Nourish in Uganda

It’s been close to 3 weeks since I returned from Uganda. Coming back was a numbing experience. The day after I returned I remember slowly walking up and down the aisles of Harris Teeter in awe at the sheer abundance of it all. It was truly amazing; apples, fruit, canned goods & fresh meat as far as the eye could see. It was a virtual cathedral of consumerism, such a variety of food, all prepackaged & prepared and ready for consumption. It might strike you as odd to describe a supermarket in this way but, it’s such an impressive display of our wealth.

It was difficult leaving. It’s how you would feel if you were pulled out of a movie right in the middle of the action scene. You can feel that the activity is intensifying in but back in North Carolina you only get bits and pieces of it. It’s totally unsatisfying and in many ways it makes me wish I had never left. Part of the dissatisfaction lies in what my life has become here. It’s not as if I’m not having a good time, or that my work is unfulfilling because it is, and I’m happy to be here. It’s just that Uganda feels so distant to me now. What’s distant is the taste, the feel of the place. It’s the rush you get when you realize how truly fortunate you are. It indebts you with this urge to act and a deep understanding there is no sense in wasting time. It’s the same feeling cancer survivors have and it’s what’s left after everything you once valued is stripped away and laid bare. It’s the feeling that your life can have purpose. It’s the visceral, tactile sense that you’re doing something good for the world. Keep reading…

Writing From Gulu,

I arrived in Gulu three days ago in the entourage of the Honorable Betty Ochan, Member of Parliament for the District. We came in a crowded jeep, crowded because Betty’s father had just passed away the same day and everyone else in the car was a family member traveling up for the burial. Earlier that week when the elder Ochan was still with us the plan had been for Jeff to come as well but under the present circumstances there simply was no room. When we arrived in Gulu I attempted to check me in to no one but 4 different hotels, but every single one was booked. USAID was about to open up an office the next day and there was also a meeting of something called |the British Council”, and the parking lots were glittering with hundreds of sparkling NGO, and IGO SUVs. Keep reading…

On Saturday night, Hayssam and I arrived in Fort Portal, a majestic town situated along the majestic foothills of the Rwenzorri mountain range. Hayssam and I arrived in high spirits as our bus careened into town, offloading us onto a bustling street rife with guest houses. We walked with a bit of a swagger as we entered this new part of the country, ready to meet with NAADS, ready to meet with RECO Industries, ready to visit Hima Cement, and Ready to sell some shellers. Yes, we had swagger.

We haggled (rather, Hayssam haggled, and I took notes on how to haggle) the guest houses down to a reasonable price and sauntered off to a nearby restaurant where we happily chowed down on some egg roll (a hard boiled encased in a sphere of potato…so cool), cassava and yoghurt. All was well. We had swagger.

We returned to the guest house and shared stories of mutual friends. We laughed. We planned the next day. We were ready for Western Kasese. We had Sunday off because no offices are open on Sundays, so we planned to take the day off to hike the Rwenzorri Mountain. It was there, gleaming, ready for the taking. Day 1: conquer the mountain. Days 2 and 3: conquer the Gnut/Coffee biomass fuel business. Day 4: Leave with the wind at our backs. We had swagger. Keep reading…

Ashley, Alex and I were standing on the street corner of a dusty road in Iganga Town anxious to find our team. We had just left the Najja with our driver to find someone with a working phone and found our way to a MTN phone booth. The driver put down the phone and told us that our team had come back from the shop.

After our long journey we had finally arrived. Seeing Maggie, Joel, and John again was refreshing and frustrating. There was so much that they already knew so getting the big picture out of them was very difficult. It’s very hard to articulate just how in the dark I felt at that point in time. There was so much I wanted to do but I had little sense of where to go. Disoriented is a good word for it and I hated it. Keep reading…

CEI Recognizes Nourish/Full Belly in Uganda

No surprise to any of you, but the Uganda Project made it into the CEI newsletter. Here’s an excerpt:

How do three friends from Carolina — a sophomore, a senior and a recent graduate – find themselves traveling to Uganda this summer to launch a manufacturing facility? It all began with an inclination for helping others. Then, the right idea came along. Keep reading…

Written by Joel Thomas

My mother asked me a few questions about our living conditions, so I thought it would be beneficial to post for the entire readership.

