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.

Smaller roads extend from the town and transform into dirt roads fairly quickly. They are not difficult for the drivers to navigate. While the traffic generates huge roaming plumes of dust in the town, the sky remains a constant, beautifully blue African sky at all times, except when it rains, and that only lasts for an hour when it does.

The Najja guest house is simple, but it works well. The rooms are dormitory style...3 or 4 four beds per most rooms. Simple foam mattresses. It has electricity. The bathrooms are interesting...a hole in the ground. It took a little adjusting, but not too difficult.

We eat all of our meals at the Najja restaurant which is associated with the Hotel. The food is simple, but i personally enjoy it very much. Spanish omelette and 'chips' for breakfast every morning. Collared greens, rice and pineapple for lunch. And dinner is the same as lunch.

Avg. day:

7:30am: wake up
8:25am: leave for breakfast late when we were supposed to leave at 8am.

8:45am: order breakfast. Food comes in 5 minutes...or half an hour. You never really know.

~9:30am: People leave in teams for demonstrations of the shellers to coops, meeting with traders in the market, meeting with govt. officials, meeting with microfinance administers, meetings with NGO's, or working at the factory.

~12:30p, 1pm: lunch at Najja restaurant

2:pm: back to work!

6:3pm: Dinner

Nightime: meeting as large group to plan for the next day. Discussions of the project, reformulating the plan etc. Some hang out and chill. Others work on the plan nonstop. Some sleep. Others do not (Roey). It works.

Ok, this was fairly straightforward, and I hope I did not bore anyone. I thought the parents might enjoy a description of our day to day life.