share some of the issues faced by the people we have visited so far. I’ll start from the beginning:

The pastoralist community: 

The livelihood of this community is cattle. They practice open grazing of their herd and face issues of land and water scarcity as well as disease such as Foot and Mouth Disease. These communities are surrounded by Queen Elizabeth National Park and have come to depend on grazing their animals in the park among other wildlife. Cattle are subject to being killed by lions and in turn the livestock keepers kill the lions. There is also a concern about the mixing of cattle and wildlife from a disease perspective. Another issue surrounding disease is the fact that this area of Uganda is very close to the Congo border. Animals are brought across the border and bring diseases with them. 

While visiting the pastoralist community, we got to observe the vaccination of a herd of cattle for Foot and Mouth Disease.

After Vaccinations, the cattle are set out for open grazing. Available land for grazing and water are scarce. Cows can go up to 70 km in a day in search of both....if I understood that right.

From there we moved on to the farm of Dorothy Police. This is a truly remarkable woman who has built up an extremely productive and impressive farm of both livestock and crops. She was widowed at the age of 32 and is now 74. She has committed her life’s work to her farm and helping others.

She raises pigs, chickens and other livestock. The pig pens are off the ground for sanitation. 

On the left are the pig pens and then one of the chicken coops is on the right. The mountains in the background are the border to the Congo. It is absolutely beautiful country.

Shade grown coffee

                      She was especially proud of the women in the group for getting their education.

From there we visited a large-scale commercial farm. The owner of the farm most likely had resources to begin with so it is not a rags to riches story. The scale of it is impressive and who doesn’t love a good mango? However, there were many problems. For one, they do use pesticides and they are near a water source but do not monitor for contamination. Also, the workers have no protective equipment when spraying other than overalls. The workers work 6 days a week from 8-noon and receive 2,000 shillings a day or 60,000 shillings a month. There are roughly 2500 shillings to a US Dollar, so that is just over $20 a month. Plus they have no housing provided for them and no health care.  

I guess that is ending on sort of a negative note. That was not my intention, but I am tired of writing and you are probably at the end of your attention span for my ramblings. I will write more later. 

We have done much much more since then, but it takes a very long time to upload pictures and I am sharing a modem with my fellow students, so I will wrap this up for now. 

Thanks for reading!