Iganga: Iganga is the….4th largest cities in Uganda, I believe. It is a trucking town ~50km east of Kampala, the nation’s capital. It is not a city like you would think of one in the US, but more of a really large town. There is a main road that runs through town which is also the major highway of the country, running east west connecting Kampala to Kenya. Iganga is between Kampala and Kenya, so we imagine that Iganga is partially a trucking town for folks connecting Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya. Iganga is a sprawling town with a bustling market and chaotic traffic patterns. Street lights? Of course there are none. There are bikes, vans, cars, trucks, larger trucks motorcyles and people sharing the road. It is chaotic. We stick in teams and we are very safe. Everyone in town is very kind and we have had not problems with safety. I feel much safer than I did in Buenos Aires. Interesting. Keep reading…

Hello all!

I made it to Uganda in one piece. The flights were very nice save for the food that was made of a substance that inhibited regularity. That aside, arriving in Entebee on the shores of Lake Victoria was like stepping into another world. The first thing I noticed was how lush and mild Uganda is for a country right on the equator. Since the Uganda national airport is under construction we were processed in a small shack by the side of the runway. While I was in line for visas I realized that I had accidently left my book on the airplane. I rushed back up to get it as was greeted by some thouroghly surpised crewmen. The grounds crew came up too to inquire as to what I was doing back on the airplane and it made for quite the tense first encounter in Africa. After realizing I was harmless they directed me to the lost and found where my book was thankfully returned. I was anxious to get by book back because I really wanted to finish reading it. Little did I know that I wouldn’t lay my eyes on another page again. Keep reading…

Hello everyone,

Today Alex, Chandler and I went with Hannah (the local peace corps volunteer) to her Womens Alliance and Children’s Association (WAACHA). Her groups are a very different demographic than I have dealt with up to this point. As Chaz mentions, NAADS has been a huge asset but they advise farmers that are already organized and collectively working on development and financial stability through agriculture. The WAACHA groups are very poor and all the women are widowed and many of the children orphans. Visiting with them has been an amazing experience. After greeting the women and feeling how coarse their hands were and seeing their feeble state of health it became immediately apparent how badly they have need these machines. It also made me wish I could have got this machine to them 30 years ago when they really needed. The combinations of emotions lead to a nervousness I had never expected to feel going through a translot. However, I felt immense pressure to demonstrate the machine well so that the groups would understand the benefits that it can provide. Keep reading…

We are spending the majority of our time marketing the sheller this week. Demonstrations are going well — hundreds of people show up to the demonstrations; however, closing the deal on sales is difficult — while the demand is great, farmers here do not have much money. We do, however, have a great ally in NAADS, the agriculture extension services here. They are a government entity that has already committed to purchase 20 shellers in the next 10 days. We have 8 at the shop, so we have some work to do! Selling these shellers will bring in over $900 in revenue to the shop, an excellent shop and something we hope will impress the shop owners. For this to work after we leave, they need to be 100% on board and see that it will be profitable to them.

After a small budget scare, it appears as though we have enough funds to support the shop during the summer until harvest. The smaller farmers will be able to afford the machine after harvest (August/September). Keep reading…

As Joel mentioned, the second batch of students arrived yesterday and the next 3 (Chaz, Ashley, and Alex) are set to arrive tomorrow. Yesterday was also our first day back in Iganga. Fletcher, Kelly, Eddie, Allen and I went with Tomas to Mbale to climb Mount Elgon and begin our outreach there. We stayed at Wash and Wells Country Home and it was a very nice hotel. The rooms all had bathrooms with hot water in the shower and toilet seats. It was great. We slept there that night and woke up and took our trip up the mountain. Mount Elgon is actually a collapsed volcano and our treks only brought us along the outer rim. The national park brochure says that to hike the entire mountain takes 5 days. Our guides name was Fredo. He is a friend of Tomas’ brother (DJ Krew) and was able to sneak us in along a back road to avoid the 20$ US fee, which was nice. Fredo (and the brochure) said that there are mountain gorillas and elephants and such but we did not see any. Only goats and cows. Keep reading…