Nourish in Uganda

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...

The second batch of students arrived in Iganga today. The facility is going well, but we have a few obstacles at the moment. The first one is a good one to have I suppose: demand far exceeds our current ability to supply. The second is that everyone wants to purchase the machine and make committments, but comittments are not the same as transactions. We need to figure out a way to close the deal better. I will advocate recording committments and making direct calls as salesmen....or perhaps we can hire local salesmen who will do a better job than us. But that's sales 101, we need to SELL the machine on top of marketing it. So far it appears as though everyone loves the machine, so selling it should theoretically not be too tall an order. Of course, I have been in Uganda for 2.5 days, so what do I know? Not much. Hopefully I won't stick my foot too far in my mouth during the trip.

Jock will be making a trip to Sudan soon and I am waiting to hear more details about that. Perhaps our biggest challenge will be finding useful activities for every volunteer as our group size will have doubled by the time Chaz, Ashley and Alex arrive.

Greetings from Kampala,

Written by Joel Thomas

Before I dive in, here are quick introductions for our team:

Jeff Rose -- Executive Director of the Full Belly Project
Roey Rosenblith -- Director of Outreach for the Full Belly Project
Jock Brandis -- inventor of the Universal Nut Sheller and chief engineer for FBP
Josephine Karianjahi -- Starting Bloc fellow and native Kenyan who made the trek to Iganga to see the facility Keep reading...

Greetings from Dubai,

written by Joel Thomas

Roey and I are staying in what is perhaps the plushest airport on the planet. We have an 8 hour layover, so we took a taxi ride through Dubai's financial district and saw the construction for what will one day be the world's tallest building.

On a project related note, we are going to meet Tom Nottebomme (spelling Roey?) in the airport this morning before we depart. Tom is responsible for 80% of Guatemala's macademia exports, and perhaps FBP's macademia sheller will be of value for him.

On May 25th we are meeting with Dr. Aliker, who we hope to recruit for further expansion of the nut sheller in Uganda. Dr. Aliker sits on multiple boards in Uganda, including Lafarge's. He is Acholi and has a deep interest in developing the north, so perhaps he can help with a location for another facility. But before I get too far ahead of myself.... Keep reading...

Hello from Uganda,

So it is day 5 on the ground here in Iganga. Fletcher, Maggie, and myself went out today to give two demonstrations of the nut sheller. Our first was with the Iganga District Farmer's Association. Upon first seeing the machine they were all very skeptic but when we told them it could shell 50kg./hour all of their jaws dropped to the floor. Unfortunately I thought I had video of this but being the bonehead I usually am, I forgot to hit record so I missed the first 15 minutes of the demonstration. Oh well. It was still a very good demonstration and one gentlemen asked if we could handle producing 200 machines! We were then postponed on our next demonstration with the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) but after waiting 3 hours left for the subcounty of Nawandala. Keep reading...

hey folks,

this is my third try today, i keep getting to the end of a long paragraph and the power/internet dies. so third time is a charm, which really just means this is going to be a cut and paste email from fletcher to parents that describes the first couple of days. I have not read this I will write more later when this is more reliable. cheers Jon

Hey dad & Lutrelle! I finally got to an internet cafe that works! There was a storm here last night and the power went out all throughout Iganga which kept us from accessing the internet or ATMs or anything. Its a fairly usual occurance around here so it doesnt interrupt day to day business, just outside connections. This is so much fun so far. Africa is a different world. Keep reading...